There's no political hope for the vast majority, of which I include myself. This activist bs of working within the demon-cratic party is without merit, and simply siphons off the possible actions with a better chance of success. No third party is ever going to stand a chance. I suggest something along the lines of draining the life's blood of industrial society, energy. You want to stop the wars, stop the power that is in it's tracks, then stop the source of their power, energy. Use it; use as much as you can as often as you can. Think about it. If you have a better idea, tell me.

Sure he did; it's in the second paragraph.

"not once did he mention Uncle Change Barack"

he was writing about Democrats...

To expand upon what I wrote above, the primary effort must focus on contesting elections for the so-called safe-seats, and to expand, to challenge ALL incumbents from BOTH parties by Progressives campaigning to the left of their opponents. It doesn't matter which party you join to make the challenge--the point is the challenge itself. As both the Democrat and Republican parties have proven, it doesn't matter which party you're in, it's what's DONE once you get elected, which is the basis for calling them a Duopoly.

For example, in a district with no Republican candidate present to challenge the Democrat, register as a Republican party member, file to run for office as a member of that party, and attack the Democrat from a Progressive/Left position. The Republican party will likely repudiate you and even run its own candidate, but the deal is already sealed as you're already on the ballot as a major party candidate. Call this guerrilla politicing if you like. In the few contested districts, do the same thing for the Primary. It doesn't matter what party you choose as long as you get elected. Sure, any person that does this is likely to be outspent; but if you as candidate make the connection between the monetary corruption of electoral politics that's led to the dismal state of affairs effecting everybody except the very wealthy, then the monetary advantage can become a disadvantage as the Little Guy/Gal will be seen as the Clean Gal/Guy. And this tactic shouldn't be restricted to just congressional candidates, but ought to be used at the state and local levels, too.

Thoughts?

Cicero: "Freedom is participation in power."

Hear-hear!! The Dimocrats are done. The Republicans will get in there and preach more tax cuts for the rich and do even less for the homeless, jobless and hungry. They'll be bounced out in one presidential term themselves unless they declare complete martial law and suspend elections. Either way, it's time for a new authentic Progressive Unity Party to unite the tribes and come up with five clear policy platform planks, a media strategy (low power FM stations blanketing the country), top notch candidates who can think and speak on their feet and donors. It can be done. It will be hard work but doing nothing will be far harder work that many won't survive.

Say it ED. Say it over and over and over again.

I'm in.

ED, and others........I'm thinking that none of you really gets it.
The system simply does not work. It was a good idea at the beginning when there were virtually unlimited resources and lots and lots of room for expansion (excepting that pesky indian problem which we took care of nicely)
Capitalism and democracy simply do not work in a huge population on overcrowded real estate.
The world population must be pared down. We must go back to a way similar to that of the original inhabitants of this continent. We've poisoned our earth and we're going to pay a heavy price for that. It's time to stop arguing about health care and fossil fuels and begin teaching our children not to foul their own nests as we and our ancestors have.
Ignore the upper classes. Get back to gardening and farming on a small scale. Barter. Stop buying corporate products. Stop playing their game. Stop being part of the problem.

Many on this site have printers, so these ideas should be spread by leaflets because the Murdock Sham Media will never help to publicize such a group. I would think that a large cohort of the people who campaigned for BO and have watched their hero spurn them, would also be willing to help.

Sioux Rose

ED: I think your approach is the ONE thing that could provide the counterbalance to what otherwise is in store. The question is how to create a media vortex in which this option/demand is made public... perhaps with such an item/invitation broadcast, the wake-up call would be sounded and the persons you identified would respond.

Yup, they aint finished yet. At this point, anyone who says that talk about this country going fascist is over-the-top isnt paying attention.

