More On Politics. Yup, I'm Still Confused

So I'm reading here about George W. and his spying without warrants, and I am concerned. He has justified his actions in his own mind and believes that the American people have given him permission to do whatever he "needs to do to protect the nation," even if it violates our rights.

Jeez, I understand how he came to the conclusion [rationalization] but I keep having thoughts of the KGB and Hitler and God knows who else who have spied on their own people to find perceived enemies.

I'm not saying that Al Qaeda aren't our enemies, there's no question that they are, but I'm not sure I can justify the President's actions. I feel like he believes that he has more authority than the other two branches of government. He put in an executive order that allowed the spying, and apparently didn't ask anyone else what they thought about it. That sounds wrong to me.

I am really tired now, it's 1:30 in the morning as I write this, but I was looking up a definition of what our government looks like to me. I found this article. We're supposed to be capitalist, which is basically every man for himself business-wise. It means that you can do anything [legal] you want for a living, and that businesses are owned by the private sector, and that government is representative of every one equally, poor and rich alike.

But that's not what I see in our country anymore. It looks to me like it's getting harder and harder for the poor and the 'just over poor' to be heard. If you don't have any money, you don't have a voice. People pay lobbyists to champion their causes in the government. If you're poor, how can you pay someone to be your voice? You can't.

Our country appears to be run by the people with the money, with the rest of us just along for the ride. The word for that that I found is called "Corporatist," which says basically that the big companies are in cahoots with the government and that together they get to make all the decisions.

So where does that leave me? Where does that leave most of the people I know?

I've been writing about great big gobs of depressing stuff in the past week. Between Rwanda, the Sudan and Congo, and the poor in the U.S. I've been feeling pretty helpless to make a difference anywhere. And in the back of my mind, I've been thinking, "If I had more money, I could do more to help. If I had money, I could make people hear me."

And it's true. If I was a famous writer who was blogging about this, or if I was Oprah, people would be jumping out of their chairs to go call their congressmen about Congo, or the sad state of the foster care system in America. As it is, maybe 15 or 20 people will read this, and maybe one of those people will have the power that I lack to change things. Or maybe not.

I'm not giving up, not by any means, but I am frustrated. I'm not very good with the patience thing, and change always takes time.

What concerns me about President Bush, is that he isn't one of us. He is extremely rich and powerful, and has a lot of friends who have great gobs of money, who are also powerful. And I can't help but wonder if his concern is really for us, the faceless [not rich] masses, or if his loyalty lies elsewhere.

I pray that I am wrong, and that he really does care about the little guy. But my instincts tell me he probably doesn't, and that sucks.