OFF THE TOP OF MY HEAD

The rich have a plan
Ever wonder how “We the People” can elect a “liberal-progressive”  Black president and at the same time elect a right-wing, ultra-conservative obstructionist congress? It is because the process has been corrupted by money.
The ultra-rich one percenters, have a strategic plan which involves unlimited funding for obstructionist candidates. We have seen its effect at the federal level. What most people, however, are unaware of is the massive and extremely effective planning that has gone into controlling state governments.
Democracy is in real trouble. Money is in control and it is exercising that control in a systematic fashion.
Right now in several states (North Carolina and Wisconsin are obvious examples), the state legislatures are completely owned by the ultra-rich.
How do you own a legislature? It’s very easy, you buy it with lots and lots of money. Today, elections are not won, they are bought.  The candidate with the most money usually wins.
Once both houses of the state legislature are controlled by money, then the destruction of the rights of the rest of us begins.
In North Carolina, voting rights have been curtailed, environmental laws reversed; teachers have seen classroom sizes increase, aides cut and salaries frozen. Other social services for the poor, the disabled and the elderly have been reduced. But, a tax reduction law was passed that only benefited 13 North Carolina millionaires.
Owning legislatures is just part of the plan. Owning the universities is another part.
The chancellor of the University of North Carolina was essentially fired without cause because he had “progressive political opinions.”  In addition, once the Tea Party Republicans had control of the legislature, university programs on the environment, voter engagement and poverty were cut. Tuitions were also raised.
The second prong of the educational takeover is through huge donations to university endowment programs, thus giving these benefactors greater influence over university decisions. Curriculums are being changed to better reflect “the morality of capitalism.”
Money has power over almost everything in this culture.
I tell you all this because what happened in North Carolina is a perfect blueprint of a national plan to buy and own each state legislature, to control the universities, dismantle programs helping people and to pass laws to make lots of money for a small few.
And it’s not just North Carolina, the same plan is working in Wisconsin and is being implemented in Florida, New Jersey and several (if not all) other states.
All this makes me wonder if this is how things went in pre-Nazi Germany. A small self-serving amoral group slowly taking control little by little as no one objects. Then, before they know it, the population is completely controlled.
I don’t know how to combat super wealth. But we need to find out. We need to become aware of these devious plans. We need to keep our radar working and our senses tuned. And please, don’t sit there and think this can’t happen in California. Money has always owned politics, it’s just that now there is a national plan to own and control and it’s working. It really scares me.
 “We The People” know what is right and want to do it. What we don’t realize is that there is a covert plan to take control of the process without our consent.  And those well-funded elected obstructionist are part of that plan.  The really scary part, for me, is that the plan is working.
More and more, the tiny few with all the money are turning the screws on the rest of us. We either have to kowtow and accept our serfdom or we be better start fighting back before it is too late, if it isn’t already.
Gabriel A. Fraire has been a writer more than 40 years. He is also the current Healdsburg Literary Laureate. He can be reached through his website at: www.gabrielfraire.com.