Power does not exist in a vacuum

Power does not exist in a vacuum. It is either controlled by those who run corporations or those who have amassed massive wealth or by those who control government. Our Founding Fathers were not naïve simpletons who placed power in the hands of man based upon good will alone. They gave us a system in which the actions of our elected officials may be monitored and drawn into the light of public scrutiny and even the poor have a voice. This does not mean that the rich have no influence but when organized and armed with a passionate cause, regular people have the capacity to set the rules by which they live regardless of their circumstances. It also does not infer that the common man is always right and the rich are always wrong, it merely means the resources exist for a balanced playing field which has not existed for mankind throughout history.

The fact that Barack Obama could be elected following a two-term George Bush demonstrates exactly how much control the American people have over the political process while simultaneously demonstrating the volatility of the electorate’s judgment.

"Out, out, brief candle!

Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player

That struts and frets his hour upon the stage

And then is heard no more. It is a tale

Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,

Signifying nothing."

A favorite tactic of the Tea Party zealots has become the use of historical references as a justification for the most tenuous connections. Waving the banner of Socialism as a form of Scarlet Letter while attempting to brand the policies of the Democratic Party as un-American is yet another example of their intellectually void approach to winning political arguments.  It is not a coincidence that the United States became a superpower at the same time that the federal government enacted waves of social programs designed to improve the conditions of the working class.

The tired mantra of the Republican Party that somehow Democrats long for a Soviet Union style government is trite and absent any true intellectual foundation. The reality is that the United States is a unique combination of capitalism and socialism and has been for nearly a hundred years. No legitimate voice of the Democratic Party advocates the total control of the private sector by the government yet the leading voices of the Republican Party proudly champion an unfettered capitalistic system oblivious of the poverty and corruption which coincides in such an arrangement.