A Future of Clichés

A Future of Clichés

Ted Folkert – July 23, 2019

Remember what we used to call the Golden Rule? It used to be: “Do unto others as you would have others do unto you.” Now this name seems to be defined more correctly with a different saying such as: “The owners of the gold make the rules.”

It is difficult to downplay the reality of such a cliché. We allowed it to happen. We encouraged it, we cherished it, we stimulated it, we rewarded it, we set it into place and declared it the path to democracy.

We didn’t all do it. It was done by those who we allowed to wrest control of our future by writing our constitution and thereby wresting control of government. The constitution was written by those with prominence, those who had wealth and power, some of whom were slave owners. They created a government with fluidity, to enable advantage to those with wealth and power and to enable alteration of its framework to assure continuity of control. It’s like my mother used to say. “The proof is in the pudding.” Just read it. The truth is hiding in plain sight.

The enabling factors which assured control by the rich and powerful included the lack of campaign finance laws, the electoral college system which eliminated any possibility of democratic elections, and the laws regulating removal of leaders from office.

And the sad part of all this is that we are unable to change this system because of the above factors. It’s like my father used to say: “It would be like shutting the barn door after the horses are gone.”

To effect any significant change we would have to amend the Constitution. This would require submission by two-thirds of the states or by two-thirds of both the U.S. House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate and ratification by three-fourths of the states. Where would the funding for such a campaign come from? How would 50 states, many controlled by those now in power, be convinced to ratify such change which may alter their power in the legislature? Why would they? What would be their advantage? It would be like a friend used to say: “Like shooting yourself in the foot.”

With the complexity and improbability involved, the only bright light for effecting change would have to be like the cliché: “Like a light at the end of the tunnel.”

Perhaps the only positive culmination of these negative clichés could come about by the painful and undesirable culmination of the path of our distribution of income and wealth. Many of our leading economists now say that the distribution of income and wealth is reaching dangerous levels in maintaining a sustainable healthy economy. Those of us on the unfortunate side of these disparities have been forced into a burden of debt the likes of which we have never experienced. If these disparities continue and exacerbate, the insolvency which could prevail may bring the economy, which enables the rich and powerful to prevail, down with a crash defined by the old revolutionary war cliché: “Like the shot heard round the world.”

Well, the chance of amending the constitution are like the old cliché: “We have two chances, slim and none.”

The only thing we can do soon, is to change our would-be-monarch and change control in the U.S. Senate. We can do both in the next election and it is imperative that we do so to assure a more responsible government. We must ignore the old cliché: “Vote early and often,” and convince all the voters that: “Every vote, counts.”

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