Asses and Dumbos

I'd like to begin with a brief history of political mascots but by the end of this I'd like to illustrate firm reasonings that neither party is capable of little else but perpetuating and accentuating over time the inherent flaws of the monetary system. The history behind this is a bit long and even confusing but I believe it to be necessary and I hope you, the reader, thinks so too and I thank you for doing so.

The donkey and the elepants have been the political mascots of the Democrats (donkey) and the Republicans (elephant) since the 1800's. The first instance being opponents of Andrew Jackson referring to him as a jackass which he co-opted the insult by putting the donkey on his election posters.

The elephant representing Republicans didn't come about until the political cartoon seen above titled " the third term panic" by Thomas Nast where the elephant is being frightened off a cliff toward inflation and chaos. If I'm not mistaken, that is what Republicans today say about Democrats and spending!

The beginnings of the political parties themselves go back earlier to the time before the ratification of the Constitution with the essays of the federalists and anti-federalists. With the ratification of the Constitution, being an anti-federalist became a misnomer as the oath of office essentially made everyone federalists. However, those who served in the first four Congresses (1789-1797) can be thought of as being either Administration (that is, generally allied with those around Secretary of the Treasury Alexander Hamilton and Vice President John Adams) or Opposition (those generally associated with Secretary of State Thomas Jefferson and Congressman James Madison). It is important to note that George Washington's presidency was one of "factions" and not "parties".

By the beginning of the fifth Congress, political parties had emerged as Federalists, those who had supported the policies of the Washington Administration (a strong national government as a counterweight to the States), and Republicans,  those who had been in Opposition (who felt that defending the sovereignty of the States against encroachments by the Federal Government was a truer essence of the federal republic known as the United States of America). The word Democrat also came in use at this time as a derisive term for Republicans by the Federalists (a term which, at the time, had connotations of the mob rule associated with the then-still very recent Reign of Terror following the French Revolution of 1789), although many political historians refer to Republicans of this era as "old" or Jeffersonian Republicans.

Into the 19th and 20th Congresses, two factions of Republicans had formed, the Adams (John Quincy) Republicans and the Jackson (Andrew) Republicans. By the 21st Congress, the one-time Jackson Republicans became known as Democratic Republicans and the one-time Adams Republicans became known as National Republicans. The Democratic Republicans took their name from their identification with the democracy they urged on behalf of the "common man".

With the 24th Congress the Democratic Republicans became generally known as Democrats and the National Republicans generally known as Whigs. These 19th century American Whigs saw themselves as being a bulwark against the "excesses" of the administration of "King Andrew" Jackson (during the American Revolution patriots were referred to as Whigs and those loyal to England as Tories).

The Whig party eventually dissolved largely over the issue of slavery and by the 34th Congress the Democratic and Republican parties as they are called to this day have dominated the voting booths.

However, the ideologies of the Democrats and Republicans of the 34th Congress differ from the ideologies of the Democrats and Republicans of the 113th Congress in disturbing ways. Just read the Democratic platform as it existed in 1856 and the strict attention stressed on money and the banking institution:

"7. That Congress has no power to charter a national bank; that we believe such an institution one of deadly hostility to the best interests of the country, dangerous to our republican institutions and the liberties of the people, and calculated to place the business of the country within the control of a concentrated money power, and above the laws and the will of the people. "

"8. That the separation of the moneys of the Government from banking institutions is indispensable for the safety of the funds of the Government and the rights of the people."

" 9. That we are decidedly opposed to taking from the President the qualified veto power, by which he is enabled, under restrictions and responsibilities amply sufficient to guard the public interests, to suspend the passage of a bill whose merits cannot secure the approval of two-thirds of the Senate and House of Representatives, until the judgment of the people can be obtained thereon, and which has saved the American people from the corrupt and tyrannical domination of the Bank of the United States, and from a corrupting system of general internal improvements."

