Political policies affect people’s opportunities and their security.  Most Americans have less opportunity and less security in June of 2017.  This is a failure of our nation’s government.  As you know, our U.S. political system is a tripartite system made up of the executive branch which enforces our laws, the legislative system that writes our laws and the judicial system that interprets the constitutionality of our law and also interprets legal precedents that help us to understand our laws.  Well, how are they doing with regard to their responsibilities?

Under the Obama administration, banking laws weren’t enforced.  Laws against torture also weren’t enforced.  These both represent a failure of our executive branch.  The consequence of these failures is an increase of fraud and violence.  And fraud is a form of corruption which undermines the good that anyone can accomplish in their life.  Violence moves us away from having a civilized life.  Violence in the Middle East has been carried forward by the U.S. government and by private security companies.  It has a long history.  It allows some groups to gain access to Treasury money and its end is nowhere in sight.  This represents a form of corruption and another failure of our executive.

The legislature isn’t formulating laws to increase the opportunities that most Americans can enjoy.  Instead, Congress continues to support a corrupt banking system and a model of Wall Street where high levels of debt support the value of stocks.  This removes the discipline of real market demand and makes a mockery of prices.  These actions endanger our nation’s solvency and our ability to conduct above-board business.  The economy has suffered, and opportunities have declined because of Congress’s failure to act by removing corruption in banking and trading.

The judiciary continues to erode people’s right to own their bodies through mandatory health insurance –now a failed program but one that continues to rob our Treasury despite our government’s 20 trillion dollars of debt.  The judiciary also has eroded people’s right to possess property by allowing seizure of their property in civil asset forfeitures.  Also, plea bargains have undermined jury trials by a person’s peers.   Laws against being spied upon aren’t being enforced.  Also, laws against racketeering in medical care aren’t being prosecuted.  Differential pricing is being supported in our courts instead of consistent pricing.  All of these failures increase most American’s vulnerability and sense of injustice.

None of these problems are caused by Democrats or by Republicans.  Politics in America isn’t really the Democrats opposing Republicans and you can know that by comparing the kinds of laws that are being written by both parties.  Politics isn’t like football.  It is more than just rooting for your team.  Right now, government sponsored corporatism is consistent no matter which party is sponsoring legislation.  It’s just neoliberalism.  And neoliberalism increases corruption because it short circuits the tools that we have that can stop corruption.  The larger problem here is in corrupt government.

President Obama or President Trump aren’t the root of our problems.  There’s a whole corrupt system in Washington that is undermining American prosperity.  It has centralized opportunities to a small number of players that pay for the privilege of having more.  There’s also a corrupt media system owned by a small number of large media companies that defends that corruption.  Prosperity won’t return to our nation until just laws are enforced by our executive, until Congress legislates for a wider set of opportunities for a larger number of Americans and until the judiciary fulfills its role in making the United States a just nation.  Whether President Trump can bring change to government remains to be seen.  But whatever happens, it won’t be because of his party affiliation.

If you must continue to root for your favorite political party, how about holding that party accountable for the political and economic messes that surround us?  To help you do that, I have a book in mind for you.  If you want to discover how we got to the corrupt state of government that we see around us today, read Political Catsup with Economy Fries: Liberalism, Pragmatism, Opportunism available on Amazon.com, today.