Politics Plus

Who are Libertarians? They claim to be the party of minimal government. They repeat the old saw that government is best when it governs least. This idea appeals to a lot of people, especially those who have first-hand experience dealing with governmental red tape and sluggish bureaucracies.

On the surface, it looks great – low taxes and minimal governmental interference. However, if you really think about it, a libertarian system would be a nightmare.

Minimal government leaves a power vacuum. And who will fill it? Whoever is large and in charge – namely, big corporations that want no regulations on mergers, pollution, or worker safety. If Libertarians get control, we won’t have utopia, we’ll have Animal Farm. Powerful CEOs will be our new rulers.

To those who don’t like government regulation, I have just a few questions: Do you breathe? Do you eat? Do you drink – that is to say, beverages in general? You (usually) enjoy reasonably clean air thanks to government restrictions on pollution. Ever see pictures of U.S. cities before the Clean Air Act? If you can count on the water coming out of your tap being potable, thank the government regulations in place to make sure it is. If you can count on any food that you buy at a grocery store or a restaurant to be reasonably free of contamination and adulterating substances, thank the people who demanded, and those who passed, the laws to protect you from tainted chow.

Regulations give us the 40-hour work week, overtime pay, minimum wage, job safety, and more. Regulations protect the environment we need to survive, make sure that our buildings and infrastructure are reasonably safe, and guard us from shady business practices. A Libertarian system would remove all of these laws, and once again the Little Guy and Gal would be at the mercy of greedy corporations whose sole interest is raking in the moolah to keep their CEOs and shareholders fat and happy.

China has almost no anti-pollution regulations. The air in its biggest cities is often choked with smog thanks to the Chinese Communist Party’s blatant disregard for the environment. Many of China’s rivers are so contaminated that their water is unsuitable not just for drinking but also for agriculture. More than once I have read that China will run out of fresh water sometime around 2030. Stick that in your bong and smoke it.

Minimum taxes mean a lot less money for police and fire departments, public parks, schools, bridges, roads, public transit – and, wait for it, defense. You want the mighty USA to have an imposing presence worldwide, but how will you pay for all that when the wealthy and mega-corporations enjoy fat tax breaks and corporate welfare, while the working class can barely feed itself?

Libertarians have the idea that government should be run like a business. You can’t do that anymore than you can fly a plane the same way you drive a car. Privatization has proven to be disastrous in the health care sector. Many hospitals put profit ahead of patients, resulting in ridiculous fees, obscene overcharging, and hundreds of thousands of personal bankruptcies every year. Do NOT get me started on how atrocious the USA’s health “care” system is!

Once upon a time, fire departments were privately run affairs. You paid your dues to the local fire station and displayed a plaque showing which brigade you supported. Firefighters not from the firehouse you shelled out to would go right past your house if it was on fire, even if your children and your little dog too were trapped inside. Can you imagine the howling and screaming when somebody came up with the concept of public fire departments?

Police departments would probably become privatized, too. Remember the movie RoboCop, in which an evil corporation takes over Detroit’s police department? Every big corporation would have its own police force, which would not be enforcing the law of the land but the will of the Board of Directors. This country has enough problems with cops already. Now imagine if an officer’s loyalty was to the Mega-Corp that runs the police force rather than the community. So much for Protect and Serve.

What with police in the U.S. being increasingly militarized, it’s no big jump to major corporations having their own armies. Imagine soldiers with logos for Amazon, Disney, Wal-Mart or Nestlé instead of national flags.

So, Libertarians, let’s see how you enjoy breathing smoggy air while walking to your job because you can’t afford a car and there’s no public transit. Let’s see how happy you are working 16 hours a day for slave wages, subsisting on adulterated cheap food, dwelling in a vermin-infested one-room hole in the wall with all the rest of your family, and living in fear of Monsanto’s heavily armed goons, all while hoping you don’t turn an ankle or break an arm because then you won’t be able to work and will wind up homeless. Welcome to the new Guilded Age.

Libertarianism and Communism both promise utopia but deliver dystopia. We have already seen that Communism is a failure; a Libertarian government would be the same, just for different reasons. Communism puts too much in the public sector, while Libertarianism puts too much in the private sector. Government is not best when it governs least, but when it governs where it should govern and does not govern where it should not govern.

You have, no doubt, heard of preppers, people who prepare themselves and their families for disaster. Preppers are not necessarily gun-toting wackos – they are simply fully aware that calamity could strike at any time, and they will have only their own resources to rely on for days, weeks, possibly months. Preparedness is something we should all practice.

In a recent essay  I pointed out that The End could be closer than we think, not due to any prophecy or divine wrath but because of humanity’s rape of Earth. We have overextended ourselves, exploiting resources past the point of sustainability. Human action is heating the planet, changing weather patterns, melting arctic and antarctic ice, causing droughts in some areas and horrendous floods in others. Food and water shortages will result in famines, mass migrations of refugees, and bloody wars.

