Anthony Wade: 'Feeding the Sheep Nation'

Anthony Wade, OpEdNews
"A nation of sheep will beget a government of wolves"
-- Edward R. Murrow
Edward R. Murrow could not have envisioned how prescient his quote would be
for this day and age. The past truly is prologue as we continue to see how
the government and its media machine feed America what they want them to
believe. The great lie theory used to be telling such a huge lie will make
it believable but in latter day America, any old lie will do, as long as you
keep telling it.

But it is not just about the lies; it is about some basic truths that
corrupt this nation and are at the heart of everything wrong today. These
basic truths are what are at the core of so many other problems. The first
such truth is that the two-party system is destroying democracy as we know
it. Don't get me wrong, the Republican Party is clearly the greater of two
evils and needs to be voted out of power this November. Their trail of
abuses and conciliations to the executive branch of government has been
nothing short of treasonous. However, those expecting the Democratic Party
to be a panacea will be sorely disappointed. Given the same complete control
I doubt the democrats would have behaved any more ethically than the GOP
has. Their leadership is fractured and cannot give off a clear direction to
agree upon. All of them know the truth about the war, abuses of governmental
power, and continuous illegal activity yet only half of them are willing to
stand up against it.

The problem is that they are just as tied to the status quo as the
Republicans. Even a second class party gets to dine at the trough of waste
and corporate kickbacks. Never had this realization crystallized more than
when John Kerry walked away from this country and handed the presidency back
to Bush when he knew he had been cheated. Some may say he did not know, but
if that was the case then he was entirely too stupid to be president anyway.
No, the bigger reason was that he got to go back to Congress as a
millionaire Senator. He still gets the limelight. He still gets the
notoriety. America still gets the shaft. The sheeple mentality however
believes that while we can get 31 flavors of ice cream in this country, we
cannot get more than two coherent political streams of thought and that is
simply ridiculous. What this leads to is having to compromise your
principles and hold your nose when you cast your ballot. Christians who feel
compelled to vote pro-life for instance are compelled to vote pro-war and
pro-poverty. There is no room for dissension. You are either left or you are
right and if you dare to say you are in the middle, you are ridiculed as not
taking a stand. More importantly however, the two parties defend the system
with great political violence. Unless you are a billionaire, you cannot run
as a third party candidate, let alone become involved in the debate process,
which has become nothing more than a dog and pony show. Even if you manage
to get through somehow, a la Ross Perot, you are demonized by the press and
marginalized to the point that you never have an even playing ground to
begin with. Why? Because the chief priority of the two parties in this
country is not the American people, it is preserving the two-party system.

The second major threat tearing apart the fabric of our republic is the
consolidation of the media. This is what Murrow was referring to. Currently,
there are about five corporations who control 90%% of all mainstream media in
this country. These companies have business and political agendas that do
not include among them you or me. For example, the New York Post loses money
hand over fist every year but it is maintained by Rupert Murdoch and the
losses sustained so that he can keep his right-wing agenda on the front
pages of New York. You will never find a substantive critical word in the NY
Post of this president or this administration. Its goal is not to present
the news to New Yorkers but to "package" the political opinions of Mr.
Murdoch and present it as news, just as he does with the clearly unbalanced
Fox News Channel. But Fox News is no longer the only culprit. The real
damage done by Fox News is that it makes other networks appear mainstream
when they really are only Fox-Lite. Instead you have people like Tucker
Carlson, Chris Matthews and Joe Scarborough wrapped up as objective news
hosts. It is through this media machine that the government feeds the
sheeple what they want them to know and withholds what they do not. Case in
point was the coverage tonight on the main news networks did not focus on
Iraq and the increasing surge in violence. It did not focus on Lebanon and
the child casualty rate exceeding 50%%. No, it focused on Gibson-gate. In
fact on the aforementioned Scarborough program, the entire program was
devoted to discussing Mel Gibson's drunken tirade. Like the Scott Peterson
and Natalie Holloway debacles before, these stories are designed to do one
thing. Keep you focused on something other than what is really going on in
the world and in this country. The last bastion of objective news coverage
is the Internet and they are trying to take that away as well through the
Net Neutrality sham. The goal is not only corporate profits but to keep the
sheep bahhhing all the while their country is eroding. Nothing made this
more apparent then when the major networks all got together to agree to
dismiss the obvious election fraud revealed through the exit polls they
commissioned!!! The press used to be about protecting the country from the
abuses of government but now it is about protecting the government from the
people. There is some brighter lights out there such as Keith Olberman but
even that is not enough to offset the onslaught of packaged "news" brought
to America each and every night. When the administration is really in a bind
they dispatch Cheney or Rove to Fox News for what is called an "exclusive"
but all it really is, is a platform to sell more lies to the people in this
country. That is how you see so many people believing Saddam Hussein had
WMD. That is how you have so many people believing Iraq had al Qaeda ties.
News is no longer in the truth business.

