Subscribe to Common Dreams News Updates
Most Popular This Week
Popular content
Today's Top News
Who Will Harness the Rage?
Ever since the economy crashed and the government paid hundreds of billions of dollars to bail out the fat-cats who were responsible, a populist rage has been seething away across the country.
Home values have collapsed, more than two million homes have been foreclosed on, retirement nest eggs are decimated, seven million jobs have been lost. Hard-won feelings of financial security now seem like a distant memory. The economy is turning around, they say, but where are the jobs? And what about all the money that's been lost?
Meanwhile, not only have the bankers and Wall Street financiers who caused this mess avoided accountability, they've actually been rewarded -- the biggest among them being told that no matter what they do, they can buy their way out of trouble with a seemingly endless supply of taxpayer dollars.
This summer, we've seen one possible pathway for the nation's angry populism -- one that exhibits many of the worst behaviors of disgruntled Americans throughout history. The birthers, deathers, town hallers and tea-baggers are paranoid and irrational and more than a little racist. They're also being cynically used by corporate-funded demagogues who are lining their own pockets as well as those of their masters. As Tom Edsall reported for the Huffington Post this week, this is all giving the GOP high hopes for 2010.
But as the nation heads into a spirited debate over the proper role of financial regulation in the coming weeks, the formidable resentments of the American middle class -- for whom the crash was basically a big exclamation point after three decades of downward mobility -- could also be channeled in a more constructive and hopeful direction.
It's self-evident to pretty much everyone not on Wall Street or Capitol Hill that the nation's financial laws need some serious reform, particularly when it comes to corporate governance, reining in outrageous bonuses and salaries, adopting rules that stop fat-cats from taking dangerously overleveraged risks with the taxpayers as their backstop, and protecting the consumer from deceptive practices. The meting out of a little punishment to the irresponsibly greedy wouldn't hurt, either.
All of which makes the time ripe for a grassroots reform movement.
But one thing that's become abundantly clear during the health-care debate is that you can't count on President Obama to lead a populist revolt. His impulse is to find common ground, not grab a pitchfork, and that's especially true when it comes to his approach to people who make a lot of money. And even if he wanted to, his credibility to lead such a movement has been terribly undermined by his role in bailing out the banks and the big auto companies.
So who will lead? And how many people will join in?
When it comes to moving aggressive financial regulation through Capitol Hill, a pro-reform grassroots movement is going to have be enormously successful indeed to offset the extraordinary lobbying muscle of the banks who, as Senator Dick Durbin so famously said, own the place. Without hearing an awful lot of threats from constituents, swing votes -- particularly the so-called "moderate" Democrats -- are likely to find the possible loss of financial support from their banker bankrollers considerably more terrifying than a few angry voters.
72 Comments so far
Show AllYour needless swipe at the auto industry is duly noted. I grow weary of people who are unable to connect the dots. The banking and insurance industry do not make the pie any bigger. They help divide the pie and take a hefty chunk for themselves. Manufacturers in this country make the pie bigger for everyone and as they fall, we are seeing people all over the country suffer. The vast majority of bailout money was directed at banks and insurance companies. Little was directed towards our manufacturing base and many Americans seem to be oblivious to this fact.
We need to nationalize the banking and insurance industries in this country. Medicare for all would be a great start. Tax breaks and government support for American manufacturers would be a great start in terms of making America productive again and replacing the jobs we have lost. Unfortunately, many Americans don't understand these basic facts and your article does nothing to educate them.
WE are in agreement except for two things, I believe many Americans understand exactly that. Its this administration and the folks behind them that want to direct money to certain parties.
The other is nationalizing any industry. Simply leads to inefficency, more corruption and even more profits to the elites.
But you understand and we agree that without our manufacturing base, without jobs that pay decent wages and Single Payer health care we are in big trouble. Jobs are the only solution and manufacturing is the only thing that brings decent pay and employing only Americans will keep that pay from being depressed.
Your analysis of the article was kind.
You roll out the old chestnut that government is inefficient and corrupt and I disagree. Even Adam Smith realized that government needed to play a critical role in the proper operation of society. A solid financial infrastructure is not the realm of private enterprise. This is analogous to our current interstate highway system. Should we entrust the highway system to private enterprise? Which company could do it better than the government? Should we have toll booths every five miles? In the same way, the banking system is the highway system of our industry. It has become clotted with toll booths and profiteering with total disregard for the common good of the nation. I view insurance as nothing more than an extension of this system.
