If the Republic is to be preserved, then the original intention of state sovereignty cannot be scrapped, but must be restored. I do agree that the Constitution needs to be "updated," a risky process but one which may be essential to clearly spell out the limits of federal power, the limits of the power of the national security state and the military.

I greatly mistrust what the U.S. "government" has become, and consider "the national security state" and the "military industrial complex," et al, to epitomize the worst of human tyranny. We dress up a world where torture, political assassinations, the drug smuggling/drug crime-prison-industrial complex, massive transfer of wealth to the rich from the working class - etc. - is dressed up in this pretty little facade where everyone is smiling and happy and prosperous. It is a facade that I wish to see ripped assunder and replaced with a more humane world.

Regardless, it makes more sense to me to attempt to preserve the fabric of the Constitution than throw it out entirely and risk something that might seem even more like a jungle. But we live in very dynamic and extraordinary times, and it is difficult to predict what will happen.

One thing is for certain: the current system is a horrendous sham that is destroying the life blood of the people, the land, human potential and the very future of humanity.

It's so sad to see such an outpouring of despair here in these Common Dems threads. Against the backdrop of good ideas as presented by Bill Quigley, there is much quibbling.

My friend once expressed his irritation with a stalwart Dem supporter. It was not because he was a liberal, but because he claimed to be one while supporting right-wing positions. Most of the time I think the Democratic Party is just corrupt because it relies on corporate funding. I think that the public just fails to remember the many Dem Party betrayals of its constituents. But sometimes, when you probe deeply, it's apparent that Dem voters actually like and identify with the status quo corporate. They are not hopeful people, but actually do think some things are impossible per some harsh reality mantra. In this respect, Dem voters are identical to the Repug voters they despise.

One of the favorite punching bags of these folks is the Green Party. The platform of the Green Party, just on the environmental front, likely reflects the stated aspirations of most elected Dem representatives (all you get from elected Dems is aspirations). But the Green Party is different in that it actually means it, offering practical suggestions on the environment and the economy. Yet you can't get Dem voters to switch. They so fear the Repugs that they won't do it. Yet there's also an affinity among Dem voters and Repug voters in that they are willing to live with harsh restrictions for others. They are willing to overlook being dissed by Party officials even on the most basic matters. This distorted sense of reality leads some to call Obama's refusal to kill the tar sands pipeline a "victory," even though the guy clearly intends to go against the wishes of his political base. This love for a certain sense of meager order characterizes both Dem and Repug voters. They look at the other side and see ugliness, but in the end, they are on the same side - call it Team Surrender to the big business agenda. They just have different ways of kissing the whip, while their disagreements are in the mannerisms of their abject surrender.

How has the U.S. public got its vision so fucked up over the years? Sure, the system is rigged on behalf of the two parties, but many states, despite those odds, actually offer third parties on the ballots. Just punch the button, and blam - third-party vote gets recorded (we think).

All I know is that both Dem and Repug voters seem to not want change, and agree to be lied to, even as the infrastructure crumbles around them. They will vote for their faction of the duopoly, the Corporate Party, even as they and their children grow poorer for it. The Dem Party never meant it, but at least they used to talk about the general welfare. Today, the Dem Party still sometimes talks that way, while enacting policies to the right of their Republican partners in crime. And voting Dems stand mute like sheep before the slaughterhouse over the hill.

And so when I see Bill Quigley write the obvious - the obvious aspirations of people here (and those abroad) - simple stuff. And then read such a litany of almost hostile comments, I have to wonder about what turned people so ugly. Why has Common Dreams become Common Dems? Has Obama utterly killed hope? No, among those on the left, we never thought the guy was progressive (although his far-right stances were actually surprising, even for the Democratic Party). No, I think the problem here on Common Dems is that most will vote for Obama in 2012. They have absorbed the message that third parties can't win (they certainly can't if you refuse to vote for them). They have trouble with the messiness of the Green Party. It's always this or that, but in the end, most Dem voters just sell out their vote to a guy they know is lying to them. It's self-deception, codependence, intellectual dishonesty and much more than I can't understand. In the end, though, I think my friend was right about the typical Dem voter: they're not much different than a Republican voter. I don't think the U.S. public deserves tyranny, but they continue to vote for it via the duopoly, so we all suffer for it. And the banksters laughing all of the way.

