40 lessons Bush- co has "taught "America about itself..

[undergroundpanther]

Bush-co has taught America...

#1 That unchecked wealth, power and secrecy concentrated in few hands can destroy everything good, noble and just our founders however imperfect they were in understanding, stood for.


#2 That certain types of beliefs are indeed antithetical to a democracy, In this case the fundamentalist, dominionists who seek to put god in control of the state through themselves. These types of beliefs ARE a very real and present danger to the constitution to democracy.
These very rigid and controlling power seeking belief systems used to be seen as fringe but now they are everywhere due to the right's help. The right saw these believers as pawns to be used to help the republicans get and keep power. They bribed these religious control freaks with visions of power and control over the lives of Americans that the fundamentalists felt threatened by and didn't like.. And that danger the right has exploited led to a slow growing coup of our country, through stealth, manipulation, ,influence, and brazen grassroots exploiting of believers baser human natures as if it was god. The neocons wished to infiltrate political power to take over the country for themselves and the religious wanted to make it a theocracy. Neither motive is good. Be it Theocracy, or exploiting neocons looking to make their feudal dreams come true by exploiting religion...

#3Liars will twist anything and everything to get their way and have people think they are not lying..This lesson is to NOT TRUST "leaders"on appearances or words alone.That psychopaths can be very charming when you do not observe them critically enough by their ACTIONS and where their loyalties lie.

#4 A lesson that bully pundits, politicians, preachers or populace are not interested in compromise or debate or making things better for all, they want control and to dominate and will do anything to win that .Even be an hypocritical, self serving,uncivil verbally abusive asshole on TV or radio without shame.And they aggressively shut down any viewpoints they do not like.So they cannot be compromised with for the compromise from a bully always carries their will to dominate embedded in it.

#5 That unchecked Ceo's and corporate power and money misused can make the market so corrupt and unfair it offers no real opportunities and it creates class strife.

#6 That too much success and hegemony in capitalism unchecked by competition makes for an economic than a political oligarchy and oppressive situation.The successful need to be taxed for protecting the general welfare of all human beings.

#7 That an unsupervised military apparatus that is overrun with Ceo's and true believers can create havoc in the world and harm many lives.


#8 That an ownership society can have very different meanings depending on how much you have, or don't.

#9 That self honesty, along with being knowledgeable and aware of how our government functions is vital to maintaining our freedoms from tyranny.

#10 All schools need government and & civics classes.

#11 That free markets are not really all that free if corporations are treated like people and buy the government and make it theirs.

#12 That profit and position that seeks to control resources and exploit to stay big corrupts and interferes with real innovation and changes that would help many.

#13 That presidents can and DO lie

#14 The government is not to be run like a corporation.

#15 That solidarity is very important.

#16 That each person's participation in this democracy as an informed active citizen is vital.

#17 Watchdogs and reporters brave enough to tell us what we don't like to hear are being good citizens.

#18 That media if it loses sight of it's purpose and vital role in educating the populace, can be bought and allowed by the stroke of a presidential pen to be mouthpieces for corruption invent things and lie.

#19 That torture is so wrong it's pure evil and it should NOT be in ANY part of our tactics.

#20Soldiers who disobey orders and expose military practices and agendas that are morally depraved are really true heroes.

#21 That homophobia more often than not is intimately tied to ones religious beliefs and personality types that it is any argument over holding society together or for the kids sake B.S..

#22 That wars CAN be wars of choice and presidents DO lie about the motives for wars..

#23 That war DOES benefit the wealthy and screw the poor.


#24 That corrupted,control freak, morally depraved hypocrites can play a convincing upstanding citizen act and take the perks shamelessly when they think the people are ignorant about how they really are...

#25 That all types of power must be checked and not afforded too much secrecy.

#26 That secrecy must not be increased or declared on just a leaders whim.

#27 That national security is not always THE reason secrets are withheld.

#28 That where our taxes go and what they pay for must be accounted for fully and in proportions they are spent IF we want to stay out of wars of choice and keep our freedoms..

#29 That congress has a duty to be rebellious and protect the foundations of this country and the 'little guy' from tyrants.

#30 That wealth,"popularity" as well as the executive branch MUST be checked for it too is power that can corrupt our democracy.

#31 Progressive Taxation is what is just taxation, not giveaways to put the rich on welfare.

#32 Robbing the poor to feed the rich is not sound fiscal policy.

#33 That the poor, gay, women,other races,etc. etc. are not to be scapegoated when the system fails, even if the"leaders" urge it to distract from their own incompetence or greed.

#34 That incompetence rules and a fish rots from the head down.

#35 Corporations do not give people a hand up out of the goodness of their hearts.

#36 Trickle down economics is a LIE.

#37 That a consenting blow job by Monica to Clinton, as two adults
is morally trivial compared to the torture rape and sodomy of children at Abu Gharib.

#38 That we the people need to help and care about each other.


#39 Quality of life matters to all of us, and that should be a priority for all of us.

#40 Free speech must remain free if we want this democracy, but free speech is no excuse to bully and abuse free speech to control information, intimidate opposition, abuse,and de-legitimize viewpoints until your preferred viewpoint is the only one heard like the neocons did.

And I am sure there are many more..lessons of what we DO NOT want running rampant in this country, that the Neocons have taught us by their example.

[Sad4world]

1. And the sad part

is that it might take a generation or two to fix this and that could very well be too late if not already.

[undergroundpanther]

3. I know

What scares me is the messed up heads left in the aftermath of all this.
And the psychopathic among us who lie and bully and manipulate to get themselves a great quality of life at everyone else's expense by keeping people conned, unable to think,scared, mistrustful of the people less powerful than themselves,and emotionally immature.
Because when people see everything as competition and fear losing, they see stuff as a zero sum game, they don't know how to trust to form solidarity with people they are told are 'weak'..and when power is corrupt and does not figure in quality of life is everyones desire than people don't trust power or the ones below and it gets sick,and who's the problem gets inverted and people believe the biggest bully is always right out of fear.And they do not know or trust themselves to find any answers.And so there are none. It's really sad.

[Annces]

2. Good list

They have also taught that ugliness can resurface in different generations, with new face.

I was reading someone describing how it is tribalism that causes so many problems. And that tribalism is describing what you are, by saying you are not this or that, instead of defining what you are. Trying to keep your cloistered group does not work.

[undergroundpanther]

4. It's not tribalism

Tribes have gotten along before.As a many-one thing.. I think the problem is domination, That insistence of being on top, having it all to yourself, with NO opposition,that projective demand to have everyone else do as you want, believe as you do, and be as you are or else you say the world falls apart,and everyone gets scared.. that type of authoritarian shit.