When I look at successful insurance programs in this country, I see two that stand head and shoulders above the rest. That would be SS and Medicare. The reason the insurance companies admitted that they can not compete against government insurance is the fact that there is no dichotomy of profit motive and common good. When I look for the worst the insurance industry has to offer, I look at auto insurance in this country. Through government mandated purchase of private services and goods, we have seen "no fault insurance" cause a frenzy of price gauging and corruption. We are literally captive consumers and the result has been disastrous.
"You roll out the old chestnut that government is inefficient and corrupt"
Maybe....but the darn thing keeps growing!(lol)
You mistake my statement. Government has roles at the National, State and Local levels that ONLY government can fill. An excellen example we have in Texas was the attempted privitization of Health and Human Services. It has been and still is a disaster. Our HHS was one of the best, winning bonus money every year for their efficiency and service to clients. Now, they are half staffed, inefficient no matter what they do.
Highways, defense, SS, Medicare, social services like Medicaid, oversight and regulation of the economic sector are things that only the government should be concernened in. Look at Blackwater and Haliburton for examples of trying to mix the private sector with government in areas where only the government should ever be involved.
"In the same way, the banking system is the highway system of our industry. It has become clotted with toll booths and profiteering with total disregard for the common good of the nation."
Absolutely. And thats my point, those Banks should have failed and the depoisters should have been made good as is the governments responsibility and the investors and executives lose their butts....its called risk. Instead we have the government in the Private sector making a mess saving the very folks that should have lost. And now those same folks are back doing the same thing.
Its either government or private sector, you can't mix the two withourt bad results (there are a few exceptions I'm sure). Thats why the Health plans proposed by the idiots in Congress please no one. They reward the same folks again.
The only answer in that area is Single payer. But we won't get that. Pelosiy and Waxman have buried that chance with their stupidity.
All insurance should be sold across state lines, that would solve a lot of those problems. All.
"Through government mandated purchase of private services and goods, we have seen "no fault insurance" cause a frenzy of price gauging and corruption. We are literally captive consumers and the result has been disastrous."
Again my point. When the government starts "mandating" things rather than doing their oversight and regulation, they make disasters. Its almost axiomatic.
"Maybe....but the darn thing keeps growing!(lol)"
Not as fast as the ARMED FORCES, Mr. Henry8 Selctive Defecit Syndrome king. So when are we going to get rid of those large, inefficient government programs called the Army ,Navy, Air Force and Marines? Every state could have their own REAL state national guard and would guard their own turf and join with other states only if the union was attacked.
Oh, I see... It's more "efficient" to have just "one" large armed force. You need help. You need to take a LONG VACATION FROM THE KEYBOARD. YOUR FLAGRANT CONTRADICTIONS are embarrasing to all of us who recently thought you were intelligent and balanced. Perhaps you are really a group of people posting under one handle. That would certainly explain your ubiquitous postings.
Don't feed the republican trolls, folks. I'm done with you, Henry8, mr. group of frauds.
THe only contradictions you see are the ones you want to make up.
You simply either cannot read or don't know the difference in different subjects. Consider....you seem to be the only one that sees what you say you see. Should tell you something.
I'll not comment on your posts and you can reciprocate.
However, I believe you have nade a great choice. Just ignore my posts, good on ys. mate.
Troll? Really kid........
Bye.
"Not as fast as the ARMED FORCES, Mr. Henry8 Selctive Defecit Syndrome king."
Where did Henry8 say that we need to increase defense spending? He has called for reducing military spending on this site. He may not be as zealous about it but he does support it.
"Every state could have their own REAL state national guard and would guard their own turf and join with other states only if the union was attacked."
You still need a national government to keep the states together.
"You need to take a LONG VACATION FROM THE KEYBOARD. YOUR FLAGRANT CONTRADICTIONS are embarrasing to all of us who recently thought you were intelligent and balanced."
Stop this name-calling at once. He may not agree with everything but that doesn't mean he's not intelligent or balanced. He's not contradicting anything. He is against bailing out the banks and thought they should have failed. He may sound libertarian but he does not like it when governments go inefficient on the one hand and then on the other hand play puppet to the banks.
"Perhaps you are really a group of people posting under one handle. That would certainly explain your ubiquitous postings."
