There are only three issues that are central to the 2008 election:
- Military
- Economic
- Media
The future course of the United States can be traced to these issues.
Military spending is defined as all monies spent on the military, including those monies budgeted to other intelligence agencies or departments such as the State Department or the CIA. It’s the key to the Budget as a whole, since everything else can essentially be divided into two other categories: Domestic Spending and Foreign Spending. The three categories, Military, Domestic and Foreign, fairly well define our budgetary needs.
Trade Policy can fit into a package almost as neat and fairly well defined, what our elected officials call, Foreign Relations, another relatively simple platform program.
Both military and economic policy are each subdivided into three categories with respect to foreign countries.
- Pro - We, the United States , but not necessarily its People, are with you.
- Con - We’re against you.
- Neutral - we don’t much care.
The Pro category countries are likely to be military allies, so we sell them planes and various armaments. We support their government because they support ours, and they’re likely to get a few billion dollars a year just to keep everybody smiling.
With respect to trade, Pro Category countries increase in number to include many Neutrals and even a few Cons. Some of those Third World countries that don’t even show up on the Foreign Spending charts are places where people will work long hours at extremely low wages. Even better, these people don’t complain about health plans, pensions or age requirements. Most of them won’t live long enough to collect a pension, and if they’re sick, another twelve year old will take their place. These countries move to the A-List.
The Con category consists of all the governments that just piss us off, for whatever reason. We spend billions gathering intelligence on them in attempts to find something, anything to use as a cattle prod to stir things up. We don’t like them and they don’t like us. With a bit of luck, something will happen that will allow us to invade them and that brings us back to Military Spending.
The Con Category doesn’t fare very well with respect to trade policy. We tend to put sanctions and other restrictions on these guys. Moreover, we get our other A-List players to do the same. We can restrict the flow of foods, medical supplies and whatever other necessities, just keep stirring it up until some kind of eruption happens, by which time, the masses are sick and half starved. We then invade the country, set up bases, and that again brings us back to Military Spending.
The Neutrals, for military purposes, are polite, distant relatives that you’ll invite to dinner when they’re in town, but otherwise, we don’t have much to do with them. They’re on the list for Christmas cards, but we don’t really know the names of their kids.
The Neutrals that haven’t achieved A-List trade partner status are merely in line to do so, and as soon as we can talk our way into them doing something for us at a lower cost than we can do it for ourselves, they too will earn their A-List status.
As far as economic policy, the irony of all this is that We, The People, fall neatly into the same three categories. We’re Wealthy, We’re Poor. Or we fall somewhere in between and are, basically, Neutral. Thus defines our Domestic Policy. The A-List Wealthy fall out of bed with more money than when they went to bed, the Neutrals are making payments on their bed and the Poor don’t have one.
Pretty neat package and our government uses our media partners to make sure the package is properly presented.
Media consolidation is a huge issue that few are talking about. By allowing the FCC to permit the formation of monopolies with respect to the dissemination of information, the democratic principles that built this country are undermined. Media conglomerates manage and, on a daily basis, control what information will and will not be broadcast to the public.
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