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HughBeaumont

(24,461 posts)
Thu Apr 25, 2013, 01:32 PM Apr 2013

Is anyone with any kind of power a moderate conservative to straight-up right winger?

What's happening now is that on CNBC, there's Hagel trying to drum up a reason to invade Syria . .. you got that whole mess with the War Criminal getting his own library and his flesh-rotted legacy literally being reanimated by pundit after pundit as if nothing bad ever happened during the Decade of Decline . . . . you got a background check bill that just got flipped off by a talking turtle and his merry band of geriatric cackling thugs five months after 20 first-graders get taken apart by a Bushmaster . . . you have a country that refuses to move into the 20th century on three basic human rights (education, health care and marriage) . . .

I'm trying to fish, to dig for some kind of hope that economics, the environment, culture, labor rights, human rights, senior citizen's livelihoods, our children's futures, our national resources and infrastructure . .. are going to improve for the better (and dear God, they all need to).

Then I look at just about every avenue of power and think that it's all far too gone to be repaired.

Nearly EVERYONE that has any kind of power in America, whether it's in the government or the private sector, subscribes to either counter-productive glad-handing of conservative business and economic policies at best or, at worst, embraces and wholeheartedly believes in wealthmongering, plutonomy, laissez-fail, complete corporate fealty and austerity as sound and sturdy life practice.

Who in corporate America values their labor enough to domestically employ them; forget the notion of paying them a living wage comparable to the costs of living and offering benefits that will allow the retirement-to-new-worker cycle to continue? Who in corporate America DOESN'T believe in the long-standing myth of "fiduciary duty to the shareholders being the ONLY thing corporations should care about"?? Who in corporate America isn't constantly playing the "persecuted victim" card? Who in corporate America isn't trying to game the system?

Look at your wealthy. I could devote three paragraphs to their destructive behavior in terms of the environment, the electoral process, wealth inequality, governmental productivity, labor rights, human rights, etc. . . . but I'm not going to.

Out of the three branches of government, HOW many Sherrod Brown/Bernie Sanders/Elizabeth Warren Progressives are there? You could count them on your hands. Likely, ONE of them.

Look at your media channels. Are there ANY domestic channels that have truly OBJECTIVE voices and aren't trying to underhandedly push toxic narratives?

Police? Don't we both have the same oppressors? Yet who do they brutalize? Who do they assault? Whose protests do they break up? Don't even for ONE SECOND tell me that they don't collectively dislike and hold in contempt anyone to the left of Joe Lieberman. It's still, by and large, a very conservative institution. See them at any Tea Party events? See them at any Glen Beck gatherings? Why do they come in riot gear to our protests? Do we have caches of heavy weaponry?

Democrats? Except for the ones I mentioned and a few others, the lot of them are Third Way appeasers who worship at the altar of Milton Friedman, don't believe in basic human rights like Universal Health Care and cry "powerless" when it comes to getting even a simple gun background check Bill passed. They're doing absolutely nothing at all to disprove the "both parties are the same" people when it comes to economics and only care about social issues when they're being pushed to do so.

The Republicans are nothing but obstructionist, greedbag, fundamental-religion-poisoned, oblivious, know-nothing, do-nothing, inaffectual, warmongering, selfish, lying, immoral failures filled with sour hatred and blackened hearts. Looking for help from them is like looking for talent in 2013 pop music. They're not looking for the next bridge to repair, they're looking for the next nation to blow up and markets to vacuum. They don't want you to retire, they want you to be unemployed, starving and DEAD. Let's not pretend these pig resource hogs don't have a herd to cull.

Where do we turn when everyone's purchased?

Is it nature or nurture that institutions absolutely HAVE to be run by authoritarians who don't care about the fate of mankind and only live in the quarterly short-term?

How is there a future for America when these above-mentioned institutions will try everything in their power to obstruct and prevent that from happening?

Where's the PROMISE? WHERE'S THE HOPE??

When are we going to get a progressive or a hundred to change things?

