If facing the broad array of problems - some of them monumental - that America and the world face were to be described in military terms, the people on Tuesday sent in not the crack troops needed to win, but sent in civilians who have not completed their basic training.

The past two years of propaganda, misinformation, and lies that have been perpetrated by the political right (Republicans, right-wing Democrats, Corporate America, and members of the Tea Party) worked beautifully in the mid-term election. They won much, but there was not any evidence that they have a plan to deal with the problems of the nation.

Although participation by essentially know-nothing Tea Partiers gave the GOP the boost it needed to take back the House of Representatives, that participation will prove to be as much a burden as benefit, for among them are climate change deniers, people who seem to love war and the power it demonstrates, and the absolute inability to see what has caused the economic woes that might bring the mighty U.S. lower than it is.

Most political campaigns have been reduced in America to platitudes and slogans. There was not much discussion of any program that will lead us out of the mire of America’s problems from the GOP or the right, as represented by the Tea Party. But we’re used to that and Americans have been buying it since the book about the campaign of Richard Nixon in 1968, “The Selling of the President.”

The right wing advertising and propaganda (the center is now the new left) are dispensing the soap of their candidates that is not likely to do the electorate’s skin any good. In fact, it might just flay most of them. For example, a poll reported on NBC late Tuesday night showed that a majority of seniors want to roll back health care reform, something that the Republicans who are about to take over leadership of the House have promised: eradication of “ObamaCare” and a return to the days when the insurance industry ruled the country’s pathetic health care “system,” which still leaves out some 50 million people.

Most of us have not noticed that control of the “system” has ever been free of control by the insurance industry, even and especially under “ObamaCare.” They stand to make hundreds of billions of dollars more under this new program, which will eventually require that everyone purchase health insurance. And that’s called reform. And the GOP leadership wants to further enrich those giant corporations that have been so generous in their campaign contributions to Republicans and Democrats alike.

If one is going to control a system that is so lucrative, one needs to have pretty much complete control over one of the two parties and significant control over the second. Money is control and money - mountains of it - is what the august U.S. Supreme Court unleashed on the people with their Citizens United decision this year, which essentially said that corporation are the same as people and the expression of their opinions in political ads can not be limited in any way, a right provided citizens under the First Amendment.

The hare-brained decision by the quite political justices has resulted in a flood of biblical proportions of money from billionaires and their minions. They have bought “movements” and individuals and they have bought elections. One of the best examples is John McCain, already a millionaire through the happenstance of marriage, who once was one of those “aisle crossers” who joined with now lame duck Senator Russ Feingold, D-Wis., to get money out of the electoral system through campaign finance reform. He no doubt will be a beneficiary of the new wellspring of money from those who created and supported the Tea Party.

Now, reform is the last thing on his mind, especially “reform” of the health care system that has been tweaked by the Democrats after two years of bitter fights and the refusal by Republicans to even discuss changes in health care. McCain, flush with the victory of Tuesday night by his party and right wingers, virtually dared Speaker Nancy Pelosi to demonstrate the “arrogance” of her party by passing the Senate version of the health care bill, thus assuring that a lame duck congress would not be able to undo the minuscule change that was wrought through two vicious years of wrangling, when not a single Republican indicated any support for health care for all, let alone vote for such change.

Republicans, starting with the likely next speaker of the House, John Boehner, are going to strip health care from the reach of tens of millions of Americans, perhaps for another 50 years. The problem is that a new report shows that America has slipped in worldwide rank of life expectancy to 49 (that means that 48 other countries have a greater life expectancy than the U.S.) and, of course, our infant mortality rate rivals that of some developing nations. Admittedly, life expectancy and infant mortality have to do with the food we eat (much of it manufactured), the water we drink (filled with impurities and toxins), and the air we breathe, but health care (or lack of it) is right up there as a direct cause of premature death and infant mortality.

