I note that a fair number of you are outraged that we're not in the streets

[cali]

like the Egyptians. Could someone please explain to me what the goal would be?

[foxfeet]

1. A flash mob dancing to "Thriller?"

[stuntcat]

5. yesssss!

omg please, I'm all over this, bring on the Thriller revolution :headbang: I ain't kiddin I know about every step of it!!

[slackmaster]

9. YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS!

[Fuzz]

20. Do we have to go in costume?

[stuntcat]

22. no!

and Thriller mobs always have extra makeup on hand :D

[Common Sense Party]

2. I demand free, faster broadband for everyone!!!

What do we want?

Fast pron downloads!

When do we want it?

NOW!!!

[sufrommich]

3. I can only speak for my neighborhood,we all took to the streets

to shovel snow. Then we all went back inside to get warm. Goal accomplished.

[alsame]

4. We should have been in the streets when the

Bush v. Gore SCOTUS decision was announced.

We should be making a lot more noise about Citizens United.

We should be demanding that we get out of Afghanistan.

To name just a few.

[NoPasaran]

6. Well, what's stopping you?

Tied to a chair or something?

[DeSwiss]

10. That was NOT cool. n/t

[alsame]

11. Why the snark? I thought she wanted serious answers. I did march

in NYC against the Iraq invasion. And I do what I can locally whenever the opportunity arises around specific issues. As far as I know, there haven't been huge protests planned lately for me to join.

[MedicalAdmin]

17. If we are going to take to the streets then we need to

"remove" bankers, insurance execs, CEO's and general rich crooks from the genetic pool.

But I'm in a cranky mood today. ... on second thought I like the thriller idea.

[Pathwalker]

7. Bah humbug. I protested at my state capitol in Dec 2000.

I WAS ALONE IN DOING SO. I left after the state police told me to go home or they would have to arrest me, and they really, really didn't want to have to do that - because they agreed with me. But they had been ordered to make me leave. I joined over 2000 others in protesting before the invasion of Iraq, and enjoyed the peacefulness of it. Now, I've got double pneumonia - I'm not leaving my house. It's very, very cold outside. Maybe spring?

[Cleita]

8. A Zumba dance to get attention, preferably naked.

What do you think?

[whattheidonot]

12. IT'S COMING

When the full impact of the bailouts hits home and the gap in income does not sustain the economy people will be in the streets. The current system is unsustainable, the economy will not work with it. prices will be going up, spending going down, services lost, more foreclosures etc.

[JoePhilly]

31. When? Soon? Should I reschedule my weekend plans???

[Cali_Democrat]

33. Yes. n/t

[JoePhilly]

35. But I was going to take the kids bowling!!!!

[Cali_Democrat]

43. Do it after the Revolution

:thumbsup:

[JoePhilly]

44. What if I tell the kids that each pin they knock over represents ...

a corporatist banker ... or a lobbyist ... or some other evil doer???

I'd be teaching them how to hate the oppressor and also putting money into my local economy.

Killing two birds with one bowling ball, if you will.

[Gaedel]

13. Ummmmm?

Do we want to force Obama and Diden to resign so that Boenher can be president?

That would work real well!

[Occulus]

14. Why, to overturn "them", of course.

You know.

Those people.

---

There's this vague notion among us as Americans, I think, that what's going on in Egypt 'can't happen here' because 'our laws are different' or some other such nonsense. It's the worst and most dangerous sort of social apathy possible for any nation of global power. We really ought to have long ago prevented the wealth concentration from becoming as bad as it is, reined in the power of large US corporations, and deleted abusive health insurance companies from the equation.

In large part, this is the fault of the corporate media, whose parent companies most definitely have a vested interest in maintaining things as they are and all but openly own members of Congress. Our corporate/government "capitalist" system has nudged into existence a hideously contorted, deformed, hot and wet, tangled and bloody mess of greed, abuse of public trust, and economic betrayal that will suck our treasury dry and leave it for dead once greener pastures arise, which history teaches us almost definitely will.

