This is my first post and it's a long rant.

[Minnesota Libra]

I’m sorry but I desperately need to rant and as you will see this has been some years in the making. Mods, I hope I have this in the right place but if it belongs somewhere else then do your thing.

Call me stupid or ridiculously naive but I always believed that our elected leaders had our best interests at heart. I know, I know, many leaders thought nothing of pilfering thousands of dollars in tax paper money at the drop of a hat and lying, for them, became an art form. Yet, through it all I honestly believed our elected leaders basically had our best interest at heart and that all the shenanigans would be straightened out in the end. That for every setback we had as a country we would always come out better for the experience.

Why did I believe all this? I’m really going to age myself by saying that I remember John Kennedy and as long as I live I’ll never forget his speech about “Don’t ask what your country can do for you. Ask what you can do for your country.” Here was this President of the United States, an almost bigger than life figure, that told little old me I was important. I was in grade school at the time, so maybe that explains part of it, but we were led to believe that each and every one of us, regardless of age or station in life, was part of something bigger than ourselves. We were told we were all building something that would last the ages and be the envy of the entire world. I can still remember my parents and grandparents all but worshiping Kennedy because “He’s our President and he’s a good man. You listen to him when he talks.” We were also told we were each blessed by being born an American citizen and that we each owned it to our country to make it even better. A bigger than life figure was calling on me to work with him in building something phenomenal, something we could only dream about at that moment. John Kennedy truly made us believe that with our leaders in Washington D.C we could do it all. I can’t even begin to explain how dammed important each person felt knowing that regardless of educational level, or skills level, we had something to offer to our country and that they would be there to direct us when needed. OMG how I miss those days!!!!!!

We, and the rest of the world, were all told and truly believed that every human being on the face of the earth could look to The United States of America for certain principles. For example, we welcomed foreigners from around the world that wanted a better life. They could assimilate themselves into our society and become the one thing everyone wanted, almost more than life itself, become an American citizen. We would never attack another country that hadn’t attacked us first. Oh, but have mercy on the country who wanted to harm us because we’d come after you with absolutely no mercy at all. It was that time of “Talk softly, but carry a big stick” and the world believed it as we did.

I carried all those beliefs of “everyone has something to offer in the building of our country” and “we are envied by the world and are always striving for bigger and better”. I spent all my adult life believing and living every word of it too. I guess to a point, I still do believe it, or at least I desperately want to, but I’ve also come of age. This awakening hasn’t been an easy road for me by any means. It’s been a very long process and very depressing for me but my thinking has completely turned around now.

As painful a process as it has been on me and as much as I tried so desperately to ignore it, it’s FINALLY dawned on me that our elected leaders NO LONGER have our best interests at heart. I’m not just talking about leaders from the right or leaders just from the left; I’m talking about each and every one of our leaders, REGARDLESS of political beliefs. I’m finally accepting the fact that our elected leaders are out to fill their pockets in the quickest and easiest way they can. There is still a design this country seems to be working toward but it is no longer the principled design I once believed in. Yes, I do believe there are some elected leaders who still truly have the “people’s best interest” at heart but I also believe they are a dying breed these days. I also now believe the majority of our elected leaders would sell their own mother out, and obviously the rest of us too, in a hot second if doing so got them what they wanted. The majority of our elected leaders these days are out to make the world what THEY want it to be, regardless of what is best for “we the people”.

This process started way back with Reagan. He was great in front of the camera but I always got the feeling he was smiling in the camera while stabbing everyone of us in the back. Then there was Bush 41 who scared the crap out of me having headed the CIA at one time and, therefore was very adapt at different disguises. Clinton, on the other hand, gave me some hope back that there were still Presidents who truly cared about the little person. Then came Nit Wit Gingrich and the “Contract with America” and it finally dawned on me, that regardless of who was in Congress and regardless of who was in the WH, there were people working behind the scenes to make a world to their own liking. As we all know there was the 2000 election fiasco and for the first time in our country’s history the person to occupy the White House was appointed by a court. That completely destroyed whatever remaining hope I had for my country truly being “for the people, by the people”. Last, but not least, we’ve got Bush 43 and PNAC on top of “The Patriot Act”. Suddenly I was slapped between the eyes with the realization that my country was very reminiscent of Hitler’s “Mien Komf” (sp?) and 1933 Germany.

As it stands now I am so overwhelmingly depressed with the realization that my country has been absolutely destroyed one thread at a time from behind the scenes. That future election results will from here on out be predetermined even before I head for the polls. Most of all, the one thing I always feared more than anything else finally become reality. I seem to live in a society much like Nazi Germany and we’re heading, not so slowly, for a nation that will make these United States look much like modern day North Korea.

I’m not even close to knowing what the possible solutions to all this are or even if there are any solutions. We desperately need to we get the behind the scenes players out of the way so “WE THE PEOPLE” can take back our country and our world. But, I’m not the most liberal Democrat so even though I believe certain rights should be available I also believe in personal responsibility and, therefore, limits. Now, trying to find TRUE leaders and STATESMEN who will put the country’s interests above their own with a little common sense mixed in for good measure is probably impossible. So how as a country, do we fight against those figures and those ideas that we can’t see and are never told about until the issues are done and sealed?

Is the ideal country of my youth forever gone??

edited title for clarity

[wiley]

1. Your mission is to let Republicans know how you feel

They need to hear it. Write, Call, Fax, Assemble, Organize. You are not alone.

