That could never happen here...

As children, my brothers and i would gather with the neighborhood kids, and following moms advice to "just go outside and play" we would. Typically the boys would like to play either cowboys and indians or army.  This play was usually inspired by a movie or TV show, and i usually ended up in the role of nurse, or school teacher, or some other dreary role to play out, while the boys got to be commandos. Eventually I convinced them I could be a partisan fighter, since some films depicted women in that role.

As we aged, the play stopped, but the fascination with the horrific wars of the 20th century continued, up to the current day. Events that changed the world were displayed in films and TV shows, with the bad guys always evil, USA and allies heroic. 

Despotic single party regimes came to power, and were eventually destroyed by the mighty allies, illustrating once and for all that democracy was better in every way. Never in a million years could that kind of sinister government arise in America. I remember reading a book several years ago about what if the US had not fought, but accepted German claims in WWII, and eventually settled for a a Nazis world, where even the president was a nazi, global socialism, one world governance, utopia...I threw the book in the nearby thrift store donation box half read, scoffing at the ideas put forward.

I never read the books of Ann Rand, but I did read George Orwell, and again thought it provocative literature that could never apply here, the home of the greatest democratic republic in the world.

Even when the Republican party dominated government in this country, there was a ying and yang, a civil discourse between Democrats and Republicans, as Barry Goldwater once quipped, "To disagree, one doesn't have to be disagreeable.”

Yet here we are, face to face with a government dominated by a single party, exercising its power not for the people, but in spite of the people. Our elected officials are acting as though we the people is a slogan, with no basis in our traditions, our culture, indeed the very foundation of our country and its Constitution. 

I remember learning in school that our republic, our democracy is protected by citizen soldiers. As stated in a history text :

"  In the early years after independence, the concepts of the citizen‐soldier and the standing army also became identified with the larger struggle for political power between the states and the central government. Federalist politicians, ... pressed for the establishment of a strong, standing army under the direct command of the central government. However, Anti‐Federalists claimed that such an army could be used by a national government to oppress the citizenry and argued for the continued maintenance of state‐raised and state‐commanded militias of citizen‐soldiers; their concern was that in a nation as large as the United States, the central government could become dislocated from its citizens and enforce its authority only by use of its army.

A compromise emerged in which the Constitution allows Congress “to raise and support armies” as necessary, but the Second Amendment also allows states to maintain militias."

Yet now our fellow citizens that have served their nation are under watch by their own government? Have we now fulfilled that dire fear our founders had?

Has our government become dislocated from the people?  (I would say SO)

And where is the Fourth Estate, those who wrap themselves in the First Amendment . This freedom was granted to the press, the media, so that the press would be able to inform the people, as to whether or not our government is operating in the interests of common the people.

The press has a duty to examine and investigate government officials and agencies, and to report whether they are acting in the interests of the people. The press is obligated to expose wrong doing or any actions carried out by our government, that are not in the interest of the people of the United States. The press by holding true to their constitutional obligation performs an invaluable service to the nation. The media, however, has lost sight of its purpose. It seems that they have become a part of the government, the propaganda branch, but are acting under a pretense of independence.

Its all pretty disgusting.  Like I said, i never thought this could happen here...