Who Are We Fighting For?

The method of promoting propaganda and its purpose

On this Independence Day, We the People continue to live under the spell of the oligarchs. They set the agenda--an agenda that keeps all of the wealth and power in the hands of the ruling class--and we fight battles against our fellow Americans to benefit a preferred political party.

In our revolt against England, we fought against oligarchs to create a nation that would respect and uphold the rights of the individual, the citizen. Now we are fighting for the oligarchy to make sure that our fellow Americans do not have too much freedom or too much power.

If you are concerned about gun violence and mass shootings, left wing politicians will tell you that we need to ban certain kinds of guns, even though millions of your fellow Americans are intelligent and responsible enough to own these firearms safely. Taking a position on this issue will affect the balance of political power between politicians who support more gun regulations and those who oppose it but it does little to actually improve public safety. Expanding background checks and requiring gun safety training for gun owners would do much more and would not deprive your fellow Americans of owning firearms they enjoy owning and shooting.

If you are concerned about election integrity, right wing politicians will tell you that we need to require photo IDs, closing polling places, reduce voting hours and other measures that limit eligible voters' access to the polls. But your fellow Americans are not committing voter fraud in numbers large enough to be a concern. Eliminating electronic voting machines, outlawing gerrymandering and expanding access to the polls would make elections much more accurate and will allow your fellow Americans to hold their politicians accountable for crimes, corruption and bad policies instead of allowing them to get away with actions that are destructive to our society.

We should put our efforts toward strengthening ethics rules rules for politicians so they can't get away with conflicts of interest and corruption. We should fight to get money out of politics so that the wealthy will not be able to buy our politicians to serve the narrow interests of the few. These things would limit the power and influence of politicians and the ruling class, therefore you will never be advised to focus on them by any politician or establishment media news host. You would also get agreement on how to address these problems from the vast majority of your fellow Americans. The last thing that politicians and the ruling class want is a united electorate that is working together to strengthen our democracy, which would shift the balance of power from the greedy oligarchs who are driving our country into the ground, to the citizens, who would prefer a more just society and system of government.

We live in a society where the loudest, most extreme and, frankly, stupidest people and opinions get amplified and promoted. It is good for ratings, clicks and increased viewership/listenership but it creates a false image of what our country is like and what the citizens want. If you get your information from media sources that have advertisers, you can be certain that ratings and advertising dollars drive the content of their "news" more than factuality or the relevance of the information do.

Your fellow Americans are not trying to destroy our country or dramatically alter your way of life. They are not trying to change our system of government to communism. This is hyperbolic nonsense being promoted by the ruling class to keep the country divided. While some people are doing outrageous things or promoting dangerous ideas, the vast majority of Americans reject these things. We do not want to live in a country with discrimination or a country that is unjust. But our devotion to political parties and ideologies will ensure that we remain in such a country.

~R. Charan Pagan
information systems technologist, musician, writer, filmmaker
Los Angeles, CA 90017
http://www.reclaimingourbirthright.blogspot.com/