I think the only safe way to invoke large change in the US is to call a Constitutional Convention, but it would take a national organization a long time and lots of money to arrange and campaign for, and even then it would be very hard to pick one single topic that would affect meaningful change. Addressing corporate personhood is one option; another would be the legalization and regulation of consumable substances, a third might be a Constitutional requirement for a single payer health care system.

It would be incredibly difficult to accomplish, but it is provided for by the Constitution. Maybe we should explore that option before our own country collapses under its own weight.

[HughBeaumont]

15. 1-2 million in every major city against the CEOs.

Quite easy to see who this country, this economy, our progress is being held hostage by - the CEOs and the wealthy. It's time America understood this.

They own or have their hands in every arena - military, industry, religion, entertainment, food, beverages, retail, education, health care, transportation, etc. All taxation in this country is to their benefit. Our "benefits" are strictly for THEIR benefit. Real wages haven't risen since 1979, and we work longer hours on average (see Journal for charts). Don't get me started on maternity leave, vacation time, tuition reimbursement, etc. All they do is divide us and we fall for it while they loot and offshore everything that isn't nailed down.

Unless that politician is completely on board with the gatekeeping of this crap broken system, blaming "Teh Gubmint" for everything is a dead end. Nor do I have anything in common with the racist TeaHadists who want to blame the "have too littles" and their "entitlements" for this mess while conveniently ignoring the MIC/wealthy people gifts that the past four laissez-fail presidents doled out.

Of course, it's not like you'd be able to get anyone to STAY in the streets . . . because we NEED our jobs and NEED our health "care" that those jobs provide. That's how it is in America - our success is almost completely tethered to how gainfully you're employed. And that's the difference between us and Egypt. These people live on 100-200 dollars a month and their public services are garbage (speaking of which, it's EVERYwhere). They have nothing at all to lose - literally.

We have too much to lose and our livelihoods depend on our employment or ability to be employed. America never left the plantation or the dangerous sweatshop model and now we're trapped on it. Our lives are fabric-covered boxes in the dullest color possible and the view sucks.

[democrank]

16. No need to explain the goal.

It would be swept up in a sea of indifference.

[UTUSN]

18. The lack of a Draft quelled mass street demonstrations under Shrub.

And what I'd like the outraged on the o.p. topic to answer are, is this a coup, a revolution, or democracy, and how we should start preparing for the new status quo who hate us openly?

[Courtesy Flush]

19. You want us to walk like an Egyptian? nt

[jannyk]

21. To gain a seat at the table for the common 'man'. eom

[lame54]

23. I haven't seen those threads

[mmonk]

24. Everything is hunky dory.

What's the half time show at the Super Bowl this year?

[JVS]

39. Salute to Ronald Reagan.

[KittyWampus]

25. I'm outraged the outraged don't go out to the streets and start something themselves!

[H2O Man]

26. To advocate for the

immediate legalization of Lonnie Anderson's hair!

On a more serious note, I favor taking up the idea that Martin Luther King, Jr., was proposing with the 1968 "Poor People's Campaign." I am convinced that this is a necessary step that must be taken to raise the level of consciousness about the terrible injustices that are destroying the moral fabric of our nation.

[Mike 03]

27. Just to be precise, who is

[MineralMan]

28. The reasons we're not in the street are many:

1. There are too few of us who are united by a single goal.
2. We're very busy posting on internet forums about our outrage.
3. Most people who are doing poorly in this economy are barely political.
4. We have elections every two years to select our legislators. Those who care vote.
5. The economy appears to be improving. Slowly, but improving.
6. We work for a living and protesting jeopardizes our jobs.
7. Some of us think the system is capable of dealing with stuff.
8. About 1/3 of us (Americans) are Republicans.
9. About 1/3 of us are apolitical.
10. About 1/3 of us are Democrats.
11. About 2% of us have political beliefs strong enough to make us want to hit the streets.
12. Turnout at such things has been spotty and generally poor. Nobody pays attention to a dozen people with signs.
13. We're not in desperation mode.
14. The Super Bowl is on Sunday.
15. Our families come before political activism.

