1. United States
2. Letter

The ability to manipulate the minds of a populace, or of an electorate within that populace, to manufacture their consent for the benefit of a few, is something the greedy and unscrupulous among them can choose to use against the better aims of government and society. This has happened. This is what makes the 2016 Presidential election essentially a rubbing of our noses in the power that th This has happened. This is what makes the 2016 Presidential election essentially a rubbing of our noses in the power that the manufacturers of consent have over us. This makes them a Clear and Present Danger, and a Domestic threat against us. When I worked from 1979 to 2012 for the United States Department of Defense as a civilian in one of your agencies, I was concerned about “Running Government Like a Business,” which was kind of an upper management mantra for us during at least my lat later years there. Forces of greed, and the legions of loyalists and sycophants who wanted mainly career advancement, mission be damned, were hard at work then. Some whistleblowers pointed this out, and were punished for it. I myself had no promotions for the entire second half of my career there, and speaking up in internal forums may have had something to do with that, because my skill field change at that halfway point multiplied my productivity for the mission by a factor of ten. That government is a “political” game to be played - that we can stare such threats in the face and ignore them, or do the minimal possible, to avoid rocking the boat, or to “play the game”, is shameful. It puts the responsibility for inflicting this greed and manipulation, on our shoulders: the shoulders of all who took the Federal oath. We have not defended our country from threats both foreign and domestic, in allowing the perversion of minds and political bodies such as MAGA and Trumpism have done, but also such as the obstructionists and sycophants allowed to rise in their midst. DEFEND US NOW. Time is short. We pay taxes for you to do this, and the Clear and Present Danger is an imperative. So is the moral basis of What We Owe to Each Other. I do not know why you have not acted before now, except for the “inside view” of government I’ve already mentioned. That was my personal beef. This threat, with its domestic AND foreign roots, and its greed and manipulation, is a NATIONAL problem. It is your problem. Thank you for paying heed to these words. Thank you in advance for doing more than you have done.