In January of 2022 I began publishing blogs on my website, powertomyvotes.com. The goal was educating American voters on politics. I have written that politicians have been herding voters around like cattle--rounding them up with expertly crafted slogans and sound bites--and locking up their votes.
Then, after republican and democratic politicians get elected, the politicians fight with each other with the viciousness of divorcing parents struggling over possession of children and child support money.They are too filled with hate, fear, and anxieties to make reasonable compromises.
Thirty-eight blogs reside on my powertomyvotes.com website. These blogs reveal the inner workings and failures of the three branches of our government (Executive, Legislative, and Judicial). All the blogs are based on high quality reference books and to a lesser extent digital resources.
Now, going forward, my blogging will change its focus:
- I'm changing my blogging platform from GoDaddy.com to Blogger.com. This will speed up the writing process. And I expect to get more data on my readership.
- Since I've already educated voters about the three branches of government, I will shift my focus to covering deeper topics in more detail:
- In the first 40 blogs I've told the stories of many honorable and effective politicians--both republicans and democrats.
- And, I've also revealed the outrageous lies and systematic deceptions of presidents and congressmen--both republicans and democrats.
- I'm motivated to continue blogging with a new content focus and style.
- Many of my blog topics are based on very complicated stories which develop over years and involve many different constituencies (i.e., voter blocks).
- My five + blogs on the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) have been gratifying to write and publish, but there are several topics I want to write on which are far too extensive for a single blog. So they would have to be a series of blogs published over a month or more.
I know from my reading that the work product of SCOTUS has built-in biases designed and implemented by the Republican Party and the Democratic Party. The Parties themselves serve the elite and the non-elite constituencies, respectively. Moreover, the income inequality in America has been getting worse over time; and American income inequality is even worse than that in Europe.
The SCOTUS justices believe they are being logical, constitutional, and "reasonable." But historically, they have confidently made some gross blunders which they later had to overturn.
I now know from MacLean's unique research, detailed in Democracy In Chains, of an extensive and sophisticated political philosophy/movement which began back in the 1950s and 60s. It was spawned by the academic economist Dr. James Buchanan and funded by the billionaire brothers, Charles and David Koch. The ideas in this well-funded philosophy/movement are scary as hell!
For several years I've wondered why republican election platforms would include privatizing social security, ending medicare and Obamacare, and year after year selectively suppressing access to voting.
Why would average Americans want to be rid of these beneficial programs. They don't! The majority of citizens really want those programs to survive. The Republican Party and its campaigns are stealthy in how they mention these ideas. Their intentions of cutting social welfare programs are more like signaling to their far right constituency. Mr. Buchanan died in 2013, but his legacy continues on for reducing social services funded by the federal government. Republicans recruit the more elite voters with promises of cutting social welfare and increasing tax cuts for the rich. The real economist, Paul Krugman in his book The Great Unraveling, reveals that the republican talking points claim, without any authentic economic basis, that tax cuts will stimulate the American economy. The Great Unraveling is a collection of Krugman's blogs, which entertain as well as teach citizens how not to be fooled ("Fuzzy Math" pp 131-210).
Nancy MacLean's book, Democracy In Chains, tells of an incredibly ominous radical right political agenda; it explains much of the Republican Party's platform over several decades. This agenda is not just fantasy, for the recommended methods of methodically enacting, small "reforms" of the constitutional rules has been implemented in the South American country of Chile. Mr. Buchanan recommended the changes to be made in Chile; but the end result was not good, and reversing the "reforms" as made to be close to impossible.
Earle Rice's short and easily read book, Adolf Hitler and Nazi Germany, tells a coherent story of how Hitler, step by step, legally took control of Germany and ultimately made his Nazi government into a ruthless dictatorship ended only by World War II. The Nazi regime finally ended when he shot himself in the head shortly before the Russian army reached his hideout in Berlin.
MacLean's and Rice's books are authoritative and consistent with many other, related books on government. By knowing well-researched, legitimate history of how we got to where we are, voters can learn to spot fake history and fake news. Voters can learn to not be used and abused and herded around like cattle. Their vote can be something more than just another blank check.
WORKS CITED
Krugman, Paul. The Great Unraveling: Losing Our Way in The New Century. Norton & Company, 2005.
MacLean, Nancy. Democracy In Chains: The Deep History of the Radical Right's Stealth Plan For America. Penguin Books, 2017.
Rice, Earle Jr. Adolf Hitler and Nazi Germany. Morgan Reynolds P, 2006.
Note: Our citations and references have changed from APA to the newest and briefer MLA version.