Article first published as Prostituted Government, America up for Sale on Technorati.

Baby Boomers are likely to remember the words spoken by John F. Kennedy during his inaugural address.

The youngest man ever elected president took office and wasted no time in reminding the American people of how different the world had become and of the responsibility placed upon our great nation. He pulled no punches in identifying the true enemies of humanity: “tyranny, poverty, disease and war itself.” And he concluded his speech with both a commitment to the task at hand and an admonishment for all Americans: “Ask not what your country can do for you — ask what you can do for your country.”

What would be the reaction today to a president asking for such patriotism? Yet in 1961, JFK’s call to unity and selflessness was arguably the hallmark of his address. His were words that could well have been spoken by Jefferson or Adams, even by Patrick Henry himself. How sad it is that things have changed so, in less than 50 years.

President Kennedy spoke out of love and respect for a nation built on high moral principles. He spoke of a nation that held the power to “abolish all forms of human poverty.” He called on all Americans to join him in the fight . . . and America responded with dedication and applause.

Today, the tables have turned. Americans don’t ask what they can do for their country; they don’t even see poverty as a mutual enemy. The new prescription for prosperity in America is not to fight tyranny and band together for the common good — it’s a call to social Darwinism, to every person for themselves. Fifty years ago the predominant mindset was one of abundance, where through unity we could achieve anything. Today, America is figuratively much smaller and weaker. The grand vision is all but lost. The belief is now in scarcity and a sense that only the few can truly prosper.

This change in paradigm has nothing to do with inevitability. It was and still is completely avoidable. The sad truth is that Americans have been sold a bad bill of goods wrapped in the trappings of good business. We sit now in the most dire economic straits in nearly a century, and instead of pulling together to fight our common foes, we’re allowing ourselves to be divided by those who benefit from our lack of unity.

Thomas Jefferson once said that, “Experience demands that man is the only animal which devours his own kind, for I can apply no milder term to the general prey of the rich on the poor.” This truth has been long understood and accepted, yet this is exactly what we, the American people, have allowed to happen in our country. The unity of the Kennedy era has been lost to the government-is-the-enemy doctrine espoused by Ronald Reagan and movement conservatism.

The 21^st Century American political system thrives on a state of dynamic tension where the two sides debate the same issues ad nauseam. Never reaching resolution, this ebb and flow produces, at best, incremental change, and in the end is essentially a lesson in futility. The structure is based on a two-party, zero sum shouting match where the only people who win are those who benefit from maintaining the status quo.

What’s needed is an alternative to this Sisyphean drama. We need real progress. We need a return to morality in politics, where money is confined as the currency of our capitalism and not of our democracy. Sadly, what we have instead is a near complete departure from anything of the sort.

Not only does truth in politics seem to be at an all-time low, but with the Supreme Court’s ruling on “Citizens United,” where corporations were granted personhood, the stream of falsehood and mudslinging deceit is so constant as to be virtually inescapable. America is now the great political prostitute of the planet, with more money being spent to buy votes through misinformation than at any time in any place. Hurray for America!

Is this really the political process that the American people want?  Is there any way that this caricature of democracy can lead to a government “of the people, by the people and for the people?”

This new dynamic has no place in the American political system. The Founding Fathers perceived the evils of corporate greed and did everything they could to ensure that the democracy could withstand their siege. Thomas Jefferson warned us of their thirst for control, “I hope we shall crush in its birth the aristocracy of our monied corporations which dare already to challenge our government to a trial by strength, and bid defiance to the laws of our country.” But modern conservatism has ignored his warning.

The conservative court’s decision that corporations are people has created a situation where, not only are vast sums of money being spent by corporate interests to influence the 2010 election, but the American electorate isn’t even afforded the right to know who’s behind the spending.

Under their new found freedom to influence elections, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce is spending record amounts of money. Where their total for the 2008 elections was a mere $33.5 million, they promise to spend $75 million in 2010. And not only is the Chamber raising record amounts for its campaign spending from U.S. corporations, like Prudential Financial, Dow Chemical, A.I.G., Goldman Sachs and Chevron  Texaco, but they’re bringing in huge amounts from foreign companies who have a stake in American jobs, trade policies and tax regulations.

Of course, it’s easy to understand why the Republicans in the Senate fought to defeat the Disclose Act, which would have required disclosure of funding sources, since the vast majority of the corporate money is going to either support Republican candidates or defeat Democrats — a full 93% of the Chamber’s 70 ads, according to the New York Times. This statistic might help explain why only 10% of groups running ads in support of Republicans have revealed their funding sources, while 50% of Democratic supporters have.

