THE PRESENT DEBACLE

The Rev. Dana Prom Smith, S.T.D., Ph.D. (8/14/08)

The seeds of George W. Bush's debacle can be laid at the feet of the Ronald Reagan who wanted to unleash corporations unfettered by government regulation on the American public. Unhappily, he succeeded with the result of an energy fiasco, a housing meltdown, a health crisis, and countless examples of corruption in corporate American and incompetence and corruption in the federal government. Ronald Reagan's genial, nice-guy façade masked a pitch-man for a ruthless, sociopathic corporate America whose only purpose is rapacious greed.

A prime example is ExxonMobil which has reaped unconscionable profits on escalating oil prices without investing in new and renewable sources of energy. The executives at ExxonMobil have done nothing but sit on their hands, watching the money roll in.

The argument that Ronald Reagan and the Republicans put forward was that American capitalism was thwarted by governmental regulation, and that if governmental regulations and oversight were relaxed, prosperity would result. The result was rapacious profits and the dismantling of industrial America.

A trust in corporate management was in part to blame. The theory was that if people successfully climbed the corporate ladder, they must by competent. Not so. The executives at the American automobile manufacturing companies have demonstrated an unbelievable incompetence, initially churning out automobiles of inferiority quality and then gas-guzzlers in the face of an oil shortage. Stupid City.

The fact is that corporate ladder-climbers achieve their success politically rather than by competence. Ronald Reagan's legacy was not unleashing old-fashioned American know-how, but old-fashioned American greed.

CORPORATE CAPITALISM

The Rev. Dana Prom Smith, S.T.D., Ph.D. (8/4/08)

It's verboten to say anything negative about capitalism and capitalists in modern America, the thesis being that democracy and capitalism are tantamount to the same thing. The problem is that Exxon Mobil has no resemblance at all to a New England Town Meeting.

My caveat about corporate capitalism and capitalists is simple. They can't be trusted in small things, like credits on my bank card. If I buy anything using my bank card, the amount is deducted immediately from my account, but if I return it for a credit, it will take anywhere from five days to three weeks to get my money back. Now, some capitalist has had my money interest free all that time.

Jesus said that if a person could be trusted in small things, then he or she could be trusted over much. The contrary is: if they can't be trusted in small things, they can't be trusted over much. I've often wondered how many people just give up with the corporate flim-flam and never get their money back. As one spokesperson said, "Sometimes our computers don't work well with credits." Well, they work well with deductions.

I've confronted managers, accountants, and supervisors. They all blame the ubiquitous system. One of them said, "It was only $25.00." Well, it was my $25.00. How many times have other $25.00 been multiplied by these recalcitrant systems that don't like credits. Caveat Emptor! There's a system out there that likes your money but doesn't like you or your credits.

AS AN OLD GROUCH

The Rev. Dana Prom Smith, S.T.D., Ph.D. (8/01/08)

As a fellow old grouch, I understand John McCain and sympathize with him. History is passing him by while younger men are taking over, particularly Barack Obama. Painful it is for him to see himself as a has-been after having done so much with his life.

Old people want to tidy up their histories, tying up the loose ends. A big loose end for John McCain is the Vietnam War which ended in our ignominious withdrawal. He invested over 5 years of imprisonment and torture in that war and that honorably, but without a victory as in World War II. Now, he wants to reclaim a victory for Vietnam by a victory in Iraq. As a military man, he thinks victory while most people don't, preferring other resolutions less dramatic and costly.

While John McCain wants to redeem the past, time marches on, leaving him punching the air. As the hymn reads, "New occasions teach new duties, time makes ancient good uncouth." World War II, ancient history to most Americans, was a defining experience for me: victory with honor. Vietnam defined John McCain: honor without victory. So an old grouch becomes a bitter old grouch living the illusion of rewriting history. Sad it is to see a man who endured so much so honorably for so long is now bitterly dishonoring himself with a typical Nixonian Republican campaign of trivial dirty tricks. The promise of straight-talk is lost and with it an honorable John McCain. I thought we knew you.