18 replies = new reply since forum marked as read
Highlight: NoneDon't highlight anything 5 newestHighlight 5 most recent replies
Is anyone with any kind of power a moderate conservative to straight-up right winger? (Original Post) HughBeaumont Apr 2013 OP
sigh. HughBeaumont Apr 2013 #1
Sorry Hugh, guess I'm the only thumbs up. Great OP, btw. K&R Mnemosyne Apr 2013 #2
I can't expect all of them to be gems . .. HughBeaumont Apr 2013 #12
Looks like a few more got interested. Good. Mnemosyne Apr 2013 #17
Perhaps you might consider rephrasing your OP's subject line Orrex Apr 2013 #3
I know that feel... Blue_Tires Apr 2013 #16
Thanks for posting this newfie11 Apr 2013 #4
I think I came from the last generation to have an affordable college education. HughBeaumont Apr 2013 #9
How do we get the voters who vote these people into office to start at their local levels to put kelliekat44 Apr 2013 #5
Uh, last time I checked, the President was a Democrat....... TimberValley Apr 2013 #6
Uh, last time I checked, anyone can call themselves a Democrat, whathehell Apr 2013 #10
Name the non-militaristic, economic progressives among them. THAT's the point and problem. HughBeaumont Apr 2013 #11
Nothing changes in America until we reach the 67% threshhold. reformist2 Apr 2013 #7
Obama has cured me of ever believing in anything a politician says. forestpath Apr 2013 #8
The two groups of people I am least likely to believe. Savannahmann Apr 2013 #15
Our systems and institutions are broken, corrupted, or captured. TheKentuckian Apr 2013 #13
This morning when I woke, I was opposed to the war Savannahmann Apr 2013 #14
Yep Cosmocat Sep 2013 #18

HughBeaumont

(24,461 posts)
12. I can't expect all of them to be gems . ..
Fri Apr 26, 2013, 08:49 AM
Apr 2013

. . . but after a while, you just get tired of a majority of OPs dropping like a rock.

I thought about this one a lot, and it's hard to find a glimmer of hope. Maybe our institutions just have way too many counter-productive authoritarians gravitating towards them.

Orrex

(63,083 posts)
3. Perhaps you might consider rephrasing your OP's subject line
Fri Apr 26, 2013, 07:54 AM
Apr 2013

Its current phrasing is a trifle awkward, perhaps enough to keep people from clicking on it.


Blue_Tires

(55,445 posts)
16. I know that feel...
Fri Apr 26, 2013, 09:53 AM
Apr 2013

To be honest, I don't have any immediate answers to your question and there is nothing I could add or tack on to your OP that none of us don't already know...

but at least i can kick...

newfie11

(8,159 posts)
4. Thanks for posting this
Fri Apr 26, 2013, 07:54 AM
Apr 2013

I feel the same way. I look around me and no one is paying any attention to what is happening or don't care.
I am afraid by the time people wake up in this country it will be to late.

I am glad I am 66 and not starting out now. I worry what kind of future my Grandkids will have and it's not looking good at the moment!

HughBeaumont

(24,461 posts)
9. I think I came from the last generation to have an affordable college education.
Fri Apr 26, 2013, 08:37 AM
Apr 2013

People don't seem to realize what a giant red flag problem an inaccessible education (due primarily to cost) is. This really cannot be about "if you want it bad enough, you'll find a way". You know, we really have no time or resources for Horatio Alger reliance in 2013. The clock really needs to be turned back on this, lest we want a nation run by me-first individuals who think primitive humans rode dinosaurs side-saddle.

 

kelliekat44

(7,759 posts)
5. How do we get the voters who vote these people into office to start at their local levels to put
Fri Apr 26, 2013, 08:10 AM
Apr 2013

people in place who will support a political infrastructure that will support the greater good? The issue does not depend on the Presidency but to a larger degree on the state and local officials who are elected and who sway the local people to vote against their own interests by appealing to voters fear and bigotry. We tend to focus our outrage on the President when he has been thwarted on every turn by Congress. So he makes unpopular concessions in order to get anything done for us. We need to get people into positions who will help us not be afraid of the corporate controllers out there...like Elizabeth Warren. Elections need to be publically funded and all money from corporations eliminated. We need a Congress who will not stand in the way of Judicial appointments, including SCOTUS appointments, that the President makes. Had we a different makeup of the SCOTUS two of our main problems would had disappeared: election funding and gun legislation.

 

TimberValley

(318 posts)
6. Uh, last time I checked, the President was a Democrat.......
Fri Apr 26, 2013, 08:12 AM
Apr 2013

...........And the Democrats controlled the Senate?

whathehell

(28,968 posts)
10. Uh, last time I checked, anyone can call themselves a Democrat,
Fri Apr 26, 2013, 08:39 AM
Apr 2013

By their works you shall know them, not by the "d" after their names.

Just sayin'.

HughBeaumont

(24,461 posts)
11. Name the non-militaristic, economic progressives among them. THAT's the point and problem.
Fri Apr 26, 2013, 08:41 AM
Apr 2013

A Democrat who believes in the worst aspects of Milton Friedman's vision (because even HE toyed with the idea of a guaranteed minimum income) and votes for aggressive actions against sovereign nations is about as useful to me and America's progress as a sewage-flavored lollipop.

reformist2

(9,841 posts)
7. Nothing changes in America until we reach the 67% threshhold.
Fri Apr 26, 2013, 08:14 AM
Apr 2013

In other words, a veto-proof majority.