I could go on and on and on.

[Courtesy Flush]

32. 16. We have bread and circuses. nt

[AsahinaKimi]

37. You forgot an important one...

Its probably snowing heavily outside..some where! Protest in a snowstorm? NO WAY!

[readmoreoften]

29. What are you talking about? I'm out in the streets protesting all the time.

Would you have said the same thing to Egyptians two months ago? You have no idea where history is going to take us and neither do I. Not to mention that most people on this site have spent the past two years trying to convince everyone here they ought to "Chill the Fuck Out: Obama's Got This." What a waste of time that was. Obama hasn't "got" anything except maybe picking up the tab for Goldman Sach's dinners on the tax payer's dime.

When there's a lack of a clear left-wing alternative, populism goes to the right and gets ugly. This is the lesson of the 20th century. Everyone got out in the street behind Obama and his populist left rhetoric and imagery. He obscured and confused the political situation and now there is nowhere to go. The anti-war movement COLLAPSED after the primaries began. Everyone--in full delusion--put their hopes on Candidate Obama. Now all that infrastructure is gone and everyone on the left has an uphill battle. Hell, most people still think that Obama and Hillary "got this."

This is the center of The Empire. The ideological crackdown is most intense in the US because this is exactly the place that change is verboten.

There are numerous reasons to get "out in the streets". The biggest reason would be to start reorganizing an infrastructure that can fight for the reforms we need.

[Hannah Bell]

40. +100

[BobbyBoring]

30. My goal would be

To instill fear. I would start in NYC on Wall St burning effigies of Thain, Paulson, Blankfiend, etc. Fear is the ultimate motivator. I would want them to know they can no longer rob US of everything we have and get away with it. DIE BANKER SCUM signs would be waving everywhere spelled correctly.

That is the whole purpose of mass gatherings. Years ago, many of us here got the Viet Nam war stopped, but far too many Americans don't really know we had that war and the devastating affects it had in us as a nation. It was very ugly. I got tear gassed many times and still have a scar over my left eye from a night stick. Was arrested 4 times and did a lot of nasty things, but we got their attention.

What's happening in America is far worse than what was going in in the late 60s, early 70s. Now, we have 2 wars, and a broken financial system that transfers wealth from those of us that have struggled all our lives to have a piece of "The American Dream" to a few greedy fucks. We have a broken health care system. We have an activist Supreme Court. On and on.

I'm afraid we'll soon have to take to the streets again. I'll be there. NYC anyone??

[Raksha]

42. It's absolutely necessary to instill fear, and you can do that with sheer numbers.

And also by refusing to go home when "they" tell you to go home. In other words, civil disobedience on a grand scale. It works, but it's also very dangerous. The PTB tend to get very nasty when "the mob" succeeds in scaring them. Case in point: Tahrir Square.

[zeos3]

34. Fighting "The Money Power"

Twenty-Five Arrested, Thousands Converge on Koch Brothers Billionaire's Caucus in the California Desert


http://www.alternet.org/news/149730/twenty-five_arrested%2C_thousands_converge_on_koch_brothers_billionaire%27s_caucus_in_the_california_desert/


"Author Jim Hightower said it well in the kick-off event in a packed large movie theater before the protest; the problem the Kochs represent is what the 19th-century populists used to call "the money power," and our right to speak out against it is rooted in our "democratic authority" as citizens concerned with the general welfare of the country."


-snip-



"The protesters generally decried the Koch brothers’ influence over American democracy, in particular their use of the Citizens United ruling to spend corporate money in elections. Koch Industries’ funding of climate denialism and other conservative causes was on the minds of the protesters as well."


This is part of what the goal should be.

[Rex]

36. To protest?

Derr

[TBF]

38. The goal would be resistance of capitalism -

but then most of us aren't living off our investments. YMMV.

[Johonny]

41. are we out in the streets?

It's not like people do gather in rallys or protests here. I mean those teapartys get wall to wall coverage. Liberal protests not so much. Millions marched against the war and the media down played it. But Americans do and have protested. Still. I think we get a bad rap.