Forum Post: Seize the Shield, Break the Blade

In the past and present, the United States has encouraged rebels to topple dictators and create a democratic nation, even making significant contributions to rebel organizations. I just wonder whether the United States is prepared to recognize its own rebels without doing what any other leader of any country would do: protect that government at all costs, even if it costs the lives of thousands of citizens.

With every day, the constitutional republic that is the United States of America seems to lean more towards plutocracy, a government ruled by the wealthy. In the 2010 Supreme Court case “Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission”, the decision of the Supreme Court overturned the provisions of the McCain-Feingold Act (Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act of 2002), which had originally banned corporations (profit, non-profit, and union) from communicating through “broadcast, cable, or satellite communication” a political message supporting or denouncing a political candidate sixty days before a presidential election and thirty days before a primary election.

The Supreme Court had stated that the McCain-Feingold Act had violated the right of free speech given by the First Amendment.

Thus, in the coming presidential election, by protecting the free speech of the corporation, you will see and hear more of the politician that the corporation wants you to elect, which will ultimately benefit the corporation more than ninety-nine percent of those who read this. Is that what our Founding Fathers had in mind—corporations buying television segments building up or tearing apart politicians that they desire to be elected or desire to utterly fail, respectively, in their gubernatorial or presidential bids?

It is obvious that Wall Street is infected with plutocratic ideologies, and it is apparent that the Supreme Court of the United States is similarly infected. The United States Congress is coming down with the plutocratic sickness, the symptom being a partisan standstill, doing nothing to alleviate the concern of the United States worker who can only envision a bleak future.

When the United States worker cannot bear what he sees for himself and his (potential) children or grandchildren, he utilizes his First Amendment right to assemble. So far, these assemblies have been peaceful. Yet, when the government tells you that you need a permit to exercise your right, and declares that it will start to enforce this law with greater vigor, arresting those who do not comply, how long will it be before peace turns into violence?

How long will it be before the United States worker takes to the streets with passionate ferocity when he suddenly realizes that his government has wronged him and supports the corporations that he and the ninety-nine percent of those around him are fighting against in order to protect himself and his family?

Will the government of the United States of America encourage its millions of workers or its thousands of corporations? Will the government of the United States of America encourage its rebels, similar to the encouragement given to rebels of other countries, or will the government of the United States of America hypocritically murder its own citizens for exercising their civil rights and expressing their concern for their future?

I am the ninety-nine percent, concerned about the tyranny of the one percent.