The world has just witnessed “history in the making.” I know that because the president of the United States said it on national television. That means Egypt has successfully forced their president to resign. Whether there will be meaningful change in either the short-run or the longrun remains to be seen, but the term “meaningful” will be defined differently by the citizens on the streets from that definition used by the international powers who will deal with a new government.
It has been interesting learning how much impact our government has had on the Egyptian government through our foreign “aid.” Apparently a large portion of our $1.3 billion support was in the form of military aid. (We manufacture military items and give them to a foreign country. It helps our defense industries, employees people here, shows up as a “gift” in foreign aid and supposedly gains support from their military to the United States.) Some foreign experts believe the “new government,” currently under the control of the military, will be sympathetic to the U.S. interests in the Middle East.
Maybe there is a lesson to be learned from this Egyptian situation. Mubarak was in power about 30 years and gradually lost touch withthe people. Could it be the Tea Party movement in our country is saying we need to look past our current method of selecting national leadership and realize there is some discontent with the affect of lavishing large sums of money on our governing bodies?
It should not be news to anyone who has any source of media coverage that political contributions affect the outcome of elections in America. Whether it be a school millage election, a city official or the presidency, money is necessary to “get the message out.” We might not think about the lesser publicized elections, but money is involved in all of them.
An Arkansas Democrat Gazette article in the Jan.
23, 2011, edition was very informative providing some details about where donations to national political parties and federal candidates were involved. The list of top 10 political donors in Arkansas included two members of the Walton family, Jim and wife, Lynne, and Alice and Don Tyson, all having ties to northwest Arkansas. The amount ofthe contribution was listed by political party, not by individual candidate, but there would be little doubt that newly-elected Senator John Boozman and Third District House Representative Steve Womack will respond to their suggestions, telephone calls and invitations more readily than those from any John Doe.
There is nothing illegal, immoral or unethical about this support. This practice was not initiated in this generation. It might have been perfected in recent years with corporations and special interest groups finding new ways to funnel money into the hands of politicians through Political Action Committees (PACS), but it does influence elections.
The part of this practice that concerns me as I look back over the last 20 years has been the re-election of politicians who find the life in the inner belt-way of Washington appealing and who are willing to do whatever is necessary to stay in office. When those people are willing to support legislation that benefits the large contributors, (individuals, corporations or even entire industries and special interests) in return for their financial support, we have the makings of “corruption to the system.”
Another article in the same paper reports thatHouse Budget Committee Chair Paul Ryan (R-WI.) received a total of $1.4 million in contributions from banks, hedge funds, investment houses and other financial-services companies. He is one of the leading House republican spokesmen on budgetary issues. Aren’t these the same sources that we read about in the newspaper giving out millions of dollars in bonuses in financial organizations that the government bailed out with loans? How unbiased can he be?
At some point in time, Americans will recognize that we can’t continue on the same path of living on borrowed money while we transfer wealth to those who control the destiny of our nation. If the Egyptians actually had 40 percent of their population living below the poverty level and high unemployment,how difficult was it for a few activists to organize demonstrations demanding change when the world has text messaging and Facebook to instantly communicate their dissatisfaction?
I wonder if anyone is keeping track of how many Americans are dependent on our government for their daily livelihood. If you think of the number of Americans who work for the government in some capacity, draw a welfare check in some form, are on unemployment benefits, or are retired depending on Social Security checks every month, as a group, you have a fairly large population. If the American dollar loses its status as the world’s reserve currency, our ability to borrow money at reasonable interest rates and our ability to meet our nation’s social obligations, much less provide subsidies to foreign nations could come to a very rapid crisis situation.
If our elected leaders and their hired staffs of specialists don’t get the budget and our nation’s unemployment straightened out before the real inflation figures accelerate to unbearable levels, we could have a lot of unhappy people in our nation.
I certainly hope our nation is not on a path of self destruction. However, our current leadership seems to solicit direction fromHarvard Business School while our nation’s history indicates our forefathers established this nation by relying on direction fromour Creator.
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Editor’s note: Leo Lynch, a native of Benton County has deep roots in northwest Arkansas. He is a retired industrial engineer and former Justice of the Peace. He can be contacted at prtnews@ nwaonline.com.
Opinion, Pages 4 on 02/16/2011