SEQUESTER AND THE PENTAGON

The McCain-Graham question is simply this, “Why are two United States Senators trying to get us into war in Syria?” The question has two answers. The simple answer is money; however, the more satisfying answer is so complex that the answer would have to be book length.

McCain is a megalomaniacal militarist; he magically gained the knowledge and authority of a five-star general from setting in the cockpit of a jet fighter plane and a cramped cell in the Hanoi Hilton. Graham gains his military authority a commission he holds as Coronel the Air Force Reserves as a lawyer. They have three things in common each of which introduces a whole set of complications to the discussion: they are both Senators, both have the Republicans mind set, and they both always seem to want to go to war. The one facet of the answer I want to focus on is the money, which is part of the Republican mind set. When you deal with Republicans, always follow the money.

We have the “sequester”, which is weighting heavily on our backs as middle class American, but especially poor people. The political powers designed that agreement to appear balanced: one-half of the cuts would come from the military (Pentagon) and one-half would come from social programs. The Republican long term goal or plan was to restore funding to the Pentagon while preventing Democrats from restoring funding to social programs. Senator Harry Reid sold out the Democratic majority, the peoples’ majority, by allowing the rule of the senate to include the filibuster; thus, giving the Republicans the power to block any effort to restore funding to social programs yet or any other cut that affects them—such as flight delays. In Democratic terms, Reid’s action was treasonous.

Most people who follow politics know the great damage the radical Supreme Court of the United States did with their Citizens United Ruling, which tilted the political scene in strong favor of the rich—corporations can easily swamp individual donors. This ruling coupled with the unregulated lobbying is leading to disastrous results for democracy. Republican operatives use the economic political environment they built to mount primary election challenges for any elected official at every level of government; as we have seen in North Carolina they are willing to use their money even at the level of school board elections, election board appointments, and sway utility commission decisions. It is a form of protection racket run by people other than tattooed faced punks. Either you vote the way the moneyed interests want or you are challenged—in their eyes they see this as good old America style democracy but it is not; it is criminal. To contextualize it, big industries have a strangle hold on McCain and Graham but it is also important to note that these two guys seem to want to vote for war. They are bribed to do what they want.  It also fits their political perception of hierarchy dominance with them at the top, which feeds into their megalomania.

Their action is expected by those of us who know and understand Republican persistence and willingness to do what ever it takes, morally correct or not; they will do what it takes to win; not the war but the sequester battle; restore funding to the Pentagon. McCain and Graham are willing to overlook a little “war” as a good thing if it convinces the American people to support their call to “release the dog of war” because we are Americans. In McCain’s words, bomb, bomb, bomb. They want to restore the Pentagon cuts at the expense of social programs to support the military industrial complex that is supporting them.  Of course, this is morally wrong but who cares if they can make money. Eisenhower was right when he warned that when the military controls the government the nation is in trouble —we are in deep trouble.          

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