Heads they win, tails we lose.

[Edweird]

It's occurred to me that what's happening might just we be inevitable. The wealthy bloodsucker class is going to get their way no matter what.

Looking at the republican campaign, I don't think it is unreasonable or kooky to conclude that they didn't really try. They threw it.
Of the five Dem candidates, the two that weren't DLC were destroyed politically. (I remember the big to-do about 'the scream'. I thought Dean was cool for doing that. I found it perplexing that he was suddenly excluded. But it was clear that the decision had been made.)
That left us with three DLC'ers to choose from. Kinda like the shell game; it doesn't matter which one you pick, you still lose your money.

Why? My guess is that they needed someone to pass legislation that dumb ass * couldn't. Some 'friendly fascism' to make it go down easier. 'They' being the ones on the receiving end of the trillions siphoned off the workers. When we get pissed and sit out elections, then the r's will win and then 'good cop' leaves and we are stuck with 'bad cop' again.

Is it just me? Has my potato been baking too long? Or do others see it too?

[laughingliberal]

1. I think it's been that way for a while

Some of us are slower than others. During the Clinton years (after '94) I didn't like the shift to the center but assumed it was due to the Republican Congress and Senate. Believed the things Clinton moved right on were necessary as trade offs for passing some parts of his agenda. After we took the House and Senate in '06 and not much changed I thought it was due to the * factor in the White House. It was just during the debate on health care this summer when I the actions of the President made no sense in light of what he had said he stood for despite the fact that he had majorities in the House and Senate that I realized they are all controlled by the same interests and it is stacked against us. I suppose that is what you'd call a rude awakening. I know others have been aware for some time but I guess I was just so busy busting my ass every day trying to make a living that I had not been able to pay enough attention to see the scam. I knew what corporate America was doing to us but did not know they had co-opted our party to the extent that they have.

[Goldstein1984]

3. laughingliberal, I'm not surprised to find you here

So, how to you, Edweird and I get people riled up enough to stay focused and make a difference?

On edit: typo

[laughingliberal]

11. I wish I had an answer for that

The only thing at my disposal is the truth and it took me til now for the blinders to come off completely. As I said, I kept buying that pragmatist meme til this summer when I saw what Obama did with the health care debate at a time that it could have been won. I had years of observing the behavior of corporations for whom I worked and it started to add up when I saw the complicity in the administration. I know I can't be the only one who had faith in President Obama who is seeing things differently now. The question is who can we reach? We can reach those who are where I was, who have not yet figured it out but will given enough facts. Those who believe the 'centrist consensus building' spin will not be reached until the damage to the nation gets worse. Others, I think, know exactly what is going on and agree with the agenda for whatever reason. Then, there are those with the football team mentality who really don't get it that policies made in Washington really, really do have an impact on their lives. If they haven't been impacted yet they don't see it and it's still just a sporting event.

As the pain of the economic policies begin to hit more people and the administration continues to favor Wall Street it is important to get the facts out there. MSM will participate in spinning some sham type 'reforms' of the financial systems. It's important to let people know the loopholes that are left in the policies for the big guys to slip through. Frank Rich's editorial about the impending investigation on the financial meltdown held some promise if this investigator doesn't turn out to be a sellout. If enough people in the public know what has been done to them and by whom it will be harder for the administration to avoid calling for real reform. Otherwise, I have no answers. More awareness on the part of the public is needed. Presenting the facts wherever there is an opportunity is a step. My fear, however, is people will be riled up and focused enough only after the pain reaches them. In other words, things may get a lot worse before enough people wake up and it may be too late before they do.

[Goldstein1984]

19. I couldn't have said it better

I've also worked for corporations, but an equal time as an environmental regulator, so I've seen the worst of corporate America from inside and out.

I don't know if you read my posts where I explained that my initial anti-Vietnam War activism at the age of 12 was really just an opportunity to tag along with my beautiful blond 16-year-old cousin and her gorgeous friend, which one person generously responded was as pure a motivation as any, but what I experienced affected me, and by 17 I was sneaking out of the house to help migrant farm workers strike. I spent 4.5 years in the Marine Corps, where I learned what I was capable of doing, along with gaining an ability to simulate respect.