That kind of name calling is sophomoric at best. How do you know that he's really posting under one handle? You don't and until you can actually prove it, you are making up an accusation and possible slander. Disagree with him but don't resort to slander. What are you trying to do, pull an Ann Coulter?
"Don't feed the republican trolls, folks. I'm done with you, Henry8, mr. group of frauds."
He's not a Republican at all. He may say that Republicans will most likely win and maybe he's right but didn't you say that you are against Democrats as well? Why not just say "Democrat and Republican trolls" ? Why pick on one party when you can pick on both as an independent? Did you even read what he actually wrote?
Spot on, Lefty.
Not long ago, Angela Merkel was asked why Germany was in better shape, financially, than the U.S., and she replied, "Because we still make things."
Lefty: "I grow weary of people who are unable to connect the dots." So do I, and no one is talking about about the manufacturing base in this country, and the fact that we don't produce much beyond weapons of various types.
The other day, I read that Obama, or one of his representatives, was over in Spain talking to European manufacturers about making light rail cars, etc., for the U.S. This country should be making these light rail cars right here in the U.S. -- if the article, in fact, is true. After all, we have empty factories and millions of people who are jobless.
This administration doesn't seem to be able to take concrete action on any issue, and that doesn't bode well for "we the people."
Poor Angela! I hear she still suffers from recurring PTSD nightmares reminiscent of "Nightmare on Elm Street". No matter where she runs, and even when she backs into a corner or wall, she can feel the handlebar-horny talons of Dubya sliding over her shoulders and deep into her bodice.
Lately, Laura Bush has been appearing in the dreams and urging Merkel to WAKE UP!
· Yr Obd't Servant
The Global Network (www.space4peace.org) talks a lot about the fact that the number one product of the USA is weapons, and the number one export of the USA is military weapons, and the need to convert the economy to manufacture light rail and high-speed rail and renewable energy.
Visit and support and join the Global Network! Work to promote the concept of conversion from a military economy!
Since you mentioned pie...
All our current difficulties obviously stem from an unwillingness to heed the words of George W. Bush, who urged us all to "make the pie higher."
Mr. Froomkin, thank you for having a heart and understanding the misplaced and misdirected anger of a growing number of left outs in this nation. I would also have to thank Henry8 and maxpayne for showing their bizarre symptoms of anger and outrage and I understand them. I do not support some of their socially moderate to conservative positions but I think I understand where that anger is coming from.
Obama is "brave" but only for the corporate interests which I used to underestimate about him. He's a total coward for the working class and won't even share crumbs of the pie but illusions of them as I see it.
Some people insist that Ralph Nader wouldn't have been able to do anything even if he were to win and that I strongly disagree on. There's plenty of evidence from his past record to prove that he would have been a real leader capitalizing on public outrage and reining in Wall $treet and not Main Street. He would not have told the voters to "make me do it" and then play kissyface with the corporate/military/religious interests. He would have fought to remove the Patriot Act and in the process cut down on racial profiling. He wouldn't keep the same Dubya yesmen in charge. He also wouldn't be bullying Congress into voting on more war spending while "leaving it to Congress" to fudge health care reform for Big Insurance/Pharma. Nader would have also allocated more time to revisit and redo trade policies and wage a class war against the "free" trade zealots and force fair trade for all while also rewarding local growth and opportunities instead of allowing the rurals to depopulate into depressing rustbelts.
"Some people insist that Ralph Nader wouldn't have been able to do anything even if he were to win and that I strongly disagree on. There's plenty of evidence from his past record to prove that he would have been a real leader capitalizing on public outrage and reining in Wall $treet and not Main Street. He would not have told the voters to "make me do it" and then play kissyface with the corporate/military/religious interests. He would have fought to remove the Patriot Act and in the process cut down on racial profiling. He wouldn't keep the same Dubya yesmen in charge. He also wouldn't be bullying Congress into voting on more war spending while "leaving it to Congress" to fudge health care reform for Big Insurance/Pharma. Nader would have also allocated more time to revisit and redo trade policies and wage a class war against the "free" trade zealots and force fair trade for all while also rewarding local growth and opportunities instead of allowing the rurals to depopulate into depressing rustbelts." -- Jennifer
Jennifer: I just had this very argument with one of my friends, and I agree with you! Nader would do the arm-twisting, and get things done. Some of our elected officials, who are progressive, and actually do represent their constituents, would find themselves with a real voice in their respective chambers. Others might find their voices -- if someone was really interested in doing the leading.
