Subscribe to Common Dreams News Updates
Most Popular This Week
Popular content
Today's Top News
In Dire Straits, Americans Whimper Instead
PORTLAND, OREGON -- In 1967 animal researchers conducted an interesting experiment. Two sets of dogs were strapped into harnesses and subjected to a series of shocks. The dogs were placed in the same room.
The first set of dogs was allowed to perform a task--pushing a panel with their snouts--in order to avoid the shocks. As soon as one dog mastered the shock-avoidance technique, his comrades followed suit.
The second group, on the other hand, was placed out of reach from the panel. They couldn't stop the pain. But they watched the actions of the first set.
Then both groups of dogs were subjected to a second experiment. If they jumped over a barrier, the dogs quickly learned, the shocks would stop. The dogs belonging to the first set all did it.
But the second-set dogs were too psychologically scarred to help themselves. "When shocked, many of them ran around in great distress but then lay on the floor and whimpered," wrote Russell A. Powell, Diane G. Symbaluk and P. Lynne Honey in Introduction to Learning and Behavior. "They made no effort to escape the shock. Even stranger, the few dogs that did by chance jump over the barrier, successfully escaping the shock, seemed unable to learn from this experience and failed to repeat it on the next trial. In summary, the prior exposure to inescapable shock seemed to impair the dogs' ability to learn to escape shock when escape became possible."
The decrease in learning ability caused by unavoidable punishment leads to a condition called "learned helplessness."
Which brings us to the midterm elections.
Battered and bruised, with no apparent way out, the American electorate has plunged into a political state of learned helplessness. They've voted Democratic to punish rapacious Republicans. They've voted Republican to get rid of do-nothing Democrats. They've tried staying home on Election Day. Nothing they do helps their condition. They're flailing.
The great mass of Americans works longer hours for less pay. Until, inevitably, they get "laid off." Is there a working- or middle-class American who hasn't lost his job or been close to someone who got fired during the last few years? Even in 2009, when global capitalism entered its final crisis and millions of Americans were losing their homes to the same banks their taxes were paying to bail out, the world's richest people--those with disposable wealth over $30 million--saw their assets soar by 21.5 percent.
Go ahead, little leftie: smash the windows at Starbucks in Seattle. It won't stop transnational corporations from raping the planet and exploiting you. Enjoy your Tea Party, little rightie. It sure is cute, listening to you talk about the wee Constitution. "Your" government and the companies that own "your" leaders have your number. And they're listening to your phone calls.
The public is now in full-fledged flailing mode. Just two years ago, you will recall, Obama and the Democrats swept into power on a platform of hope and change: hope that things might improve, by changing away from the Bushian Republicanism of the previous eight years.
Now, depending who you listen to, people have either turned against the hope and the change, or against the failure of ObamaCo to deliver it. "The voters, I think, are just looking for change, and that means bad news for incumbents and in particular for the Democrats," says Peter Hart, a Democratic pollster.
Change from change we can't believe in. Again.
According to the latest NBC News/Washington Post poll, this is the same electorate that "shows grave and growing concerns about the Gulf oil spill, with overwhelming majorities of adults favoring stronger regulation of the oil industry and believing that the spill will affect the nation's economy and environment." Because you know the Republicans are all about more regulation of Big Oil. And care so much about the environment.
Does your head hurt yet?
There is some good news: Three major polls find that most Americans don't believe Obama has a plan to fix the economy. Yes, this is good news; it proves that the public isn't totally crazy.
Like the poor Set B dogs in that 1967 experiment, Americans are running around aimlessly, veering between two parties that differ only in their degree of harm. Republicans are evil; Democrats enable it.
Next: lying on the ground and whimpering.
The way out is obvious. If a two-party corpocracy beholden to gangster capitalism is ruining your life, get rid of it.
Don't whimper. Bite.
91 Comments so far
Show AllImagine the mentality of the psycho logists who did that experiment and watched the dogs whimpering helplessly on the floor? These accomplished professionals have now been promoted to well-paying positions in government, military, prisons, corporations and universities to design methods to get us to conform, to cower, to give up, to buy things.
Joe
Ride with the Republicans and hit a brick wall at 100 mph.
Ride with the Democrats and hit a brick wall at 90 mph.
You will be just as dead hitting a brick wall at 90 mph as 100 mph.
The lead researcher in this experiment was Martin Seligman. He is now preaching about "positive psychology." It's worth googling him.