:patriot:

[slor]

2. It is does appear bleak, however, there are good people...

out there, but they do not get elected, because some of our fellow Americans would not want to have a beer with them. That, and diebold.

[TomInTib]

3. "absolutely destroyed one thread at a time". How apt...

Like a frog in a slowly heating pot.

[GeorgeGist]

4. Is the ideal country of my youth forever gone??

No. The ideal country of our youth never really happened. It's always been a myth.

[RazzleDazzle]

8. Yeah, perhaps, but we were a LOT closer to that myth back then

believe me, a lot closer.

Now, it's all an Orwellian charade. We don't even really strive for those ideals any more, they're just words and concepts to toss around while the people in Washington serve themselves.

[boobooday]

14. Back when?

It didn't used to be better. When was it better? During Jim Crow? Before women's rights? During Watergate?

I actually think we are getting closer and closer. The tyrants have had to step out in the open. Darkest before the dawn, and all that.

We have ways of communicating, of creating solidarity, that never existed before. Those who have always had power are desperate to hold onto it. Their "bold" and blatant moves are evidence that they see it slipping from their grasp. Otherwise they would sit comfortably behind their curtains, pulling their levers, as they always have.

This is the moment, and we are swinging in the balance. The proles have found the memory hole, and are swiftly closing it up.

The fact is, it has never been better, and it has never been worse. We are on the verge of something huge. Resistance on a massive scale -- and we saw the beginnings of it in the unprecedented worldwide protests against Bush's Iraq war, before it was even launched.

[femrap]

44. I actually think the '60's and '70's were better....we were working

toward a more democratic society. Economically we were better off....there wasn't this massive GREED back then. Each family had ONE car....acquiring things wasn't that important. I had a couple pair of nice earrings, for example....today, we need to have 20 pairs.

Women and Blacks made great inroads in employment, education, and salary. The music was fabulous. There were lots of mom and pop stores and restaurants.

I felt the earth shift when Reagan came into power....it all started to CHANGE then....the BACKLASH started with Reagan. All of a sudden, I heard the term, 'reverse discrimination.' GREED became fashionable....God started saying that Rich were better than the Poor. We had a minor reprieve w/ Clinton...but he sold out to the Corporate Greed as well.

Corporations didn't RULE back then like they do today....people were still farming. We still had manufacturing jobs.

Yeah....it was better back then.

And the beginning of the end of this great 'open society' started with politicians fueling the fire of the 'white angry male.' Look at the voting records of this group. Of course during the '80's manufacturing jobs started to move overseas and then these men were now forced to compete in jobs with women...they got pissed. And it wasn't the womenn's fault...it was the 'rich white man's fault'....but they didn't get blamed.

Well....that's a bit of my theory. I'm actually a bit encouraged of late....I think some of these 'white angry men' are realizing the dirty joke that their wealthy brothers have played on them. Terry Schiavo, Katrina, this horrid war, all our jobs are in China and India, now this UAE control of our ports....Yep people are waking up FAST. The neocons are showing their TRUE COLORS and Rove is having a hard time trying to spin this stuff. People are realizing that all these guys care about is $ $ and more $. $ is their God...they pray to the Almighty $. I think even some of the 'religious' folks are starting to see the Truth.

[radwriter0555]

5. One day at a time. For all of us who were believers like you were... it

takes a long time to come to terms with the truth you now know. I was depressed for months, and a place like this, like DU, helps ease each day into the next.

It's going to take a revolution to change anything. And that day is still a long ways away.

[Minnesota Libra]

10. One day at a time - that seems to be the way.....

.....it is for me these days too. Some days are more hopeful than others.:patriot:

[WhiteTara]

6. In the words of Al Gore

we must learn to work and live in the space between denial and despair. If we allow knowledge to crush us, we will all lose. The struggle for balance has never been so clear and this is the opportunity that we all chose (if you believe in personal choice before birth) to come to be here during this time. Now we have to be the best people we can be. Our self is our only yardstick in our self.

My suggestion. Call them every day. WHich ever senator or rep you want to say something to and call their office. If you don't feel better after the first office, keep calling all his/her offices. This is primary season, join your local democratic club. Let's do some work before we give up. I know we all thought that "they" were doing the right thing, but now that you know, you can't go back to not knowing. Time to step up to the plate, your country needs YOU, so follow Kennedy's cry, but don't ask what it is, because we all know. Time to get those bastards out of office. We need to work on clean elections as well as getting our guys. too.

[Minnesota Libra]

9. Thank you - that's the best idea yet.......

.....and maybe it will help!! I hope!! :hug:

[jwirr]

13. Warning! It is hard here in Minnesota to call our Senator.

Dayton has proved to be very responsive and helpful to me personally but the idiot coleman has nothing for emails but form letters and never answers in any other way. Phone calls are a little better but he is, as I said, an idiot. What we need to work for is his defeat by a good Dem.

[Minnesota Libra]

15. I COMPLETELY agree about Coleman and.........

.....you are right Dayton answers emails but Coleman NEVER does. In fact I'm writing a letter to both pointing out that very issue to both of them.

[WhiteTara]

27. all the more reason to call him

don't let him get away with thinking he can snow you or that you will cow. And get involved with your local democratic club.

[jwirr]

51. My guess is that he knows he will never be reelected

and just doesn't care who he steps on.