I've always had the feeling that I was more of an insurgent than an employee, and I've rationalized my service to those that I truly despise by making financial contributions to organizations that promote my ideals. I've also told myself that I am learning, and that when I'm in a position of not depending on the corporations to help me take care of my family I will emerge as an enemy armed with years of knowledge gained while inside the system. That's what I tell myself. We'll see what reality holds.

Until that day, I've decided to do what I can to spread my ideas, via this forum and others, and to use my position in the company to do what I can for social and environmental justice.

The recent economic meltdown, and the driving home of what I already knew, combined with the investment in the future that my grandchildren have given me, have changed me. I was content to leave the Democratic Party ten years ago and vote on my principles as it drifted off to a place too close to the enemy. Now I see a corrupt two-party system as the enemy, the source of problems rather than solutions. I feel my militancy growing with each word I say or type, I get angrier every time I sit down to color or paint or read with my grandchildren and ask myself for what they will be able to use these skills. I find myself keeping them away from the television the way an inner city mother might take her children across the street to avoid prostitutes and drug pushers.

My disappointment with the President is deep, and my patience for compromising party apologist and personality cult loyalists is growing thin.

I don't know what I'm capable of, but I believe I've going to find out over the coming years. As you wrote, the system is going to get worse. How could it not? Our "leaders" are continuing with business as usual.

More than just the physical climate is changing. The social and political climate is also heating up, and it will bring another kind of storm.

[BeFree]

20. Welcome to the nightmare, you two

You've been corpo-raped but they used a condom so you weren't infected, but you did enjoy the intercourse, and the money, eh?

So now you've come to understand the powers that be which are arrayed against us, finally? That's good to know.

Now you'll see that being in the 'system' and changing it from the inside is the most successful?

Face it, you are in the system. Now GO and change it.

[Goldstein1984]

23. I've been warned by another DUer to be careful about how much

detail I provide, so pardon me if I am just a bit cryptic.

But I have long considered myself to be more of an insurgent than an employee. I've finally worked myself into a position where I get paid to just be there to offer advice and solve problems when needed, and I'm often asked just to sit in on meetings where my only job is to listen and then tell the Pres and VP what I think afterward. My areas of expertise are science and engineering, but I have many opportunities to influence our business practices and the welfare of our employees, which include indigenous peoples.

That said, I've come to the conclusion that no significant change can be generated from within the system. I'll continue to do my best, but real change must be demanded from outside.

I still enjoy the money, but so do the numerous groups that I support with that money. While my coworkers are going on two or three vacations a year, flying first class, living in 5000 sqft homes, buying boats, snow machines, four-wheelers, airplanes and expensive cars, I live modestly. I give NGOs the funds they need to speak truth to power; I put fuel in the tanks of the Sea Shepherd fleet; and I influence many young minds when I have the opportunity--I've created atheists where none were; I've turned corporate supporters into corporate skeptics; I raised three children who question authority (although not always the authority I would prefer they question); and I plan to have an even greater impact of at least two of my grandchildren. And when I write "I," I mean me and my wife and best friend of more than 30 years.

And I am preparing to be a full participant when the day comes, as the historian Howard Zinn says, when the people finally decide to create change by doing the only thing that history proves can make change happen, threatening to destroy the foundation upon which an unjust status quo is built.

I'm currently preparing to begin a PhD program in history, which I hope will be a new vehicle for my efforts.

[BeFree]

24. Smart

Keep details to a minimum.

But don't wait for the people. You are in a position to lead. Be responsible.

Go. The day is now.

[Goldstein1984]

25. Thanks

To quote my wife, a non-swimmer, when we were about to jump into the Caribbean for her first open water scuba dive: "Let's hold hands and go together."

