America: The Bipolar Syndrome

A person suffering from Bipolar disorder experiences two extreme emotional swings. Often they are manic. So much so, they perceived by others as out of control. An individual in a manic stage will suffer thoughts of grandiosity as evidenced by such activities as sexual promiscuity, violent behavior, and extreme religiosity. On the other hand, when a person with Bipolar disorder is swinging the other direction, they are often depressed to the extent that suicide is an obsession. Bipolar is a disorder of extremes.

Our country, perhaps the world, is suffering from this illness. We are collectively suffering from Bipolar Disorder. There is no middle-of-the-road. Our leaders are experiencing grandiose thinking. No one can fault our president for having any hidden agendas (perhaps the only “sort of” good thing I’ll say about the guy). We have known his agenda from day one, to make our government agencies more powerful than the people they serve. He is succeeding.

He has the CIA, FBI, NSA, and the nation’s military bowing to him. He began an illegal war and like a broken record, he keeps telling his citizens how well we are doing in Iraq, now over two thousand killed and eight thousand maimed. We have now been in this war for almost as long as we were in World War II. Does anyone see any similarities? I didn’t think so. We kicked butt in Europe and the Pacific. We had some serious allies, not token representation.

How can we tell he is leading this country into the depths of aristocracy? His public popularity has waned to the point of comedy. Yet, he insists Americans are behind him “all the way.” Is this man blind? His ego is so enlarged that polls mean nothing to him, maybe his constituents in the White House, but not him. He keeps pumping out words, empty, vague, and for-the-most-part meaningless.

His henchmen are falling like pawns in a game of chess. The once genius of Bush’s campaign, Karl Rove and Scooter Libby are taking the fall for a tyrant. Those of you, who remember Watergate will see a similarity.

On the other pole of this Bipolar country, there sits millions of poor and disenfranchised citizens, not knowing where their next meal is coming from. We have a middle class that no longer can be considered a middle class. They are only poor people that work for a living and live in houses they have mortgaged to the hilt, cars financed for seven years, and a pocket full of credit cards. Is this the American Dream? I don’t think so.

Karl Marx would roll over in his grave. He predicted an uprising of the poor, but his philosophical thesis did not predict the rise of a middle class, but now the middle class is only a name. Perhaps his dream will come true about democracies. Our country needs a good dose of Lithium or Depakote to balance the split of ideologies in existence. Depakote should be administered at our next election to depolarize this country.