True revolutions start with ideas. Most Dem voters, sadly, don't appear to have any ideas at all, just like their Repug-voting doppelgangers. It's sad for us all, and for the world, that we appear to have no vision, no sense of what's right, and no spirit of revolution - be it against king or corporation. It seems it must get much worse before it will get better even a little bit. No wonder we have criminals openly running for office, and people seriously weighing their merits.

I believe that Humanity the most important thing. Capitalism is old and outdated just like a black and white T.V. It was important once but now we have moved on to more advanced technology. I choose to let go off old ideas that no longer work and I am willing to move forward. I hope all of you reading this are choosing a better future too. This article does layout a solid valid foundation for change. Thanks for putting this in writing. it helps give life to the Revolution.

About the only thing I've ever really been proud of regarding my native country was its incredible natural beauty and some sense that the people relished freedom.

That would include, of course the African people brought here as slaves, and the Native Americans already here, in all their diversity. It would include all the workers who fought for their rights, the women who fought simply for the same rights as men, the environmental and social activists who devoted themselves totally to righting injustice and creating a better world.

It would include the original vision, too, though that vision be more than slightly hypocritical for its exclusion of so many from participation.

Today, I am still enamored of the wild landscapes of the West, some sense of freedom wandering out on the great American road. And perhaps, some sense that there is something left in this country's collective soul of which to be proud. That vital passion for justice, and mistrust of authority, yearning to make a better world. The exact opposite of what mainstream American culture represents.

If there is anything left of that American soul, it has to be represented by the Occupy movement, the protests and grassroots political rebellion in Wisconsin, and other overt efforts to fight back against oppression, tyranny and economic slavery.

I am happy to see those signs of an American soul, and truly hope they will grow in scope, numbers and effectiveness. I'm also grateful for these forums that allow so much discussion by so many, which is a boon to whatever "democracy" may still exist in this world.

I would prefer a list of 12. These two can fit somewhere within the existing
10:
--On voting: Everyone at birth, born in the United States, should be registered to vote, and these voting rights go into effect on one's 18th birthday anywhere in the United States. No felon should be denied the right to vote,unless, by constitutional rules, they have denied the voting rights of another. All elections must have a paper trail, & computer technology used for voting cannot be owned by a private corporation. All campaigns are publicly financed, and limited to those funds provided equally. No candidate can outspend another through "superpacs," etc. All propositions are also publicly financed and under similar rules and regulations. Election campaigns are also limited in duration (say 3 months) to insure a candidate spends more time representing his/her district, than campaigning to be re-elected. All debates are held via townhall meetings, and questions asked are taken, in random, from participants. Participant involvement is not to be censored in any way by anyone, to insure all questions of the public are fielded, and no answer is rehearsed.
--Health care is a right and not a privilege. Without our health, freedom is
unreachable, without our health, liberty unsustainable, and without our health,
the pursuit of happiness impossible. Insurance companies, profiting from the sickness of others, must be eliminated. An independent agency, controlled by
doctors and nurses, for the welfare of the patient must be employed in a non-
profit based system that everyone has a right to from cradle to grave.--Grant

I would prefer a list of 12. These two can fit somewhere within the existing
10:
--On voting: Everyone at birth, born in the United States, should be registered to vote, and these voting rights go into effect on one's 18th birthday anywhere in the United States. No felon should be denied the right to vote,unless, by constitutional rules, they have denied the voting rights of another. All elections must have a paper trail, & computer technology used for voting cannot be owned by a private corporation. All campaigns are publicly financed, and limited to those funds provided equally. No candidate can outspend another through "superpacs," etc. All propositions are also publicly financed and under similar rules and regulations. Election campaigns are also limited in duration (say 3 months) to insure a candidate spends more time representing his/her district, than campaigning to be re-elected. All debates are held via townhall meetings, and questions asked are taken, in random, from participants. Participant involvement is not to be censored in any way by anyone, to insure all questions of the public are fielded, and no answer is rehearsed.
--Health care is a right and not a privilege. Without our health, freedom is
unreachable, without our health, liberty unsustainable, and without our health,
the pursuit of happiness impossible. Insurance companies, profiting from the sickness of others, must be eliminated. An independent agency, controlled by
doctors and nurses, for the welfare of the patient must be employed in a non-
profit based system that everyone has a right to from cradle to grave. In
addition, optimum intelligence is a part of health. Therefore, education is free
to all, through college, should anyone choose to pursue it. Our nation must
realize that without an intelligent electorate, there is no intelligent government.
In addition, all past debts acquired in the pursuit of education are forgiven.--Grant

As George Orwell rightly pointed out, revolutions usually bring one set of pigs to replace previous masters who start walking on their hind legs as soon as they start living in the master's home. Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Diffusion of power is the only way, so that everybody can make a living while nobody makes a killing!

