Is it too broken to fix ??

[kentuck]

Nobody seems able to do anything. The US Senate is blocking everything. Partisan politics rule the day.

It's not like you can get a little super glue and put it back together. It is like Humpty Dumpty - it is broken into five hundred and thirty-five pieces.

What if we have a natural disaster like Chile or Haiti? How do we pay for it? Is it pay-go? Or would we simply be screwed without any government support? Is that a legitimate question to ask?

Our budget process is broken. Our health care system is broken. Our tax system is broken. Our military is broken. Our state governments are broken. Our capitalist system, which creates jobs, is broken. Can anyone fix it??

[panader0]

1. What did Yogi Berra say?

"You can't get there from here."

[BeFree]

2. It is fixed

The voting machines were used to fix it so that a bunch of republicans could get elected and mess things up.

We got what we paid for.

[xchrom]

3. Ask New Orleans. Nt

[lunatica]

4. If it's broken it needs to be replaced, not super glued

It's not that it's in pieces. It's more like it's rotting.

[RKP5637]

5. I've been wondering the same for sometime now. I had hoped the process of

electing representatives put individuals into positions of power to work together and make wise decisions for the benefit of the country as a whole. Now that seems to have completely failed to them making decisions for their special interests and screw the rest. Hence, we have nothing but log jams in the decision making process. The problem in our country is not the system and gov., it's the fools that get elected.

And that then falls on us for the failure to send qualified representatives into gov. When I watch and listen to many in congress, it becomes sadly evident to me that these individuals lack the education and skill sets in be in congress. Many look and sound like complete fools. Even more concerning are those that elect them IMO. I sadly think WTF. We have a breakdown occurring across this entire country.

I am seriously starting to think none can fix it, because of the selfishness and greed the capitalistic system has instilled. Many are out only for themselves and screw the others. Even the minorities in this country don't get along to achieve results that benefit them all. I had hoped with Obama and a majority things would happen, but even the Democrats in congress can't work together. It's a F'en mess. I am quite disappointed and let down.

I've also taken to not donating anymore. I did for Obama, got many republican friends to vote for him, etc. But, here is what gets me... with all of the money and influence in congress from corporations and lobbyists, my little bit means nothing. And none listen to the majority of the nation anyway. And again I walk away thinking WTF. I am really tired of it all.

[lutefisk]

6. I guess the idea that the USA was too big for Bush to break was wrong.

I don't think we have to wait for "history" to tell us that his pResidency marked the turning point for this nation.

The budget? The US economy? Taxes? The election process? SCOTUS? The Military? Disaster response? Psychotic partisanship? Even flying on a f'ing airplane- George W. Bush ruined it.

Sure there were plenty of problems to deal with before 2000, but the corruption of the election process and installation of Junior Bush changed everything.

[RKP5637]

10. +1, n/t

[bvar22]

28. Blaming Bush is part of The Problem.

Bush was just the last asshole riding the Deregulation/FreeTrade horse when it finally dropped dead in it's tracks.

The dismantling of FDR's "New Deal" & the destruction of LABOR (which BUILT the Middle Class) has been the obsession of BOTH political Parties since Reagan.
Obama and the "Centrist" Democrats (BlueDogs/DLC) are as much a part of The Problem as Ronald Reagan.


"There are forces within the Democratic Party who want us to sound like kinder, gentler Republicans. I want us to compete for that great mass of voters that want a party that will stand up for working Americans, family farmers, and people who haven't felt the benefits of the economic upturn."---Paul Wellstone

[lutefisk]

32. I agree that placing all the blame on Bush is wrong

But without that little asshole we wouldn't be as broken as we are. Junior was hardly just along for the ride- his administration took off all restraints and safety mechanisms and crashed the country. I blame that evil son of a bitch and his handlers even more than Reagan.

[Double T]

7. washington is a sewer with a giant stinking smelly CLOG.

The VOTER ROOTER team better come through in November; the same old stench on capitol hill is unbearable. We can fix it.