I have said it before, Obama reminds me more of a manager, than of a leader. When he spoke on Wall Street the other day, and his so-called stern words chastized the banksters, seeming to demand new regulation, not one of the big bankers showed up to hear him. That, to me, says it all! To them, Obama is irrelevant. They've already refilled their coffers, and they are off to the races to rake in even more $$s.
Of course, like you, Jennifer, I did not vote for Obama. I voted for Nader.
I voted for Cynthia McKinney of the Green Party last November, it was obvious that Obama was just another corporate CONSERVADEM, and his vote in support of TELECOM immunity was edifying indeed. What's odd to me is that the Democratic Party nominated an accommodationist instead of a fighter (Kucinich or Edwards) and now these same Dems are annoyed he's not a fighter. Go figure.
"What's odd to me is that the Democratic Party nominated an accommodationist instead of a fighter (Kucinich or Edwards) and now these same Dems are annoyed he's not a fighter. Go figure." -- One Marxist
I agree with you! I was stunned that many of my friends didn't catch on when Obama cast his TELECOM vote. I also kept telling my friends that he was intent upon escalating the war in Afghanistan. However, this messenger was greeted with silence.
I remember when Kucinich won one of the debates, and I was heartened by that fact. But, afterwards, he found himself even more marginalized!
I'm glad to hear that you voted for Cynthia McKinney. I have a great respect for her! I think she spoke, as did Kucinich, at almost every anti-war protest I attended in D.C., NYC, Boston and Philadelphia -- prior to the invasion of Iraq, as well as those protests that followed.
Mckinney wasn't on the MO ballot but I was prepared to write her in if I had chosen her. Both she and Nader were awesome. I'm glad Mckinney survived that Israel hell and made it back to the states. With all the marginalization going on, I wonder if we'll be stuck having to rely on unexpected allies like Beck and Paul. Oh God help us !
McKinney is fearless! Amy Goodman reported on her arrest in Israel, and I remember thinking that she is, without a doubt, one of the bravest people there is. However, she is a danger to the establishment -- as is Ralph.
Congratulations to everyone who voted third party in the Nov 2008 elections. I bet it made your bosses smirk like the chimp.
Boss?
What boss?
What job?
If I had a boss, why would I share that information with him, or her?
Progressives need to understand that there's no margin in voting for anyone that's a product of the Democratic National Party. Dr. Hunter S. Thompson correctly noted in 1972 that the biggest obstacle to progressive reform is the Democratic Party. Noam Chomsky likewise calls the Democratic and Republican Parties the two branches of the BUSINESS Party. Gore Vidal is in concurrence as well along with all of those paying attention.
Meanwhile, corporate Dems like Obama get labeled as 'socialist' (yeah right, we should be so lucky) so that when his policies fail, and fail they will, the media portrays that as a FAILURE of progressive policy. And much of the population, believing there's no other alternative, decides to give the fascist in all but name Republican Party another chance to do yet even more damage.
We need to break this cycle if there's ever going to be any meaningful change of the morally bankrupt status quo. Unfortunately, the D.C. corporate establishment media is a full partner in this fiasco, and can be counted on to give consistently dishonest narratives to those citizens that aren't especially cognizant of the process. I'm sorry to report the prognosis looks quite bleak.
I agree with your post! It's looking very bleak here in the U.S.A.
Marxist, good analysis.
Some people would say we should run for office but I can't be so sure. In my case, not wanting to get too involved with money and my lack of being political in foreign policy matters appears to be the real barrier. Perhaps I'd only be lucky to make it to state levels but I still don't know. Being left out because one is not corrupt could lead one's constituent's to question their "social skills". There's so much to really think about before running.
I agree -- running for office is not in my plans. Raising the money to run, would be a problem for me, too -- and raising enough money to win, has to be one of the corrupting factors of our political system.
Have you listened to Anthony Weiner from Brooklyn? He is speaking out wherever he can find a medium. However, he isn't my Representative, Charlie Rangel is.
In fact, Bill Maher had Representative Weiner on his show, and Weiner talked about single-payer as the best health care option, etc. He even went so far as to criticize Obama, saying he has made several mistakes. Even Bill Maher is continuing to speak out for single-payer health care.
One voice at a time!