In his book on learned helplessness, he defended these experiments by saying that they advanced our understanding of depression in humans, which cripples millions of people. He never seemed to have a glimmer of insight that living in a world where people had the power and willingness to torture animals, and were then rewarded for it, might contribute to people's depression.
Thanks for the information GreenDragon. And I agree with your observation.
Joe
"In his book on learned helplessness, he defended these experiments by saying that they advanced our understanding of depression in humans, which cripples millions of people."
As valuable as the results of Seligman's experiments are, they did not advance our understanding. We already understood, for many centuries.
Since Plato, western civilization has understood human nature and surely dog nature too. That's 2300 years. I would venture to guess that eastern civilization understood human nature even for many centuries before that. And dog nature too.
The problem is that western philosophers from the 18th century (or thereabouts) tried, and succeeded, in halting propagation of the wisdom of the ages recorded by Plato and the others.
The result is that since the 18th century western civilization has been terribly confused/ignorant and unable to utilize the wisdom of the ages. The Enlightenment was effectively neutered. The dark ages have crept back, only this time they are petro-fried.
With abundant, cheap energy, and the wisdom of the ages suppressed, the west pursued research as a means to an end - to churn munny, to "earn" prestige, to build empire, and never looked back at the destruction.
Had Plato's wisdom been preserved and applied, we'd have a world democracy today. The knowledge we've gained through petro-fried scientific research over the past century would look like a pea. Western civilization, led by the USA, has been spinning its wheels "big time", with massive energy wasted, up in smoke.
The dog experiment results are easily illustrated by human experience. When people are treated humanely and can trust each other, they can relate their experiences, and all the questions can be answered. But Seligman et al weren't interested in opening that channel of communication, because that channel is the greatest threat to elite privilege, power and control.
Seriously!.. What kind of sadist does this kind of 'experimentation' on canines?
Psychology as a field of study attracts control freaks and sadists like s**t attracts flies. After all, it's all about manipulating others. Always has attracted such types, always will do so.
"The way out is obvious. If a two-party corpocracy beholden to gangster capitalism is ruining your life, get rid of it."
Oh my! I never thought of that Mr. Rall! And it should be so east to accomplish too!
I don't see it as a wasted effort by Rall. The ideas we have been discussing for years are slowly entering the mainstream and Rall is doing his small part to aid that process. It takes a long time to bring such a huge pot to boil and it takes a great many people to apply the heat.
Except that it was only published here on CD where he's totally preaching to the choir.
Well, maybe that's not entirely true. Rall's columns usually end up appearing elsewhere, for example on the opinion page of Yahoo! News. This one hasn't yet, but there's usually a delay of a couple of days before his columns appear there.
Ted Rall is usually on the smirking chimp website as well.
Smirking Chimp's probably going to go bust soon. Besides, the owner is a Zionist dick.
imo, There are 2 solutions: public elections or 3rd party. Both will require movements, not the ballot box. I guess I can sign up with the green party for the 2nd, not sure about the first.
I think you need to go a lot further than that. I'd start with an entirely new Constitution specifically designed (and with the powers necessary to do this) against the status quo and to reverse it, and if Texas and such pose an ultimatum of secession or leaving things as they are-then they go.
As for specifics:
Over the course of several years, elimination of the military budget and retooling of those factories dedicated to such towards the end of developing/manufacturing alternative energy components. Realistically, you can't just shut all that down instantly because all of those people that are now without jobs would just listen to one of the many right wing demagogues that would make the problem much worse much faster.
This would also include ending all occupations and control of military territories abroad.
Confiscatory taxes (and prosecutions when relevant, and a lot of the time they will be) aimed towards the banksters.
Universal nationalized health care and education.
A massive green jobs program.
Universal pardons and expungements for non-violent drug 'crimes'.
Those are just what I could think of for starters.
Agree, and I would also include fair voting machines, de-monopolizing the press, and a new fairness doctrine, but to get the first step, I think it's one of these 3 (changed from 2) or some combo of them:
3rd party, a new fairness doctrine, public elections.
Symbolic protests and personal sacrifices don't seem to be making much difference, so perhaps a different approach would be in order: what would it take to actually hurt things that the richfilth really care about?
Did you see Trading Places?
Yes, I know a silly film but it does contain a few truths.
Want to hurt the rich? It's easy.
They care about money.