[leftofcool]

8. Too late to fix it.

[spanone]

9. according to mr dylan

everything is broken

Broken lines, broken strings,
Broken threads, broken springs,
Broken idols, broken heads,
People sleeping in broken beds.
Ain’t no use jiving
Ain’t no use joking
Everything is broken.

Broken bottles, broken plates,
Broken switches, broken gates,
Broken dishes, broken parts,
Streets are filled with broken hearts.
Broken words never meant to be spoken,
Everything is broken.

Seem like every time you stop and turn around
Something else just hit the ground

Broken cutters, broken saws,
Broken buckles, broken laws,
Broken bodies, broken bones,
Broken voices on broken phones.
Take a deep breath, feel like you’re chokin,’
Everything is broken.

Every time you leave and go off someplace
Things fall to pieces in my face

Broken hands on broken ploughs,
Broken treaties, broken vows,
Broken pipes, broken tools,
People bending broken rules.
Hound dog howling, bullfrog croaking,
Everything is broken.

Copyright © 1989 by Special Rider Music

[RKP5637]

15. +1000, n/t

[walldude]

29. One of my favorite Dylan tunes...

Again proving that you don't need to be a pissed of 20 year old to write some serious shit.

[laughingliberal]

11. I don't know if it's too broken to fix. I do know it would take more political will and courage

than we have seen out of our elected officials to fix it.

[Subdivisions]

12. Yes, We the People can fix it:

...snip...

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. That to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed. That whenever any form of government becomes destructive to these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shown that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such government, and to provide new guards for their future security.

...snip...

http://www.earlyamerica.com/earlyamerica/freedom/doi/text.html

[99 Percent Sure]

14. +1. EOM

[Triana]

13. school system is broken, national infrastructure is broken....bridges, power grid...

...all of it

YES. It's too broken to fix.

I'm looking into retirement in Costa Rica. The United States is headed the same direction as Haiti - where all the wealth, power, and control is held by ~1% of the population and the rest are royally screwed.

[RKP5637]

19. I think this is absolutely true. I think here about 2% have cornered much

of the wealth and power as their plan progresses. Americans are asleep at the wheel. Americans vote in damn fools who do not have the interests of the people in mind, and many citizens fall for slick propaganda and hot button issues like abortion, religion, the real Americans, gay rights and all, which these politicians use as leverage points to slither their way into office.

Often people vote in those who have no interests of the constituents in mind. Americans are constantly duped and need to wake up and pay attention to this country. They also need to look behind the curtains and find out that many politicians are a bunch of frauds and hucksters, yet many Americans fall hook, line and sinker and vote them in... and then ask why congress is so fucked up. I never cease to be amazed by American voters. Just watching some of these congressman talk is like watching a sideshow. It is an absolute joke. This country must look like an absolute fools paradise often to the rest of the world.

I've heard Costa Rica is a wonderful place to retire to... Here it's becoming ripoff haven. I do fear what the US will look like over the next 20 years or so.

[Cleita]

16. I fear we wouldn't have much support if a disaster hit like in Chile and it

could any day in California. I feel more confident in Obama than Bush, but with our emergency response and medical system is in tatters thanks to Bush and his wars, I think we would be in trouble.

[RKP5637]

20. I think it will be an absolute disaster if an earthquake hits California like it did

in Chile. Just thinking back to Katrina is frightening, and I think California could well be devastated by a major earthquake. I too feel more confident in Obama than Bush, but I think if you scratch beneath the surface just about all of our emergency response and medical system is in tatters thanks to Bush and his wars.

We have such serious problems in this country, but all we get is lip service and gridlock in making effective progress for solutions. Even the Democrats in congress can't all agree on much and move forward. I thought a Democratic majority would make a difference, but many Democrats are Republicans.

[DisgustedInMN]

17. Sadly, the odds are long..

.. against us. As much as I wish it weren't so, for the first time in my life, the idea the our Nation is about to devolve into violent and destruction revolution, seems not just possible, but likely. I honestly believed that we were going to be ok by electing a strong majority in both House of Congress and a Dem to the White House. I was wrong, they have failed us miserably. They have killed even the hope of things getting better, and that, history has shown time and again, is suicidal for a government, any government.

