Michael Chenoweth

Cutting through the nonsense that's out there.

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If one wants to be a well-informed American citizen, it is essential to hear from a broad spectrum of sources, both on the liberal and conservative sides of the discussion, because only through exposure to all of the arguments can one effectively sort out what makes sense and what doesn't.

Two of the best TV shows along these lines are the interview programs of Charlie Rose and Bill Moyers. They can be viewed at http://www.charlierose.com/ and http://billmoyers.com/.

Both of these programs feature extremely well-informed guests with a diversity of opinions on a variety of important issues.  Charlie Rose tends to have more guests with international experience, and Bill Moyers tends to have more guests speaking on domestic issues. I commend both of them to your attention.

A recent Bill Moyers program, on March 30, 2012, featured a "community organizer" named George Goehl, talking about the 99% Spring.  Here are some notes I made, including my own interpretations. The original interview is excellent, so don't limit yourself to my comments.

The agenda of the left is movement of truth-tellers: examples: Women’s rights, Civil rights

Agenda of the Right.

Conservative think tanks have waged a 40-year effort to undermine the role of government, disempower organized workers, to deregulate the financial markets and corporate sector, [all for the sole purpose of increasing corporate profits.]

Primary themes in their efforts have been to:

1.      Undermine the role of government (i.e., deregulation)

2.      Promote free markets, placing profits above social responsibility

3.      Say falsely that we live in a racially just society

4.      Promote rugged individualism, thereby destroying America’s sense of community.

People on the far right, like Grover Norquist, assert that “government is the problem.” But government is not the “problem.”

Government is the “prize” and right now it is in a trophy case on Wall Street. 

The messages of both “Tea Party” and “Occupy” protesters are about a government that is non-responsive to their concerns, and increasingly is a pawn of the banking, investment and financial services industries. The other big players, the oil industry, the insurance industry, and the defense contractor industry are subsets of the investment industry.

It is up to all Americans, on both the left and the right, who have been increasingly excluded from meaningful participation in their government, to demand accountability from elected leaders at all levels of government and vote out those who continue to be subservient to industry lobbyists.