Take back their ill gotten gains and make sure they can't steal any more.
Rall's goal wasn't to prescribe actions. The piece is an analysis. Why do you need Rall to tell you what to do? You're supposed to figure that out for yourself.
Lots of experiments proving the same points in different ways. The left/right political comparison is a straw man. The only way to answer Mr. Rall's assertions is to explain, talking slowly and repetitively to the electorate, that the question should be posed as an up/down comparison. Are you upper middle class or rich? Or are you middle, lower or poor? If you're the latter then neither Establishment Party has any answers for you. No amount of get-out-the-vote will change this dynamic. It simply perpetuates the continuing theft of the downs dwindling assets. This the plan and has been for 80 years or longer. The failure of the New Deal was that The Establishment was not hung by the neck in front of 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. Rope sales continue to lag as economic indicators of the electorate correcting this market imbalance. This is known as the Group B syndrome for those who aren't interested in torturing any more dogs.
We can't bite because we've paid for our own consumerism with our teeth.
We also can't bite because too many of us will starve. For 30 years the number of Americans living paycheck to paycheck has exploded. Any of the major changes associated with mandating, regulating, or in any way interfering with the global corporate agenda will raise household expenses just enough to put tens of millions of Americans out into the street, and Sean Hannity and Rush Limbaugh are on the radio reminding them of that every day while they're driving their 12 MPH road monsters to the gun store.
Speaking of low mileage cars, the conspicuously green, high-mileage, low-emissions Prius types need lithium and rare metals located exclusively in impoverished and militarily and environmentally ravished third world countries every bit as much as the low-mileage monster truckers need the oil we invade countries for today.
This is how trying to build an effective movement today differs from other times. Previous movements, whether revolutionary or reform, were based on building a more just version of the same world being overthrown or reformed. They were efforts to change managerial priorities, and were therefore easy to build and implement, because a focus on the issues and how to fight to get them accomplished was all you needed from your recruits. But by now we've learned it's our entire value system and life practices of the whole of society that have to be reshaped while trying to get government to mandate (which is diametrically opposed to the ordinary American understanding of freedom, hence the bullets problem vis-a-vis Militias and Teabaggers) those changes that are necessary in the short term to delay the reaching of critical tipping points before society and be reshaped.
I like Rall's writing, and I agree with Kivals about the time and numbers needed to bring the pot to a boil, but I'm leaning towards despairing the very clear reality that too many people, after thirty full years of neoconservatism and neoliberalism having weakened their position so severely, will be legitimately concerned that the application of heat will kill them faster than failing to apply it.
Do you think that tens of millions of Americans will just accept being put on the streets? Tens of thousands have but I doubt that tens of millions of people would resign themselves to shivering on the sidewalk outside of their empty home.
Economic collapse is what needs to happen. The challenge is to ensure that it leads to people working together to create something better.
The odd thing about putting people on the streets are the numerous sit/lie, vagrancy and other laws being passed in liberal cities. Don't count on these places to choose humans over real estate values or higher taxes. People are now living on BLM lands, in city and state forests, etc.: whole communities of abandoned and forsaken citizens. The states are cutting back on their budgets and that includes prison facilities. The Feds would have to use PAGO rules to secure funding and the Republicans would have a field day with that. Not that they care about the clutter, mind you, it's what it might do to the tourist and hotel/resort industry that bothers them(Haley Barbour,Miss.BP). There are not nearly enough drug rehab/mental health facilities to hold the numbers of people we're talking about. Economic collapse is coming/here already and the politicians, as usual, will look to the miltary and police to solve the problem. My guess is that won't work for long and would be quite messy. The best among us have no answers and I'm not talking about politicians or academics with flow charts. Next up: Social Security reform and Medicare/Medicaid adjustments: Whoa,Daddy!!!!
That's because there aren't enough of them. If there were ten times as many people in that situation (rest assured I'll be one of them) they wouldn't be able (or they'd be far less able) to get away with it. The military is composed of people with families who would be affected by this.
Collapse isn't guaranteed to bring about something better. Far from it. It is, however, more likely to bring about something better than a continuation of the status quo.
Re: "The military is composed of people with families who would be affected by this."