NOBODY prevents people from registering and voting in US, but they themselves are too lazy to move their butt even in performing this minimal civil duty! People get government that they deserve. If they are not willing to participate on a daily basis in the decisions made by the local, state and federal politicians regarding the issues affecting their daily lives,they will be ruled by 0.1% who know how to game the system and get taxpayers money to fill their pockets.

Radical Revolution: Step Eleven

Make a pig a cow.
Turn water into stories and orchids.
Bring the children to the mountain
and make them sing.

Believe what cannot be built.
Forever is longer than you have.
Count your feelings to the moon.
Leave the last hummingbird in the thistle.

Deport the calendars of the empty rich.
All the moss will be your bed.
America will turn into snow
and you will not be able to see your street

from your window.
Eat something you have saved.
Save something you can eat.
Make sure the seeds are as protected

as the gold. Break the banks
with bread. Imagine all the lines and blueprints
disorganized and lost to their centers
and their expected order.

Tell someone you are lost too;
do it over and over until, like last night,
the shining crescent cups
a billion flights: you are here and you

are there. Believe you can believe
and kick the pirates out
until they have nothing but their hearts
on the plate of hunger and of love.

Make a forest a clean winnowing harvest
as it is, doing nothing to disturb
the minutes of its wind and the turn
of its breath to the moon. Ah

the moon again.
Take a minute, in the snow,
to locate that light. The revolution
has never been gone.

You are standing on it.
It turns in you, under a wheel of dreams
through the tumble in the rivers of vacuums,
galaxies and the first nebula

of the primary star.
Your mother is there
and your twin. Carry the signs
of revolution as if it never stops

because it never does.

Duane Elgin, from the book, Promise Ahead:

"A compassionate love can provide a vital "social glue" to hold us together as we face the [daunting] challenges ahead. If we pull apart, an evolutionary crash seems assured. If we come together authentically, however, we have the real potential to achieve an evolutionary bounce....

"If we can learn the lesson that love will further our evolution and that the greater our love, the greater our awareness, then we are aligned for success in our journey home....

"A compassionate or loving consciousness...is taking on a new importance as our world becomes integrated ecologically, economically, and culturally. Because we now share one another's fate, it is increasingly clear that promoting the well-being of others directly promotes our own. We have reached the point where the Golden Rule is becoming essential to humanity's survival."

What a trip!

We are so far off base that if it wasn't so tragic, the situation would be laugh-out-loud funny.

If the Human Spirit is ever going to begin to fulfill its potential - whether in 100 years, or 500 years; on Earth, another planet, or even having emerged in the body/mind of another species - the key to our transformation will be the power of love. That is, as Elgin has described it,

"a mature and soulful compassion that looks beneath surface differences and sees our common connection with the community of life."

de Chardin said it this way:: "Without love (Agape) there is truly nothing ahead of us except the forbidding prospect of standardization and enslavement - the of ants and termites."

Positive change will never come about from negitivity. Positive change will only come about from identifying the things that are wrong and begin turning the thought processing around and begin laying out solutions. I think most everyone understands on a deeply primal level what is wrong and now it is up to those who do understand to begin offering positive solutions. It will take a committment to come together rather than to stand apart as that is the mentality of today's mindset...but,...as long as we remain divided there will be no positive change. United we will stand, divided we will fall which is where we are today. There must be, has to be, a better way.

"How grown up do you think humanity is?

"When you look at human behavior around the world and then imagine our species as one individual, how old would that person be? A toddler? A teenager? A young adult? An elder?

"As I've traveled in different parts of the world, speaking to diverse audiences, I've begun many of my presentations by asking this question. Initially, I didn't know whether people would be able to relate to or even understand my question, much less agree on an answer. To my surprise, nearly everyone I've asked has understood this question immediately and has had an intuitive sense of the human family's level of maturity.

"I've asked this question in the United States, England, India, Japan, or Brazil, within seconds people have responded in the same way: at least two-thirds say that humanity is in its teenage years.

"The speed and consistency with which different groups around the world have come to this intuitive conclusion were so striking that I began to explore adolescent psychology. I quickly discovered that there are many parallels between humanity's current behavior and that of teenagers..."