[WhiteTara]

57. all the more reason to vent on his staff

since you probably won't get to vent on him. But they should know they are working for evil and that they should scrub down every night when they go home. Practice on these guys so that you might have a chance with the next rep or senator in your area. If you give up, they will think they are getting away with what ever they are doing. :rant: sorry, this is my rant

[John Q. Citizen]

32. An even better idea is to go in person to their nearest local office.

That way you can be sure they hear you, or at least the people who work for them in the office hear you. Make them write down what you tell them to pass on to your elected official.

If that doesn't result in a satifactory response, ask when you can meet in person at the office with your elected official.

[femrap]

42. Yes, action will soothe your soul....

Make calls (toll free to Congress is 1-800-828-0498). I keep this number right beside my phone...you can call any Senator or Represenatative. I feel so much better after telling one of their staff members what is on my mind. And if you have something on a particular topic, say judiciary.....ask to speak to the Aide who covers that particular topic.

And definitely find a group of like-minded folks to work with...

Wherever your talents lie....and I'd say writing is one....then use that. Write letters to the editor. Write up flyers or pamphlets and hand them out at a political event or sporting event or wherever.

We have to educate people and organize! ASSUME YOUR POWER! I will no longer give my power away to an elected official...those officials need to be watched all the time! I pay their salary....the people have the power. We must use it.

People are waking up to what has been done to our country by these neocons. Americans aren't going to give up their Democracy without one hell of a fight!

[Minnesota Libra]

48. I know I will return to that idea of......

....not giving up without one hell of a fight. Right now though I'm feeling the full force of Reagan Bush41, Bush43, USSC, and on and on the list goes. But give me a little time and I'll come back, guess I have to wait until the anger settle in. :kick:

BTW, thank you for the compliment about the writing. Believe it or not, I sat down to the computer, my fingers started moving, and it just spilled out from there. :blush:

[femrap]

49. I believe you should let those fingers move

more often...OK?

[Minnesota Libra]

50. Thank you and I may just hit the......

.....keyboard more often. :blush:

BTW, a BIG welcome to DU. You'll like it here. :pals:

[fiddlestix]

43. I love Al Gore

"we must learn to work and live in the space between denial and despair"

It's just weird how oblivious some people are...

[Neil Lisst]

7. I hear ya. Good rant.

I cannot believe we are losing our civil liberties, all supposedly to stop the elusive "terrorists." Suddenly every infringement on the constitution is valid through the trump card of "it's to get Al Qaeda."

Bull shit. The No Fly List and the watch list are not about terror threats, but about political threats to Team Bush.

[BlueJac]

11. Sad, but oh so true!

We must carry on the continued fight for the America we all hold dear to us. These are extremely difficult times, with a White House full of crooks and liars, but we must continue on. Like what was suggested, call someone every day and express your worries and don't ever let up. It is true Americans like yourself that can wake up the people that are only interested in American Idol and not this country! :patriot:

[juajen]

59. Ok, I'm a little tired of the "American Idol" analogy

It is possible to think constructively, pay attention to the political scene and watch American Idol. How about using a football, basketball, hockey or golf game analogy instead? American Idol only comes on two times a week for about an hour for a few weeks a year. Compare that to the hours spent watching sports all year long on TV while glugging down beer and chomping on chips and dip.

[Nitrogenica]

12. Here's to the end of the Reagan era.

We have a lot of work to do, however things have gotten so bad, I believe if we regain the House or Senate or both, the truth about the misdeeds of the Republican Party will rise to the top. Truth indeed stands the test of time better than any lie.
Unfortunately we are making baby steps right now. The important things are going to get worse before they get better.
Here's a good example of the imbalance our Country must overcome to again be the land of opportunity for ALL.



Think about how difficult it is going to be to fix this out of control greed. We must be strong and rise up to this challenge. History, I believe, is on our side.

[eppur_se_muova]

56. Nice graphic, thanks. nt

[cliss]

16. Very nice post, MN Libra.

And I agree with you. You are now at the place where I found myself, about 5 years ago. I didn't figure everything out 5 years ago, but that's when I started on my Terrible Quest, like making my way through a Haunted House with skeletons in every closet.

I started searching, frantically, on the Internet to find some answers. I found them. I also found the DU!

My worst fears were realized. My beloved country, the US, DID all those terrible things that we were accused of. And more. Lots more that hasn't even come out. I was shocked. Felt deceived. Wondered what I was doing here in the US.

After about 4 years of agonizing over the US, I'm not so militant any more. I know the day of reckoning will come, when the days of U.S. Empire will come to an end. I have high hopes for us and the rest of the world, Post-Empire.

[murray hill farm]

17. You have said it so well!

That way we all felt when Kennedy was president. I dont believe that those that came after that time, can even imagine the hope and belief and connection we all felt then...it really is not something that can be discribed in words..with John Kennedy, we were all one in our belief of the goodness and promise of America...and we were all in it together. I am glad i lived then...and had the chance to know how that felt.

[Minnesota Libra]

19. YOU AND ME BOTH, I wouldn't give up......

.....one second of that "connected feeling" for anything. The trouble is I want it back and don't know how to get it. :cry:

[LuckyLib]

71. What I also remember is being taught by my parents a basic respect

for our President and those rulers who had been elected to serve us. Not any more!!! Vietnam and Nixon started the slide, and my elderly parents, now 92 and 83, are rip-roaring liberals. My Dad refers regularly to "that son-of-a-bitch in the White House". Love it!

