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August 27, 2010 at 12:47 am #596126
metrognomeParticipantfascinating article on the reality of power politics by the wealthy. Think the citizens who vote actually have any power? Think elected officials make the decisions? Think the Tea Party is really a grass roots movement? Read on …
http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2010/08/30/100830fa_fact_mayer
August 27, 2010 at 1:52 am #702240
JayDeeParticipantGee, after all the Reagan years, Bush I, Bush II (who made his Dad look intelligent) and the horrid economic policies of all three (Starve the Beast coupled with off the book accounting and tax cuts for the rich) who would think it isn’t? As a book I read once said: “The people in charge of this country are actually the people who appear to be in charge in this country.”
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If the citizens have power through voting, it is manipulated by politicians and corporate powers to achieve their own ends. The rest get bread and circuses including the diversions of the birthers, demonizing of racial and religious groups, and trivialization of political discussion (tea parties, etc.). But let me tell you what I really feel…
August 27, 2010 at 3:34 am #702241
JoBParticipantmetrognome..
thanks for posting this..
unfortunately too few people will actually take the time to read it in it’s entirety.
August 27, 2010 at 3:48 am #702242
cjboffoliParticipantThis was all aptly laid out in a monologue from the 1993 Mike Myers film ‘So I Married An Axe Murderer’…
“It’s a well-known fact, sonny Jim, that there’s a secret society of the five wealthiest people in the world, known as THE PENTAVERATE, who run everything in the world. Including the newspapers. And they meet tri-annually at a secret country mansion in Colorado known as The Meadows. (So who’s in this pentaverate?) The Queen, the Vatican, the Getty’s, the Rothschild’s and Colonel Sanders before he went t*ts up!”
August 27, 2010 at 3:53 am #702243
JayDeeParticipantJoB: I skimmed it and I wasn’t surprised. The Koch’s are just one of the elites that try and control us, mostly successfully. “Welcome to the Machine…it’s alright we told you what to feel.” It’s the end of the week…almost :-)
August 27, 2010 at 4:59 pm #702244
JoBParticipantJaydee…
i agree..
those who would be surprised to find their tea party financed by the very paper tigers they think they are defeating won’t read the article.
it’s too long for short attention span theater…
wish i found the tea party more entertaining :(
August 27, 2010 at 5:51 pm #702245
ErikParticipantIsn’t the latest mass distraction starting up now aka football season?
CJB – I forgot about colonel Sanders.
August 27, 2010 at 5:54 pm #702246
cjboffoliParticipantErik: How could you forget the Colonel? Apparently he puts a secret addictive chemical in his chicken that makes you crave it fortnightly. :-)
August 27, 2010 at 7:32 pm #702247
DPMemberLet us suppose that some of the Tea Party people are being manipulated.
No . . . let’s suppose that they are ALL being manipulated.
Let us also suppose, however, that their anger is no less real for all that. (Else how would they be subject to manipulation?) And let us further suppose that some large part of that anger flows from the same source as the anger simmering on the Left, namely: a growing sense of economic insecurity and frustration.
What, then, is the solution?
Â
August 28, 2010 at 12:20 am #702248
JoBParticipantDP..
of course they are angry..
the people bankrolling the tea party ran off with their jobs, their homes and their retirement accounts…
the solution is that you don’t hand the keys to national vault over to the guys who got their fingers caught in the cookie jar.
insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.
August 28, 2010 at 2:54 pm #702249
dhgParticipantOur best shot is to get money out of politics as much as possible. That means 100% public funding. We also need to curb the Supreme Court decision that says that corporations are people too and they get to fund elections.
August 28, 2010 at 4:20 pm #702250
JoBParticipantdifficult to do when those who have the ear of our elected officials are the ones pulling the strings.
but not impossible.
August 28, 2010 at 6:44 pm #702251
DPMemberThe Supreme Court decision in “Citizens United” was indeed a let-down. Unfortunately that one’s probably going to be on the books for a while.
To get the money out of politics permanently, we’re going to have to create a new political culture in this country, and for that to happen, Americans will have to get a lot more involved in politics at every level. Although I don’t agree with much of the Tea Partyers’ philosophy, I admire their willingingness to get out on the streets for a cause they believe in.
