Greg Palast: How California is being stolen from Sanders right now

[Hortensis]

21. As it happens, I do not believe our government

of, by, and for the people, who are all equal and endowed with inalienable rights, is broken.

Our government IS under attack by ultraconservatives, funded by hundreds of billionaires and megamillionaires, who do not believe in those principles and have been engaged in a highly organized and funded effort for over 40 years to take it over. Before he became a Supreme Court Justice, Lewis Powell was one of those who drew up careful plans for the eventual takeover of our nation by the right and its transformation from its liberal founding principles into one in which economic, political, and social inequality are built into the system, including rewriting the Bill of Rights.

How do ultraconservatives destroy a government, JCanete? They cause people to not believe in it any more and thus to believe that it must be replaced with something else. THAT is the origin of the very pervasive notion that it is broken and must be replaced with something "better". This scarily wide-spread idea is the result of over 40 years of both lies that the government is failing and of destruction from within government by anti-government officials, who for instance de-fund programs and pass laws so they cannot work, then tell people they can't work and never will. And, of course, through massive monetary corruption.

The fact is, that our government, as governments go, is magnificent. Formed before the Industrial Revolution came to America, it has been a strong, wonderfully stable structure that has nonetheless been able to meet and survive tremendous changes by changing with the people it belongs to and serves. It's faults are our faults, which is why it gets better when we get better and gets worse when we backslide.

After all these years of destruction and backsliding, a lot of repair is needed even while we move ahead again. But it is far from broken. It IS in grave danger, however.

I would be very surprised if the ultraconservatives who formed, funded, and directed the right-wing anti-government Tea Party have not been taking copious notes of Bernie's success in mobilizing an anti-establishment "populist" movement on the left. If they could join both those on the right and those on the left who have been successfully persuaded to believe our government is broken, does not serve the people, and must be rebuilt--starting with getting all the Democrats out of office--they could achieve a majority.

And then they would start "rebuilding," or "revolution," as you might prefer, only in a very different direction those who empowered it imagined.

Not that you would hear anyone explain it that way, of course. It would be wrapped in the highest principles.