Jennifer is right, as usual. Don’t waste time organizing to try to make the Dem party, which has real power, act in the people’s interest. Recognize that this is impossible. Vote third party so Dems are voted out of office. Don’t even think about Supreme Court appointments and such. Really, everything will be much better if progressives all vote third party.
"The birthers, deathers, town hallers and tea-baggers are paranoid and irrational and more than a little racist."
And here comes another to suggest its racism, that all those folks are nuts. Keep on thinking that, its a fools paradise to suppose people are the way you want them to be or what you say they are. The heights of arrogance.
Lets judge all the Progressives and Liberals by the actions of the Code Pinkers, thats just about as intelligent.
Do none of these people speak to ordinary Americans, ever leave their little group, leave their campus? Do they only watch MSNBC and listen to NPR?
No Obama won't be taking charge of the anger and populism in America, he is generating more of it.
I understand the anger of the protesters. You may call them all racists because you do not see many minorities at these protests, but that does not solve anything. I would like to see the progressives come up with some way to make these protests their own, because we have just as much anger as the tea baggers (albeit for different reasons) and it would be very difficult to call progressives racists and once the American people realize we are ALL being screwed by our government that is for the rich; by the rich; and of the rich; regardless of political affliation, real change could be nascent.
But no one, or few, are calling "them all racists." There is an element of racism which has disturbingly emerged in their protests, drawing attention to itself. And as for progressives making "these protests their own," how would that be possible? For would the emphasis come from the left or the right at such united combo rallies?
How come the birthers, deathers, town hallers, tea baggers never seem to be upset about the endless wars this country is perpetrating? The MIC could be retooled to build instruments of change (mass transit, wind, solar, etc.) which would have a lasting effect on infrastructure and jobs.
Sure the system is corrupt from the top to the bottom and needs a massive overhaul. But the sheeple are ruled via mis-
direction. The source of the healthcare crisis is not the insurance industry, but the manufacturers of foodlike substances, and nutritionaly deficient quick fix sense gratifiers, and their pushers. Corporate greed, alive and well and destroying lives near you. When people are blown to bits here in Amerika, oh the outrage! Oh the humanity! But blow them up in some dusty far-away land....well, we need the jobs. And we ARE making the world safe for democracy. Bull crap! The hypocrisy and evil stink to high heaven.
We need rage alright. And action. But are you going to change the mind set of the world's biggest bully with little pin pricks? Something much more fundamental will be required. Something like a spiritual renassance, world wide, brought on no doubt by some catastrophy of unimaginable
proportions.
You can't stop what's coming.....
I think the answer to your opening question is that we are, as a society, mentally ill. I'm serious. Mental illness is usually described as a behavioral aberration from a societal 'norm', but what if the society itself, in terms of its values and behavior, would be, by any other measure, considered mentally ill? I think it can be argued that throughout history numerous societies have exhibited aberrant behavior and the US from...well, use the starting point of your choice, is and has been behaving in an aberrant manner.
An excellent point. Looking at history, the collapse of great societies always comes from within. This one appears to be no exception.
Great society is a relative term. This is normally defined by the amount of raping, pillaging and exploitation you can perform on other people. I didn't write the history books so don't blame me.
Big cyber warrior like yourself should saddle up the Palimino and head over to the Pentagon to do some "neck snappin", save that Turtle Island.
Thanks Lefty. I do get tired of the big cyber warriors.
"It's karma coming in for a quick snap of the neck and bye bye Gringolandia, hello Native Americans trying to save Turtle Island."
Nice to see you again, lucky.
I think you overestimate the 'quick snap of the neck'. More likely it will be a slow, sure, strangulation at the hands of strangers. And the ultimate outcome is still uncertain.
As for 'hello Native Americans trying to save Turtle Island' - a dream of salvation - it's a common delusion among the dispossessed, and a viable survival strategy only as long as it remains a dream. It's the Native American equivalent of the Jews waiting for the messiah - which, by the way, they still are.
Native Americans can't go back. In fact, most of the Native Americans I know (yes I do know quite a few) are so hypnotized by Christianity that they can't or won't go back. Funny how that happened - many, many Native Americans now worshiping the 'gods' (the apparently stronger magic) of their 'conquerers' and tormenters. Funny how superstition works. Funny too, how in your belicose, race-baiting way you so casually display the rage you accuse others of exhibiting.
Sticks and stones, lucky, sticks and stones.