Regardless of the outcome, it’s too late for the 2010 election. American politics has fallen into an abyss of moral decay. Monied interests are so firmly in control of the process and the tyranny of the elite is so prevalent that both Kennedy and Jefferson have to be turning in their graves. Tea Party patriots, as misguided as they may be, have the right idea — the American people need to take their country back. Hopefully, between now and the 2012 election, they’ll figure out that the government is not the enemy, and that it’s actually the instrument of their collective will.

One person, one vote — that was the intent. That is the only system that can work, and it can only be sustained through an informed, not misinformed electorate. Let us all hope that we might return to the high moral principles of our past, of our founding. Let us understand once again that we are One Nation, One People – E Pluribus Unum.

September 11, 2001: Two airliners strike the World Trade Towers, 2973 people die, the entire planet watches in horror . . . America weeps. It is the single most deadly attack, by a foreign enemy, ever on American soil. Islamic fundamentalists claim a resounding victory, but wounded and stunned, America unites and vows not to let terrorism win.

As I look back on that day, tears well up in my eyes. I still feel the shock and the pain, for though I did not directly experience loss, I feel as though I was personally attacked. The assault was not waged upon my person, but at my beliefs, upon an integral part of who I am. I believe that most Americans feel this way. We will forever carry the sadness of that day in our hearts, but because of what happened afterward, it will always share its place with a sense of national pride. We did come together as a nation.

But it’s now almost nine years later. Our nation’s largest banks have nearly collapsed, saved only by a massive government bailout. Our jobless rate is at levels not seen in a quarter century. We continue to amass virtually unimaginable levels of national debt, and we still have thousands of American troops deployed in Afghanistan and Iraq, fighting the War on Terror. Things have changed drastically since 2001. For most Americans, those changes have been for the worse — the worst in my lifetime. That realization begs me to ask the question: “Have we allowed the terrorists to win?”

The sense of unity that spread across our great nation in the aftermath of 9/11 is all but completely lost. In its place is a growing division of the people that threatens to destroy the very soul of our country. How has this happened? Sure, it’s in part a sign of the difficult economic times, but I fear it’s more than that. Even in the most desperate times, American democracy has endured, always upheld by our standard of honest debate and open discussion. But our national “conversation” has changed. Dialog, moderation and compromise have become vestiges of the past. Rancor and vitriol are now the staples of the day, and the only rule seems to be that there are no rules.

Indeed, the political climate in America today increasingly rewards those who don’t follow any rules, those who will twist the facts, ignore the truth and otherwise do whatever’s required to advance their positions . . . and their careers. Sadly, thoughtful response and honest deliberation are rapidly becoming liabilities. You no longer need to understand the complexities of any given situation; all that’s required is a scatter gun of incendiary rhetoric and the willingness to indiscriminately pull the trigger.

It may have been foreign terrorists who initially set the wheels in motion, but we need not look beyond our shores for those to blame for the forces tearing our nation apart. What ails us today is not fear of foreign aggression but rather the internal politics of fear. George W. Bush was quick to seize the day. He positioned himself as the great protector and leveraged the 9/11 attack to justify all manner of aggression and indiscretion. In the process, America lost a significant part of its identity. We might have come away from this great tragedy a stronger nation, but instead the power of fear was evoked . . . and regrettably, it worked. As a result, we learned the wrong lesson, and the politics of fear are now tacitly accepted as part of American politics.

In no way do I want to diminish the significance of what happened on 9/11 or to ignore the horror of violent terrorism. But still I feel compelled to suggest that, in the end, the politics of fear will bring far more devastation than any overt terrorist plot. As I’ve written in other posts, America is in dire fiscal straits; we are threatened on many fronts, and instead of working with the current administration, the Republican Party has veered so far to the right that it is quickly losing any semblance of legitimacy. They are guilty as charged of now being the “Party of No.” But of much more serious consequence is the fact that they’ve become the Party of Fear.

Once the upholders of legitimate conservative views, the Republican Party has been taken over by self-serving opportunists who don’t so much as blush when they twist the most flimsy shred of truth into patently false assertions, accusations, and indictments. For them, the truth matters no longer; the SOP for the GOP has become: saying whatever it takes to instill fear into their loyal conservative following. They prey on hard working Americans, fill their heads with nonsense designed to elicit a fearful response, and thus gain their misinformed support.