The third major problem is the buying and selling of our elected officials
every day through lobbying. There are now 63 lobbyists for every member of
Congress we have. These lobbyists do not represent you or me; they represent
the interests of corporate America. The credit card lobby sends millions of
dollars to members of Congress and we get "bankruptcy reform." The energy
industry sends millions of dollars to Congress and we get kickbacks to their
industries and a regression of environmental laws so they can maximize
profits. John Bolton was so unpopular that President Bush had to name him in
a recess appointment, circumventing the will of the people but now Congress
may approve him officially because of the efforts of AIPAC. This is all
approved under the guise of free speech as the American people are sold out
every day over corporate interests. This is why people like Jack Abramoff,
Tom Delay and Duke Cunningham were allowed to prey on this country for as
long as they did. Lobbying is how we have the mess we see in the voting
machines in this country that has resulted in stolen elections for the past
six years. Laws are passed that require states to use machines that are made
by partisan companies even though those machines are known to be flawed and
provide no paper trail. Lobbying is how companies earn protections from
being sued when they egregiously hurt the American people. Lobbying is why
elections are less about who the candidate is and what they believe in and
more about how much money they can raise.

The fourth major problem facing this once great nation is the consolidation
of power into the executive branch of government and the capitulation by
Congress to allow it to happen. President Bush has now chosen to violate
over 800 laws in this country yet he remains unquestioned. Clinton was
dragged to the town square and flogged publicly for lying once, about a
personal sexual indiscretion. The fact is that President Bush does not
believe he has to listen to Congress, and thus the will of the people. He
makes a grand showing of signing an anti-torture bill and then promptly
attaches a rider to it saying he does not have to follow it. He violates the
FISA act and when caught, brazenly says, "so what?" He then cuts a faux deal
with a member of his own party that does not require him to adhere to the
FISA law, but rather that he has the option to do so. That is what the GOP
calls a concession, when the president agrees that he might follow a law he
was supposed to follow to begin with. Lying to Congress as proven through
the Downing Street Memos; no investigation. Secret leaks of classified
information; no investigation. Secret meetings with energy lobbyists to
decide energy policy; no transparency. The list is endless. While certainly
Bush carries the lion's share of the blame, he can only do what Congress
allows him to do. It is the GOP, rubber-stamp congress that has sanctioned
the erosion of civil liberties, wars of conquest based on lies, destructive
fiscal policies that have rewarded millionaires and crippled the middle
class, environmental protection rollbacks that have led to the record heat
waves across this country while the GOP claims there is no global warming,
the decimation of our educational system in this country as far too many
children are left behind, the attempt to destroy our Medicaid and Social
Security systems and so many other travesties that they cannot be contained
in just one article but are resonating daily in the lives of the American
people. The height of the arrogance of this administration is their recent
inclusion of money to convert the social security system into the account
based scam that Bush could not sell to the American people for the past few
years. You remember that, right? Bush toured the country trying to sell his
vision of crippling the social security system only to be strongly rebuffed
everywhere he went? Instead of bowing to the will of the people, he
back-doored his plan into the latest budget. In the end, it does not matter
what we want, only what the powers that be want.

There are many other problems facing this nation and they are all vital as
well but these are what stand out in my mind when I think about the current
state of affairs. We have a government that is beholden to a failed system,
fueled by money that bribes it daily, and supported by a media machine that
endorses it. They tell us what to be concerned with and what to pay no mind
to. Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain. Just keep watching the
next segment on Mel Gibson until American Idol comes on again. The sheep
keep grazing and wolves keep getting fatter.

What is the answer America? Stop being sheep. If you turn on a news program
that is focusing on a story such as Mel Gibson's feelings toward Jews, while
our sons and daughters are dying in the sands of Iraq, turn the TV off. Go
online and check out some progressive news sites to see what stories they do
not want you to be aware of. Take that knowledge and share it with everyone
you can. It is the mobilization from a grass roots level that can be the
only solution to the crises facing this nation. When you see a progressive
candidate who is talking about real change, vote for them. Be vigilant to
any voting problems and do not just walk away. Send your letters to the
editors, email the networks, sign the petitions. Get involved. Throwing your
hands up in the air will only embolden the people who view the American
people as sheep. It is through the non-involvement of people in this country
that the wolves continue to grow in power. It is time to stop accepting what
they are feeding us and take back the United States from the wolves Edward
R. Murrow spoke so prophetically about, so long ago.

Anthony Wade, a contributing writer to opednews.com, is dedicated to
educating the populace to the lies and abuses of the government. He is a
38-year-old independent writer from New York with political commentary
articles seen on multiple websites. A Christian progressive and professional
Rehabilitation Counselor working with the poor and disabled, Mr. Wade
believes that you can have faith and hold elected officials accountable for
lies and excess. Anthony Wade?s Archive:
http://www.opednews.com/archiveswadeanthony.htm Email Anthony:
takebacktheus@gmail.com.

Source: OpEdNews
http://www.opednews.com/articles/opedne_
anthony__060801_feeding_the_sheep_na.htm

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"A little patience and we shall see the reign of witches pass over, their
spells dissolve, and the people recovering their true sight, restore their
government to its true principles. It is true that in the meantime we are
suffering deeply in spirit,
and incurring the horrors of a war and long oppressions of enormous public
debt. But if the game runs sometimes against us at home we must have
patience till luck turns, and then we shall have an opportunity of winning
back the principles we have lost, for this is a game where principles are at
stake."
-Thomas Jefferson