We get teased about it, but we always dive holding hands--our "buddy system." We've been buzzed by barracuda and sharks, bumped by curious sea lions, and had our masks knocked off by 15-foot manta rays, but always hand-in-hand. Activism works best that way, too. "WE" shall overcome someday.

[laughingliberal]

26. I'm not in the system, anymore

and was never much in it. Worked as an RN for 25 years and was trapped working for the for profit hospital corporations as they took over the industry. I saw, early, that once we moved from a mostly not for profit system to a for profit system my employers goals and mine diverged wildly. I saw that my goal of providing good patient care was no where on their radar screen. I saw that even the threat of lawsuits no longer scared them very much-that it was cheaper for them to pay a few lawsuits off than to hire adequate staffing. I had little power to change things but did what I could in the institutions for which I worked. Learned to hand them a form called 'accepting assignment under duress.' and asked to have it placed in my personnel file. What this meant was that I felt the assignment to be unsafe for a stated reason-either pulled to an area for which I was not trained or staffing levels were unsafe (more often the case as I was the floor supervisor and not generally pulled). What this did was it put the institution on notice that I was expressing my willingness to do my part to meet patient needs (because refusing the assignment was cause for termination) but that I considered the assignment unsafe. Legally, it did not decrease my liability a bit as an RN is always responsible for her own practice but it did raise the liability of the institution to the same level as mine. Without it they would just have claimed they were never told anything was wrong about the assignment (he said/she said) and I, had something gone wrong, would have been hung out to dry. Once that form was in my file, they were as liable for any mistakes I or my staff made as we were. 100% of the time when I handed them that form, I got more staff up on that floor. Now, they pulled them from other floors, I'm sure, where the supervisors weren't militants but it was about all I had at my disposal. These days I'm unemployed but I try to educate nurses I know on how to fight the power in these death factories. And I try to educate the public about the problems with the industry that there might, someday, be a public outcry to reform this system. We see how far we got with that in HCR.

[Edweird]

5. I'm 39, but I've only been politically aware for less than a decade.

I've spent most of my life just trying to survive and stay out of jail... and hook up :)
In 2000 I supported Gore, but wasn't invested heavily in it. After watching the destruction wrought by the chimpenfurher, I realized that I needed to start paying more attention. So did a lot of other people as well. So here we are, majorities in both houses of congress and a president that campaigned on 'change'.....

[Goldstein1984]

10. I'm 53, and I was an activist already at 12

But, as I explained in another post, I was active because I had a beautiful blond 16-year-old cousin and her friend who let me tag along to war protests with them. Five years later I was sneaking out of my Republican father's double-wide trailer to join the farm workers striking across the street--a lot of lettuce and tomatoes rotted in the fields that summer. Out of economic necessity and a lack of imagination, I went establishment in 1975 and joined the Marine Corps.

I got active again in college after the Marines, but then took a break during the late 80s and 90s to raise three children and do a few other things.

I worked for Williams Energy in 2002 when they helped support the attempted coup against Hugo Chavez. It pissed me off, and my activism has been growing since.

[laughingliberal]

12. I was an activist at 12

My parents were working in the civil rights movement in Memphis. I met MLK 2 days before he was killed. That, and the assassination of Bobby Kennedy affected me profoundly. By 14, I was meeting with leaders of the SDS and the Weathermen to try and establish stronger presences in Memphis. I spent time at anti-war rallies and rallies for women's rights. I stayed involved in Democratic politics at the local level until nursing school. After that school and then work took all my time and energy. I did participate in primaries and worked some on campaigning for Democrats but was unaware of the direction our party was taking. The theft of the 2000 election woke me up again. I was aware, during the 80's of our atrocities in South America and did work to defeat Republicans. Now, I'm not sure how to move the Democrats back to the left or if its even possible.

I was aware of our participation in the attempted coup against Chavez and it really pissed me off, too. I am even more pissed off that a change of parties in power does not seem to have brought sanity to our policies in Central and South America and I am alarmed that most people are not at all aware anything is going on down there. I'm also pissed off about the coup in Honduras and that we did not demand the restoration of the democratically elected president. But why would we? We didn't demand the president we elected in 2000 be instated, either.