My, my, how unrequited bitterness corrupts a soul. You see nothing in 'gringoland' because you are blinded by your own hatred. In your appalling hatred and ignorance you now mindlessly flail at people you don't even know. Silly boy. Go back to your imaginary Turtle Island, lucky. Live in your silly, fantasmagorical aboriginal dream. It's far better than to face the real world, isn't it?
Actually, lucky, you're the center of my universe.
'Castrated Native friends?' Nice one, lucky. Sounds like you've become what you claim to despise. How deliciously ironic.
But in a way, I agree with you. Every Native who adopts Christianity is a traitor to his history; they should rather die contesting that which defeated them - like I would do; and like you do, lucky. Oh, I forgot, you didn't fight what defeated you, you ran away. Sorry, sport. I forgot.
If you see complacency in my posts, you are deceived by your own blindness. What you castigate as complacency is merely the wisdom of knowing the arc of my power, the extent of my reach. What do you do to change things other than blame others and complain about your impotence? My guess is nothing.
You know, I sometimes get weary reading and responding to posts by shitheads like you who have nothing to offer but unfocused anger - but in your case, I'll make the sacrifice. But if you expressed your heart-felt anger with some fragment of elegance, or wit, you might, at least, have the saving grace of being entertaining. As it is you're posts come across as being just childish and boring; and your solution to your perceived 'problems' seems to be only the coward's one: to run away and throw stones at your betters. Well, good luck with that, lucky. And don't forget to take your meds.
"Well, for a peaceful, non-bellicose guy you sure managed to pull a vicious rave and rant out of your back pocket, buster!"
I never claimed to be either peaceful or non-bellicose. How you got that impression is beyond me. I fight back. I don't run away. That makes one of us.
"And it was completely cut and pasted from all the traditional internet forum insults written by folks who have been nailed with their pants down."
You keep boasting about some victory over your antagonists, friend lucky, but I've yet to see any evidence of it save your own empty braggadocio.
"I am now a shit-head who should take my meds?"
If, in fact, your posts exhibit your true character and view of the world then yes, you are at least a shithead - meds optional.
"If that's the best argument you can come up with to refute my argument, if I had more compassion to spare, I would pity you."
What argument would that be? That my Native friends are 'castrated'? That there is only complacency in the US? Or that everybody in the US is scum? That you gloat at the thought of the demise of 350 million individuals? Those are hardly arguments. They are only juvenile insults. Have someone explain to you what an 'argument' actually is and how it is different from an insult. I already know the difference. Actually, I would prefer to argue issues with you, but find you intellectually and emotionally unprepared for such an exercise. So I will resign myself to merely poking fun at you, who so richly deserve the ridicule.
"But instead, I show you the bottom of my moccasin, bullyboy--which in this case happens to be a huarache."
Empty insult, amigo. Moccasin or huarache, there is a hole in its sole as big as you have in your own poor soul. And what you experience as bullying is merely the weight of reality bearing down on you. Squeal all you like, it will not relent until you surrender to it.
"When folks like you are my betters the world will definitely have ended."
A debatable point. Actually, I never claimed to be one of your betters - have someone with a modicum of intelligence explain what I actually wrote in my posts to you instead of what you invent.
Having fun yet? I sure am. It's almost too easy. Try a little harder next time, will ya? I think we'd all appreciate it.
"The source of the healthcare crisis is not the insurance industry, but the manufacturers of foodlike substances, and nutritionaly deficient quick fix sense gratifiers, and their pushers."
While I am with you on the source of much of the obesity and the ill health that follows I disagree 100% with that being the cause of the health care crisis. It is the "For EXTREME profit" Health Insurance Companies that are the source of the health care crisis.
They recision people who may effect the bottom line. They raise rates every year to show growth in profits that Wall Street demands. They operate death panels and then use their dumbed down and retarded Tea baggers to hurl intelligence deprived screams that the government is the problem to cover for the insurance company source of the screed. Our problems with health care start and end with the Insurance companies.
Now back to the nutritionaly deficient gratifiers.
My solution to that is a ban on High Fructose Corn Syrup in processed food. "IF" a customer really wants the stuff sell it in bottles so the stupid may add it to get their food. ROTFLMAO!!
Other countries already ban the crap. Let US join them on the way to better health.
And I am with you CATO, I just should have said "health crisis" not "health care crisis, as clearly big pharma, big ag, and big insurance are the corporate tools
of our supression and impoverishment. But to the extent we awaken one by one to the reality of you are what you eat, and make the necessary adjustments to our diet we can begin to turn our back on the feds and the meds and the hospital beds.
