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    Obvious Or Oblivious: How Ignorance, Ideology, & Greed Are Destroying Our Political Process
    Obvious Or Oblivious: How Ignorance, Ideology, & Greed Are Destroying Our Political Process
    Obvious Or Oblivious: How Ignorance, Ideology, & Greed Are Destroying Our Political Process
    Ebook95 pages1 hour

    Obvious Or Oblivious: How Ignorance, Ideology, & Greed Are Destroying Our Political Process

    By Chris Greenwood

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    About this ebook

    You don't have to follow politics to know we have some serious issues in this nation right now. But why does it seem like we can't agree on how to fix them, or even get anything done?

    Obvious Or Oblivious addresses these questions and more. A challenging look at politics and the responsibility of every citizen to contribute to the solution.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherChris Greenwood
    Release dateMar 20, 2013
    ISBN9781301652471
    Obvious Or Oblivious: How Ignorance, Ideology, & Greed Are Destroying Our Political Process
    Author

    Chris Greenwood

    Chris is the author of the new political opinion book Obvious or Oblivious - How Ignorance, Ideology, & Greed Are Destroying our Political Process, and he is the founder and sole contributor to the political blog Nothing Right. His passion for politics and humanity run deep, and with no desire to run for public office, he felt that the next best option was to try and help inform the public of issues that face the nation and the world.

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      Book preview

      Obvious Or Oblivious - Chris Greenwood

      Obvious Or Oblivious

      How Ignorance, Ideology, & Greed Are Destroying Our Political Process

      By Chris Greenwood

      Published by Nothing Right at Smashwords

      Copyright 2013 Nothing Right

      This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book, please purchase an additional copy for each person with whom you share. If you’re reading this book and did not buy it or have it purchased for you, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

      Table Of Contents

      Prologue

      The Abdication Of Responsibility

      Wealth Of A Nation

      Logic Versus Ideology

      The Role Of Religion In Government

      The Spock Principle

      Politics As A Process Of Leadership

      The Politics Of Division

      Knowledge Is Power (and Isolating)

      How Capitalism is Killing Free Enterprise

      Allowing Truth & Logic To Shape Your Opinion

      Austerity As A Solution To Debt

      The Climate’s A Changin’

      Epilogue – Where Do We Go From Here?

      About The Author

      I

      Prologue

      If you are reading this book and you are not related to me or part of my direct social circle, your first question might be "Who is this guy, and why should I listen to him?" It is a perfectly valid question, and a great place to start.

      I have been a registered voter since 1992. I registered Independent and have continued that practice to this day. I have voted in most every election since then, local and national. But that most certainly did not mean that I knew what was going on in our country, or even in my neighborhood. Like most people, I got my information from the media. I would watch the news or read a paper, and I would form my opinion based on what I read. The internet as we know it today was just getting off the ground, so to do any substantive research meant going to the library and scouring the card catalogs and shelves to find relevant material. Like most people, I wasn’t doing that, so my knowledge of the deeper issues and candidates was a bit cursory, to say the least.

      I probably first took a serious interest in politics in 1990 when the United States send a large military force to combine with allies from across the globe in an effort to remove Saddam Hussein and his Iraqi army from the sovereign nation of Kuwait. In the buildup to this military action, I had been hearing concerns all over the news about this being a "new Vietnam" in reference to the struggles we faced in the Vietnam War, and the similarity in the challenge to tell friend from foe. Being born in 1968, my only recollections of the Vietnam War were from movies and books. I was glued to the TV anytime I wasn’t at work, and this is when I began to learn of the balance between politics and the military when it came to war.

      Over the last several decades, as our country has found itself in as perilous a position as we have seen my lifetime, my desire to learn more deepened, and I found myself immersed in the internet looking for answers. I read the Constitution, the Declaration of Independence, and even the inaugural speeches of any President who had them on record. I have studied voting records of the House and the Senate, political parties over the years, and economic cycles and theories. These documents helped me establish a framework and a baseline for my political views and beliefs. After all, the difference between the Declaration and the Constitution is significant, and should be explored before you can engage in the discussion of returning to the principles of the Constitution, or to the time of our Founding Fathers.

      In November 2008, our country elected the first African-American President of the United States, Barack Hussein Obama, something I’m not sure I ever thought I would see, and a moment that gave me tremendous pride and hope for our future. As I write this, President Obama has been elected to a second and final term, and while I was relieved compared to the alternative, my pride and hope has been significantly dampened by what I have seen, both in our leaders and in the people they lead. I feel in many ways we have been abandoned by our elected officials, by the structure of the system itself, and yet at the same time that we as a society have abandoned our elected leaders and the system itself. A representative government only exists, after all, if those represented take an active role in the process.

      So "Who is this guy? I am an American, a representative of the general population. I graduated high school after going an extra year to make up for time I took to experiment with extra-curricular activities". I never went to college, as my high school transcripts didn’t have anyone calling to offer me scholarships, and my family was not made of money. I went to work, built a career, and watched it unravel at the hands of corporate greed. I have been married, divorced, and married again. I have what is known as a "blended family", something that seems to be more like a nuclear family these days. I have had tax problems, employment problems, debt problems, and identity problems. I struggle at times to recognize my place in society. I guess what I am saying is I am, in some ways, each of you. I am nobody of prominence or stature, not a figure of wealth or influence, but rather a member of a group that seems to have found itself on the outside looking in today. At one time, they called us The Middle Class.

      "Why should I listen to him?" The only answer I can give you for this is I still believe that we can be the great nation we once were. I don’t think we are that far removed from evidence to back that up. I still believe the people of this country are its greatest resource and it’s most powerful lobbying group. But I also believe we have lost our way somewhere down this path. This is where the focus of my research has been and the area I believe I can contribute the most. The first step to recovery is admitting you have a problem. We have all heard that about addicts and alcoholics, but I believe we can’t recover as a nation until we, as individuals, admit we have a problem. It is my sincere hope that as you read this, you will realize that we have a problem, and we are the only ones capable of fixing it. Hi, my name is Chris, and I have abandoned my responsibility as a member of our representative government.

      In this book, it is my hope to have an open discussion about the major issues that face our nation today, and how we can resolve them with a plan that is more inclusionary than exclusionary, that continues to highlight creativity and ingenuity while ensuring that all have equal opportunity to be in positions to demonstrate those skills, and that recognizes that while we can’t all be the captain of the ship, how we treat those that might be deemed steerage says perhaps the most about us.

      It is not my expectation that all will agree with my views, but it is

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