Some excerpts of the Republican platform are as follows:

"That we deny the authority of Congress, of a Territorial Legislation, of any individual, or association of individuals, to give legal existence to Slavery in any Territory of the United States, while the present Constitution shall be maintained."

"That the Constitution confers upon Congress sovereign powers over the Territories of the United States for their government; and that in the exercise of this power, it is both the right and the imperative duty of Congress to prohibit in the Territories those twin relics of barbarism--Polygamy, and Slavery."

"...the dearest Constitutional rights of the people of Kansas have been fraudulently and violently taken from them.

Their Territory has been invaded by an armed force;

Spurious and pretended legislative, judicial, and executive officers have been set over them, by whose usurped authority, sustained by the military power of the government, tyrannical and unconstitutional laws have been enacted and enforced;

The right of the people to keep and bear arms has been infringed.

Test oaths of an extraordinary and entangling nature have been imposed as a condition of exercising the right of suffrage and holding office.

The right of an accused person to a speedy and public trial by an impartial jury has been denied;

The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, has been violated;

They have been deprived of life, liberty, and property without due process of law;

That the freedom of speech and of the press has been abridged;

The right to choose their representatives has been made of no effect;

Murders, robberies, and arsons have been instigated and encouraged, and the offenders have been allowed to go unpunished...and that it is our fixed purpose to bring the actual perpetrators of these atrocious outrages and their accomplices to a sure and condign punishment thereafter."

The Democratic platform of 2012 reads just like a sales pitch complete with slogan in the header and testimonials throughout.

“In early 2009, the auto industry was collapsing. Our plant shut down and I was laid off. And, like so many of us, I was scared. But then President Obama bet on the American worker and rescued America's auto industry, and it's paying off for our economy and our country. The plant opened its doors again, so I got my job - and my pride - back. That's a great American comeback story.” - Ina Sydney

The Republican platform of 2012 is more poetic and thankfully lacks the testimonials but does contain a slogan and its own inadequacies.

In the fourth paragraph of the Democrat platform is the first mention of Mitt Romney. In the second paragraph we find Al-Queda and 911.  I wonder, why begin like this? This is no title bout or a place to put religious extremists or half-investigated "terror" attacks as the first order of business.

The Republicans take a pronounced stance to uphold the constitution and America's founding principles and then "rewrite" several Amendments of the Bill of Rights.
The first amendment: Speech that is protected
The second amendment with a lengthy paragraph to follow of all the idiosyncracies of gun legislation with not one mention of a well regulated militia.

Both parties regard economy in a false sense, "growth" in terms of a class of people rather than sustainable practices of our financial interaction and industrial capabilities.

Has the "money power" mentioned by the 1856 Democrats done what they said it would do, become a "danger to our republican institutions and the liberties of the people, and calculate to place the business of the country within the control of a concentrated money power, and above the laws and the will of the people"?

Yes.

And it has provided us with two main parties of candidates every election cycle that operate within an ideological box where the Republicans set it up and the Democrats fill it. They both are incapable of approaching in a solvable manner modern problems; their rhetoric and records show it.

Federal and consumer debt rise regardless of party control. Waste particularly of products has risen regardless of party control. The rate of incarceration rate has increased regardless of party control. This is the yield of a ravished political landscape where political platforms say 10 times as much, mean less than half, and do even less.

We can be thankful the "disasters" each say of the other move no faster than they do and are still rectifiable.

The "money powers" agent, inflation, " is a man-made scourge, made possible by the fact that most men do not understand it. It is a crime committed on so large a scale that its size is its protection: the integrating capacity of the victims’ minds breaks down before the magnitude—and the seeming complexity—of the crime, which permits it to be committed openly, in public. For centuries, inflation has been wrecking one country after another, yet men learn nothing, offer no resistance, and perish—not like animals driven to slaughter, but worse: like animals stampeding in search of a butcher." As put by Ayn Rand.

I'll end with my favorite line from a movie called "Waking Life".

