NixLuver's Journal: Whatever happened to 'the pursuit of happiness'?

Interestingly enough, I used to be a political conservative. Then, I was a political liberal. Then I became a political libertarian. Now I am some political stance that has no 'label' in our society - except maybe "radical" or "crackpot". The strangest thing about this progression is that my opinions, in the largest part, about the important things, haven't changed. The information I have access to, however, has changed, thus informing my political views.

I once believed that America was a free market economy, when in fact, it is nothing like it. I once believed that people with money necessarily earned it, and necessarily 'deserved' it. I used to believe that corporations really cared (in an enlightened self-interest manner) about their consumers. I used to think that quality mattered to real businessmen, and it was only a few bad apples that didn't care about the end user, for whom the bottom line was God.

I used to think that our government existed to assure us 'Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of happiness'. I used to belive in the tooth fairy, Santa Claus, and honest politicians. I used to believe that Americans mattered individually in the political process.

Information has changed these veiws. With the advent of the Internet and the easy dissemination of information, we can find out more about our political process than ever before. Websites like OpenSecrets.org clearly illustrate (albeit circumstantially) how our country is governed.

People like to pretend that we live in a 'free market society'. This is sorta true at various levels, but across the scope of our economy it's almost laughable. It's not a free market when industries and companies can buy allowances from the government. It's the sheer power of money in a money-hungry industry (politics). Big corporations in our country (and globally) buy the legislation they want - take as a recent example the 'prescription benefit' that was passed by Congress and supported by our President. Why would such a bill prohibit the negotiation of prices? What possible reason would our government have for making sure it paid the highest possible price for prescription drugs? Well, the short answer is that the pharmaceutical industry donated $29,376,406 to our government's electoral process in 2002 (the campaign funds of our politicians). In return they got the bill that they wanted, guaranteeing them windfall profits on our dime (our tax dollars).

Before anyone classes me as a Democrat, understand that I don't think they are any better than the alternative - they're both (dems and republicans) involved in the same game - maintenance of the status quo - keeping us (the American people) stuck in the false dichotomy of social awareness vs. a market economy. Without the special deals our government has always given industry, our market economy would have grown much more slowly, but still, I think, have had the pre-eminence our economy did over the past 150 years or so; in fact, if we were truly a free-market economy (in the spirit of the Sherman Antitrust acts), I think we'd be better off now, all around.

Wake up, America. We don't need to take back our country from the Republicans, and the Democrats dont' care about you, either. We need to take back our country from the corporate special interests. Your country and your constitution are bought and sold every day on Capital Hill, by Senators, Representatives, Lobbyists, and 'Activitsts', and the coin of the realm is advertising dollars (campaign contributions); we've allowed our politicians to become professional campaigners rather than our advocates; the task at hand is not running our country, or defending the constitution, but getting re-elected.