"We the people" have the power yet we stand silent to these corporate forces and merely obey as our rights are stripped away; our jobs sent overseas, our homes foreclosed upon. We turn a blind eye to Obama's drone attacks, illegal wars, collateral damage, "Kill List," assassinations of American citizens, the signing of the NDAA and H.R. 347. And like the Germans in the 1930's we remain mute to these atrocities.

::::::::

Go back to sleep America.  The election is over.  The "lesser of two evils" or as Glen Ford so aptly labeled him the "more effective evil" has won and all is well with the world.

You cast your faux fear vote for your faux president who was actually selected and installed by the corporate powers to serve the corporate police state that's been put into place over the past 30 years and is now accelerating at an alarming rate.  The irony is many actually believe their vote matters and global warming doesn't exist and we're fighting the good wars and fracking will save us from peak oil and taking our rights away will keep us safe and we're number one.

Sure we're number 1.  Number 1 in income inequality, #1 in incarceration rates, #1 in building and exporting weapons, #1 in military spending.  In fact, we're the #1 terrorist organization on the planet.  Our main exports are: murder, torture, death and destruction.  We've managed to create terrorists where there were none.  Terrorism is like a cancer and when it's attacked it metastases and spreads around the globe.  Our child poverty rate is 23.1% second only to Romania.  We rank in the low 20's in science and math scores so go back to sleep America.

The sociopaths have taken over the asylum and are hollowing or harvesting our country out from the inside.  Our manufacturing sector has plummeted from 70% in the 1960's to a meager 17% today.  Corporate power, aided and abetted by our bought and paid for legislators, are exploiting us and destroying the environment in the process. 

I believe these white male supremacist hate the feminine and therefore degrade, defeat, demean, abuse, rape and pillage Mother Earth every chance they get and when she fights back with a Katrina or a Sandy they deny climate change.  These male white supremacists treat us human women with the same distain and disrespect.  They are dangerous dinosaurs that have not evolved and are running scared.  You only have to look at blowhards like O'Reilly or Limbaugh to see the pattern.  But all bullies are really cowards, hiding their fear with racism, sexism and vitriol and when you stand up to a bully they invariable back down as you've exposed them for the ugly pathetic little tyrants they are.  Their only power lies in our silence and our obedience. 

We know the truth and we have the power.  Our Constitution still reads "we the people" not "we the corporations."  It's up to us to rise up and stand up for our rights and our planet.  For our mother earth, women's rights, economic equality, a peaceful world, a peaceful homeland, good food, good schools available to all not just the rich, good jobs and healthcare for all.  These are basic human rights.

But we've given our power away.  We're no longer citizens we're consumers.   We're passive.  We vote and think we've done our civic duty and then go back to sleep till the next bogus election comes around complete with its negative attack ads, non-issues and corporately sponsored participants. 

Issues are never discussed because that would be too dangerous to the corporate state and the American people might wake up and ask, "Yeah, why don't I have a good job and healthcare, why can't my kids get a decent education?  Why are we bailing out the bankers and Wall Street and foreclosing on homeowners?  Why are we spending trillions on illegal wars?  Why are our police forces militarized?  Why is my income the same as it was in 1968 while productivity is up and CEO's are making millions?"  Why?  Because the corporate state is about profit and control and we're merely pawns in their game of greed where, to borrow from Chris Hedges, "the only word they know is, MORE!" 

They ignore our cries.  50% of all Americans are either in or near poverty.  Our children go to sleep hungry and homeless but we're too busy propping up a dead system that serves the 1%.  It's actually much less than the 1% but no need to split hairs here.  Sure the economy works for them.  Their kids go to private schools; they have healthcare, a few nice homes and eat non-GMO food so it works for them.

I received an email from an old friend recently and inside was a rant from a woman proclaiming how all these poor people are freeloading off Obama's welfare state because they receive food stamps while she, on the other hand, has to work very hard at her job and why should they get a free ride?

