It happens time and time again. I post a comment on FaceBook or another website, expressing my disappointment in President Obama. Each time I express my feeling that I have been “thrown under the bus” as a member of the Democratic base, I am inundated with White House talking points hurled at me by other Democrats. The list of his so called accomplishments do absolutely nothing to change the reality of what I see happening around me. My friends and family members laid off for one or two years, struggling to survive. Others receive health insurance notices that their premiums have been raised 50% or more when they are already struggling on the edge to make ends meet. They re-negotiate for lower premiums with nearly no benefits! Hard working people are given ultimatums: take on more responsibility with less pay or find another job! People in their late 40s move back to Ohio to live with Mom, because their reduced salaries won’t even pay the monthly rent in San Francisco.
With the Gulf Oil spill fresh in my mind, I cannot help but connect the dots to the radioactive water pouring into the ocean on the coast of Japan. And there is only one degree of separation between the Republican attempts to defund NPR and PBS, those so called LIBERAL media that begin with a commercial message from BP, telling us the corporate person is the good guy, as dead sea turtles wash upon the shores of southern states. There is absolutely nothing that can be said to make me trust or believe the talking heads! I am not fond of burying my head in sand. I do not believe nuclear power is safe, I do not believe what’s happening in Japan is no big deal and I do not believe the Gulf of Mexico is BACK TO NORMAL!
My friends are still unable to get married in California, because the Democracy we tout to the rest of the world actually allowed the people of California to vote to take away the rights of other California citizens. And the Supreme Court, whether it be state or local, seems like just another pawn in the struggle between the rich and powerful and the average person on the street! And the diseased concept of Democracy that has grown out of the idea that we can vote against our fellow citizens has spread to Wisconsin and Ohio! Lady justice is lifting her blindfold to be able to count the money offered for her next judgment.
The corruption in our own government is obvious and totally out of control. But I am supposed to drink the Kool Aid, then pretend that everything will be OK if we just vote one more time. The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. I do not believe in our democracy, I do not believe in the Democratic party, I do not believe we have justice, I no longer believe in America. I believe my own eyes! And I have plenty of company throughout the world.
I would like to respond to the talking heads on the left who say that the midterm elections were the fault of the Democratic base who deliberately stayed home to punish Obama. The midterm elections were the result of a corrupted system that has been damaged even more by a corrupt Supreme Court! The entire dysfunction of the US political system can be traced to the fact that the politicians within it fear the rich and powerful more than they fear the voters themselves! From the inside, they can see more than anyone, how it is broken and how it works! There are very few who are willing to stand up and tell the truth. What I want as a voter and a citizen is for that corrupt system to be destroyed. Nothing less! As I watch the lives of my family and loved ones continue to be destroyed, while the government is absolutely powerless to help us, empty promises and empty laws will not win me over.
So every time President Obama passes up the opportunity to stand up for me, every time he reverses the positions he took as a candidate, every time he takes the side of GW Bush, every time he directs his energy at the opposition instead of his base, I become a little more disillusioned. And it doesn’t help to have other so called Democrats scolding me for saying the obvious and refusing to drink the Kool Aid. There’s a line that has been thrown out during many presidential campaigns in my lifetime. “Are you better off now than you were four years ago?” How do we think people will answer that question in 2012?
I know the lines very well from the Democratic establishment, about what Obama inherited from 8 years of Bush, etc. What the Democratic party establishment refuse to admit is that the Republicans are better at gaming the corrupt system they invented! So what would it take to get me back on board with the Democratic party? It’s very simple. How about a presidential candidate who makes me feel he represents the old ideals of the Democratic party. How about an office holder who makes me feel like he’s trying to destroy the corrupt system instead of being consumed by it? How about a man who has the courage to stand up and fight back against people who have no intention of compromising. How about a party that makes me feel like we could accomplish something when we have a majority in all three branches of government, instead of having the other side always win, regardless of the so called BALANCE of power?
So to those who want to blame all that’s happening on me, because I won’t drink the Kool Aid: go ahead, keep alienating those who have the same aspiration as you and see how the next election turns out! I am more motivated by the idea I’m voting for someone, not against someone else. I don’t stay home on election day to punish anyone. I go out on election day because I feel it will actually make a difference! I go when I feel my vote actually counts for something!
