I just can't help but fear that things have gone horribly wrong.

[ThomWV]

There is great change afoot. And so far in its way it seems to be the sort of change I have wanted to see for a long time.

But I have a very uneasy feeling. Back in 2008 I wanted to see change. I voted for it. And maybe its coming now. But I wanted it to happen because of my vote, not despite it. So I don't feel so good about the people being out in the streets. I voted for people who were to make OWS unnecessary, and where did that go?

[EOTE]

1. Unfortunately, our votes haven't meant very much for a while.

I'm just happy to see that change might be coming, I really don't care from where it comes.

[EstimatedProphet]

2. OWS was never going to be unnecessary

There is no way any politician would make the vast sweeping changes we need to make the country work for the people again. And OWS is just beginning. It needs to go much, much farther to do any good at all.

[Blue Meany]

10. Agreed, and add to that the likelihood, given the Citizen's United

decision and the voter suppression that is being organized by Repbulican-dominated legislatures now, we may have a president pushing in precisely the opposite direction that we need to be going. If so, it is hard to see any way to avoid civil unrest in the near future.

[FrenchieCat]

3. Real Change = Many people

Real Change > than just 1 person

[asjr]

4. It is hard not to feel uneasy. When the SCOTUS

chose our president for us in 2000 we should have known we were in for a mess of trouble. And no matter how hard I try to keep up a happy demeanor I simply see a mess of voting machines being manipulated from someone in another place. When the media give miles and miles of coverage for the "other" party and we really get none it is not heartening. Those people out in the streets diserve our good wishes and support. They are doing it for all of us.

[MADem]

5. Look to Congress. There's your answer. They are not responsive to We, The People. NT

[BR_Parkway]

18. Especially the Senate - the House from 2008-10 delivered a ton for us

and the Senate shredded it with their Lieberman needing, blue dog appeasing members.

[WhiteTara]

6. Too bad the vote didn't hold in 2010. If it had

we wouldn't be out in the street.

[Avalux]

7. If you think there will ever be a time in our history without the need for protests, think again.

Voting to put someone in office is only part of what we need to do as a people. Even if our guy gets in office, we have a duty to continue to work hard to make sure things don't go off the rails. There will always be those trying to usurp power and oppress the people.

The right to assembly; the right to gather in a public place, is crucial to the survival of this country. Without it, we have no power. Complacency is our enemy, as we're finding out.

[AndyTiedye]

8. We Had Even More People Out in the Streets in 2003

The media is quite capable of ignoring protests, no matter how large they are.

[lunatica]

12. Those protests were very different

They were one day protests against Bush's wars and we were ignored.

This is very different. The protests now are prolonged ones where people stay for howeveer long it takes. The Arab Spring taught us we have to go and occupy their edifices and get in their faces. Today's protesters are making the media irrelevant since the media abdicated it's prime directive.

[Bonhomme Richard]

9. We all know what can happen when serious money is involved. n/t

[Angry Dragon]

11. Torches and Pitchforks to the front

it is the only words they understand

[Speck Tater]

13. If voting could change anything the real powers that be would have already outlawed it. nt

[dtexdem]

14. I don't fear that things have gone horribly wrong --

I know that they've gone horribly wrong.

[tinkerbell41]

15. Well I do remember him saying

We have to make him do it! Hold his feet to the fire.I always wondered about that, why we still had to push. I mean we elected someone who we thought would do what we put him there to do. Maybe this is what was meant. I honestly don't believe this could have happened 8 yrs ago in the climate. Let alone 4 yrs ago.

[Atypical Liberal]

16. There are two alternatives.

1) President Obama was being honest with his expressed vision but got into office and discovered that he could not actually do the things he wanted to do.

2) It was all a bunch of BS to get elected.

I hold out hope for #1, but that is not very comforting.

[Autumn]

19. Looking back, I pick the second option

It gets clearer as it goes on.

[louslobbs]

17. Corporate votes/wall street votes (bribes), have been taking precedent over the votes of We the

People now for way too long. Since both parties actually do the bidding of, and enabling of, the corporations in order to get their campaign donations (bribes)to maintain their power, and since no one seemed to be listening to the e-mails, phone calls, petitions and the cries (screams in some cases) for help from the 99% of us, we were left no other choice, but to finally come together and take to the streets. We lost our jobs, we lost our savings, we lost our selfworth, we lost our health insurance, we lost our homes....we, the 99% just kept losing and losing, while those at the top kept gaining and gaining.......and taking and taking. Until the corporations are out of the policy writing, election bribing and lobbying business, and until elections can no longer be rigged so that every vote counts and can be verified with a paper trail, until the disenfranchisement of "certain" voter groups stop, until the gerrymandering and unfair redistricting stops, until the caging and other election crimes stop, until corporations go back to "not being people," and until ALEC and the Koch brother types stop their secret meetings (where they create policy that benefits themselves, that is then pushed into law by their bought and paid for government operatives), we will have no choice but to stay in the streets to fight for our own futures. I too voted back in 2008 for change, unfortunately, the corruption of our government by the corporations and the rich and powerful 1%, was too entrenched to be stopped by our votes alone. As I said, we were forced into the streets, and now that we have been forced to take this stand, we must continue to do so, and move forward in greater and greater numbers, and not back down until tax fairness and legitimate "shared sacrifice," is given to those of us who are no longer asking for it, but demanding it. It is the only way I believe, to take back our government from the one percent who for too long now, have taken control of it and have been acting as if it belonged only to them. The rich and powerful, the corporations, the corporate owned media and all of their operatives, have been using our government to continue enriching themselves and their powerful friends while doing unthinkable and unconscionable harm to the 99% of us. Since no one was hearing us, we the 99% were forced to do the inevitable. Power to we the people, we the 99%, and may the power be given to a future America where those in positions of power, defend the US Constitution, rather than defending the Grover Norquist Constitution of no taxes ever and tax cuts forever for the rich, a future America where those in positions of power believe in and follow "the rule of law," and an America where shared sacrifice doesn't mean sacrificing the lives of the poor and middle class in order to further enrich those at the top, but a shared sacrifice which means that those at the top pay their fair share in taxes, that corporate welfare is ended, that tax loopholes for the wealthy are closed, and that regulations are put back in to place that will never again allow wall street and the banks, the opportunity to engage in criminal activity that without regulations, allowed some to commit frauds that made them and their friends filthy rich, but nearly destroyed the global economy and in fact did destroy millions of American lives.
Lou

[LondonReign2]

20. Paragraph breaks are your friend

n/t

[louslobbs]

21. I have all the friends I need thank you. n/t

Lou

[Fire Walk With Me]

22. "Yes, WE Can"

:hi:

[RagAss]

23. The streets have a way of bringing out truth. From Bunker Hill to Wall Street !!!!!