America Spartan's Last Stand

My first election was Kennedy versus Nixon.   We had debates and ran an election in our high school.   We were afraid of Kennedy because he was a Catholic. Little did we know that Nixon later would resign in infamy.  Hope in America was unbelievable; we believed we could change the world.  Capitalism would make us wealthy, and we would set a shining example of living by principles.  Even in high school, we debated what America should stand for.

Now I look in sadness what America has become.  Yes, we became the great military power, but not much more.  And yes, capitalism has created trillions in wealth all over the globe, much of it in America.  But, the wealth is not distributed by the sweat put in to earn it, but is concentrated instead in the hands of the nobility.  Poverty creeps across the land slowly consuming what's left of our middle class.  And violence is so commonplace that we ignore it.

But, the biggest sadness comes in what has happened to our democracy.  Do school children still debate the issues?  How could they, the candidates don't even present the issues anymore.  Trump is the star student on how to run a campaign: bash everyone even in his one policy statement. But, Trump didn't invent the game, he is just very good at playing the modern version of whack a mole.

We are quickly becoming an oligarchy where votes are bought and sold on a tv reality show called America the Once Beautiful.  

I am wondering.  Can we make one last stand?  Can we rise up as a nation, put aside our petty differences and stand up to the rich?  Or, will we just roll over and let the rich have our country and be content to live as peasants in a land protected by our King's army. 

The rarest of all men has risen among us.  A man that the rich do not even offer to buy.  In fact, if he continues to gather support from the peasants, I would not be surprised if the rich do not go through the show of backing him just to destroy him.

And even more joyous to me is that this independent man wants to pull this country in a more compassionate direction.  In an age of Us and Them, he is only about Us.  He wants to pull all Americans into the Dream with education, healthcare, social and economic equality, and a bigger share of the American Pie.  

This man is not afraid to say to the rich or wealthy corporations, "you need to pull more of the load".  He is labelled a socialist, a word in America we are afraid of.  He does not seek to destroy capitalism but simply enable the weakest among us  to share in the bountiful harvest.  He dares to hope that all citizens will have an education and healthcare despite their status at birth.  Perhaps this economic equality will help us move more toward the social equality that has been so elusive for us. 

In short,  Bernie wants to give us back the American Dream that we debated so many decades ago  in my high school class in El Paso.   Can we as Americans rise up and make one last stand like the Spartans did to save democracy.