An open letter to ALL Politicians

Wake up.

No, really. I mean it.

You claim to want what’s best for this country. You claim to serve it. YOU ARE LYING.

Stop worrying about the next election. Stop worrying about your legacy, and your war-chest, and your popularity. Wake up and look, really LOOK at what’s happening in this country.

We are losing America.

Every value, every right and freedom and philosophy that the Founding Fathers worked so hard for, that they fought and died for, that they risked everything for; it’s all being trashed by a power hungry greedy corporatist administration. Six years in office and somehow these people have pulled the Constitution right out from under us, and you have allowed it.

You are as responsible as Mr. Bush and Mr. Cheney for the condition America finds itself in. You did not do your job. You sat back, Republican and Democrat alike, perhaps for reasons dissimilar, yet sit you did, watching, smiling as the coffers increased, as our rights were eroded, as a three branch co-equal government system was raped, leaving us with a unitary executive whose sole motives are power and greed.

Are you aware of National Security Presidential Directive 51? Where are the challenges to this power grab? Any crisis, anywhere in the world, and Mr. Bush can declare himself dictator, with unlimited, unchecked power, including the power to remain in office past 2008.

Are you aware of the theft of Iraqi oil? We do not steal it to pay for reconstruction of the country, no; it’s merely for the profit of the world cabal of Oil Companies. We, the United States of America, are allowing a group of Oil Companies to literally write laws in Iraq which outright give rights to nearly all current and ALL future oil fields to Exxon and Standard Oil, et al. Oh, a twenty percent share goes to be split between the factions in Iraq, after of course, the Iraqi government gets its cut, which has yet to be determined. The Iraqi reluctance to sign this bill is delaying one of the “benchmarks” that the US has imposed to go forward in Iraq. Is this not extortion? People do not understand the greed. They say that if this war is being fought for oil, why are the prices so high? They must understand that it is for control of oil that it is being fought. They have no interest in bringing prices down. By owning, they can control the price, and controlling the price, control much of the commerce in the world.

I was moved to tears this week, watching the history of our Revolution unfold on TV, in honor of Independence Day. I watched how this group of men decided that the King’s rule was intolerable, that their basic human rights had been violated, and that therefore they had a DUTY to rise up against such oppression. These men did not do this lightly. They placed their lives in jeopardy, their families and their homes at risk. They knew what they were getting into. Their families were tortured and killed, their farms were burned, they were hanged and abused, yet they persisted.
They saw that what they were fighting for was bigger than themselves. They wrangled and fought even amongst their own to found a government that could be an example of freedom and democracy to the world. They fought against all odds and they won.

Read the Federalist Papers, and the correspondences of the Founding Fathers. They explored and shared and dissected every area of Government. Why have a government? Who should the government serve? How can that Government be structured and confined? What are human rights, and how can they be attained? Their party affiliations were chosen by the philosophical bent of the party, not by issues.

Where is our Jefferson? Our Franklin and Adams? Where are those with the courage and conviction to stand against a rogue administration and lead the masses back to the Constitution? There are rare few voices out there, and unfortunately, they are marginalized. Dennis Kucinich pens a Resolution of Impeachment against the most toxic Vice President in our history, and people laugh. Over and over the Democrats give up before they even start, saying “oh, we don’t have the votes.” Well, dammit, make the stand anyway. Let the people, yes, WE the people, know that you tried. Let the world know that the majority of our citizenry does not support the policies of this President.

It is simply incomprehensible to me that even the staunchest of Republicans can support this President. There is nothing about this man that is truly Republican. He has spent the biggest budget surplus in history down to record deficits, and none of that has gone to programs that help mainstream Americans. His record on the environment, on health care and science, on immigration and national security are failures in every possible way.

I know there are protests going on. I’ve been to a few, and I get emails every day from very large groups who are working to reign in this Administration. Why do we not hear about it? When 10,000 protest immigration policies in LA, we hear about it, but when there are nationwide protests organized by Code Pink, or World Can’t Wait, or the Coalition for Peace? Not a word.

To all of you facing re-election in the coming years please know this. All the money you raise is useless. Your fate rests in the hands of millions of others like me. We’re ANGRY. We want leaders who will serve US. We want to believe that the people we support will have a backbone and a basic knowledge of right and wrong. We want someone who will tell us the truth, even if it hurts. We want the Constitution to mean something again, and not be viewed as a “quaint document.” We want honest, thoughtful dialog, where people who disagree can work together for the good of the country, without vitriol, without name calling. We want respect for all Americans.

If you believe in America and what it stands for; if you “defend and uphold the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic”, then you will do anything and everything to preserve it.

Are YOU that person?