Is America broken beyond repair?

[Cyrano]

I believe it is and that we will never become the country so many dreamed was possible.

Many of us really believed that our disgusting history of slavery, Jim Crow, slaughtering, starving and isolating native Americans, letting the poor sleep in ditches and subway gratings, and burning witches at the stake, was behind us.

But those days are far from gone. There was, for a short period of time during the 20th century, people in government who fought for the rights of “common people.” (Some of them were called Democrats and a few were called Republicans.) But those days are gone. Those who hold power are bought, paid for and owned by modern day barbarians that we call corporations. And to corporations, we are all as disposable as toilet paper.

And these corporations are more than willing to let the fringe lunatics among us run amok. It doesn’t cost them anything. Redo grade school text books to dumb down children? No problem. Let credit card interest rates increase by 60%. No problem. Hand over billions in cash to banks and Wall Street? No problem. Let people die because they can’t afford health care? No problem. Pass a “health care” bill that says everyone has to buy insurance? No problem. Let any “health care” bill kick in four years from now? No problem. Leave abortion legal, but don’t let any that can’t afford it have access to it? No problem. Let fringe lunatics rant on radio and TV against anything that benefits human beings? No problem. Help put people to work so they can survive? No way. None of this hurts corporations, or affects them one bit.

Well, do I really need to go on? You all know that this country is badly broken. Hell, we’re even fighting with each other over ways in which we can move around the rubble to make it look a little better. It’s called rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic.

America survived the Great Depression of the ‘30s because we had leaders who cared. That’s long gone. Today, we have a government of vultures picking over the debris. They know they’re owned by their corporate masters, but they still want more.

Perhaps, 20, or 30, or 40 years from now, we’ll return to some degree of sanity in this country. On the other hand, we may end up looking like Uganda and stoning LGBTs to death. Either way, most of us will have given up caring about it, or be long gone.

If this post seems a bit on the pessimistic side to you, perhaps you would like to shine some optimism on the state of our country.

[timeforpeace]

1. Washington is broken. The country isn't.

[DrDan]

13. the country isn't

have you looked recently at the state of our educational system, our infrastructure, rate of foreclosures, unemployment, offshoring, . . .

[Heidi]

2. Okay. Here's some truth: Everything each of us does or doesn't do,

says or doesn't say, has the potential to impact not only current but future circumstances. Your own concession that "Perhaps, 20, or 30, or 40 years from now, we'll return to some degree of sanity in this country," is evidence that even you believe America may not be broken beyond repair.

[katandmoon]

3. K&R. ITA with your post, for all the reasons you mentioned.

[kenny blankenship]

4. what you call America is gone forever -not broken

what's emerging is some kind of corporate totalitarian state, where the people's minds are under even tighter control than their actions.

[Echo In Light]

5. George Carlin -"Who Really Controls America"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hYIC0eZYEtI

[ShortnFiery]

10. The late George Carlin had it down pat.

We're a right wing corporate duopoly.

I'm working locally because that's the only place us "little people" can make a difference.

Diebold don't matter because regardless of who we vote for, the large multi-national corporations rule this country. It's all a fucking game to these jokers in D.C.

[Cyrano]

33. George Carlin was brilliant. He knew we were all getting

fucked long before most people had a clue.

[icee]

6. That America is gone.

[Throd]

7. No

[WHEN CRABS ROAR]

8. When corporations infect the body that is America they might just kill it.

[yourout]

9. 21 century Romans.

Like most empires....ours will fall.

[Bitwit1234]

11. As long as the media is the one to run amok there is nothing we can do

If those that care of the democrats reign in the media, and they are forced to report what is true news and actions, and not what THEIR republicans masters tell them to, we might start on the road to recovery. But as long as scags like Fox News and rush and drudge and malken post crap and lies it will never happen. WHY IS RE-INSTATING THE FAIRNESS DOCTRINE SO DAMN HARD TO DO.

[spanone]

12. what is it that so many dreamed was possible?

wars have always been waged

corporations have always ruled

poverty has always been prevalent

we've been broken since we began

i think we're living the reality dream.

[Cyrano]

15. The dream was a world where war and poverty would be gone and

corporations could not rule us.

[ShortnFiery]

17. Corporations were not HUGE multi-national "beasties" whose only function

is to consolidate more power and money.