Climate change is not the only existential threat that could shred the thin fabric of civilization. A coronal mass ejection scoring a bullseye on our planet, a supervolcano eruption, a comet or asteroid impact, or any of a number of massive calamities could result in the you-know-what hitting the fan. We have already seen how the COVID-19 pandemic played Old Scratch with our society, as well as laying bare some of its weaknesses. The next pandemic could be a lot worse.

The event that forces us to be resourceful, and will vindicate preppers, need not be world-shattering – it could be hyperinflation, a gas pinch, massive civil unrest, or a natural disaster such as a hurricane or earthquake. Remember how Hurricane Katrina ravished Louisiana and Mississippi? People who didn’t have enough supplies at home had to loot salvage food, beverages, diapers, etc. Interestingly, people who owned guns apparently rarely took advantage of the unarmed; many gun owners protected their gunless neighbors from looters and hoodlums.

This is why we all should be Preppers. You don’t have to go full survivalist mode with a bugout bunker way out in the boondocks and enough guns to arm a platoon – all you need to do is take some simple measures at home. Stock up on nonperishable food and keep it in a safe place, well-sealed to preserve it and keep out bugs and rodents. You should rotate your stores too, especially canned goods so they don’t expire. Keep plenty of water on hand, too, because the plumbing may not be working, or water may be contaminated. Remember Flint, Michigan? If you have enough warning, fill bathtubs, sinks, buckets, etc. with tap water.

Since there may be no power after a major disaster, you’ll need flashlights, batteries, matches, candles, and means to heat food such as Sterno^tm. If you have a backyard barbecue, keep charcoal briquettes and lighter fluid on hand. Have a battery-powered radio in order to catch any news. If you have room for a backup generator, get one of those and keep fuel handy at all times. I know blackouts are no fun because I’ve lived through quite a few of those.

Necessities go beyond food and warmth. Hygiene is always vital, so include soap, shampoo, toothpaste, extra toothbrushes, dental floss, washcloths, feminine hygiene, and diapers if you have rugrats. Hygiene items could become items of barter with your neighbors, as maintaining a good relationship with all those around you will be important in the dark days.

Until whatever organization comes along to help, you will need to while away the hours without the Internet. Books, card and board games, puzzles, even jam sessions can take people’s minds off their troubles for a while. Thus, include books, games, jigsaw puzzles, crossword and other brain-teaser collections, and maybe sheet music in your survival stash.

You don’t need to spend a lot of money or go to a lot of effort in order to prepare for riding out a disaster and its aftermath. Look up prepping, invest in a survival book or three, maybe join a group to get and exchange tips. Never count on any government or even the Red Cross to save your patooty in a time of crisis – make sure you can look after yourself and those closest to you, at least for a while.

I have done my best to write a new Sound Off! essay once a week, but as of late I have had so much on my plate that it’s been very hard to devote any time to this. However, I am working on a couple ideas, and keeping up with current events will certainly provide more grist for my mill. There’s always something to inspire me.

Currently I am reading a fascinating book – The Founding Myth by Andrew Seidel. It explains how the United States was founded on reason and humanistic principles, not on Judeo-Christian rules. In fact, this country’s government and Constitution are just about diametrically opposed to the morality of the Old and New Testaments. I can probably get more than one essay out of my personal observations. If you can find this book at your library, or at a book store, I highly recommend it.

Please bear with me as I get a couple matters sorted out so I can go back to Sounding Off.

“And I’m proud to be an American, where at least I know I’m free” goes one line from the refrain of Lee Greenwood’s “God Bless the USA,” a song that reeks of patriotism. It’s a lovely song, appropriate to trot out on the Fourth of July, Flag Day, September 11, or any other occasion that calls for waving the Stars and Stripes. Unfortunately, these days it doesn’t ring all that true, as US residents are not all that free, and have many reasons for shame rather than pride.

How can we be proud of a country with a health “care” system that values profits more than patients? Every year around 600,000 people declare bankruptcy due to medical bills, and three-quarters of them have health insurance. How can this be? Health insurance companies offer coverage with beautiful ads showing happy families frolicking and patients with doctors, but when someone files a claim the alleged provider dicks its customers around. Companies in any other industry that behaved that way would lose customers in droves, face lawsuits, and soon go under. But insurance companies can get away with such rotten tactics. Obamacare is, at best, a stopgap measure and a compromise.

One of every three GoFundMe campaigns is to raise money for medical bills. In other words, GoFundMe is essentially the largest health care provider in this country. What kind of nation are we where people have to beg so they can clear medical debt? In a previous essay I wrote about how many “heartwarming” stories, instead of restoring our faith in humanity, should be pissing us off.

How can we be proud of a country whose core culture is still blatantly and shamelessly sexist? The USA has the worst maternal mortality rate of any developed country, and is one of only three countries that provides no maternity leave. It has fewer maternity leave protections and benefits than any other country in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), an international alliance including many of the wealthiest and most economically developed countries. Mothers with jobs must return to work within days of giving birth. As for child care, fuhgeddaboudit unless you’re well-healed, because daycare can cost as much as college.

