"It's the Economy, Stupid or Is the Economy Stupid?"
Statement by Bob Kinsey
Green Party Candidate for U.S. Senate in Colorado
October 4, 2008
"When the 1929 crash occurred some had a modicum of shame, a sense of personal responsibility. Some even jumped out of 60 stories office buildings. Now they may just "pull" those buildings. Today a 90 year woman who lost her home to foreclosure tried to commit suicide. Paulson and Bush just try to keep their shell game going."
It's the economy--yes and no. The economy is that system by which we all attempt to create the goods and services we need to live decent and fulfilling lives. Given specialization, modern technology and economies of scale this is a network of incredible complexity. It includes large scale capital investment in various means of production, whether that be in farming, machinery, transportation, real estate, etc, and a means by which the human community can participate and gain their means to buy their wants and needs.
The Green Party values insist this vast economic system is a still part of a larger ecology which human beings have always exploited for our benefit. We call everyone to realize that the economic system we have created, where individuals struggle to gain advantage for themselves, has downsides that are magnified as the system has grown incredibly large. The system has employed massive chemical and mechanical tools that displace human labor for short term pleasure. But this activity threatens biological balances that have developed over billions of years. Global Warming and increased cancer are the warning flags.
The Green Party values a respect for biological diversity and human diversity. They are crucial to survival. Cooperation in smaller units rather than huge dinosaur like units, will create a pattern of human activity less likely to overwhelm the rest of our life giving planetary partners. The education of the next generation requires closeness to the whole ecological system and participation with it. This is required so they understand its requirements and appreciate its gifts.
In order to nurture a cooperative atmosphere there must be real grass roots participation in decision making. There must be confidence that what ever systemic arrangements we create include everyone in a fair distribution of the wealth created. Anything less corrodes our community life. When vast sums can be instantly created to bail out financial assets but abject poverty and lack of health care are given lip service, then confidence that everyone is on the same team is devastated.
Violence is a means for one individual or group claiming more for itself in opposition to this community principle. It destroys the community. It sows distrust. When individuals are willing to threaten the stability of systems we live by --or band together to rip off our system for their own gain --they obviously erode the possibilities for success of the whole. When they shred our basic agreements for cooperation such as the Constitution and the laws it enforces, to gain license to operate a casino of worthless stock, they destroy the basic community necessary for everyone's survival. This is more egregious than a physical murder or robbery. Our "leaders" love to jail or execute people for their individual crimes but want forgiveness and bail outs for their much greater anti-social behavior. They show their true colors when they ignore the lack of social justice for years in the name of their personal "freedom" but when their personal situation is threatened can find infinite supplies of funding for its protection.
From ancient times humans have found some sense of meaning in passing a bit of themselves into the future beyond personal death -- to the tribe and individual continuance in a great chain of being. Our native American sisters and brothers called "the seventh generation." And to be wise all our decisions must therefore consider the whole ecology that sustains that being. Our shameful class of "leaders" has worked at every turn to discredit those with the training and knowledge--our scientists and philosophers-- who sound the warning bells, advise us to regulate our behavior and explain the dangers to us all of their current practices. They call these wise ones elitists, ivory tower liberals or communists-- or whatever else they think will fly.
It is clear that the financial market crisis threatens all economic activity, even of the productive kind. The perpetrators of the crisis, those supposedly overseeing their part of the system in finance and government, have destroyed the whole system in the name of their personal and immediate clique's gain. When the 1929 crash occurred some had a modicum of shame, a sense of personal responsibility. Some even jumped out of 60 stories office buildings. Now they may just "pull" those buildings. Today a 90 year woman who lost her home to foreclosure tried to commit suicide. Paulson and Bush just try to keep their shell game going.
If nothing else the current "crisis," whether it be our war spending or our financial instrument crisis, has been around for decades. Like a pimple it came to a head over the past six months but those paying attention have known the infection was there. Others, distracted by virtual reality or mesmerized by the hope of getting in on the gravy struggled to survive on increasingly smaller pieces of the pie. The poor have been marginalized and kept invisible. Reaganomics was the attempt of the perpetrators to name this thorny bush a rose rather than a thistle. This was in part symbolized by Reagan tearing the solar panels off the White House. Republicans sold the illusion and Democrats bought it. They wrapped it all in a vain hope that a good PR campaign could trump reality. They both have their hand in the till and their reputations to defend.
So it is clear that The Green Party is the only choice. It is the only organized political unit with a full set of values to work our way beyond the crisis. True we have only a few candidates to offer but in those candidates' elections there might be the seeds for true corrective action by all.
Before January 20th the President and his mob will have poured our national labor into the empty assets of the overseers' accounts by means of war spending and bail out. His party has insured that oversight will continue to be non-existent. But the Democrats have gone along, in some cases with enthusiasm. They are afraid their patriotism will be attacked for not supporting the troops. They fear their unwillingness to support "free" enterprise would show them as traitors to American values --even after those values have bloomed as a thistle rather than a rose. The overseers behind the scenes will stoop to whatever lies will drive things for their benefit alone.
Citizens need to send a signal that they fully understand the real underlying causes of the predicament. Progressive Democrats and even Constitutionally oriented Republicans who understand the importance of assigning responsibility and accountability for anti-societal actions might be pushed into prominence by a few Green Party victories and a general uprising of political activism. Build the Green Party as a political force.
My main reason for running for United States Senate was that no choice existed for voters who have discovered our War-Corporate driven foreign and economic policies are stupid and criminal. If there is no political price to pay for having chosen them over more responsible and informed policies there is really no Democracy in America There is just a kind of "friendly" fascism of the elite oligarchy. It will hide behind a Soccer Mom mask but really wants to play without referees and any regard for the other team. It will urge buying foreign products at Home Depot and Wal-Mart till the paychecks stop. It will take the capital they have amassed to an offshore Bank and invest it in Gold and hire mercenaries to keep you away. They will leave your garden a mess of thorny weeds.
Kinsey for Senate
303-949-4073
Unlimited Growth is the Ideology of a Cancer Cell
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