America Is Waking Up
by James Glaser
May 30, 2012
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I think the last time Americans really woke up to what was happening around them was in the late 1960s when droves of people hit the streets to protest the military draft and our war in Vietnam.

Protests don't really seem to work if they are just filled with young college age students and workers. It takes a multigenerational group to get Washington's attention. Also, there must be enough of them that politicians start worrying about their reelection.

We aren't there yet, but I am starting to see different age groups pick up their signs and raise their voices. I believe we will see a real outpouring of people voicing their disfavor with what is going on in this country at the Republican National Convention in Tampa Florida this year.

I think Democrats are drunk on Barack Obama's Kool Aid, and even though he is attacking our freedoms at as great of a rate or maybe even faster than George Bush did, the Democrats are blind to any criticism of the President. Well, in truth there are people like Louis Farakahan and Cornel West, who worked hard to get Obama elected last time who have voiced their disappointment. This is how it is going for Obama in Hollywood:

Remember that big all-star bash Oprah Winfrey hosted at her Santa Barbara estate the summer prior to Obama's election? As a top studio honcho put it Tuesday, "Oh, they'll still vote for Barack, but they'll do it while holding their noses." On issues ranging from gay marriage to the handling of the economy to a perceived lack of support for Israel to immigration reform, quite a few veteran Democrats in Tinseltown are saying they find Obama a big disappointment.

Disappointment does not mean we will see protests by Democrats this year, at least not the cash-giving Democrats, but the Occupy Movement is filled with young and many older Democrats who are giving their Party a lot of thought.

On the other side, so many Republicans of every ilk, from the Christian Right to the Ron Paul Libertarian wing of the party are less than enamored with Mitt Romney. Romney has been pushed on to the Party faithful by the neocon war wing of the Republican Party and referred to by many as the Old Guard or the Party Machine.

The big money boys are backing Romney because he is safe. Romney, like Obama, is willing to keep the Military and its wars going. He will defend Israel no matter what Israel does, and he will keep the war profits flowing to Wall Street and the Defense Industry.

Well, finally the cat is out of the bag. It has taken 67 years of almost constant post WWII wars for Americans to wake up to the fact that we are the War Monger nation of the world. Millions of Americans have figured out that neither Japan nor Germany has been at war for over two generations, and they seem to be doing just fine. Their military spending is a pittance compared to what we spend.

So many Americans now know that we have traded our infrastructure upkeep and repair for bombs, bullets, and profits to the Military Industrial Complex. Americans can see that our once ballyhooed education system is now second-rate and heading for third. And on top of that, more and more Americans are realizing that they don't want to leave our huge National Debt to their children and grandchildren.

Americans are waking up to the fact that the rich run our country, and that they are not running it for anyone but their own benefit.

As more and more people wake up to what is going on in our country, and as they see around them not only the young people protesting, but also whole families and just maybe their own parents hitting the streets in protests, things will start to change. When politicians see that their reelection is in danger, they will start to listen.




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