Women had to fight for decades to gain the right to vote. They faced a vigorous anti-suffrage movement, which included a lot of women who had cravenly accepted their status as second-class citizens. Today we are STILL screaming for the ERA to be passed, a full half century after it was first introduced. It should have been added to the Constitution decades ago. At long last we have enough states signed on, but there is still some rigmarole to go through before it takes its rightful place as the Law of the Land.

Since Roe v Wade was overturned, the number of women seeking to have their fallopian tubes tied off has skyrocketed – and many of them run smack into the rampant sexism that pervades the USA’s nefarious health care system. Many a woman seeking to have her tubes tied has gone to one doctor after another, only to get male chauvinist snark such as “You’ll change your mind” or “You’ll meet the right man.” Translation: Women are baby-making machines that have no business thinking of themselves as even remotely human. Meanwhile, if a man wants a vasectomy, he’ll have one scheduled in five minutes.

The medical sexism goes far beyond this, as doctors tend to dismiss women’s suffering and pain. Too many OB/GYNs focus 100% on the fetus and 0% on the one carrying it. Of course, there are some doctors who do actually care about women and realize that us females have legitimate feelings; but they seem to be too few and too far between. And DO NOT get me started on vanishing reproductive rights!

How can we be proud of a country whose working class is being bled whiter than fresh tofu, while the 1% get richer and richer? Once upon a time, a household could live on one income. Now many people work two, three, possibly even more jobs just to make ends meet. Sometimes even if both partners in a household work, they still can barely keep their noses above water.

The minimum wage has not been increased in 13 years, while the price of everything has gone up, and up, and up. Call for the minimum wage to be increased to a living wage, and the brainless parrot stooges of Corporate America belch propaganda about robotized fast-food joints and $20 tacos. Cities and local areas that have increased their minimum wage have not, repeat, NOT seen the massive business closures and job loss that right-wing B.S. has claimed would ensue. In Australia, the minimum wage increases automatically every year; instead of being in worse economic shape than Venezuela, Australia is thriving.

Businesses are howling that “nobody wants to work anymore.” Garbage. The vast majority of US residents want to work. They want to hold jobs and earn money honestly. The problem is, working class Americans are sick of working like mules for chicken feed (pardon the mixed metaphor). No wonder so many businesses in the US are now offering to pay wages appreciably above the current federal minimum.

How can we be proud of a country whose education system is floundering due to sparse budgets? Public schools are crumbling, and their books and equipment are out of date. Teachers are poorly paid so many of them have to moonlight, even after exhausting days of trying to guide their children towards enlightenment and grading papers. Some districts don’t have enough money to purchase supplies, so teachers have to buy them out of their own pockets, or beg for them. Any wonder there is a dire shortage of teachers?

School meals should be free, and in other countries they are – and provide better nutrition. Here, though, kids have to either pay for lunch or bring it from home. Children whose lunch funds have run out see their food thrown in the trash, then come home from school with “I NEED LUNCH MONEY” stamped on their arms. What kind of monsters thought that was a good idea? They make Darth Vader look like a saint.

How can we be proud of a country that spends inordinate amounts on “defense” while its infrastructure is crumbling, its electrical grid is vulnerable to both terrorist attacks and natural phenomena, and – as mentioned above – its public education is woefully underfunded? I devoted an entire essay to our obscenely bloated military budget and how the Pentagon has zero accountability.

How can we be proud of a country that is still unabashedly racist? In theory, people of color have the same rights as whites; in practice, they do not have the same opportunities and thus less access to those rights, such as the right to vote. I could write an entire essay about how the Right is trying to squelch voting rights in districts that tend to support Democrats and Progressives – in fact, I just might do that. Righties vigorously oppose voting by mail, opening more polling locations, longer hours and more days for early voting, automatic voter registration, same-day voting, et cetera. In Georgia, when Brian Kemp ran for Governor, he refused to allow over 50,000 voting applications to be processed, and thus as good as stole the election from Stacey Abrams.

People of color still face discrimination in housing, jobs, education, and so on. Blacks have made some progress, finding success in various fields; not too long ago this country had its first Black President. Yet they still have quite a ways to go, as POCs are still under-represented in government, science, and other areas. Though our culture is doing a better job of featuring POCs and women as lead characters and strong characters in movies and TV shows – the late Nichelle Nichols’ portrayal of Uhura in the original Star Trek series was downright revolutionary – the entertainment industry still has room for improvement.

The United States of America has way more than 99 problems, and fixing a lot of them will entail a major overhaul of deeply entrenched systems. Bonne chance getting anything done, unless we have a major, and possibly bloody, revolution! Maybe that is what we have to do – tear down everything and rebuild, not from the original foundations, but from new foundations more in tune with present-day knowledge and attitudes. Meanwhile, if you live in the United States, do your truly patriotic duty and make sure you are registered to vote, then get your bottom to the polls.