Many Sundays, I stand in the Junction with a group of like-minded folks holding signs for peace and social justice. Of the hundreds of people who walk by us, the majority seem to share our opinion. However, typically, only one or two ever stop to talk. Another couple will say “Thanks for doing this,” and then hurry past.
At this point, most folks just don’t want to participate in politics on any level other than voting and signing a petition now and then. They apparently view the issue of war as something that doesn’t affect them, and the economy as a problem for either politicians or investors to solve.
Given Americans’ aversion to participatory democracy, I’m afraid things are going to have to get much worse before they get better. Perhaps another full-blown Depression will get people’s attention . . .
—David
Â
August 29, 2010 at 5:48 pm #702252
JoBParticipantthe tea party demonstrations are big news now…
but those of peace activists and those demonstrating against the latest gift from the Bush administration.. the ruling that gave corporations the right to secretly invest substantial sums in our elections .. didn’t get much press coverage at all.
Glen Beck half fills the plaza and it’s big news. When a peace cause does the same it is completely ignored.
although i admire those who still get out to walk the streets in a demonstration….
there are a lot of ways to participate in a democracy.
engaging in political conversation in public spaces.. like this forum… is one of them.
at least here someone stops to talk…
it takes conversation to make people think a little more about what they assume is right.
September 1, 2010 at 9:02 am #702253
HMC RichParticipantSeptember 1, 2010 at 4:41 pm #702254
WorldCitizenParticipantNo real honest and frank discussion over who runs this country is complete without at least addressing this:
http://sclipo.com/videos/view/kang-and-kodos
Favorite quote:
Crowd member: “Well, I believe I’ll vote for a third party candidate.”
Kang: “Go ahead…THROW YOUR VOTE AWAY!! HAhahahaha…”
September 2, 2010 at 4:06 am #702255
JoBParticipantSeptember 2, 2010 at 7:50 am #702256
HMC RichParticipantEvery two years, four years, and six years we vote. All votes are equal. That is equality.
Beyond that, not much else is equal. Term limits might be a small push in the right direction.
September 2, 2010 at 3:22 pm #702257
JoBParticipantHMCRich..
i seem to remember some republicans pushing for term limits..
ah yes.. newt and his contract with America.. which quickly expired.
btw..
he is polishing himself off for the next run for president…
perhaps he can run with Sarah..
two candidates who never made a commitment they couldn’t break ;->
September 3, 2010 at 2:11 pm #702258
JoBParticipantinteresting article on the influence of wealthy voters in both parties…
so why vote democrat?
because they care a little less about the agenda of the truly wealthy…
and most of us aren’t now and never will be THAT wealthy.
September 3, 2010 at 4:54 pm #702259
dawsonctParticipantTerm limits pretty much guarantees a bunch of easily manipulated neophyte politicians who will be concentrating primarily on who will be signing their paychecks once they have finished their time in office. Talk about making a bad situation worse.
September 3, 2010 at 5:08 pm #702260
dobroParticipantWe already have term limits. They’re called “elections” but, unlike fixed limits, they require people to pay attention, do some reading, remember to mail in your ballot (you don’t even have to leave your house anymore!)and act like responsible citizens of a democracy. A lot to ask, I know.
September 3, 2010 at 5:38 pm #702261
JoBParticipantthe republicans really got the vote out in the primaries…
which caused their current surge of hope.
let’s surprise them and get the democrats out too.
all you have to do is mark that ballot that comes in the mail and send it back…
not so much to ask for such a large return.
September 4, 2010 at 6:36 pm #702262
JoBParticipantthis was a protest…
and yet.. it wasn’t much reported here in the US
and didn’t make much of a difference..
“February 15, 2003, a month before the US invasion of Iraq, probably the largest protest in human history, between six and ten million protesters took to the streets of some 800 cities in nearly sixty countries across the globe.”
http://blog.pdamerica.org/2010/09/the-anti-empire-report/
perhaps protests have become too common and only anti-protests.. like those of the tea party seem novel..
September 6, 2010 at 8:26 am #702263
JanSParticipantand then there’s this…
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/06/us/politics/06charity.html?_r=1&th&emc=th
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