It doesn’t seem to matter to these individuals that their lies and distortions are destroying our country, that the hate they work to spur clouds the issues and prevents the dialog needed for resolution. Does Michele Bachmann really not understand the destructive  impact of suggesting that the Democrats were moving toward “mandatory service” for America’s youth, where they would be forced into political “re-education camps?” Who does Sarah Palin serve when she insists upon the validity of her claim that the health care legislation would bring “death panels,” and that it was “evil?” When House Republican Leader, John Boehner’s claims that the health care bill will bring “Armageddon” and “ruin our country,” is he just trying to make a substantive point? Just today, at the Southern Republican Leadership Conference, former Speaker, Newt Gingrich called President Obama “the most radical president in American history,” and accused the President of saying, “I run a machine. I own Washington and there’s nothing you can do about it.” Is this form of hyperbole appropriate?  Is fear mongering really an acceptable form of intelligent exchange?

Make no mistake about it; regardless of your philosophical goals, when fear is your primary tactical method for achieving your short term objectives, you are a terrorist. Our current Republican leadership has cast their lot; they’ve chosen their tactics and must now wear the mantle associated with their actions — they are political terrorists. And while their form of terrorism may appear more sanitary than the bloody world of suicide bombers, it is far more dangerous. Their methods are destructive, their process deceptive, and their results are insidious. Republicans have become adept at scaring Americans into fighting against their own best interest.

When we were threatened by Islamic terrorists, calls went up from liberals and conservatives alike, asking where Muslin moderates were, why they had not spoken up to decry the radical rants of their religion’s extremists. Today I wait to hear those voices of moderation rise amongst American conservatives. When will they speak up and demand that their party cease the inflammatory politics of fear, return to the table, and once again engage in meaningful conversation. If those voices remain silent, then although we survived the 9/11 terrorist attack, we may not survive the political terrorism of the Republican right.

It’s like Biblical Egypt all over again, complete with the plague of the frogs, only this time — the frogs are Us. The United States of America is in dire straits, the most dire in my lifetime. Years of party politics and pandering to special interests has left our country afloat on a sea of rising problems. Pick your issue, be it banks who rob us, insurance companies who only insure for their profits, needless wars that kill our young and stuff the pockets of the defense industry, jobs, energy, taxes, it doesn’t matter; rudderless and without a destination, America continues to sail on troubled waters. The issues are many, the stakes historical, the arguments heated near a boil, and still too many Americans don’t fully comprehend that gravity of the situation — it truly is a slow burn, and We the People ARE the frogs in the kettle.

Witness the raging debate over healthcare. Are we any better off now that the “reform” bill has passed? Are we any worse? Democrats are optimistic that we’ve moved forward on the need to provide care for more Americans, and that we’ve done so in a fiscally responsible way. Republicans insists that the bill was forced down the people’s throat; that it’s a drastic move toward socialism that will surely trigger Armageddon. Who’s correct? Left? Right?

The truth that America can’t seem to handle is that they’re both right . . . and they’re both wrong. This is a dibilitating core problem in American politics. Our present political system functions more and more like a sporting event. Sides are chosen, and it’s winner take all. This is great for entertainment value, but it totally sucks for addressing the complex issues that face our nation. Our democracy has become completely dysfunctional.

The healthcare legislation is just one example; one for which I’ve already shared my opinion. I sincerely wish it was the only example, but that’s far from the case. The process witnessed during the healthcare debate is simply the latest instance of partisan bickering and diametric opposition to exemplify our broken government. This slam dance is now standard operating procedure, and it guarantees that the real issues will never be addressed.

There is no doubt that this dynamic has crippled our democracy’s ability to serve the needs of the people. But of even greater concern is the irresponsible outcome insured by the marriage of the two warring factions. The net result of the Democrat push for increased social benefits, coupled with the Republican mantra of tax reduction, not only ensures that effective solutions are never instituted, but also serves to keep the public’s attention trained on the diversion and away from the elephant in the room.

This is nothing new for Washington politics, but the gravity of the consequences hits new levels with every passing day. The “more services/less revenue” tango has left America in denial. Little conversation occurs regarding our economic elephant. This Godzilla like beast to which I refer is the deep dark financial hole our illustrious leaders so zealously feed — a hole totaling some $56 trillion dollars as of September 30, 2008, and growing.