[gordianot]

18. Excellent post.

There needs to be new populism, there are dangers in that populism can degrade into demagoguery. We need a new Roosevelt anyone know of one on the horizon that can pass the DLC?

[Minnesota Libra]

25. God knows I wish I did know of such a person but..........

.....one thing for sure we can at least watch and look and keep each other posted.

[electropop]

54. No new Roosevelt will pass the DLC.

The next Roosevelt will drive the DLC out of business.

[welshTerrier2]

20. excellent rant!! lots of issues to discuss ...

well, here you go ... i offer lots of optimism and lots of pessimism in my response ... things are every bit as bad as you say they are and worse; but there's also hope ...

let's start with the elections process itself ... i won't delve into the whole area of corrupt voting machines ... absent a fair and accurate counting process, we're pretty much dead ... but the problems we face go way beyond that ...

who exactly is it that we elect? we elect tall, wealthy, white men ... most senators are millionaires ... campaigns are not generally about issues and problems and solutions; they're about "gotchas" ... one great "i paid for these microphones" and we're stuck with the jackass for 8 years ... go around just before a presidential election and ask ten of your smartest friends to name 3 issue positions held by the two major party candidates - they won't be able to do it ...

the public bases its votes on image and myth ... you'll get answers like "i really trust Kerry" or "bush will keep us safe" ... what you won't get are clear policy statements ... it's not necessarily the candidates' fault ... the whole process is screwed up ...

and most of the time, the candidate with the most money wins ... is that the best way to choose our national leaders? ... is raising money the best indicator of which candidate will bring about the best policies? it's crazy ... there's a total disconnect ...

in 2004, Kerry destroyed bush in the debates but bush is "the kind of guy you can sit down to have a beer with" ... yeah, right ... it's crazy ... the public suffers from a real disdain for intellectuals ... they don't want to hear a bunch of well thought out ideas; they want to know that their President is a "good Joe" ... it's crazy ...

until we get the big money out of our political process, the rules of campaigning we now have contribute to the election of inadequate candidates ...

we can't continue to allow candidates to appear in fancy commercials with marching bands and cute little babies ... that's not helpful to promote the important idea that their candidacies should be judged on more meaningful criteria ... if it were up to me, i would only allow candidates to be filmed from the neck up with no other distractions in their commercials ... tell me what you plan to do and how you plan to do it ... that's it! ... anything else is crazy ...

big money is a poison to democracy ... we need not build a system that is "anti-business" or "anti-wealth" ... but we cannot have any form of real democracy as long as we allow money to pollute and corrupt our democratic institutions ... and this goes beyond just elections ... this includes the legislative process (lobbyists) and it includes both foreign and domestic policies (lobbyists again) ... it's all about money, greed and power ...

the solution to all this is the passing of very harsh, invasive rules for candidates and officeholders (and lobbyists) ... i also think we need to "cap wealth" ... that will never happen but i think it is ultimately a necessary evil ... as long as some have significantly greater wealth than most citizens, they will have a disproportionate influence on government no matter what laws are passed to try to restrain them ... all the "liberal" programs about campaign finance reform are worth trying but they will not work until our country's great disparities of wealth are "somewhat restricted" ...

but all is not lost ... yet ...

Americans deeply and genuinely still believe in the American ideal ... there is a huge amount of untapped power there ... many of these Americans are sound asleep believing as you once did that our "leaders" are all good guys doing the best they can ... they aren't ... and some are awake but they just aren't getting the best information about what's really going on ... that's been the greatest failure of us idealists; we've failed to educate the American people on our beliefs ...

as things get worse and worse, and they will, and as the power elite suck the lifeblood out of the country for their own greedy gain, a day of reckoning gets closer and closer ... we're rapidly approaching that point in time ... some will see this as hopelessness and darkness ... i don't ... i see this as a time of transition ... the power elite can only pretend all is well for so long ... and then, even "the sleeping ones" will see the truth of what they've done ... we're already seeing the vanguard of this awakening ... we got what i like to call a "glimpse of the monster" during the recent call for a filibuster against Alito ... DU's energy level and unity went way off the charts ... it was a glimpse of the activism, a tidal wave of activism, that will destroy the myth of the elitists' grasp on power ... ultimately, with the masses against them, they are in the extreme minority and they will be crushed and driven from power ...

and one last point in this long, rambling rant ... there seem to be two kinds of Democrats these days ... and it has nothing to do with political spectrum issues of left, right and center ... one group believes winning is everything; once we regain control we can set whatever agenda we want ... the other group, i'll call them idealists in the most positive sense, believes that we must educate the masses and give them a real vision for what our values are and where we want to lead the country ... i'm in group two ...

we all want to win and regain a majority ... we all want the right-wing evil to end ... but winning an election without clarifying the mission will make us susceptible to the return to power of the same neo-con cabal ... the only way to innoculate ourselves against that danger is to teach and preach the long-term vision ... if we put up pretty candidates with pretty words and marching bands and cute little babies, we may win an election or two but we will soon be right back where we are today ...

the idealism you're seeking has not died ... it lives on in you, and in me, and in many of us ... and i'm hopeful that the younger generations will learn that they must get involved and fight for a better way based on the values on which the country was founded ... perhaps in these words, you will find despair but i am truly hopeful that, as dark as it clearly is today, we are fast approaching a new dawn ...

