How The Eagle Flies...

One characteristic of American politics which has fascinated me for as long as I can remember, is how our political pendulum swings from left, to right, to left, then back, over the course of the years and generations, much like a greatly oversized grandfather clock. Considering this dynamic, I can't help but wonder how our country's true owners – the oligarchy who run Corporate America – could not have seen the demonstrations in New York (and planned for Washington, DC and Los Angeles, among other places) coming. The pendulum seems to have finally swung to it's rightward limit, and is now starting it's long swing in the other direction. Many of the nation's biggest unions have signed on in support of the demonstrations, leading pundits like Keith Olbermann to note that, after all these years, we may finally be witnessing the nascent development of a politically viable left wing. This is a badly-needed development – the middle-class and working-class have been taking it in various bodily areas long enough.

There's a lesson to be drawn from our national mascot, the bald eagle. For any bird, plane, or any other thing to fly through the air requires two strong wings – a right, and a left. They must be of equal strength and dimension in order to provide a stable flight. What happens when a wing is damaged or is otherwise compromised? The bird or plane becomes grounded, sometimes suddenly and violently.

Through a variety of factors – indifference/distraction of the populace combined with the corruption of our politicians by the “true owners” of the country – we have let our national eagle's left wing atrophy to the point of it's near destruction, barely moving while the right wing attempts to compensate. As a result, the nation's wealth gap is increasing, the number of our citizens in poverty is increasing, and we are losing our superpower status. We're plummeting to earth at a breakneck speed, and only time will tell if the October demonstrations truly represent the beginning of a healing of our national eagle's left wing, in time to prevent a crash landing.