You have to remember that we have a volunteer military now. People join the military for many reasons. Some just don't have any other opportunities -- think Jessica Lynch. Some beileve it's their patriotic duty. These are probably the most conscientious soldiers out there. An some are in it because kicking ass under official sanction is better than sex. Don't think for a minute that a lot of these folks wouldn't kill you just because you're an American. It would be very easy for those at higher levels to float the idea that dissent is treason, and that the only place for a traitor is the graveysrd.
When the troubles begin, you can count on seeing the use of Predator Drones over American territory, with the Glenn Becks and Sean Hannitys of the world cheerleading thier use. You will see millions of your own countrymen applauding thier use against those holding different political views. Even now, we see states vying to station these death machines in their military bases, under the guise of "border control". Americans will rue the day that they ever allowed these machines to occupy American air space.
Of course, the alternative is to meekly submit to the heel of corporate totalitarianism.
No matter how you look at it, it's going to get very, very ugly.
40 million children went hungry last year.
The people accept it.
Re: "I'm leaning towards despairing the very clear reality that too many people, after thirty full years of neoconservatism and neoliberalism having weakened their position so severely, will be legitimately concerned that the application of heat will kill them faster than failing to apply it."
You shouldn't despair. Either way, the desperation will eventually boil over.
The antidote to despair is to go shopping. For an assault rifle and lots of ammunition. Even though these will be a poor match for Predator Drones, it's the best that's available.
There are only two ways that this can possibly end: either be crushed under the boot of corporate totalitarianism, or fight back. And I don't mean figuratively.
It really is up to you.
> Speaking of low mileage cars, the conspicuously green, high-mileage, low-emissions Prius types need lithium and rare metals located exclusively in impoverished and militarily and environmentally ravished third world countries every bit as much as the low-mileage monster truckers need the oil we invade countries for today.
There are predictions of upcoming Prius models (perhaps new body types: mini-vans or station wagons) that will use lithium instead of NiMH (all Prius models available in the US up to now use NiMH as far as I know). The push for lithium is really driven by the advantages of having a plug-in hybrid or pure EV. If you are just designing the hybrid battery to do some buffering to allow for a smaller engine (really the case for all current Priuses), you don't need lithium though it would make the pack smaller. There are many interesting lithium chemistries being talked about for cars further in the future like lithium iron phosphate which could allow for much more rapid charging which makes electric refueling stations start to become practical (you'll still want to leave your car for a break, but it might get you 200 miles in 15 minutes instead of 8 hours). I'm all for getting combustion out of the vehicle completely - it's been a mess in terms of pollution and maintenance headache. So I welcome lithium solutions.
You may wish to read more about the distribution of lithium and other metals over the planet. I'm not aware of any metal ore that is only located in war-torn or dictatorial countries - it's just that currently, it is the cheapest place to get the stuff. We need to have a very tight recycling system for rare metals, and I believe lithium (not that rare, but rare enough compared to iron) already is fully recycled at the batteries end of life (as is the case with lead, but that stuff is a mess). But this is much better than oil for gas cars which you need forever since it is a consumable. The energy to power electric cars is of course another big problem, I'm no longer confident fusion will ever happen (and any significant government expenditure on the effort is a waste), fission is mess and I don't see that getting better either. We are going to have to bite down hard to live in the solar economy (solar thermal, solar PV, wind, hydro), though I suppose we might get some percentage from geo-thermal too. When the oil, coal, and gas run out, it's going to be tough (and hot). Don't have too many kids is my advice I tell everybody. Too bad not enough people followed that advice in the past. Living in the solar income is a lot easier with fewer people.
Dara Parsavand
Grrrr...
Mr. Rall, people don't believe the worst of it, but the US government has thought reading capabilities (technology) and has been using it since at least 1994. What theft of our economy is due to government workers being the biggest insider traders in history?
While it is a brave new world out there, remember, paranoia strikes deep... oh, and trying to make government workers into the bad guys is really lame.
"The way out is obvious. If a two-party corpocracy beholden to gangster capitalism is ruining your life, get rid of it."
Okay, if I have a little bag of stinky garbage under my sink I can carry it out to the curb.
If I have a hundred thousand reeking garbage trucks full of shit as far as I can see, how am I going to take them to the curb?
This was a good article up until the rudely flippant quote above. Obvious? Maybe if those to whom this is obvious would stand up and tell us the obvious steps to taking out the garbage that we ignorant dogs have been missing we could just go do them and be up on the porch licking our bums a lot more quickly.
