You don't need a weather forecaster to know which way the wind will blow. —Bob Dylan
Every two minutes, a water main breaks somewhere in the United States, resulting in contaminated drinking water supplies and boil water notices.
One in three bridges in the United States is in need of repair, putting hundreds of millions of commuters at risk. More than 42,000 bridges across the country, where approximately 167 million vehicles cross each day, are in disrepair.
It is estimated that 300 million people across the United States could face power outages between 2024 and 2028, primarily due to widespread power grid failures.
No wonder U.S. infrastructure earned a C- on the Infrastructure Report Card.
America is collapsing.
Collapsed bridges, buckled roads, overheated railroads, aging power lines, contaminated water supplies, outdated public transportation, overtaxed power grids, and aging ports and waterways. , dangerous tunnels and highways, and unstable or inadequate communications assets are all becoming frequent features of the American way. of life.
Despite hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars being spent to shore up the country's infrastructure problems, the country remains woefully unprepared to deal with climate disasters such as floods, hurricanes, wildfires and droughts. If so, it's the fault of politicians who transcend their political positions. You have let us down.
The devastation wrought by Hurricane Helen painfully reveals the government's failure to put the needs of the American people first. The whole town is under water. Roads have collapsed or become impassable. Drinking water is in short supply. More than 1.5 million households remain without power.
Clearly, we need to reexamine our national priorities.
While politicians play partisan games with our tax dollars, our nation's critical infrastructure – the physical foundation of our nation and the figurative foundation of our freedoms – is ignored and deprioritized. And grand and bloated military budgets for endless wars overseas are prioritized. Foreign aid and all sorts of graft and pork barrel spending to strengthen the infrastructure and military defenses of international allies.
After all, diversionary bread and circuses and clever political theater are staged to distract, mislead, amuse and insulate the American people from the government's steady encroachment on our freedoms. does not add anything realistic. It brings value to the lives of average Americans.
It's time to fix what's broken in this country.
First of all, we need a complete overhaul of the country's infrastructure.
According to Time Magazine, “Across the country, millions of Americans do not have access to or cannot afford broadband internet service. More than 2 million people live without running water or basic plumbing for far too long. During this time, the American people have had to live with these deficiencies left unaddressed by weak or careless political will, and the rewards are too far removed from electoral advantage.
In other words, politicians who dance to the tune of oligarchic elites have no desire to do anything about broken infrastructure because they have nothing to gain from it: no votes, no money, no power. Noda.
This isn't about whether Republicans or Democrats have better policies.
In fact, the priorities of both parties are disconcertingly similar. Both parties support endless wars, engage in out-of-control spending, ignore the fundamental rights of their citizens, have no respect for the rule of law, and are bought and financed by big business. What matters most is their power, and they have a long track record of expanding government and shrinking freedom.
This depicts the plight of the American people, who continue to be treated like an eternal underclass.
Anyone who believes this presidential election will bring about real changes in the way the American government does business is either incredibly naive, terribly out of touch, or, as detailed research at Princeton University shows, As we now see, they live in an oligarchy “of the rich, by the rich, and for the rich.”
Thirty-eight million Americans live in poverty and nearly seven million Americans are unemployed, while one country spends nearly $10 billion to choose a glorious homecoming king or queen to sit in the White House. spending. , and a country where more than 600,000 Americans are homeless and whose priorities are not aligned with the needs of its people.
Overhauling the nation's infrastructure will cost a lot of money, and it will not happen as long as the U.S. government continues to fund the military-industrial complex and its voracious appetite for endless wars.
James Madison was right when he said, “No nation can preserve its freedom in the face of continuous war.'' Madison explained: “Of all the enemies of the public war of freedom, perhaps the most fearsome is the war of freedom, for it is the seed and development of all other enemies. War is the parent of the army. These profits From this comes debt and taxes…a known means of keeping the many under the control of the few.”
We are seeing this unfold before our eyes.
The government is destabilizing the economy, destroying the nation's infrastructure through neglect and lack of resources, and turning taxpayer money into blood money through endless wars, drone strikes, and mounting death tolls.
This is exactly the scenario that President Dwight D. Eisenhower warned would occur if he allowed the military-industrial complex to wage war, deplete resources, and determine the nation's priorities.
We did not heed Eisenhower's warning.
This is how tyranny rises and freedom falls, as I make clear in my book Battlefield America: The War Against the American People and its fictional work The Eric Blair Diaries.
If we have any hope of restoring both the structural and free foundations of this country, we need to start by getting our priorities in order. It means focusing on what really matters. That means strengthening and investing in our battered Bill of Rights. In mainland America.
About John and Nisha Whitehead:
Constitutional lawyer and author John W. Whitehead is the founder and director of the Rutherford Institute. His most recent books, The Erik Blair Diaries and Battlefield America: The War on the American People, are available at www.amazon.com. Whitehead can be reached at (email protected). Nisha Whitehead is Executive Director of the Rutherford Institute. Information about the Rutherford Institute can be found at www.rutherford.org.