I wrote back, "Seriously, she's concerned about a poor family of four receiving $70 a week in food stamps?  What about Wall Street and the too big to fail banks who've been given $16 trillion of our taxpayer dollars or 1 trillion a year being spent on illegal wars.  What about the tax cuts for the rich and them not paying their fair share?"  Seems she's been indoctrinated, as many have, in the Ayn Rand philosophy.  It's the let's blame the victim mentality.  Let's point the finger at those who have no power, no voice and can't fight back. 

Her rage is understandable but completely misdirected.  But that's how the corporate propaganda machine works.  And with many Americans no longer able to think and merely spouting sound bites and platitudes with no real thought process behind them we see how dangerously misguided this (it's every man/woman for themselves) groupthink has become.

Our school systems are being privatized or corporatized, as they issue standardized tests so students can parrot back the groupthink because people who're able to think are dangerous to the corporate state.  It's much harder to manipulate and control us when we're able to process their crimes and connect the dots. No matter corporatizing our school system will destroy the creativity and ingenuity that Americans are known for.

"We the people" have the power yet we stand silent to these corporate forces and merely obey as our rights are stripped away; our jobs sent overseas, our homes foreclosed upon.  We turn a blind eye to Obama's drone attacks, illegal wars, collateral damage, "Kill List," assassinations of American citizens, the signing of the NDAA and H.R. 347.  And like the Germans in the 1930's we remain mute to these atrocities.

"First they came for the socialists, and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a socialist.

Then they came for the trade unionists, and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a trade unionist.

Then they came for the Jews, and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a Jew.

Then they came for me, and there was no one left to speak for me."

Martin Niemöller (1892--1984

Go back to sleep America. 

And don't forget to numb out by watching "Dancing With the Stars," or some other mindless reality TV show and fake corporate news that doesn't deal with any real issues just like the campaign and the faux debates because remember, "You can't handle the truth."  And if all else fails we can always entertain ourselves by shopping for cheap stuff made in China at Wal-Mart we don't need as long as we're distracted and preoccupied the powers that be have us right where they want us and will continue to loot, murder, plunder and steal.

And now it's time to get austerity passed.  It's time for Obama's grand bargain with the Republicans, which he can't wait to install and we all see how well that's working in Europe with their massive demonstrations.  I believe Obama was put into office to do what no Republican could ever get away with.  He's here to tell us they're cutting Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid. 

No one would dare mention all our fiscal problems could be rectified by allowing the Bush/Obama tax cuts for the rich to expire, reducing the military budget, ending these illegal wars, bringing our troops home. Do we really need them in Germany and England almost 70 years after WWII?

Go back to sleep America.

And with the advent of Citizens United both parties have been co-opted by big money and are beholding to their corporate puppet masters.

The Republicans make no bones about it.  They tell us they hate everyone who isn't white, male and rich.  Okay, I don't like it but at least they tell you to your face, "We hate you, we're stealing your stuff: Social Security, killing Medicare and Medicaid because we hope you get sick and die and we're giving all your money to our fat, rich billionaire friends, we're killing all entitlements except corporate entitlements, we're looting the treasury and we don't care what you say.  We're "the deciders." They claim to purport free trade, which is anything but and the Ayn Rand philosophy of go f**k yourself.  We're rugged "I got mine so who cares about you" individualist and while we're at it we're going to drown government in the bathtub as we collect our fat government pensions, free healthcare, FEMA help and whatever else the government wants to dole out all the while proclaiming how horrible "entitlements" are.

But honestly, I guess I prefer that to the liver lilied Democrats who feel the same way about us but lie about it to our faces in their Bill Clinton, "I feel your pain" and "this is going to hurt me more than it hurts you" bull crap kind of way.  I'd rather know where I stand than listen to their sniveling excuses and lies.

So now Obama and the Democrats will pretend they've got our backs and the Republicans will refuse to do anything but cry fowl and demand more tax cuts for the rich or "job creators" as they've falsely renamed them.  If that were true we'd be rolling in new jobs.  Then Obama will make his usual pathetic excuses, "Gee sorry, kids I tried but the Republicans are just so mean and I have no backbone and no negotiating skills and no character and it's the best I could do and can't we all just get along?" 

"Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will. Find out just what any people will quietly submit to and you have found out the exact measure of injustice and wrong, which will be imposed upon them, and these will continue till they are resisted with either words or blows, or both. The limits of tyrants are prescribed by the endurance of those whom they oppress." 

Frederick Douglass

This is why all change is and always has always been brought about by social movements.  It's truly up to "we the people" to change things.  It's up to us to raise holly hell and demand our constitutional rights, demand a green sustainable economy, demand single payer for all, demand Social Security be protected, demand an end to these illegal wars of aggression, demand an end to the bank bailouts, demand the too big to fail banks be broken up, demand economic equality, demand decent paying jobs, demand an end to torture and prosecuting whistleblowers, demand accountability for the bankers and Wall Street crooks as well as the Bush/Cheney/Obama criminality.  These men are traitors to the U.S. Constitution and should be held accountable and until "we the people" demand justice nothing will change. 

I was grateful to see Elizabeth Warren won her Senate seat along with other progressive candidates such as Alan Grayson, Sherrod Brown, Harkeem Jeffries and Tammy Baldwin.  According to Progressive Change Campaign Committee (PCCC) progressives took 30 seats in all defeating several right wing extremists but we cannot rely on them either.  It's up to us.

As for Obama my prayer is Americans will wake up and smell the corruption.  Our consciousness will be raised and we'll demand our civil liberties back, demand a stop to drone attacks, illegal wars, assassinations of American citizens, refuse to be spied on, or illegally searched at airports but alas Americans seem to love giving their rights away.  The American dream has become a nightmare.

In Nader's new book:  "17 Solutions," he assures us, "It'd only take 1% of the population to take up their civic duty as a hobby to turn this ship around.  It's easier than you think," he espouses.  "We must organize, attend rallies, occupy local congressional offices with specific demands, occupy courtrooms" and demand our rights.  It's up to us to do it.  Stop capitulating at every turn. 

We must hold this president accountable.  We've put no pressure on this guy and he's run slipshod over the Constitution and us and very few seem to notice or care.  By voting for "the lesser evil," (I voted for Jill Stein) the so called liberals are not only accessories to his crimes but have rendered themselves officially irrelevant.  And just because you voted for him doesn't mean he's got your best interest at heart.  It doesn't matter what he says.  It's what he does that counts.

The Unions, what's left of them and, in fact, the entire liberal class has sold out.  So forget about them.  They're a waste of time.  Focus on solutions not problems.  Whatever we put our attention on multiplies.  Solutions.  Action.  "We the people" have the power but like Sleeping Beauty we've fallen asleep.  Obama's no Prince Charming.  There will be no revivifying kiss.  His power lies in us staying asleep.

Come on.  We're Americans.  Get it together. It's up to us.  We allowed this insanity to happen by ignoring the truth and now it's time to act before it's too late.  No more excuses.  No more fighting over wedge issues.  The whole point is to keep "we the people" distracted and divided, fighting over nonsense so the corporate powers can continue to rape, pillage and steal from us. It's the oldest trick in the book.

"United we stand, divided we fall."

Patrick Henry

If we're to survive as a species and a country we must come together and take back our rights, our dignity and our Constitution.  We only need to remember the truth and act.

Go back to sleep America at your own peril. 

Authors Website: www.recoveringarmybrat.wordpress.com

Authors Bio:
Jill Dalton is a recovering army brat/writer/performer/activist who has appeared in film and television as well as performing her solo plays in New York and around the country. Most recently she can be seen in and consulted for William Hurt on the HBO film, "Too Big To Fail." Her articles have been published on: Dandelion Salad, RSN, OpEdNews, Progressive Activists Voice and nation of change. Her blog is recoveringarmybrat and her first ebook, "Is It Fascism Yet?" is available on Amazon.com.