What's Wrong with America: Part I - Republicanism

I have realized there are a number of problems with America, and the problems are not minor. We are showing the sort of wear-and-tear that the Roman Empire showed. There are serious cracks in the armor of this mighty nation. I will have at least two more posts which go into other facets of what's wrong, but I will start with the Republican Party and Republicanism. For those who do not know me politically, I am an independent conservative so what I am about to say is not the ravings of a liberal loon. I have given much thought to this subject. Anyway, that's enough introduction.

Republicanism. To the left, it is a word that means right-wing extremism, overzealous Christians and Big Business without regulation. This business of Big Business is what I really want to address. Republicanism (not to be confused with conservatism) wants business to be able to do whatever is necessary in order to bring profits. I voted against Texas Proposition 15 ($3 billion for cancer research) because I know that the money won't cure cancer. The problem is that the drug companies and research firms don't want to cure cancer. Why would they when they keep getting money for research? If they find a cure, they'll be out of business, the money will stop rolling in.

The bottom line is this: there is a cure for cancer, it is the human body. The human body fights cancer all the time. But over the last 50 years (especially the last 20) the increase in chemicals in everything has skyrocketed. Our bodies are spending so much time trying to get rid of the toxins we keep poisoning ourselves with that they can't fight off things that they normally would. We have also handicapped our bodies with medication. Taking medication for everything has made our bodies weak in that they don't have to fight anything, as the toxins are getting stronger and stronger. We need more and more medicine. Sure people are living longer, right now. But we're entering an era where many of us will live longer than our children, becuase they are starting out with their systems being bombarded.

What about the food we eat? The most important thing our bodies need to fight toxins has been relegated to what is most convenient. I won't discuss the lack of the family meal in our current society here, but that is a problem as well. But we eat what is easy, what is quick regardless of what is in it. I have taken a lot of Chemistry courses, but I still do not know many of the ingredients in the average person's food. Here's an idea: eat more food with one ingredient. For example, I like to eat this yellow thing that has one ingredient. It's one ingredient is; banana. How about the yellowy-orange things whose one ingredient is orange? Those are pretty good. You see, we were not designed to eat massive amounts of chemicals designed to taste like something. Most packaged food is so stripped of nutrients that flavor chemicals (chemicals that make the substance you are ingesting taste like food) have to be added. Why is this the case? In order to take our kids to piano, ballet, soccer, boy scouts, girl scouts, karate and swimming lessons, we eat on the go. The problem with the one ingredient foods are that they usually go bad in a week. So you strip all of the nutrition out and it lasts forever...literally. But now it doesn't taste so good, so you add the neurotoxin monosodium glutamate (aka glutamic acid, glutamate, natural flavor, artificial flavor etc) which stimulates your brain to give you a 'high' and add flavor to make it taste like something. But you get zero nutrition.

What does business get besides a pass from Washington? Big profits. All these people who are getting no nutrition will need medicine later in life because their bodies will inevitably break down. The cost of processing all of this 'food' is relatively cheap because most of it is done in a chemistry lab somewhere in large quantities. (probably in New Jersey) Then drug companies get billions of dollars for research and the sale of medicine to treat all of these problems that should not occur in the first place. Look at the obesity epidemic in America. How about childhood diabetes? These did not exist 30-40 years ago. At the very least they were the exception. But now it's a 'genetic' problem. "Hey Fred, you've put on a lot of weight. Yeah Sam, it runs in my family." Really? Roughly 10% of America was fat 25 years ago now its 30%. But sure, it must be 'bad genes.'

Americans have taken the easy road, and Big Business along with Republicanism has helped them all the way to the bank, wholly unchecked by the government who is supposed to look out for us. Instead, Congress is worried about raising money for their re-election campaign. They are not doing their job of protecting America, but instead are looking out for their own bottom line. They are trying to figure out how when they get out of office, they can know the loopholes in the system well enough to make $20 million consulting Big Business on how to best rip off the American people legally. This problem is not just Republicans, but they are the bigger offender in this area. It is why the health of this nation is deteriorating, why our borders are wide open and many other reasons. More to come...