So, why are older Americans opposed to health care reform? It is not likely because they know much about it (so many think that Medicare and Social Security are not government programs), but because they have been convinced by lies and distortions that they will lose benefits if health care is “reformed.” The GOP and Tea Partiers told them that that Medicare would be cut by $500 billion, never mind that much of that would be the result of ferreting out waste and fraud from that program.

And the “death panels.” Who would want a reform that resulted in families having to come before a government tribunal charged with deciding whether a family member lives or dies through treatment or lack thereof? Those are a few of the things that have convinced seniors that providing health care for all is a bad thing. That there was no such thing as a death panel doesn’t matter. People believe there were death panels, because the lie was repeated over and over and in many places.

So goes the American political process. A majority of people believing things that are patently false because that’s what they have been told to believe, often by public figures who know very little more about the issues than the average person on the street. That’s where education comes in, but the Republican answer to a failing educational system? Privatize the schools - “run them like businesses.” And government? “Run it like a business.” Lack of industry and jobs? “Find other work, perhaps through education in an online university.” Industries like coal and oil that are destroying vast swaths of our environment? “Fine them a dollar and accept their next bid on a government contract.” Welfare and unemployment insurance programs that are inadequate? “Make the ne’er do wells go to work!”

This could continue through a huge list of issues, but one of the more important is the Third World disparity between the rich and poor in the U.S. It’s a slippery slope and very dangerous for everyone, including the rich who want to maintain their control of the economy, but a bonus for them (maybe just 1 percent of the population?) is now they will be able to control much of our vaunted political life, through their “free expression” of money into the coffers of politicians.

One of the biggest elephants in the room (no pun intended) is the “expression” of our might and power through some 740 military bases around the world and the two or more wars that we are now fighting. Simply put, they are bankrupting our country. No one is paying us to police the world, and many nations don’t want us to police the world. Fact is we are policing the world to make every country safe for WalMart and the others titans of Corporate America. They are not paying for our policing, though. The people are. In the immortal words of the economic philosopher, Leona Helmsley: “We don’t pay taxes. Only the little people pay taxes.”

Worth some $8 billion at the time of her death at 87, she knew whereof she spoke. There are lots of others like her in America. Even though the “little people” may pay only a small amount of taxes as individuals - income taxes, sales taxes, and fees of every description - in the aggregate, they pay the taxes that float the billionaires. Once in a while, one of the “big people” will get caught abusing the corporate law that protects them from prosecution (like Leona, who did some time in federal prison for charging home improvements to her business), but for the most part, they escape all penalties.

There is no discussion of one of the principle reasons for our financial and economic distress - our military and “defense” spending - possibly because the invasions were started by a right wing Republican administration. Even though both parties have done their fair share of war making, the investigation into what has become the chaos of two Middle East wars (and forays into other nations) has not been forthcoming. Obama, seeking “bipartisanship” with people who only wanted to crush his administration, certainly was not going to do it, so the possible criminal origins of at least the war in Iraq, remain uninvestigated and unresolved.

Last, certainly not least, is the aim of the right wing to eliminate government or reduce it, no matter what the consequences. A large percentage of the electorate believed Ronald Reagan when, as president, he declared that “government is the problem.” In the three decades since, his followers have tried their best to eliminate, cut, and de-fund any government programs or agencies they could. Many call it “starving the beast” of government.

In their victory rallies Tuesday night, the victorious Republicans and their Tea Party wing made it clear that they intend to work from their base of the U.S. House and the various statehouses they won to see that the beast is not just starved, but set on a path to destruction. The next two years promise to be a revelation to the GOP's right wing supporters.

BlackCommentator.com Columnist, John Funiciello, is a labor organizer and former union organizer. His union work started when he became a local president of The Newspaper Guild in the early 1970s. He was a reporter for 14 years for newspapers in New York State. In addition to labor work, he is organizing family farmers as they struggle to stay on the land under enormous pressure from factory food producers and land developers. Click here to contact Mr. Funiciello.