Below is a political statement by Anton Chaitkin that was distributed at the McClendon Dinner at the National Press Club, Washington DC, on May 1, 2019. Mr Chaitkin is a colleague of mine, who is also in the process of writing a new book, American Prometheus
I release this brief statement on my website because, I share Mr Chaitin’s vision for a better America, founded on the profound principles of our Founding Fathers and those statesmen who followed in their footsteps. Today, more than ever, the United States of America needs leadership with a bold vision for the future that will benefit the entire world.
May 5, 2019
Return to America’s Mission of Progress
It has become necessary to speak plainly about the wrong path America has taken. In the half century since the assassinations of our President and other popular leaders, our country has disastrously changed its world strategy and its economic aims.
The United States formerly had the world’s highest standard of living. Our best leaders always fought for progress, towards a truly civilized standard of living for our own people and as the natural right of all mankind.
But we gave up our own productive industries, with their skills and high wages. And we stopped helping poor countries to become advanced, powerful societies. Yet a high standard of living is essential to a truly human life. Poverty and personal degradation are not natural conditions of a modern world.
Our best historic leaders saw war as an enemy. Our industrial and military strength were means to avoid war, not perpetrate it. Out best leaders cherished “peace among ourselves and with all nations.”
But we have come into war, constant and permanent war, breeding more terrorism and excusing more surveillance, brutality and revenge, degrading our society.
These policies came largely without debate, and with little protest. They reflect the interests of an Anglo-American financial establishment, not the reasoned judgement of citizens in a Constitutional republic.
We made progress when the profits of enterprise came from productive investment. That was our national strategy. But a vast gambling system now dominates the financial world, drawing off useful investment. As a result, our infrastructure is ruined, our transportation is decades behind the most advanced countries. Lawless offshore banking shelters fortunes from narcotics and other crimes. This system is kept in place through the financial and political power of those with ill-gotten wealth. It only floats until it sinks through systemic failure.
On our former road to peace and mutual prosperity, we sought cooperation with other nations for great enterprises, the universal spread of electricity and the manned exploration of our solar system. We are now told that those striving for advancement are our enemies, who must be strangled into weakness and forced to behave.
Accepting this nightmarish policy framework has brought our national politics to a dead end. Only a completely new path can now succeed.
America must return to its founding mission of progress.
To this end, we propose these first steps:
Re-enact the Glass Steagall law, to rein in lawless finance and guide banking to safe, productive investment.
Establish a National Infrastructure Bank, to reconstruct our shattered economy on modern lines.
Join with China’s Belt and Road Initiative, to bring modern times to our poor and backward planet.
Work with Russia on our common security and economic interests, to solve terrorism intelligently and prevent mutual extermination.
Reaffirm national sovereignty and cooperation for the common good, the principles which made America great and successful.
Though powerful interests will oppose these steps, only a return to national and global progress can unite our people and restore faith in our country.
We renounce the fear of speaking out.
We pledge ourselves to fight to restore America’s national mission of progress.
