Screwed? Oh, let me count the ways. - Democratic Underground

Mythsaje

(1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore

Thu May-28-09 02:00 AM
Original message

Screwed? Oh, let me count the ways.

Edited on Thu May-28-09 02:05 AM by Mythsaje

An economy in freefall. No serious attempt to address the cause and an insanely obsessive interest in talking about the symptoms. Money is flowing from our government into our corporations in bailout maneuvers that will, at best, simply slow the fall. HB-1 visas are devastating our IT employment rates, jobs are being off-shored at unchanging rates, we're in TWO wars with another country waving its nukes at us and blowing us a raspberry in the process.

Our for-profit and quantity over quality health care system is bleeding the people dry, but now they're talking about not only mandating insurance (what happens to people who are already on the edge who just can't take that one little push? and taxing benefits as income).

Let's also include the fact that a rather large proportion of the goods we receive from our "favored trading" partner (who happens to own roughly 40% of our debt) are either of very poor quality or actually toxic.

Higher education rates are skyrocketing, and anyone who could be considered "middle-class" (if they're lucky enough to get a job doing what they studied to do) start their working life under several tens of thousands worth of debt.

Now they're talking about a national consumption (VAT) tax to try to bring in more revenue.

Our media, for the most part, couldn't do a real bit of investigative journalism if its existence depended on it. Their idea of "information gathering" is asking the loudest asshole around what HE thinks about anything in particular. And, for a "liberal media" it sure spends a lot of time repeating Republican memes.

Our environment is taking hit after hit, and rather than making any really bold moves toward green energy, they've fallen into a holding pattern.

You have to ask. "Oh, fuck. What next?"

Our elected representatives, both legislative and Executive branch, having won their seats in a landslide victory based, very much part, on a mantra of Hope and Change, seem incapable of or unwilling to fight the battles that need to be fought to give us a fighting chance. I don't know. But, honestly, it's frustrating the shit out of me.

The Republicans are absolutely batshit insane. The banks and other industries come running to the government for bailouts, partially due the fact that the Republicans are so far in their pockets they're sucking lint and have been pushing the whole deregulation thing to the point this kind of financial tomfoolery was not only possible, but inevitable. But OUR leaders seem to have no interest in putting the brakes on with regards to this madness. How many things can we juggle at once without slipping and losing a leg as a result?

A leg upon the bleeding stump of which our government (with the brainless complicity of our media) will insist on slapping a happy-face spongebob band-aid before calling it good?

We elect these people to office because, allegedly, they know what the fuck they're doing? We come here and discuss these things because, for one, they matter, and for two, we're from much the same block of talent as the people we elect.

Yes, problems rarely have simple solutions. And each item we're dealing with has its own level of complexity. But that doesn't excuse a lack of meaningful movement toward ACTUAL PROGRESSIVE GOALS. We're trying to tiptoe through a pack of vicious attack dogs by saying "nice doggy," just hoping we don't get bitten. Guess what--we're going to get bitten. There is NOTHING the Democrats can't do that won't raise the right's ire. So why are we tip-toeing again? Why are we going into the battle for this country waving a white flag? "We know we can't get anything we really want, so we're just going to ask for this little thing okay?"

And then react with shock when we get bitten. News Flash: They're NOT going to cooperate with us. So why pretend they will? The very few moderate Republicans out there aren't the ball and chain that keeps us from overriding them--OUR OWN fucking representatives are. The DLC, the Blue Dogs, the "third way" people who either don't understand the stakes, are too timid to do anything remotely progressive, or are down there sucking lint with the Republicans in the corporate pocket.

We're out here shouting "HEY! Listen to us!" And they're sitting up there saying "So, who wants pizza?"

Corporations that profit off our labor in countless ways, who command literally hundreds of little aspects of our lives, from our jobs to the food we eat, spend billions--tens of billions--of dollars to promote their agendas within Congress. Our elected officials get money to campaign, to stay in office, and we bear the brunt of it when their loyalty to their donors takes precedence over the good of the American People.

So, you say, "We hear you complaining, but what do you propose we do about it?"

Well, for starters, we can look at addressing REAL campaign reform on a state by state basis starting with those states that have ballot initiatives. We can tell the corporations and moneyed individuals "You can donate as much as you want to the political arena, but it goes into a general fund that all viable candidates" (anyone possessing, say, the support of a minimum of 02% of the population of any given political entity (city, county, state) gets an equivalent amount of that funding to finance a campaign0.

This would open up a lot of room for third parties too, the way I see it. It would make campaigning, initially, about going out and getting the support of real people, not artificial ones. It would initiate a true grass roots movement in politics.

And I'm not sure I see why it couldn't work... Change the state laws to get money out of the mix, and build from there. It won't solve all our problems, but might bring some truly creative ideas to the fore.

And if we need anything right now, it's creativity. Or am I just fooling myself?

edited for clarity