What can we do to help save America?

[kentuck]

Is it as simple as electing Democrats over Republicans??

Once the wealthiest people in the world put their boots on the throats of everyone else, who is going to remove them? The more money they accumulate, the more power they have. The more power they have, the more difficult it is for average people to live.

How do we remove these thugs from our lives? They have consolidated their hold by controlling our Courts and our Congress. Money is now free speech. If you have no money, sorry.

What can we do to change this consolidation of power by the wealthy over the rest? Can we do it by elections? Can we do it with Letters to the Editors? Can we do it by simply posting on a blog or a discussion board?

What can we do to take back our country from this powerful elite?

[Gregorian]

1. public-power-can-defeat-plutocrats

http://www.democraticunderground.com/1016107586

The best answer I've seen yet.

[Louisiana1976]

2. The Democratic Party needs to move left and add to its platform such things as single payer, paid

family leave, free child care for working mothers, tuition-free colleges and universities, and a $20 per hour minimum wage.

[el_bryanto]

3. Supporting Unions would be a good thing to do

I don't know - it's tough because the truth is that the moneyed interests in America are probably the biggest problem - and both Democrats and Republicans largely buy into their interests.

That said there are a lot of little problems we can address - minor in the grand scheme of things but they add up.

Bryant

[Faux pas]

4. Find out who 'they' all are, what they sell

and just don't buy any.

[kentuck]

5. Here's an interesting article:

http://www.commondreams.org/views/2014/11/24/why-we-need-professional-revolutionists

<snip>
No revolt can succeed without professional revolutionists. These revolutionists live outside the formal structures of society. They are financially insecure—Vladimir Lenin spent considerable time in exile appealing for money from disenchanted aristocrats he would later dispossess. They dedicate their lives to fomenting radical change. They do not invest energy in appealing to power to reform. They are prepared to break the law. They, more than others, recognize the fragility of the structures of authority. They are embraced by a vision that makes compromise impossible. Revolution is their full-time occupation. And no revolution is possible without them.

There are environmental, economic and political grass-roots movements, largely unseen by the wider society, that have severed themselves from the formal structures of power. They have formed collectives and nascent organizations dedicated to overthrowing the corporate state. They eschew the rigid hierarchical structures of past revolutionary movements—although this may change—for more amorphous collectives. Plato referred to professional revolutionists as his philosophers. John Calvin called them his saints. Machiavelli called them his Republican Conspirators. Lenin labeled them his Vanguard. All revolutionary upheavals are built by these entities. [See a list of some of these groups, with links to their websites, at the end of this article.]

The revolutionists call on us to ignore the political charades and spectacles orchestrated by our oligarchic masters around electoral politics. They tell us to dismiss the liberals who look to a political system that is dead. They expose the press as an echo chamber for the elites

[appalachiablue]

6. It will take all of the above, and then some. And soon, the DOOR is closing quickly.

The reality of the dying US middle class was backed by data in the NYT, April 2013, "US No Longer the World's Largest Middle Class", 1st time ever, now Canada is no. 1 and ahead. Few discussions in M$M.
The 30 year decline of the American Dream and the rise of income inequality have been the topic of notable recent books--Hedrick Smith's "Who Stole the American Dream?" (2012) and Thos. Piketty's "Capital in the 21st Century" (2014). Add to these Naomi Klein's significant new book "This Changes Everything" (2014) on the relationship of neoliberal capitalism to the current climate crisis.

Grass roots movements must grow strong to influence political change, economics, and the climate issue. Also a widespread, independent media that's consistent and accessible to many people has to come from the left to spread the message. Internet blogs alone don't reach enough people. Stop the slaughter of Reaganomics. 1. Reach people via grassroots, media, GOTV 2. Move to Amend Citizen's United 3. Build structure for 2016 Campaign national and local. Democratic agenda focus on populism, middle class.

I never saw this many people in such bad shape, predator exploitation via mortgage and student debt, abuse of working people, breakdown of our commons like unions and schools, and corruption in the media, politics and govt. Another Gilded Age -Upton Sinclair's "The Jungle" (1907), Sinclair Lewis' "It Can't Happen Here" (1933), John Steinbeck's "The Grapes of Wrath" (1939).

Grandparents made it through WWI, Spanish Flu Epidemic, Polio and the Depression. Parents made it through the Depression, WWII, and Atomic Age. During this time free public school, affordable college education, unions, New Deal economics and social systems grew to insure a great middle class and US prosperity.

The Economic Crash of 1929 is considered by many to have been the factor that allowed Hitler to rise from the right wing. By 1933 conditions were so bad that he appealed to a suffering German population hit hard by the Depression soon after WWI reparations and mass inflation. It's said that economic crises bring out the most conservative instincts.

We got through Vietnam, Assassinations, Civil Rights, survived the '70s and saw some of South America under Peron and Allende. Now the future of millennials is at stake and we're trying to alter the course.

A large middle class is essential for strong democracy, economic strength and social justice. No middle class means a dominant upper class, minimal professional class, and a very large powerless lower class (S.A., Asia). There's very little contact between the 2 major classes, no economic opportunity/way out for the lower class. Oligarchs and dead peasants don't cut it. I'd get a move on.