Yes, times were hard but our former bosses had latitude.

Now it's seemingly all for the BORG mega-corporation.

In PROFITS we trust! :crazy:

[Greyhound]

36. So your lack of historical knowledge is justification for the lame acceptance of what's

"too hard to change"?

Just another way to say, "I've got mine, fuck you."

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

14. Like it's predecessors this empire is rotting from the inside.

It has become dependent on it's colonies and has to defend the sources of it's wealth. Which, in itself, causes more rebellion in the colonies and bankrupts the empire.

America isn't "broken" it's just had it's rather short lived day as an empire.

In the early days, it was like the proverbial "hungry" prize fighter going after the championship. Now, it's worn out and has to take on easy fights (which turn out to be not so easy) and avoid tangling with he new "hungry" fighters on their way up.

Not just in wars but economically and politically we're on our last legs and flailing around wildly.

[Kievan Rus]

38. America's lost that "eye of the tiger"

[immoderate]

53. Yes. It's how gracefully we can lose the empire.

The ultimate treatment of this is the "Blowback" trilogy by Chalmers Johnson. The second book is called The Sorrows of Empire, so you know what you're getting.

I'm no historian, but there's a cycle to empire as you say, and we're on the downward leg of ours, an unfortunate stage of what is a totally decadent process.

--imm

[tavalon]

16. Our "leadership" is, the people aren't

Once we finally get over the idea that we aren't going to get any help from Washington, we can start figuring out local solutions.

[WinkyDink]

18. The Fascists have been working since the days of FDR, and now they have won. Corporatism rules.

ILLEGAL AND UNJUSTIFIED WARS = PROFITS.

PRIVATIZED SCHOOLS = PROFITS.

HEALTH-CARE "REFORM" = PROFITS.

CITIZENS IN NEED = DEBITS. LET THEM GET SICK AND DIE. LET THEM GO TO "WAR" AND DIE. LET THEM LOSE THEIR JOBS AND PENSIONS AND DIE.

[skeptical cynic]

19. I don't believe that America is beyond repair

But I do believe that the solution to all of the very real problems that you listed isn't going to come by working within the system and trusting the ballot box to change things. It's going to be an epic struggle, and it will be remembered in future history along with other revolutions.

When the continuation of many Bush/Cheney policies regarding civil liberties, war, and transparency are taken into account, very little has changed. The health care reform bill is pathetic when compared to what was promised and what we should be demanding. "Transparency" seems to be limited to trivial matters that have little to do with the major events of the day--hardly enough to allow a people with whom sovereignty rests to be informed enough to govern to governing. Some of the most cowardly and illegal war practices used by Bush/Cheney continue (e.g. Guantanamo Bay, rendition, and extra-judicial executions by remote drones operated by the CIA).

Much of what I see the Obama Administration and Democrats in Congress doing I believe is designed as much to preserve the Democratic Party as to serve people. I don't know anybody who really believes in a future where the current HCR package will be improved. And I know so many Democrats who are threatening to sit out 2010 and primary President Obama in 2012, that I doubt the Democrats will even have the votes then that they have now.

Our system is definitely broken. The fix is going to be epic and painful.

[tom_paine]

20. Oh my yes, our Empire is WELL beyond the "tipping point" and the slide to Neofeudalism

is picking up speed.

Ed Bernays, Hitler, Goebbels and Prescott Bush are laughing down in hell.

[Tailormyst]

21. Yes I believe it is

And nothing short of a catastrophic event will change things. Once the money get hold of things it is very hard to go back.

[earth mom]

22. People need to face the fact that the powers that be have STOLEN this country from the people

and have proceeded to not only steal, but to corrupt and trash every damn thing that is good and honest and true so that there is little left to salvage from the ashes.

There was a post here yesterday by a Canadian that said "why are you people taking this shit?!"

I've wondered that same damn thing every damn day for years now.

[earth mom]

23. Here's the thread I was talking about:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x7927697

[Echo In Light]

24. Thanks for posting, Earth Mom

[Quantess]

29. Sadly, I agree.

[MissDeeds]

31. I agree

And this country will continue in a death spiral until people wake up and demand better. If we settle for what we have, we deserve what we get.