P.S. Somewhere around 8 million people are registered voters in Ohio, somewhere around 800 picked up a Green party primary ballot.
sierra7
One way that I've been advocating (preaching) for years is EVERYBODY eligible to vote, RE-Register NON-PARTISAN wherever they can. Do that and it will send a message to all the incumbents (both parties), the lobbyists and corporate America that AMERICANS ARE IN REVOLT AGAINST A STACKED SYSTEM!
The writer is correct: "BITE"
Unfortunately most Americans have not had to really fight for anything for decades.
End of history lesson.
Do you remember the bumper sticker that showed a big fish swallowing little fish? And, then second part showing a whole bunch of little fish grouped together to swallow the big fish?
Ted Rall failed to the mention the one thing that MUST be done before "biting":
ORGANIZE, ORGANIZE ORGANIZE!!!
Agree with the rest of comments here - i.e. Mr. Rall, while generally correct, is preaching to the choir on this site. Further, as a registered member of the Green Party since 1996, I can testify that 3rd party efforts aren't going anywhere. And thanks to things like CA's recent move to open primaries it's going to get even harder. I agree with @linkwray [nice homage to great guitarist btw] that some necks need to be stretched, unfortunately if any are it's likely to be the DFHs, not our corporate bosses. Basically we're hosed. I went to the streets in the 60's and nearly 50 years later things are demonstrably worse, not better. I've pretty much given up hoping for "change we can believe in". Not gonna happen in my lifetime anyway.
Bite who? Bite what? RS called McChrystal a "runaway general". Wrong. Our entire ruling elite apparatus has run away and left us to slaughter, eco-collapse and impoverishment.
Yet most of us have no idea what's happening. I'd say even my most reliably liberal friends are somehow completely without a clue. Nothing is what it seems. Everything we see is about "message management"; everything that matters happens off-camera and is communicated through code-speech.
Large numbers of people, though dissatisfied or scared, think our problems are the result of "failed policies" or "mistakes". Nothing of the sort is true. The "market" treats "mistakes" like market niches. As long as people continue to hold the futile view that our problems are some kind of aberration, rather than the result of a deliberate ruling elite strategy, we will never be able to topple the apple cart.
When an English ship's Captain first encountered the Native peoples living in the area around what would now be according to the Europeans, San Francisco he wrote of them that they were childlike and without guile.
The Native peoples there had been living there for 1000's and 1000's of years. Just hunting and fishing along the coast. Growing and gathering some food.
You have your modern day Roman Babylon now. You have your Old McDonald had a cash register farm world now. Are things going wrong now? It has only been around 115 years since the last of the Tribes were rounded up so you could build your glorious world. Are things going wrong now?
The earth being destroyed now? Oil gushing out of the Gulf now?
The price for living upon Creator's earth in this land when the English ship Captain arrived was, Zero. Lot more expensive now since the change in ownership and management of this land.
But don't worry one thing I can count on is there won't be anything other than more bad news for you people to gab about on the Net.
I was speaking with an elderly black man who was having a hissy fit about various things happening in the 90's. I said to him if he'd lived 1000 years ago in this land to consider how little bad news he would have never heard in his entire lifetime.
He said to me, I never thought of it that way.
I was hoping you would have the problems of your Nation all solved today. Hoping you would have the oil gushing out of the Gulf stopped, and all cleaned up.
But I sure never would have placed a bet in Vegas on such a thing happening.
Life is good. What an experience! It's always best to forgive.
Yes, well, the man you talked to wasn't alive 1000 years ago. He's alive now.
Similarly, unless there have been some fairly radical advances in internet technology and people's understanding of life and death, the people responding to this editorial are also alive now.
What exactly are you proposing to help us?
We're screwed.
There is only on way the Left could conceivably alter this corporate fascist state. We have to get out of our enclaves and comfort zones and start talking with, and listening to, working class people of all political beliefs.
All these comments about third parties and public funding of campaigns are well-meaning but kind of pathetic. The rulers have a tight lid on the bottle - through media, financial control, the major parties, the armed forces (domestic and international), the voting machines. They loosen the lid a bit now and then, but we have to break the bottle or suffocate.
This cannot be done through electoral means. What other means are possible is not clear. It will certainly require allying and organizing with people who have guns, both in and out of the armed forces.
There is only on way the Left could conceivably alter this corporate fascist state. We have to get out of our enclaves and comfort zones and start talking with, and listening to, working class people of all political beliefs.