At present, we're only at about 55% or so on many important issues. Obviously, we have more work to do.
 

forestpath

(3,102 posts)
8. Obama has cured me of ever believing in anything a politician says.
Fri Apr 26, 2013, 08:36 AM
Apr 2013

Pretty much any politician.

And while I've contributed to Sherrod Brown's campaigns (even though I live in VA), I still have not recovered from this disturbingly ambiguous statement he made about Chained CPI last December:

Others used similarly strong, but vague, language. Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) told reporters Tuesday regarding members discussing the chained CPI: "They shouldn't be." But he also added that he didn't know if he'd vote against it. "I'd vote on a whole package," he said. "I very much don't like that [chained CPI]."

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/12/19/nancy-pelosi-social-security_n_2333285.html

So in answer to your question, all I can say is we are just screwed. We have a government that is for sale to the highest bidder. Neither party has any principles whatsoever. There are differences between the Democratic and Republican parties on some social issues - but I am convinced the only reason there is a difference is because apparently there aren't any obscenely rich anti-abortion or anti-gay rights corporations buying Democrats' votes.

The institutionalized deference to the rich and powerful, and Obama's bizarre obsession with giving private industry a cut of inherently governmental programs whenever he gets a chance, has put this country on a path to ruination. It might have begun with Reagan but Obama is his standard bearer.

TheKentuckian

(24,934 posts)
13. Our systems and institutions are broken, corrupted, or captured.
Fri Apr 26, 2013, 09:19 AM
Apr 2013

Changing the faces is not very different than changing the drapes in a burning house.

Of course even if that part is wrong, we fish for our leaders from the same pond, we always gravitate toward the wealthy and Ivy League types so it isn't reasonable to expect widely divergent worldviews.

The umpires have been pulled from the field, the Press is broken and has been turned into a propaganda network that serves the interests of the wealthy and the multi-national corporations.

The populace is disengaged and doesn't want to be bothered more than anything which aids authoritarian creep.

 

Savannahmann

(3,891 posts)
14. This morning when I woke, I was opposed to the war
Fri Apr 26, 2013, 09:20 AM
Apr 2013

Then I had an unfortunate discussion with someone who also opposed it. That cured me of my desire to oppose it. The problem is that the front men/women for the opposition are people who shout incoherent slogans and don't listen to a word anyone else says. That puts the entire anti-war movement in the worst possible light. Then ten years later, you say "I opposed the war" and immediately the image is created of the shouting lunatic which gives morons on the right the ability to denigrate the whole because of the screaming nuts. Perhaps that was the plan of the media, when they point the cameras at the screaming lunatics.

So I have taken the only path available, apathy. I can't and won't support an unjust war. I thought that the President's Red Line was stupid. It was like daring the Syrian's to do it. Even if they didn't someone would release enough to get video of it to claim the Syrians had done it. So now we're either going to look like blowhards, and not do anything. Or we're going to look like crusaders of old, and give the Anti-American's more propaganda. In the meantime, the RW's will be taking the postings and rantings of the semi-lucid and using that to claim that any anti-war proponents are all lunatics.

Sad isn't it? When we make two mistakes so quickly. We fought to get Chuck Hagel in as Sec Def, the why I haven't yet figured out. We made the conditional response one that was almost inevitable in hindsight, and we are going to be painted as lunatics by the screaming members who will be portrayed as the leaders.

Cosmocat

(14,543 posts)
18. Yep
Tue Sep 3, 2013, 08:05 PM
Sep 2013

47.

My political awakening was the early to mid90s, when the republicans were just absolutely eviscerating the Big Dog.

I didn't get it. I lived in a moderately conservative, mostly white part of Pa. I never got why folks veins blew out of their necks over Clinton. He was a likeable guy, white, kind of cool. But, they hated him with a passion I just did not get.

I remember whoever was in charge of the thing piping Rush Limbaugh into the radio at the gym. I just did not get it. It was complete and utter nonsense, fantastical. Who were all these evil liberals he babbled about. I didn't know of any.

I remember election night when Bush "beat" Gore. I remember how I just could not believe it, and that we were fucked. Somehow, he ended up being worse than I thought when they got 9-11 and used it to their benefit to the max.

I THOUGHT we were reaching a point where demographics would start to turn on the republican's after 2008, but then for no good reason this country saw fit to elect the better part of a 100 jackasses in 2010 for no good reason other than republicans throwing a hissy fit over losing the presidential election.

That was a turning point for me.

I have realized that we have a LONG time before there is any hope of this country getting its shit together and not falling for the bullshit the republicans pitch.

Worst case, they win on the on the they are all the same thing.

But, it is only a matter of time before their never ending pattern of grabbing at whatever they can grap to try to get traction with the sleepy American masses pays off. A sperm covered dress, a terrorist attack, SOMETHING will work for them.

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