You can't fight city hall, death and taxes. Don't talk about politics or religion.This is all the equivalent of enemy propaganda rolling across the picket line " Lay down, G.I. Lay down, G.I." We saw it all through the 20th Century. And now in the 21st Century, it's time to stand up and realize...that we should not allow ourselves to be crammed into this rat maze. We should not submit to dehumanization. I don't know about you, but I'm concerned with what's happening in this world. I'm concerned with the structure. I'm concerned with the systems of control, those that control my life and those that seek to control it even more! I want freedom! That's what I want! And that's what you should want! It's up to each and every one of us to turn loose and just shovel the greed, the hatred, the envy and, yes, the insecurities...
because that is the central mode of control-- make us feel pathetic, small...so we'll willingly give up our sovereignty, our liberty, our destiny.
We have got to realize that we're being conditioned on a mass scale. Start challenging this corporate slave state! The 21st Century is gonna be a new century, not the century of slavery, not the century of lies and issues of no significance...and classism and statism and all the rest of the modes of control! It's gonna be the age of humankind... standing up for something pure and something right! What a bunch of garbage-- liberal Democrat, conservative Republican. It's all there to control you. Two sides of the same coin. Two management teams bidding for control!
The C.E.O. job of Slavery, Incorporated!
The truth is out there in front of you, but they lay out this buffet of lies!  I'm sick of it, and I'm not gonna take a bite out of it! Do you got me?
Resistance is not futile. We're gonna win this thing. Humankind is too good! We're not a bunch of underachievers! We're gonna stand up and we're gonna be human beings! We're gonna get fired up about the real things, the things that matter: creativity and the dynamic human spirit that refuses to submit!" -driving megaphone guy

The Vicious Cycle

In the words of Martin Luther King Jr., "A time comes when silence is betrayal." America's involvement in Vietnam was King's motivation for his Beyond Vietnam speech where he urged his fellow citizens to question American foreign policy and its motives in Vietnam.

Ancient philosophers, educated men, and prophets from many religions began traditions that "broke the silence" of their experiences we would undoubtedly be oblivious to today if not for the texts, artifacts, and other evidence of their civilization they left behind. A myriad of circumstances make each civilization unique to others yet all are connected recent scientific discovery shows. The discovery and translations of an array of Sacred texts reveal different belief systems of which some highlight warnings to certain behaviors that lead to vicious slaughter and entrapment and paths of salvation to live by for liberation from a vicious cycle of deliberate cruelty, revolution, and, ignorant suffering. The 21st Century globalization of our world

The average citizen is led to believe things are how they are for a reason which may be true and that is enough for most to adapt and deal with many things but further investigation can deduce whether sound reasoning or fallacious reasoning is at our employ. A responsibility those of us in a Representative Republic delegate to elected representatives who are believed to make decisions based on the most sound reasoning and moral judgement being people of higher education and a religious upbringing yet it seems profits and favors have taken sound reasoning and moral judgement's place.

"If the American people ever allow private banks to control the issue of their currency, first by inflation, then by deflation, the banks and corporations that will grow up around them will deprive the people of all property until their children wake up homeless on the continent their Fathers conquered . . . I believe that banking institutions are more dangerous to our liberties than standing armies . . . The issuing power should be taken from the banks and restored to the people, to whom it properly belongs."  - Thomas Jefferson

 And Jesus went into the temple of God, and cast out all them that sold and bought in the temple, and overthrew the tables of the moneychangers, and the seats of them that sold doves, And said unto them, It is written, My house shall be called the house of prayer; but ye have made it a den of thieves. Matt.21:12-13

Defiling a damsel, usury, breaking a vow, selling a tank, a garden, one's wife, or child, Manu Smriti: 11:62

Quran: 2:275. Those who devour USURY will not stand except as stand one whom the Evil one by his touch Hath driven to madness. That is because they say: "Trade is like usury," but God hath permitted trade and forbidden usury. Those who after receiving direction from their Lord, desist, shall be pardoned for the past; their case is for God (to judge); but those who repeat (The offence) are companions of the Fire: They will abide therein (for ever).

