That’s the trouble with Democracy.  There are over 300 million opinions on how to run America which has all the appearance of a drifting Ship of State with no one at the helm. Wait – we do have a President who has been there for the last eight years with enormous powers but who does not appear to know how to run the country.  He cannot do it by himself for we have a system in which the powers are divided with checks and balances.  I think the idea behind a separate Executive (that is the hapless George W. Bush whose ascendancy to this powerful position was clouded in controversy), a Legislature in two houses which seems unable to find resources to collectively make veto proof laws (a single house legislature is in place in some western state – saves time and trouble they think) and a Judiciary whose appointment rests on proposals by the Executive and sanctioned by the legislature – all of this is absurd. But that is the best we have come up with over two hundred years of experimentation.  And yet, there is room for and opportunity needed to continue to make changes to make things better.  While this goes on, the Ship of State drifts helmless because we have never solved the problem of economic democracy while we trumpet the greatness of our political creation. We also created the stupid Electoral College.

I think that it was the President before last who said it is “the Economy, Stupid” and we are so helpless to solve the problem of the failure of the capitalist predilection to regularly hold parties called, Recessions or, in their extremity – Depressions.  The chief activity at these affairs is sort of like the Mexican children’s game where blindfolded kids whack away at a paper mache candy filled donkey or goat shaped figure.  The Piñata is filled with goodies that the kids want and they all want a whack at breaking those goodies out of the guardian containers.  We do this in a lot in places called markets where trading in stocks and bonds and futures go on.  We haven’t solved the ups and downs in these markets or the multitudes who simply want to work and own homes.  What we have is a mess and the Captain at the helm of this Ship of State has gotten us in this predicament (with the help of a lot of greedy people).

Once again there is a metaphor that seems to depict what is happening.  Please bear with me and picture a hill that is greasy with the ambitions of the many who are trying to climb up to the top where the prize is.  What that prize is – is not the presidency but the plan that will work to make bad things better.  We can hope that someone who has the plan that will bring economic democracy along with the political struggle that is going on in this election period and within the houses of the Legislature to hammer out an answer of reducing the golden parachutes of the CEO’s and saving the mortgaged homes of the ordinary folks like you and me. I would prefer it if there was not the disparity of the salaries of exalted folks and those of the regular workers who create the wealth of this country.  By all means let us help Wall Street but please consider the plight of Main Street, the rural farmlands and the public lands and resources belonging to all of us.

And, while we are at it, please consider using common sense. Let us curb the rush to grab those goodies before anyone else does; that means take responsibility for your own actions while thinking and planning for the future.