The Nation’s Dormant First Responders
Imagine please, for the sake of illustration, a situation that could never possibly happen. Imagine that every first responder in the nation, along with all their equipment, suddenly and permanently disappeared. Consider the compounding chaos that would ensue.
That scenario already exists on a national scale for the American people.Think about the uncontrolled compounding economic, social and psychological chaos that has been the everyday experience of the 99% over the last 45 years. Over that period successive Democratic and Republican governments created and maintained those conditions as the handmaidens of the ruling class. We obviously could not look to those people to fix the problems they created. Where then are the first responders for this emergency? Who are they?
Our government was built to be self-correcting. The legislatve, executive and judical branches were envisioned to exercise checks and balances over each other, such that if one went astray or assumed too much power unto itself the others would bring it back in line. It appears that the Framers did not anticipate the three branches of government becoming compromised at once, as they are today, having been capturered decades ago by corporations and the wealthy. Failing to anticipate the neutralization of checks and balances, the Framers did not design any corrective measures that would automatically be activated in the case of a rogue government.
In the absence of an internal government mechanism to override it's takeover by malign forces, there is only one other entity capable of routing the corporate insurgents and resetting government as the servant of the people.
The people themselves are the first responders we need in this longstanding emergency. Too many do not realize it yet.
We are always told that if we don't like the government we have, we should just vote them out. However, the people have been unable to elect a government that is good for them in over 40 years, so that option too has been foreclosed.
The government will NOT fix itself. It is serving the needs of the oligarchs and the duopoy quite well. We the people are the only remaining solution, like it or not. We can either wake enough of our brothers and sisters to mass the forces we need for this epic struggle, or we can continue to stall and let climate change end life as we know it.