[Minnesota Libra]

22. THANK YOU so much for that response, maybe, just maybe.....

.....all is NOT lost. Maybe my America that I loved and still do still does live on a bit like the movie Fantasia. America at this point is only a glimmer of her former self but she can grow. Thanks, I truly needed that encouragement. :hug:

[KyndCulture]

21. Great rant, fellow Minnesotan...

welcome to DU!

Kynd in Detroit Lakes.

[mzmolly]

23. I am not quite where you are yet. I think many elected officials

"Democrats" ;) are still fighting the good fight and doing so for the right reasons.

Welcome to DU. I'm a fellow TC-er. :hi:

[Arugula Latte]

24. Good rant ... but may I just add a perspective?

The United States has always had a huge evil streak. Look at native American genocide, slavery/genocide, and massive discrimination against blacks, Chinese, Japanese (internment camps, anyone?), etc. etc. Look at the Vietnam war, and the My Lai massacre, in particular. Look at the CIA overthrowing governments to install our puppets, who were often brutal dictators. Look at the U.S. government testing nuclear weapons on its own soldiers (my father said: "They wouldn't really do that, would they? ... A couple weeks after he said that, the government admitted they did). Look at Reagan's treatment of AIDs victims. And on and on and on ...

I have to admit, though, the one thing I always took for granted in this country was clean elections. That ended abruptly in 2000. I felt as you do now, that I'd awakened in an unrecognizable country.

[havocmom]

26. Well said & probably spoke for tens of thousands, if not millions!

Most people cannot fathom how evil others can be. We tend to project our own values upon most others unless given solid evidence they are bad. But the bad know this human tendency and play on it.

You have the blinders off now. It is a painful place to be some of the time. But it also gives you a degree of freedom you did not have before, when you did not see things more clearly.

Many choices face us in our free state.

We can become so disenchanted with people that we live as much like hermits as possible. This doesn't mean we wander off into a cave, but that we shut ourselves off from any feelings for others in our society. Makes day to day living easier, but also leaves no legacy.

We can easily slip off into debilitating dispair. Some of us take short trips to this land and bounce back. Some never come out of it. This is death, though our bodies do not yet lie down.

We can put the blinders back on and become WILLFULLY IGNORANT of cause, effect and all the connections of actions and conditions. More comfy and what the evil ones want us to do.. to become a herd, quietly chewing our cud until it is our turn to be taken to the knocker.

We can find others who are awake and more free. We can share information and ideas. We can teach and learn. We can be part of the forward movement and keep working, though we may never see the fruits of our labors. Such has been the path of all in the past who lived worthy lives.

Glad to have you with us, Minnesota Libra! We get by with a little help from our friends and we truly are greater together than the sum of our parts. Vent when you have to release. Cry on our shoulders when the burden pains you too much. Let us lean on you when you are strong and we are weak. Put what strength you have remaining in your life to the forward movement.

We may well never see the fruits of our labors, but we have a debt to pay. Others before us left us much. We are all part of the river.

Glad to have you with us. Learn, teach, grow and keep your light. They only win if we give up our ideals.

[Minnesota Libra]

28. You said it very well and yes I will......

keep in mind that "We may well never see the fruits of our labors, but we have a debt to pay. Others before us left us much. We are all part of the river." :grouphug:

THANK YOU for the encouragement. I needed that!! :toast:

[femrap]

45. Thank you for your words, havocmom....

I feel all ready to fight the good fight! Tomorrow I'm calling some Senators, Representatives, and a Governor from South Dakota!

[havocmom]

46. Good on ya! I am pretty close to there. Let me know how it goes

:thumbsup:

[blue cat]

29. I am in the same boat that you are

and it has driven a wedge between me and my family. They won't even listen to anything negative against Bush or any republicans for that matter. I do believe that it will only get worse, and the ideal country of our youth is gone forever.

[Minnesota Libra]

30. I truly do fear that those ideals we grew up with.........

......will never be or can never be again. :cry:

I just hope we eventually find someone that remembers what it was like before they completely drop the ball on us called "The Patriot Act".

The thing that depresses me more than anything is those who were born after Kennedy was killed will NEVER know what that "one country, one cause" feeling was like. That is truly sad!!

[Lexingtonian]

31. That sort of thing

was mentioned and talked alot about in my part of the country (yeah, the Boston area) from ~1980 to the mid-Eighties. How this was no longer the country anyone had grown up in, that the selfishness and lying and cheating had become rampant, that all the crappy people had joined up in league against all the decent ones and gotten protection from Washington. The Iran-Contra affair just pretty much confirmed in most peoples' eyes here that this Mayberry ideal the Reagan crowd pretended to was just a cover for Nixonism all over again with a worse cut of corrupt (around here that's considered almost redundant) Western and Southern political sorts. Robert Bork was the last straw around here- he struck people as a kind of child molester moving in on the block of vulnerable, already quite victimized, ideals. After 1987 or '88 there was simply a lot of resignation about it all; Democrats were running conservative, Dukakis was no one's idea of a real solution- here in Mass. there were no illusions about that, he was simply about not going on with the Reagan thang as Bush Sr was going to.

A way of looking at it all is the stages of grieving that Elisabeth Kuebler-Ross made famous. Denial, Bargaining, Anger/Bitterness, Depression, and Acceptance.