All these comments about third parties and public funding of campaigns are well-meaning but kind of pathetic. The rulers have a tight lid on the bottle - through media, financial control, the major parties, the armed forces (domestic and international), the voting machines. They loosen the lid a bit now and then, but we have to break the bottle or suffocate.
This cannot be done through electoral means. What other means are possible is not clear. It will certainly require allying and organizing with people who have guns, both in and out of the armed forces.
The vast majority of people in this nation, utterly conventional and living their lives a quarter inch in front of their noses and determinedly looking no further, cannot save this nation from itself or the likes of sniveling knaves like Obama.
Re: The article's conclusion "Don't whimper. Bite."
It's tough to bite a Predator Drone. Which flies at about the same altitude form which Americans are being economically and politically bombarded.
Great stuff, all around -- revolution, preferably non-violent, is what is needed, and talking online and in-person and coordinating action -- creating a social movement is what is happening. We're in delayed shock mode as the Obama supporters increasingly realize they've been had -- there had to be a blatant betrayal by the Dems (done and done) before the two parties could truly be seen as one entity. Optimistically yours --
Hunting rifles? Nooses?
it's largely the world of course - under the capitalism dogma . but nevermind THAT. other countries will somehow find their own ways.
but where it comes to the "CENTER" of the empire of capitalism...the "belly of the beast" so to say - all that live in america are like RATS in a cage running around, thinking that there is an 'exit' from their woes..but they themselves REPEATEDLY choose to go back to the "exit" door that they KNOW is a trap ....
and STILL they choose it.
THAT's the trouble with americans.
Now, depending who you listen to, people have either turned against the hope and the change, or against the failure of ObamaCo to deliver it.
Except for his position on Af-ganef-stan, Obama's entire 2008 campaign was a treasonous lie. He never, never had any intention of engendering "hope" or "change you can believe in". He is an immoral, criminal flunky for powers much more robust than his puny self. And yet Americans keep voting for Republicans and Democrats. In the face of such happy, smiley-face ignorance by the majority of this nation's people, all you can do is roll over and go back to sleep and wait for the bar to open later in the morning.
I'd be nice to bite rather than whimper. I think that's spot on. I think though that the diverse interests that should be biting and not whimpering are just that: diverse. The corporations and the state are united. The people who would challenge this concerning state of affairs are not. Just look at the previous comments. People who have an ax to grind with the system usually represent a particular issue: Indian tribal rights, environment, institutional racism, gender inequality, post-colonial critical theorists, etc. etc. The problem is there is not a cohesive platform that unites all of these groups together, other than their dislike for the status quo. The conundrum is that if there is no movement that unites all the disparate groups in civil society to challenge the status quo, the individual groups do not have the ability to smash the corporate-state alliance. The problem with creating such a uniform movement is that invariably the more mainstream less radical elements end up dominating the agenda and if they should topple the existing status quo, will eventually turn into a status quo themselves that will end up squelching the desires of their more radical erstwhile allies.
A movement that is united solely by its dislike for the status quo does not have the intestinal fortitude to batten down for a major struggle. Dislike of the system and no cohesive vision for change simply doesn't seem like enough to inspire a nation to topple the system.
Yes, you are correct. We will simply muddle along as we generally do. Shocks, trouble and despair will increase, but barring a charismatic right-winger leading our nation, we will persevere and manage.
RE: Dislike of the system and no cohesive vision for change simply doesn't seem like enough to inspire a nation to topple the system.
Very true. It may seem dated but what is needed is a revolutionary party with a revolutionary analysis. So it won't be the Green Party USA. In a nutshell, that's why the Bolsheviks succeeded in 1917 and the German left failed in 1918. However, I think that Ted Rall has got the cart-before-the-horse. Before one bites, one needs to why one is biting and who deserves to get bitten. The political consciousness of too many Americans is infantile and needs a level of sophistication nowhere in site to where it needs to be to pull off a successful revolution, or even threaten the status quo enough for meaningful reforms. The Tea Baggers want to bite Obama, and the mainstream left (HuffPo, the Nation) want to bite the Republicans and the "Blue Dogs". Both miss the real target: capitalism itself. We have to dismantle an economic system, "voting the bums out" ain't gonna cut it.
"Both miss the real target: capitalism itself. We have to dismantle an economic system, "voting the bums out" ain't gonna cut it." -- Tom Larsen
I agree with you!