Guest Editorial
BY LAWRENCE SELLIN, PHD | SEPTEMBER 17, 2014
America’s hopelessly corrupt political-media culture
The United States has dire problems at home and perilous threats from abroad, all of which are solvable, but not with the politicians who are now wielding the power and the journalists who are controlling the national dialogue, few of whom serve the interests of the country or tell the American people the truth.
For Democrats, the only things Americans have in common are our differences. They attain and maintain power by practicing tribal politics, emphasizing and exploiting divisions based on race, ethnicity, gender and income. A united and healthy America is an anathema to the Democratic Party.
Democrats do not offer coherent policies to address national issues, but present a collection of simultaneous arguments embracing grievances and entitlements for which no solutions are ever sufficient and whose demands for redress become ever more extreme.
Democrats are progressive because, in order to preserve their voter base, they must move progressively further and further to the left, inventing new crises, creating greater resentment, telling bigger lies and applying more and more coercion in order to implement their increasingly radical agenda.
In their mindless and "ends justify the means" pursuit of their ideological goals and a de facto one-party state, the trajectory of Democratic policies inevitably leads to an economy and the civil rights practices of Zimbabwe with a population of disgruntled postal workers.
In contrast to Democrats, Republicans have no principles at all, except those related to elections and retaining their position as the minority party from where they can perform their post-election pandering to special interests, while ignoring the needs and desires of their constituents. They don't want to challenge the Democrat ruling elite, they want to join it, as junior partners in a government ruling class that rejects representative government and sees itself as distinct from the rest of society. By repeatedly voicing support for measures that contradict the views of Republican voters, like amnesty for illegal immigrants, the Republican establishment has made political orphans of millions of Americans.
Both parties practice deception, political expediency and, when necessary, voter fraud to maintain the corrupt status quo and foster a culture of dependency on the government.
Democrats create dependency by expanding federal control and entitlements, while Republicans promote dependency by limiting voter choice and crushing or co-opting independent thinkers and grass roots movements like the Tea Party.
A special place in hell will be reserved for the American media, whose blatant lies, lies of omission and left-wing commentary masquerading as news have made truth a political commodity, undermined democracy and facilitated the very corruption the people's "watchdog" was designed to prevent.
Many Americans believe that Barack Obama is, by far, the worst president in American history, but such an individual could only attain and remain in power within the context of corrupt national institutions.
The remaining two years of the Obama Administration will be one of increasing economic decline, growing domestic turmoil and grave danger from abroad that will again touch our homeland.
The greatest existential threat to America, however, is not economic or military but the near total absence of integrity, honesty and courage among our own elected officials and media.
Both the politicians and the journalists are trying to run out the clock on Barack Obama, because confronting the truth about his motives, actions and personal history would reveal their own dereliction of duty, cowardice and corruption.
If America survives, it will be due to the innovative, industrious, courageous and generous nature of its people and in spite of being led and manipulated by charlatans, opportunists and subversives.
Lawrence Sellin, Ph.D. is a retired colonel with 29 years of service in the US Army Reserve and a veteran of Afghanistan and Iraq. Colonel Sellin is the author of "Restoring the Republic: Arguments for a Second American Revolution." Email him at [email protected].