What was dying was that sense of social contract that was apparently so alive during the early Sixties. But, if you look at it closely with the eyes of the present, it was a social contract that, for all its other merits and virtues, took de facto (official or inofficial) racial segregation of American society as a given and permanent condition. The other major assumption it contained was a need for all the manual skill and labor that Americans could supply- a thing historically only sustained and required in the Agrarian Age, and in times of official or inofficial warfare during the Industrial Age (the condition in which most of American society was in the Sixties). It was a social contract that put the center of American society at the border between white blue collar and white collar white people, perhaps even favoring the blue collar side.

Between 1960 and 1970 a lot of things developed almost simultaneously. The American economy began to become part of a global interlinking of national economies. American society's center and political power moved to the white middle class and a requirement for more education to accommodate more and higher technology become evident. And while segregation was ameliorated as a social and political power problem to the extent the society would tolerate in the early and mid-Sixties, racial tension refused to decrease because of increasingly manifested (and largely preexisting but previously politically ignored) economic and cultural disparities. Plus, women started taking more and more of a role in American economic and public life, greatly aided by advent of the Pill.

That social contract is defunct now. We have people trying to reimpose it- those geniuses in the South Dakota legislature, those Poseurs of God that call themselves The Christian Right, the people who want us to rearrange foreign societies to our designs, those who fear 'terrorism' in their hick villages, those who want black poverty to be a permanent condition and imagine the country forever governed by a WASP elite in favor of corporations, and so on down the line. But if there's a lesson in the aftermath of their great final effort precipitated by '9/11', it's that Modernity is a reality that can't be thwarted or denied.

There is no resurrecting the old one, but the reactionaries have to try and fail on their own terms before they concede that. A society with as little or as destroyed a social contract as we have now is not really worth living in- it's a place without loyalties or ideals or purposes larger than that of peoples' private circles, it's a perpetual debating society and can't sustain a consistent interpretation of its Constitution. Justice is defunct, thieves and liars are in their element in such an environment. That's where we are now. It's where a lot of Third World countries are most of the time.

A new social contract has to be created and realized. These two insurmountable defects (there may be others I'm not aware of, of course) of the old, FDR-created, social contract can not be sustained in the world as it is now. I'm with the Democratic Party because The People has made it the vehicle of this change

This not so unusually, really, as a condition. A succession of major political cycles about fundamental (i.e. Constitutional) change of about 75 years in length go back to the overthrow of theocracy in the early colonies. We're in the winding down phase of the current one, in my opinion, which I believe began in the FDR days.

[bvar22]

33. Hi, Minnesota Libra

Great rant. I identify closely with it.
In the days of Kennedy, Johnson, and even Nixon, we were moving in the right direction.
Since Reagan, we have moved AWAY from the goals I embrace.

Please join the Minnesota Forum.
We have a very active group.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topics&forum=160

[Minnesota Libra]

39. I can't join quite yet because.......

......I haven't donate to DU yet and won't be able to for a few weeks yet. As soon I get my donation in though you'll find me over there. :toast:

[Ino]

34. I'm beyond hoping

I'm beyond hoping Bush will do the right thing, that Republicans will stand against him, that Dems will speak up, that my letters will make any difference. Now I celebrate every nefarious plot, every little thing they get away with, and hope for more of the same.

Maybe the corruption will get so bad & so obvious that analysis, investigations and committee hearings won't be needed. Maybe everyone will revolt in the streets, other countries will boycott the U.S. Maybe some day the Repub majority will be fleeing to Brazil to escape prosecution and everyone who voted for them will be deeply ashamed. Maybe "Republican" will be regarded with the same universal hatred that "Nazi" is.

Then we can rebuild without the constant need to expose their lies. Then energy can be used for positive change instead of counteracting their efforts to subvert & cloud issues.

So bring it on, George! The worse, the better!

I feel sick about having this attitude, but there it is. If the elections this year don't yield a Dem majority... (sigh).

[Minnesota Libra]

37. I truly hope I......

.....NEVER get to that I feel the meaner the act the more crap they throw at us the better. :puke:

[SeaBob]

35. Your rant

There is only one thing wrong about your rant... that it took you this long to get it off your chest. you are among friends here

[Minnesota Libra]

36. Thank you so much for that.........

.....encouragement and kind sentiments. :hug:

[iconocrastic]

38. Life is a jungle from the microbe to the galaxy

Why should human beings fall outside this law?

The most dangerous are those who have grand delusions that they're working for the good of society - while lining their pockets.

The next most dangerous are their true-believing followers.

Sorry you were disappointed by life. But reality is far better than fantasy.

[postulater]

40. Time for a little Dylan now, isn't it?

Come gather 'round people
Wherever you roam
And admit that the waters
Around you have grown
And accept it that soon
You'll be drenched to the bone.
If your time to you
Is worth savin'
Then you better start swimmin'
Or you'll sink like a stone
For the times they are a-changin'.

Come writers and critics
Who prophesize with your pen
And keep your eyes wide
The chance won't come again
And don't speak too soon
For the wheel's still in spin
And there's no tellin' who
That it's namin'.
For the loser now
Will be later to win
For the times they are a-changin'.

Come senators, congressmen
Please heed the call
Don't stand in the doorway
Don't block up the hall
For he that gets hurt
Will be he who has stalled
There's a battle outside
And it is ragin'.
It'll soon shake your windows
And rattle your walls
For the times they are a-changin'.