That’s right, $56 trillion, with a “T.” That’s nearly a half million dollars for every American household. In the words of David M. Walker, former Comptroller General of the U.S., this is like having, “a huge second or possibly third mortgage, amounting to almost ten times your annual household income.” For the moment, we do still have the World’s largest economy, but even our $14 trillion GDP pales when compared to this mounting debt and liabilities. And when you consider that the budget deficit was $1.42 trillion for fiscal 2009, a full 9.9 percent of that GDP, you get a feel for how we’re feeding our giant reptile.

Recent bailouts and the new healthcare legislation certainly add to the problem, but they alone are not the culprits. The real core issue is complete fiscal irresponsibility on the part of conservatives and liberals alike, and the bottom line is that neither side has the courage to face the music. Though, I guess this is somewhat understandable, since the song they need to play is a dirge, and the lyrics should go something like, “We’re so sorry we sold you down the river for our own personal gain.”

Yes, my fellow Americans, regardless of political affiliations, we’ve all been sold a bad bill of goods. It’s time to stop playing like ostriches, pull our heads out of the sand and take a serious look at our financial mess. Like teenagers with a new credit card, our elected officials have strapped us with a federal debt now over $12 trillion dollars, and that’s not the worst of it. It’s actually more like the tip of the iceberg. The plot sickens much further when you take a look at our unfunded obligations.

As of September 30, 2008, our unfunded obligations, consisting of Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security totaled nearly $43 trillion. And since the Congress refuses to address the issue and instead continues to add to the balance, the $56 trillion hole (federal debt plus unfunded obligations) for 2008 is expected to bulge to $63 trillion for 2009.

Just in case these numbers don’t grab your attention, you might want to consider that when George W. Bush took office, the hole was a comparatively manageable $20 trillion. During his two terms as President, we had three tax cuts, started two wars, bolstered homeland security and added an extremely expensive prescription drug benefit to Medicare. The combined result of this wisdom enlarged the hole by 176 percent to the $56 trillion number that President Obama stepped into. This is what’s commonly referred to as a snowball effect, and the really scary part is that it’s just getting going.

Indeed, if left unaddressed, the GAO (Government Accountability Office) forecasts that within the next 12 years, interest payments on the federal debt will become the single largest line item in the federal budget. If left until 2040, all federal revenues would cover only the payment of said interest and Medicare/Medicaid. We’d have nothing left for defense, much less Social Security or anything else. Put another way, in order to cover the bills in 2030, our average federal tax rate of 21 percent will have to swell to as much as 45 percent. By 2040, it would be 53 percent, and that’s only the federal slice.

Needless to say, this paints a sorry picture for all of us, but left unchecked it could prove devastating to our children and grand children. All Americans should be absolutely ashamed that we’ve allowed the situation to grow so very bleak. Everybody knows that we’ve been building a house of cards, that you can’t continually reduce federal revenues (cut taxes) and at the same time increase spending (wars and services) and expect things to balance. Our elected official’s intentional obfuscation of the facts may have clouded issues, but in the end, it’s really every American who’s responsible. We’ve spent 30 years in denial and it’s high time to stand straight and face the facts.

The facts are that, contrary to common assertions, we can’t grow or inflate our way out of this big ugly. Yet, unless we want to just subscribe to the contemporary American IBG (I’ll Be Gone) ethic, we need to do our best to address the issues and to do so with some haste. Things will only get worse until we do.

Resolution obviously won’t be easy, but the good news is that we can make it happen, and we’ll all be stronger for the wear. Real patriots will take this challenge in the spirit that created our great nation. They will demand that our politicians immediately stop the destructive rhetoric, cease their incessant partisan bickering, and open a meaningful dialog to address this real and pertinent issue. And they will also accept that the way out will require that we all make sacrifices.

Thankfully, I’m not a politician, and I don’t have to worry about getting reelected, so I can tell it like it is. The fact is that big holes need big shovels, and we’ve done a lot of digging. Our way out is going to be painful. So conservatives, suck it up, because we’re going to need to raise taxes, and liberals, bite your tongues, because social programs will have to see cuts. Social Security and Medicare have to be reformed and the defense budget will need a serious overhaul. It’s time for transformational change, change that will require nonpartisan solutions. I’m sure that recovery will provide plenty to piss off every American, but the only alternative to some scorched buttocks is to just sit in the kettle and be cooked. You’ll have to make your choice. I’ve already made mine.

If you’re interested in more information, please take the time to watch I.O.U.S.A. And when you’re finished, please do get involved. You can start by taking action and writing Congress.