[RKP5637]

22. You're exactly correct! I feel the same! Frankly, I don't know what the

next step is... my mail box is full of requests by Democrats for donations, but I give nothing. I received a phone call recently for Democratic donations, I told them to go ask a lobbyist or corporation for money, I was giving no more. I have friends that donated a lot of money to help Obama, they are disappointed. And, they don't listen to the people that voted them in.

I wish there were a strong third party, a progressive party. The problem is today, it takes millions of dollars to get things moving in this country. The entire election process is now a corporate venture involving millions and millions of dollars and the media rakes it in. And we have the media in this country controlled by a handful of giant media conglomerates, spewing out propaganda 7x24 of their choice. Now they are trying to strangle and control the Internet. Like you, I am disgusted with the whole place and so disappointed in our current administration and congress.

My concern is after the 2010 and 2012 elections it will get even worse, far worse. We well might return to something equivalent to the Bush years and what a god awful experience that was. I think we are moving quickly into being a fascist country if not there already. And sadly today many Americans are becoming a bunch of mindless robots reacting to whatever button is pushed.

[CanonRay]

18. What we've got to fix is the underlying problem: Corporate control

of the government. Everything else will follow.

[RKP5637]

23. How? n/t

[CanonRay]

33. If Corporations can't contribute to campaigns

because they are no longer people, politicians will have to rely on us (real people) for campaign funds. Hence they will be responsive to us, NOT to lobbyists for corporatons. When we want regulations, we'll get them as Corps won't have any say.

[tom_paine]

21. Not to worry. Corn-Pone Hitler will be along within 20 years to fix it!

(kudos to James Kustler for the term)

Unfortunately for 95% of the American Subject Populace and 99.9% of the rest of humanity, Corn-Pone Hitler will "fix" it in ways much like the original Hitler did.

Except UPDATED, NEW and IMPROVED, with TWICE the Plausible Deniability confused Plebians crave!

Hopefully not, but as the RW ramps up it's crazy with Teabaggers and Oath Keeprs (betcha $100 they'll forget all about that ol' oath when President Palin or Bush orders them to round up the Liberals), it sure is looking more and more likely.

[RKP5637]

24. Frankly, I sadly think this could be reality in my lifetime. As Bill Maher recently said,

"I'm afraid of the masses." And I feel the same.

[tom_paine]

26. Well, it's been 40 years now of Bush-Corporate manipulation

Remember the old Hitler formula, only 10% required to commit the atrocities. 20% to cheer them onm from a distance and the other 69.5% to put their heads down and go along to get along, hoping the Eye of the Oath Keepers won't fall on them.

Sigh. History doesn't change much, does it? Though we will have to wait for it to be certain of the exact details of our future - the trend is quite clear.

I didn't fear the masses, until the Bushies took apart our Constitutional protections and Bushified Law Enforcement, Judiciary and Media (to name three of many).

The Founding Fathers instinctively knew that there would always be RW Authoritarians and their Followers, even if they didn't know that name or even dream of the science of psychology. For all their faults and flaws, that's why they designed the Constitution and Bill of Rights as they did.

Now those things are gone, dust in the wind, and the ever-repeated, ever-dangerous combination of the Rich and Ignorant are rising up again to tyrannize the rest of us.

[RKP5637]

27. As one of my German friends once said... Americans remind him of the Good Germans,

many going along with the status quo and bringing in, for example, the Bushies. We are clearly living now in quite unsettling times. And the technology now exists for total domination and control, and I do fear that will be a tactic of the RW Authoritarians and their Followers of today as in the past but with better tools.

[salguine]

25. .

[Golden Raisin]

30. Our electoral/voting system is also broken.

[blindpig]

31. Yes, it is.

Tear it down, build something new.

[CornerBar]

34. If you could fix it

why would you want to?

It's serving it's purpose for the folks who designed it. It's not broken. The thing here is that mass propaganda has caused many to believe that the system was designed to serve them.

[HughBeaumont]

35. +1. "Success" is all in how it's defined.

Welcome to DU.