Friday, April 17, 2015

A Union Of Special Interests Cannot Stand

I often find that the title of a blog entry that I intend to write something about takes me to something else by the time my free range mind finishes the writing.  That is the case of the prior blog entry and I am pleased with where it went.  My blog entries are not a focused expansion of the subject line but exploratory in nature.  A learning process within each blog entry that takes me to a new place, a new view, increased comprehension.  They get me somewhere.  Learning is a building process.

The concluding part of the prior entry talked about a Union of Special Interests.  One thought related it to the Civil War.  The analogy is worth some further thought.  That is the reason for this entry as well as to elevate the prior concluding thought to the level of a subject line in the chronology of the blog.  A relatively major thought.

Recent anniversaries of the Civil War and Lincoln bring up the purpose and reasons for the war.  Was it about slavery or states rights?  Was the slavery issue a means for the industrial north using it as a moral issue to gain domination over the agricultural south? It was about the preservation of the Union but there were many special interests at play.  The playing field was unbalanced.  True then as now, some die in war and others make a killing.

The Civil War was fought on geographical boundaries.  Today's major boundaries among Special Interests are more conceptual in nature and more complicated in scope, method and means of conducting warfare.  That is true but the model seems to be the same with the exception that the division between the Special Interest combatants is not as clear as blue and grey.

Elizabeth Warren throws down the gauntlet. is how Yves Smith describes it.

I once stood on the battle field of Gettysburg at the point called the high water mark of the Confederacy.  The point at which the tide of the war changed.  Place at which the advancement of Confederate forces stopped advancing and began retreat.  It was a costly battle there.  I was also at the place where Lincoln said something about it.

It would be ironic if not truly Hollywood if Elizabeth Warren were to make her statement that she is running at the same place that Lincoln delivered his address.  Delivered with the same brevity and same resolve to bind up the nations wounds.

We have been wounded and divided by Special Interests that do not serve to preserve our Union.

Run, Elizabeth, run.  Start at Gettysburg, at least conceptually if not geographically.

As much as I am pleased at times with my own thoughts and ideas they remain the equivalent of a monkey climbing a tree to the moon.  Initial progress is rapid.  I can however recognize and support the thoughts, ideas and abilities of those that can take us beyond the top of the tree.


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