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#  So, Uh, Was It As Good For You As It Was For Me?

November 10 2016

Written by Ken Alpern.

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ALPERN AT LARGE--The people have spoken, but some of us might not like to hear what the people spoke to, and what their decision was. Four years ago, and eight years ago, the people also spoke. And I was one of them. Simply put, the "hope and change" of eight years ago will have to be channeled in a new direction, because this nation lacks too much hope, and has endured the wrong type of change.

So, uh, after blaming everything from the debt to foreign wars to the Great Recession to just about everything from toenail fungus to night blindness on President George W. Bush, what will future American leaders and politicians and citizens have to say about President Barack H. Obama?

So, uh, did you notice that we are in the middle of a Second Great Depression, or are you just one of those helped by your stock portolios and/or pensions and/or job protections to the extent that you've ignored the majority of Americans who don't have ANY of that?

So, uh, if the idea of a Second Great Depression is foreign to you, did you ever wonder how the average American would have fared if we hadn't spent ten trillion dollars over the past eight years that our children and grandchildren will have to pay for, and that our homeless/poverty problem is worse than ever?

So, uh, is the collective plight of black America better or worse than it was eight years ago?

So, uh, is this nation more united than ever, or divided than ever, than it was eight years ago?

So, uh, was this the most transparent presidential administration in history?

So, uh, is the Affordable Care Act establishing more affordability, and more care, and more action than before, or is that really your problem because you already have health care throughout your employer?

So, uh, is the "unemployment rate" the same as "good jobs, with good benefits", or does the "underemployment rate" of up to 25% or more really an issue, or a problem that really affects you?

So, uh, did you notice that both the Republican and Democratic Establishments have just been slapped down...hard?

So, uh, did you notice that "who we are" and "constitutionality" and "democracy" and "representation" all appear to be in flux and up for interpretation?

So, uh, did you notice that the Bush Dynasty, the Clinton Dynasty, the Romney Dynasty, and the Obama Dynasty appear to have been slapped down?

So, uh, did you wonder why the tone of the recent speeches of Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama over the past few weeks weren't used over the past eight years?

So, uh, did you wonder if BOTH the President AND the GOP weren't guilty of obstructionism over the past eight years?

So, uh, did you wonder why the Tea Party Movement was derided, demeaned, painted with false narratives, and described in vulgar and inappropriate manners by those who themselves displayed the very bad behavioral characteristics that the Tea Party Movement was accused of?

So, uh, did you ever wonder in your history class how the original Tea Party activists were thought of by the rest of the American colonists? Were those rebels considered "crazy" or "vulgar"?

So, uh, did you ever remember that "taxation without representation" thing we learned about in American History?

So, uh, did you ever wonder in your American History class, when they said that 1/3 of the colonists were loyalists to King George III, 1/3 of the colonists were open revolutionaries, and 1/3 of the colonists were torn in the middle...which 1/3 that YOU would have been part of?

So WHY do I ask all this?

Because the last eight years were all right for me--I had a good job, and watched my stock holdings go way up, and took advantage of the recession-era deals.

Because I would have gladly given all of that up if MAIN STREET, not WALL STREET were thriving instead of our income/happiness gap of this current dreadful Second Gilded Age (the first one was a hundred years ago, and spawned unions, workers rights, and the 40-hour workweek, and the middle class), and this horrific and unspoken-of Second Great Depression.

Because I voted eight years ago for a man who I thought would bring us together in the spirit of the late, great Martin Luther King, Jr.

But all I got was a King, and a Kingdom propped up with czars, shadow advisors, scandals and media collusion that was the stuff of legend and reality TV, and with the narrative thrust down my throat that if I disagreed with anything coming down from above that I was a racist, and a Nazi, and a vile human being that needed to be shut up, shut down, and shut away.

And now we may have a new King whose only accomplishment so far was that he defeated the Big Republicans, the Big Democrats, the Big Media, the Big Government, the Big Hollywood, and the Big Wall Street.

And, as always, I can only pray.

God Bless the United States of America, and God Save the United States, and God Help Us All.

*(Ken Alpern is a Westside Village Zone Director and Board member of the Mar Vista Community Council (MVCC), previously co-chaired its Planning and Outreach Committees, and currently is Co-Chair of its MVCC Transportation/Infrastructure Committee. He is co-chair of the CD11Transportation Advisory Committee and chairs the nonprofit Transit Coalition, and can be reached at*  <alpern@marvista.org>*.* *He also co-chairs the grassroots Friends of the Green Line at [www.fogl.us](http://www.fogl.us). The views expressed in this article are solely those of Mr. Alpern.)*

*-cw*

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