"How come the birthers, deathers, town hallers, tea baggers never seem to be upset about the endless wars this country is perpetrating?"
Well, that is because BOTH wings of the corporate party (Republican AND Democrat) suffer from SELECTIVE DEFICIT SYNDROME.
As the Dan Froomkin postulates, it is time for a Lech Walesa like figure to mount the figurative fence and help direct the rage at the proper targets: large corporations whom our this era's version of Robber Barons.
Sadly, that figure has not emerged or has been deliberately silenced by the media arms of the same corporations (Note: it is not Ralph Nader, as his time has passed) that have benefited from the Great Lurch Backwards to a new "Gilded Age."
Much like the politicians of the first Gilded Age, our current crop are a mixed bag: mostly an impediment, some helpful but outnumbered, and quite a few ready to jump whatever bandwagon is playing the tune of the moment. To expect "leadership" from the White House is simply not realistic: in fact, it is upon progressives to lead them.
. . . you can't count on President Obama to lead a populist revolt. His impulse is to find common ground . . .
This is still the erroneous "liberal" attitude toward Obama. Obama is as easy to read as a children's book. It is NOT common ground he seeks but a larger and larger feather bed for the fiery thieves and pirates who have brought the United States to the edge of the quicksand. He is no better than any Republican or Wall Street corsair who has sent this country down the endless backside of the roller coaster toward its own permanent eclipse.
Ah, you have been paying attention!
You are right! The twisted thinking that must go into any liberal believing Obama is one of them will be woven into a noose around their necks.
Well said.
Obama's incessant nattering about "bipartisanship" is one of the biggest turn-offs about the guy--precisely because it denies the rage I feel. The Obamator's "I'll lie down so you can sh*t on me" attitude toward the Repubs is infuriating in the extreme.
I hasten to say that Obama is only a wimp when it comes to Republicans. He and his people would never touch a hair on a Republican's head--but God help any Democrat, especially a woman, who gets in their way.
Rich sort of gets it. The public lava is already intensifying and just look at the races in NJ and VA. VA, people think, was always conservative so their writing it off can't be too surprising but in NJ, if a Democrat is trailing his or her Republican opponent by 9 points, then this is indeed a very bad omen because NJ is one of the most liberal states and if it's turning red due to public anger and Obama is not paying attention and probably has no intention of doing so, think of just how worse it will get next year. I don't recall NJ ever being this bad for the Democratic Party even in 1993 unless someone can correct me on that. All indicators are pointing strongly in favor of Republican candidate Christie. Not even Christie Todd Whitman won by that many points.
Here's yet another update in VA's gubernatorial race. More House delegate Democrats are getting hammered for taking vacations and refusing to vote on critical legislation such as improving transportation woes. One of them in my area sends out two stupid flyers lying about his support on public transportation and he thinks Hampton Roads is improving on I-64 ! And here's another stupid flier from him where he brags about getting ready to name another school and his praise of Bush's NCLB ! It's sh*t like this which make me go very mad and almost feel like punishing the Democrats by voting Republican since there's no Independent on the ballot that I know of. I hate those mail box flooders. I wished the environmentalists would gun down them down for abusing trees for spam !
Even Larry Sabato is unable to shake off the fact that populist anger is rising to unexpected levels approaching 1993 type and that the Republicans are very close to capture control of the House even without a Newt Gingich or Ronald Reagan to lead the party.
Can't you just do a write in?
Depower the oligarchy, abolish money.
But we can't or won't.
Why not do like the Swiss?
http://books.google.com/books?id=RyD10mU2W9wC&dq=greg+fossedal+swiss+direct+democracy&printsec=frontcover&source=bn&hl=en&ei=S3e2SsfuBoPP8QbOub2TDw&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=4#v=onepage&q=&f=false
In this corner, with black trunks, matinee-idol good looks, and a Mormon-Nazi pedigree that the racist US just loves, the jack-booted crusader, and great white hope and sieg heil kid, Mitt Romney!
In this corner, in the off-white trunks, the skinny kid from Chicago, via Harvard, Hawaii, and Kansas, the Beige Bush-clone and winner of the Rodney King, "Can't we all just get a long", political bipartinship award, Barack Obammmmma!
Now I wonder who is gonna win that bout? The suspense is just spine-tingling!
Poet