[Kokonoe]

25. Money is freedom.

And our representatives will defend that freedom for money.

President Obama was was given what money cannot create, and he should take the gift before its gone.

[ixion]

26. In its present incarnation, it's FUBAR

there will need to be some sort of watershed moment.

[villager]

27. Yes. The only "free republics" we'll see again will be those created out of Empire's collapse

...once/if we have several different constituent countries on this continent....

They won't all be "democracies," of course, but hopefully one, two, or three (Pacific NW, upper Midwest, New England?) will be actual democracies, the likes of which we've only glimpsed during the "American experiment..."

[Echo In Light]

28. Sooner or later ... likely the former

[Political Heretic]

30. Yes and no. This system of plunder capitalism is broken beyond repair. However,

we the American people are more than capable of bringing this failed political and economic system to an end and erecting n its place structures that organize around community needs and place the needs for working American families first..

But even if you don't believe that, it doesn't change the fact that this system is broken beyond repair, and that there WILL one day be a complete collapse as our economy has become so top heavy and unsustainable that it will collapse under its own weight.

[closeupready]

32. Here's one thing we need to do: Look closely at who these people are we are electing.

We need to find out conflicts of interest, since it seems like the National Party doesn't care about conflicts of interest anymore. If anything, having a conflict of interest can be a plus, since it implies you can be compromised/bought.

[Cyrano]

43. You can't get elected in America today without a

freight train filled with cash. And that translates into the fact that you can't get into office without being bought, paid for and owned.

There are those few with enough of there own money to make a run for office. But do we really want leaders who bought their way in? (Think Ross Perot.)

[closeupready]

49. Well of course, this was long ago, but FDR had a fortune of his own.

n/t

[bobbolink]

34. It is for poor folk.

Does that matter?

[Greyhound]

35. The parasites killed America in the 70's and we've been living on the carcass ever since.

The post-war prosperity, brought about by our socialist policies and sense of community, created a burgeoning middle class. This group created an even bigger demographic, the baby boom, that grew up in prosperity with an ingrained sense of entitlement and a strong morality. They saw the inequity and demanded changes, not all of them nor even a majority, but enough to make the changes happen.

The parasites liked what happened after the war, they were not prosecuted and almost all of were allowed to keep their loot. But they didn't account for that troublesome combination of economic power and sense of social justice, both of which are dangerous to them. So the decision was made to move on. Nixon opens up China with it's billion+ future consumers that are already thoroughly conditioned to blind obedience, and McDonald's, IBM, Bechtel, Union Carbide GE, et al., follow right behind, starting the exodus. Now of course this is an expensive proposition, moving an entire nation's capacity overseas, and they certainly weren't about to pay for it, so we got the Laffer curve and the whole blatant scheme to strip the nation and it's people of their economic power, through theft, and their sense of social justice, through division and the appeal to greed.

That's where we are today, we're all yelling, screaming, whining, and crying, like Oliver Twist, meekly asking for "just a little more". Meanwhile there just isn't a little more. Our companies are hollowed out paper shells with no real assets and all their functions 'outsourced' so they bear no liability. They've taken all we had and are taking the last bit we can borrow and when it's finished they will walk away and we will be left to the tender mercies of the IMF or some entity created to impose similar measures.

I always get a kick from the brainwashed that are always crying about how terrible "protectionism" is. We've been isolated, though hardly anyone has noticed, and once we are useless as a market to sell into, the world will turn away from, or on, us.

[Kaleva]

37. No

[Cyrano]

40. If you really believe that, you must have an infinite supply of hammers and nails.

[Jennicut]

39. Our country has gone through many ups and downs and has had brief periods of success.

This is one of the bad times. I mean, were things all that great in the 1800's? Especially during the Civil War and after? In the 30's? Our history is not all roses and sunshine either. Look what was done to the American Indians? To children, forced to work in factories before child labor laws, to women denied the right to vote for so long, to African-Americans and slavery and civil rights issues. When was it better? The 20's (skipping the 30's), after the war into the 50's, skip the mid to late 60's because of all the social strife and assassinations, then 70's, the 80's, the 90's, skip the 2000's and here we are in 2010. It goes in cycles. And even decades are debatable. The 70's had the oil crisis, the 80's we blew the deficits, the 90's we repealed financial regulations, etc. I bet the 50's were not perfect either. I think the US has good years and bad years. It was never perfect.