Government is NOT the bad guy. The deliberate, meticulously planned unraveling of government started with Reagan and has snowballed for thirty years. Watch an episode of Bill Moyers (aired 1/15) when his guest Thomas Frank totally exposed the Neocon/Friedmanite/Norquist scheme (which traces back to pre-Depression Republican ideology!):

http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/archives/archives.php
THOMAS FRANK.
WALL STREET JOURNAL correspondent and author of THE WRECKING CREW: HOW CONSERVATIVES RUINED GOVERNMENT, ENRICHED THEMSELVES, AND BEGGARED THE NATION takes a look back at the decade that was.

It's not the government...it's the mediocre, corrupt, immoral, theocratic that have been deliberately placed in it.

The neglect of the mass of unemployed, uncovered, and, perhaps, unassimilated masses by the corporate party (both Democratic and Republican wings) presents a genuine opportunity. With the events of the the last year and last week – Obama’s unequivocal endorsement of the corporate agenda and the Supreme Court decision opening the way for total corporate control over elections – we are at a point where the way divides. The elites have been very successful in their attempt to gain total control over tax revenues and the military apparatus of the U.S. government. But there is a great mass of humanity that has been excluded.

The reason for the failure of the masses to embrace left-wing critiques and alternatives has to do with institutional control over the bounds of acceptable political discourse. Since the only available images of freedom and humanity are those of wealth, power, and fame, the working class has adopted the values that these images embody. This is often accompanied by alienated forms of religion that promise a restoration of lost humanity, but only in a magical realm. So the oppressed have internalized the image of the oppressor and adopted his guidelines. Their imaginations have become so constricted by mainstream propaganda that they are intellectually incapable of even understanding left-wing critiques.

All of this presents an opportunity. The strength of current corporate dominance is also its weakness. The troops which the elites have marshaled are too dehumanized and intellectually truncated to be effective overlords. When their crude measures fail, they resort to torture, detention and murder to enforce their will, but these are the means of the incompetent.

In addition, power and wealth have definite limits when it comes to motivating loyalty. Conscience must also be involved and alienated religions serve here as a reinforcement for material motivations. But the appeal to the truths of religion tends to call into question the actions which are necessary to enforce domination. Once we have rejected the corporate parties and their attempt to subvert and rechannel our struggle for justice, the field lies open and ready for harvesting.

As George Carlin pointed out, "They call it the American Dream because you have to be asleep to believe it."

I agree! We should never criticize the Democrats under any circumstances. We should just shut up and thank them for not being Republicans, no matter what they do (or don't do). Fear of something worse should motivate all our actions.

Why would a progressive vote for a party that represents imperialism and capital (Ds or Rs)? It is quite naive to believe that we have a functioning democratic process, you can vote for whomever you want, it aint gonna make a dime's worth of difference. Obama has shifted our foreign policy to the right of Bush.

Repeating the myth that Nader cost Gore in 2000 serves to discredit you. Now that you are a known provocateur, you'll need to change your moniker.

strat42

With all due respect.
You are a fool to still beleive anything coming fom the Dems. They are no different than Republicans. They both work for corporations, not us.

Both parties have been treating the American people like shit for decades.
So go ahead and keep settling for the Dems discusting display of fraudulent concern for working people. You deserve whatever you get.

And BTW; Alito and Roberts couldn't have been confirmed without the support of Democrats. Just like their support for 98% of Bush's fascist legislation, even when they had majorities for the first two and last two years of Bush. But somehow, someway, they always fail to pass anything that might be good for the American people. Funny how that happens.

That's funny-- the way I remember it, the misguided progressives voted for GORE/LIEBERMAN!

And GORE/LIEBERMAN actually WON! But then respectfully deferred to the Supreme Court when the court opted to hijack the Constitution and put The Fix in.

Good times, good times! Still, it seems that Hope really DOES "spring eternal".

· Yr Obd't Servant

I used to hold that opinion. Now, I believe that everyone, including myself, who out of fear chose the less of two evils, were the misguided ones.

To believe that our only hope, is to continue voting in Democrats, who have proven themselves entirely untrustworthy, and corrupt (save Kucinich) is folly, pure and simple.

A major shakeup needs to happen sooner than later.