Am interested in your opinion on the real state of our country right now. The fact that they are stealing us blind and the lawmakers are not really even bothering to hide it from us anymore makes me wonder how far we really are from failed state status. I can't get it out of my head that we are on the verge of being Argentina in the 90's. Any thoughts on that? Would be interested to hear them.

That's it for me, tonight. Have to get up in the morning and go do an estimate on restoring a dining room suit.

[Goldstein1984]

21. My opinion of "the real state of our country right now" is

that we are a nation of peasants that will soon be learning that fact. We are ruled by an economic elite working it's will through a political elite. Through an accident of history, the political elite must pass through the gauntlet of public opinion to obtain a position of power and take their places among the oligarchs, but money ensures that the right people take those places, and once in power only a tiny fraction still listens to the people.

Our economic elite, and to a lesser extent the political elite who serve them, use nationalism and patriotism to manipulate the people. They themselves have no allegiance to any nation state or culture, except the global culture of wealth and power. The United States, our system of government, our culture, and our people mean no more to the elite than an exploited field means to a plague of locusts--they will move on once they have exhausts the resource.

The belief that our democratic republic was somehow distinct from the perpetual state of war between the classes--between the few and the many--was an illusion.

The state of our country is decay--economic, political and cultural.

[Goldstein1984]

2. Already unrecced to

I liked the scream, too. Would love to see Dr. Dean back in the picture for the primaries.

If you're saying that maybe things need to get worse so that people will be pissed off enough to make things better instead of settling for a watered down version of bad, then yes, I see it too.

I'm seeing the anger we need in more and more posts and news articles. I was listening to podcast of Bill Moyer interviewing Howard Zinn this morning, and Zinn said something that rang 100% true to me. He said that Power never gives anything willingly, it has to be a demand. Expecting to create change by working within a system designed to perpetuate itself is folly. The only way to force change is to rise up and threaten to destroy the foundation of the system upon which the elite rely for survival.

We live in an economic system, with a GDP based 70% on consumption. What could be easier than stopping all non-essential consumption--food, fuel and clothing; no movies, video games, eating out, durable goods, vacations, iPods, new cars when the old one still runs, over-sized homes...

You know you're going to be unrecced down to DU Hell, don't you?

Rec.

[Edweird]

6. Honestly, I don't know what the solution is.

I'm not even clear on exactly what the problem is yet.

Unrec's? I fart in their general direction.

[Goldstein1984]

9. I'm still defining the problem, myself.

But I'm pretty sure that it has a lot to do with money, who has it, and who doesn't.

[Jim Sagle]

4. I see it. So do many others. I believe they want us ALL to see it.

I sense we're at a stage where they're rubbing our noses in it, to offically break us down, humiliate us and compel us to yield up our rights as citizens and accept the yoke of serfdom. It's a quickly accelerating process, and part of the process is letting us know all about it.

[Edweird]

7. I can definitely see that.

They don't seem to be trying very hard to conceal it right now.

[TheKentuckian]

8. K&R corporate communisim is the law of this land

Sure, its boardrooms instead of the Kremlin but it works out the same for the people, get in line and take what we give you without grumbling.

[Raine]

13. EXACTLY nt

[midnight]

14. No your potato has not been baking to long....

[GreenMetalFlake]

15. the two (one) party ruse has been the essential component to this for decades

[DisgustedInMN]

16. K & R

[BigBearJohn]

17. IMHO, the most sobering and accurate post on all of DU. However, its state of incredibility creates

its best invisibility.

But here's a REC anyway. I wonder how many people here can handle the truth.
Most want to believe the Wizard of Oz really DOES exist.

[Lerkfish]

18. the only way to displace entrenched power is by applying equal or greater power

because entrenched power will never altruistically step aside.

[Stinky The Clown]

22. You're potato is not even done yet, let alone overcooked.

[Kablooie]

27. I think they wanted a Democrat to clean up Bush's mess and get the blame.