Usury has been documented throughout historical and religious  texts from the Vedas to the Quran. Usury is referred to as a devourer of children in some cases. Americans see this metaphor in the form of debt passed to their children accrediting the debt to a political party's failed fiscal policy rather than the root cause. 100 years after the passage of the Federal Reserve Act we find ourselves in the throes of a vicious cycle of compounding interest, inflation, bankruptcies, cyclical consumption, planned obsolescence, class stratification and debt passed to present capabilities as well as future enterprise. The antithesis of economy which, by definition, is to strategically preserve and create efficiency. The American government's policies reflect a government that restrains our vices as well as restrains our virtues and innate ingenuity perhaps to a greater extent.

The Zeitgeist Movement faq states, "The entire global economy requires "cyclical consumption" to operate, which means that money must constantly be circulating. Thus, new goods and services must be constantly introduced regardless of the state of the environment and actual human necessity." Another fallacious facet is the "cost efficiency mechanism that demands cutting expenses to remain "competitive" in the marketplace which affects quality of the product and makes it immediately inferior." Those of us who have bought a new car and joke of the value of the new car being cut in half as soon as you drive off the lot have acknowledged this in an offhanded  way.

I gather anyone who has excelled at a profession can bring to attention inefficient practices in their business that is justified and kept quiet for profit. This silence condones participation and betrays the common sense of the citizen. When thought of in broader terms, betrayal of the past and posterity also presents itself.

The average citizen is led to believe government institutions require confidentiality and security clearance to insure public safety and national security. A task of increasing difficulty as technology and its accessibility has increased. The US military budgets $ 1 billion B-2 Spirit Stealth to drop 30,000 lbs. "massive ordinance penetrators"  on objectives worth fractions of the cost in dollar or moral terms. Wars are essentially the ultimate display of human intellectual, diplomatic, and moral failure. The Trident submarine carries the equivalent of 192 Hiroshima bombs. Is there a threat that justifies this level of armament? Meanwhile, in the name of homeland security, citizens undergo increased surveillance and presence of security personnel. It seems the social organism called government has equipped itself for self preservation.

“Government is not reason, it is not eloquence — it is force! Like fire, it is a dangerous servant and a fearful master. Never for a moment should it be left to irresponsible action.” George Washington

The dangerous servant has become the fearful master and is rarely viewed as possessor of an appetite for destruction and a gluttony for Power with an ingratiating media. The society envisioned for America's future that joins the citizens in their affections is doomed for revolution with the world as the stage.

"When you see that in order to produce, you need to obtain permission from men who produce nothing - When you see that money is flowing to those who deal, not in goods, but in favors - When you see that men get richer by graft and by pull than by work, and your laws don’t protect you against them, but protect them against you - When you see corruption being rewarded and honesty becoming a self-sacrifice - You may know that your society is doomed." -- Ayn Rand, "Atlas Shrugged", 1957

"...A REVOLUTION IS COMING....a revolution which will be peaceful if we are wise enough, compassionate if we care enough, successful if we are fortunate enough, but a revolution which is coming whether we will it or not. We can affect its Character, we cannot alter its inevitability. " - Robert Kennedy, in a speech to the Senate

This is not a conspiracy theory or an apocalypse scenario in accordance with any faith. It is evidence of a systemic value-system disorder predicated upon usury and its side effects. We have the ability to observe and define these side effects in unprecedented detail shedding light on the vicious cycle as it presently exists: the justification of inefficiency, scarcity, and unjust enterprise in the effort to repay interest bearing debt, the same interest that does not exist in the money supply outright.

A revolution capable of breaking this vicious cycle must be of consummate character equal to the deficiency of character witnessed. With peaceful civil disobedience, an empathic practical wisdom,  and a compassionate education campaign with a customizable curriculum; what might be a tremendous "leap of faith" could be a "leap of trusted calculation."