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WorkingSlob
skypixie0
LuminousMuse
Patrick Frank
Susie Lindau
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Salon.com
Comments
It seems to me it’s time for a progressive third party, before it’s too late. Our two party system is broken. The tea party is still funded by republicans and they’re mostly nuts, so that one’s not going to work. I don’t know where the money to fund a progressive party might come from since all the big money is on our current system because it works for the rich. We do need another FDR, who was labeled a traitor to his class, but stood up (I know) for the little guy more than many politicians have since the civil rights movement.
I do feel in a quandary though, I’d rather not give the government to the republicans again since they ruined the economy and increased the poverty levels all across the country. So I’ll probably vote for obummer, but I’m not really happy about it and will be looking for an alternative. What a choice!
The problem is that we believed the myths but modern communications makes it impossible to maintain those myths any longer.
The ideal of a democratic America was simply a very effective myth that has lost its power to bedazzle us.
The reality is that Jefferson was wrong. The dictatorship of the majority is just as onerous as the dictatorship of a king or an emperor.
In Polynesia they once had an interesting model for government. They elected a king once a year as an absolute ruler over them. At the end of the year, they killed and ate him. Here, we do the same thing metaphorically every four years.
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Unfortunately a solution doesn't appear to be in the offing, but I certainly hope that -- more and more -- are waking up.
Truly, however, neither party can advance us as a society in any significant way because their agenda (particularly the Republicans') is not a progressive one; rather, it is one based on the acquisition, consolidation, and protection of power and influence. Since that is the raison d'etre for any political entity, we ought to see nothing incongruous.
Instead, as SpiritManSF puts it, the blame lies with the Kool Aid drinkers. It is a tall order to find men and women who are willing and able to promote politically the notions of tolerance, shared prosperity, a sustainable livelihood for all, and a culture of awareness and enlightenment. Such strong and courageous people must take on a system that operates on the manipulation of a distracted, partially informed, fearful, and intolerant populace. They must confront a mass-media culture that for the most part thrives on indolence and diversion, and they must reverse a trend in our political system that has turned it from a representative democracy to a selectively representative plutocracy. The power behind any such transformation will not come from a billion-dollar presidential campaign that ultimately will only perpetuate our ills; it will come from a corps of visionary political progressives backed by millions of supporters who are every bit as determined and demanding as the Tea Partiers, but far more informed, tolerant, and altruistic. Perhaps in honor of our troubled oceans and the widespread change we hope to see, they ought to be called the Sea Party.
We are no different than all the rest of the people around the world who have had it with corrupt governments. Except they have the courage to put their lives on the line to force change. Some say it isn't bad enough here yet. That will change very soon!
But I still felt, as a listened to him, a lack of "inner fire" somewhere, not just rhetorically but...there was something than rang hollow about the man himself. And now, I realize that my initial instincts may have been correct. He's a lovely person. A beautiful, introspective and reflective person. But...it doesn't "translate" well, in the political arena. I feel abandoned at the hour of need far too often. I like it that he thinks before he acts and speaks. But sometimes you have to let us know that you're going to think a while--come out and say, "I'm not quite sure...but I wanted to tell you that I'm thinking of YOU, as I deliberate about this." Let us know some of the things you're thinking, too, so the talking heads don't try to do that for you.
And we cannot, as many have said, allow the Republicans who have been so emboldened by his lack of...whatever it is that I can't put my finger on...to dismantle everything. So I'm very, very scared right now. We have these totally illogical and desperately angry people out there cutting every safety net the poor and middle class have ever had with no one ready to really do battle with them...save maybe Bernie Sanders--what a scary time in the world this is...
And our fearless leader looks less and less so everyday...
\http://www.marcuse.org/herbert/pubs/60spubs/65repressivetolerance.htm
In a sense, the key to reforming America, is to reform our system of ELECTORAL APPORTIONMENT.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/10324021
And wow. I don't know if I don't believe in America anymore, just its management. They're obviously a bunch of crooks. I voted Obama/Biden, and I'd do it again to make sure Mr. Evil from Arizona didn't win. But yeah, Obama is a tool. He's given up on almost everything he stood for, if he ever really did. So every time somebody tells you the midterm elections turned out the way they did because his progressive supporters stayed home, you should do what I do. Look him in the eye and say, "Yeah. And we'll do it again in 2012 if he doesn't get his act together."
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