Come mothers and fathers
Throughout the land
And don't criticize
What you can't understand
Your sons and your daughters
Are beyond your command
Your old road is
Rapidly agin'.
Please get out of the new one
If you can't lend your hand
For the times they are a-changin'.

The line it is drawn
The curse it is cast
The slow one now
Will later be fast
As the present now
Will later be past
The order is
Rapidly fadin'.
And the first one now
Will later be last
For the times they are a-changin'.

[Minnesota Libra]

41. Thank You, that is quite an.......

.....appropriate poem and very comforting too. Than You!!

[Stevepol]

47. The problem is that the elected officials nowadays aren't elected.

With the voting machines, it's not important anymore what a person stands for or how much support he or she has from the people who vote; the only thing that matters is who counts the votes. And at the moment, it's Diebold, ES&S, Sequoia, etc.

By the way, if the ES&S scanners had been audited in 02, Mondale would have been in the Senate and not Coleman. He had a clear lead in the pre-election polling and I feel sure he really won the election. That would have been better for you and for MN and for the US as well.

[Minnesota Libra]

52. OMG yes, I'd have taken Mondale ANY DAY over Coleman and ........

......yes we would have been much better off too. I absolutely loathe Coleman. :puke:

[mdmc]

53. Bernie Saunders!

there is still hope! Peace and low stress, mdmc

[NoAmericanTaliban]

55. Good Rant. Lot of things went downhill when moral majority & corp

took over the GOP & got Reagan elected. A lot of folks want to turn us into a theocracy by imposing their made up religion on everyone else & in the mean time they are doing the corporate bidding. America is a strong country & we will survive this. Once * is out of office we will really find out how bad things are, & hopefully a dem will be elected.

[Minnesota Libra]

60. I agree about the theocracy and will be........

......posting an article that came out of some things my 29 year old son told me, that really popped my eyes wide open. :wtf:

You talk about getting an edumashun :eyes: all in the matter of months. It just seems the world has been opening up to me all of a sudden and I'm trying and find time to absorb it all. THANK GOODNESS I found DU during this time. O8)

[Hidden Stillness]

58. I Believe We are Starting to Understand What They Did to Us

I agree with basically all of what you wrote, but I no longer think it is hopeless, just that, like every other new way of oppressing victims or violating the Constitution, this one took years to figure out, and years to describe correctly. Every time the exploited people end an injustice by law, the oppressor completely changes the situation so that the law no longer applies. Labor unions win benefits, good pay and security--bam!--the corporation itself moves to another country or jobs are outsourced and only the offices remain here.

This current era is especially horrific because, unlike all other times where people just addressed themselves to the exterior world and tried to solve the problems they found there--a hard enough task--the current era is a non-stop, Soviet-style corporate media propaganda camp that turns people inward to an extreme degree, and makes them fixate (NOT analyze) on phrases, visual images, extreme close-ups that fix the eyes to one place, editing cuts too quick to make sense of, and all other mind control to such a sad degree that they cannot even get out of their own heads, remember what they themselves actually thought like, or find anything in this imitation "world" that related to them or their concerns. Feeling cut off, as if there is actually no one like them anymore--having money problems, wanting honest government and getting corporations out of the whole process, etc., all ignored on media now--they just give up and quit, as if totally and completely blocked. Problems are not even referred to anymore; only TV presentations of how to avoid discussing them are--mind-wrenching. It is not like living in a world anymore; it is like getting propaganda from your boss piped in to your place of work and where you live, all day, every day. There is only the corporate voice, the corporate perspective, telling everything. It is a complete sense of dislocation in your own country, because there is no longer a public square.

The media has never been so concentrated in the hands of the extremely rich, corporate class, the most treasonous, anti-democratic, welfare class of them all. No longer are news stories varied, with many perspectives, as if you are getting honest news; now everything is a coordinated campaign, all the more depressing because there is no relief from it. "Lowering taxes for rich people increases revenue"--insane, (then why doesn't lowering your credit card payments pay it off faster?); "regulations hurt business, and stifle competition; we need the government to step in and stop people from suing over every death or injury, and to keep wages down"; "we have to pay executives high salaries and bonuses to reward them, and so they won't leave; we cannot possibly afford to pay you more than $6.00 an hour--do you think we're made of money?" Democrats "whine" because they are liberals who just want to attack, and manipulate; Republicans bravely stand up for principle. Democrats are in disarray--they don't know what they think! Republicans will even go against their own Party, if it is right. "Social Security is in a crisis"; the surplus is so huge that Republicans from Nixon to Reagan to Bush have raided it as they destroyed the economy. It is not enough to ignore the media: that is our public forum, we need to retake control of it and regulate it, and we will not as a society be educated until we get it back, and let it serve our ends again.

I agree with those people who believe that when we can get some progress on the issue of corporate control of the institutions of our society, we will be out of the mind-control cult, and back on track immediately again, with people thinking of government policy as the answer to problems, as they did until the current group of devils poisoned the thought of it, and we will not have the bizarre situation of people voting to rip our country, our economy and everything else apart, because they were paid to. I believe the first sign of fascism here was always going to be, not "We're taking your guns," as some gun types think, but "I believe in the free market," and everybody goes, "Yeah well, all right, fine," and applauds.