[YvonneCa]

41. Four years ago, a person here posted that...

...she was afraid the USA was dying. We Democrats were COMPLETELY out of power. Both Congress and the White House were under (far right) Republican control. Things WERE looking pretty bleak.

I posted this, in answer to her post:

Stay strong...
...I too worry for our country, but it needs ALL of us "now, more than ever"...Kerry's words. I thought it was horrible when they stopped the recount in 2000; worse still on 9/11; and I've been so sad since November 3, 2004. That was the first election in which I tried to do more than just vote...I had to (I drove to Las Vegas as a volunteer in a 'swing state'). If Kerry had lost and I hadn't done ANYTHING to make a difference, I couldn't live with myself.)

This country is not dying...too many of us won't let it. I think it IS being tested. Ultimately, that will make us stronger. It sure is painful, though, right now. The most difficult thing for me is the lack of awareness of people closest to me...my family and my friends. In the beginning, they thought I was just in denial about the election. But I've 'become' the news for them...I forward news articles (from sources THEY trust) that they otherwise would never see. I've been buying books (Jimmy Carter's, Joe Wilson's, Gary Hart's) and sharing them when I'm done. Then I talk to them about why I'm upset with this administration. They don't always agree, yet. But it's a start. I'm convinced that education is the key to saving our country.

I am most hopeful because our leaders are now speaking out...not enough, yet...and not as 'brazenly' as I wish...but better every day! They are educating the public. That tells me they understand what is needed and are now acting to turn the country in a better direction. But it's like turning an aircraft carrier...REALLY SLOW. :7 When I need a lift, I listen to John Kerry's Georgetown Speech (C-SPAN), and his Council on Foreign Relations speech, and now Al Gore's most recent speech on the wiretaps. (If you've missed ANY of those, you need to listen...they are INSPIRATIONAL ! )

XXXXXX, I've enjoyed your posts since I joined DU. Your information helped me when I was seeking answers. Don't give up. We'll get there...this is a GREAT country (most of the time)...and we're not finished yet.:patriot:

That was in 2006. Now we have (and need to keep) majorities in both houses...and President Obama. That is a step forward...and it's the result of hard work. But the test is not over. Obama will only succeed with our involvement.

If we are to pass this test we MUST participate. Now is not the time to stop...just look how far we have come!

[el_bryanto]

42. Give up now and avoid the rush. Brought to you by the RNC.

OK, probably not, but it does seem like what they would ilke us to do.

Bryant

[laughingliberal]

44. Huge REC! nt

[Odin2005]

45. We are on the express train to Hell.

[TheWatcher]

46. Most Definitely. It cannot survive in it's current form, and on it's current Path.

The only road to repair is if We The People stand up, tell the criminals running everything "Enough", and overwhlemingly take our country back from them, by whatever legal and peaceful means necessary.

And if that doesn't work.....

We'll have to do it the hard way.

We do not have Representative Government.

We have Rule by Organized Crime.

[branders seine]

47. if this was real estate,

it would be a scrape and rebuild scenario.

[upi402]

48. This started in 1981

Been fighting it ever since. It started earlier but the business roundtable was caught off-guard in the 70's. Reagan & co. and the take-over of the media cinched it.

[live love laugh]

50. Yes. I have shed tears and grieved the loss of our nation. We have become--

a propogandized nation devoid of liberty and justice for all.

[Cyrano]

51. I understand the morality and beliefs in your post.

Even though we never really were a nation of "liberty and justice for all," it's what so many of us aspired to be. So many of us believed in that dream, and now, it seems like nothing more than a dead fantasy that will never come to be.

The barbarians are no longer at the gates. They have taken over the "Camelot" in which we thought we lived.

[kgnu_fan]

52. Sometime you need to hear voice of encouragement

Howard Zinn- "Against Discouragement"
By Howard Zinn
The Rag Blog
Wednesday, Feb 3, 2010

http://axisoflogic.com/artman/publish/Article_58362.sht...

The lesson of that history is that you must not despair, that if you are right, and you persist, things will change. The government may try to deceive the people, and the newspapers and television may do the same, but the truth has a way of coming out. The truth has a power greater than a hundred lies.
....