Come the revolution...

[Mythsaje]

Some of you might remember when this phrase was bandied about with some regularity. The idea that someday liberals would win the fight for this country and "things will change, by God.'

How many of you thought that pot would be legalized?

Uh-huh.

How many thought everyone would recieve free healthcare?

Uh-huh.

How many of you thought that things would change for the better once liberals/democrats were in charge? That we'd see massive pro-environment legislation that would take the polluters to task for their crimes?

How many of you were disappointed and frustrated that it didn't quite work out the way you'd hoped?

Oh, I'm not taking anything away from the things that WERE accomplished. The steps taken for civil rights were great, and it's wonderful that so many progressive causes saw triumph.

But Nixon's War On Drugs is still going on, folks. And it doesn't have any winners. Just losers. Millions of Americans are prosecuted every year for non-violent offensives that, for all intents and purposes, are little more than an act of political dissent. "We don't believe in your rules and we refuse to abide by them." Yes, it's criminal, but only because the law doesn't recognize one simple fact--consensual 'crimes' are a farce, serving to protect nothing but the State's interest. Asset forfeiture and forced labor in prisons are MONEY-MAKERS for the corporations and government. At the expense of the citizens of the United States...not only financially, but culturally as well.

Healthcare costs are through the roof. We all know this. All the years of Democratic control of the legislatures SINCE the sixties accomplished very little in this regard, even when we DID have a Democrat in the White House. Lobbyists work very hard on the part of their employers to convince even the most liberal representative that what's best for their company, PAC, or special interest, is best fot the Congresscritter in question. Big Pharma pulls the strings here, as we well know. If it's not good for Big Pharma, it's not good for the country. They're drugging our kids in the schools. ADD and ADHD may well exist, but I'm sure we can agree that it's unlikely they exist in the numbers we're being told.

"Don't do drugs, but, here, take these."


Environmental protections were passed, but, as many of us know, the fines levied for pollution were cheaper than the cost of doing it right. So again, the people were short-changed by the system, all to the benefit of the government and the corporations.


THIS TIME

Come the revolution,

are things going to be different? Or is it going to be another case of "meet the new boss--same as the old boss?"

We're seeing tyranny in action, folks...not the tiny little tyrannies that the State has been perpetrating for the past thirty or so years, but REAL tyranny. The Big Stuff. Lying us into war. Denigrating the sacrifices of half the citizenry. Treating anyone who disagrees with them as a traitor.

Being here on DU I've embraced being a liberal. But I also recognize that we've allowed some messed up shit to be done in OUR name as well as the Republicans have. Or, rather, we've allowed it to continue even though we knew it was wrong.

The WO(S)D is inherently racist. We all know it. But we're constantly hedging around the subject like it's a nuclear bomb ready to explode if we look at it wrong.

If you're a progressive, you believe in social justice. How is it justice that a family can be destroyed, their assets taken, for something as minor as consumption of a unapproved intoxicant, while acknowledged alcoholics can rise to the very highest office in the land?

How is it that people like Gore can admit to having smoked marijuana, yet refuse to decry the injustices that are being done EVERY DAY to other people who do so?

Come the revolution...

[Syncronaut Seven]

1. Come the revolution, I will eat my hat.

Americans are made of softer stuff. I don't see it happening. Surprise me.

[Mythsaje]

2. Beneath

the 20 lbs of flab, Americans are still as tough as they ever were. They just haven't realized it yet. I think this administration figured they had a free ride to whatever goal they had in mind...the sheeple were quite content with their 300 channels of TV, sports stadiums, and fast-food diets--they could take over without anyone being the wiser.

Didn't happen. Because the same country that spawned the likes of Thomas Jefferson, Thomas Paine, Abraham Lincoln, Teddy Roosevelt, JFK, Rosa Parks, and Martin Luther King Jr. is a country that still has a lot of spine left to show.

America has been known as the Sleeping Giant before. And through two World Wars we've proven that the name fits. And in the sixties we proved it again, showing that we can shake the very foundations of the world if we are roused to anger.

We can do it again.

My question revolves around one thing...are we going to do it right this time, or are we going to let the corporations step into the driver's seat again as if they belong there?

[Syncronaut Seven]

3. I'll see your sleeping giant

And raise you guns and boots on the ground.

Of course we CAN do it again, are we WILLING to do it again. Or does the larger population have such mush for brains that they even see the need for such unnecessary unpleasantness.

Give me liberty or give me.. HEY! gimme back that remote!!!

[Mythsaje]

4. I'll raise you one guns and boots

and toss a couple decades of martial arts training into the mix...LOL

I think we're willing. Last week I had to run to the hospital with my 14 y.o. niece and two of her friends. She had gotten home from school and found an ambulance in front of her house. My stepmom had been taken away and I took her and her friends to the hospital until we could find out what the hell was going on.

Well, on the way the girls were listening with me to Air America. And with a lot of the comments coming out of Randi Rhodes' mouth, they were laughing.

They got it.

If a fourteen year old gets it, it tells me that an 18 y.o. gets it.

There's few things more powerful than a generation who decides that enough is enough.

We're there.

[Syncronaut Seven]

5. My 10 Yo gets it.

So do the Vets I've been salting down at the local pub. In fact, they're getting downright angry. They had little idea of the scope of the VA cuts, I filled them in. :evilgrin: I'm helpfull that way.

See it as a bit of a mission these days, been expecting to get my ass kicked, but it hasn't happened yet. :bounce: :+

Edit:sp

[Mythsaje]

6. Right on

keep on fighting the good fight.

[Tsiyu]

7. We haven't ever been in charge here in America.

What country do YOU live in?