I comfort myself with knowing that people are angry, not fooled, and that there is a growing backlash. Have you ever been in a room with other people when Bush comes on TV, or, God help us, Cheney? There is real, ridiculing hatred of these people and Democrats could have been much further along on organizing the backlash against them, if they hadn't been fucking around with commercial-consultant "framing" and all the rest of this non-productive activity. We don't need "tested" slogans; we need somebody who will tell the Republicans to go to hell, and who believes that America is great; who will stand up and tell them that the neo-con Republican Party has made us hated around the world, that we the American people do not deserve it but Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Limbaugh, O'Reilly, Halliburton, Enron, and all their cronies do, and to finally, finally, kick them out.

[Senator]

61. Forever Gone? ... Of course not

Try not to worry so much about "leaders" and just continue to rant at whoever will listen, and a few who won't.

Try to do what you can to act against these nation-thieves and support others who do.

We are the ones that we've been waiting for -- Hopi Elders

--
www.january6th.org

[Minnesota Libra]

62. THANK YOU to each and everyone of you who responded, I feel.........

.....there is at least some hope now even though things still look a bit bleek.

You've all welcomed m,e with open arms and given me things to think about as well as ideas so I don't feel so hopeless.

THANK YOU - you are all O8) O8)

[xxqqqzme]

63. don' forget Ford - he was the first

experimental coup. People tend to overlook the fact that he was president w/o ever being elected.

[tirechewer]

64. Beautifully stated....

That was beautifully put, Minnesota and very disquieting because it is so very true.

I don't know what is going to happen in the future. I do see the similarities to Nazi Germany even down to the manipulation by fear and intimidation regarding "threats" to national security. People are operating under a mentality of duress and greed.

Most of the people we call "leaders" are not great men, they are very small men who pander to wealth and seek the lowest common denominator in humanity to seek and hold power. I don't know what will happen next either. What if there actually is an election and the people in power now lose and simply refuse to leave? It's a lot like a bad dream.

Welcome to DU. It's nice to see someone who is even newer than I am.

[Minnesota Libra]

66. Welcome my friend and I hope you come to like.......

....DU as much as I do. :hug:

[tirechewer]

72. I do like DU...

It's one of my favorite places to visit. I hope you'll write some more pieces like this one. It is very powerful and moving.

[Tom Rinaldo]

65. Wonderful post. Yes we are sliding toward the brink

I didn't want to put this in my post header because I don't want to hijack your excellent thread, but totally aside from who we think should or shouldn't become America's next President, I urge you to look at this; a link that gives you the text, audio or video of Wes Clark's Real State of the Union Speech which he delivered on January 30th. I think you will find many of your thoughts and concerns strongly stated within it. I won't take up space here to quote from it, I'll just leave you the link:

http://securingamerica.com/node/560

[Minnesota Libra]

67. I will definitely check this out. nt

[calimary]

68. I appreciate the rant. This sordid episode in American history has us

all tearing our hair.

All I can say is - you're in good company. I'm glad you found your way here! I sure have needed this place - to help me keep my sanity, and some perspective, not to mention a whale of a lot of valuable information from people here, plus their insights. It's an oasis here. You are NOT alone. Not just because of the membership here (EVER growing, if you'll notice), but the vibrations around the country. I heard ON TV, NO LESS, last night, that A) bush's approval ratings are down to 35 percent - even lower than after Katrina, his lowest EVER (cheney's down to 18!), AND that the mainstream media is giving Francis Fukuyama some face time - about his new book that details how the neoCON ambitions were misguided and just plain WRONG. He's the frickin' ARCHITECT of the PNAC, and now he's denouncing the whole shebang - a whole shebang that HE played a huge role in developing.

So I actually have some hope.

But first, we have to buckle down and keep our eyes on the prize: TAKING BACK THE HOUSE OF REPS IN NOVEMBER.

So we no longer merely have to...

Visualize IMPEACHMENT!!!
And then go DO something about it.

With the kind of momentum out there that would help us TAKE BACK THE HOUSE OF REPS, you can bet good money that there'll be enough of that same momentum to get IMPEACHMENT PROCEEDINGS off the ground. Especially since a Democratic takeover of the House would put John Conyers back in command in the House Judiciary Committee - the nursery of IMPEACHMENT.

[Minnesota Libra]

69. OMG, Bush's impeachment is reason enough to keep going to.....

....get Congress back in Democratic hands. :toast:

[land of the free]

70. terrific post, and I agree with you

I still want to believe that deep down, our elected leaders want to truly do what is best for our country and our people. However, there is so much overwhelming evidence that many elected officials put their own self-interests first, it is hard to have faith that there are good politicians in our country.

It is disheartening. I still *want* to believe Bush means well, but he disagrees with many of us on important issues, and he is incompetent. I can't believe that anymore. He and Cheney are the worst examples of politicians who will hurt many Americans (not to mention others in the world) in order to advance their own special interests and to profit. He has proven himself to be very competent in manipulating the people and our constitution, which is appalling.

While it is frustrating, you must know there are good political leaders out there who do have the best interest of our people at heart. There are people who go into politics to "do the right thing", to serve us with dignity and respect. And, there are people who are not corrupted by the power they are granted.

Get to know them. Read as much as you can about them. Hold their feet to the fire - email them, call them, and press them on issues. Remind them that they are to represent your interests. Challenge them in debate when you think they are doing things that are not in our best interest. And, when their record shows that they are not acting to help America, support an alternative candidate.

Welcome to DU.