"Our democracy has been hacked," said Al Gore. "It no longer works"

[kpete]

Gore, Parker urge Web to 'Occupy Democracy'

By Doug Gross, CNN
updated 9:52 PM EDT, Mon March 12, 2012 | Filed under: Web

"Our democracy has been hacked," said Al Gore. "It no longer works, in the main, to serve the interests of our people."

Gore joined Sean Parker, the mind behind Napster and founding president of Facebook, on a two-man panel at the digital festival Monday during which both decried the influence of money in politics and pointed to the Internet as the answer.

much more:
http://www.cnn.com/2012/03/12/tech/web/gore-parker-sxsw/index.html

[xchrom]

1. Du rec. Nt

[Trillo]

2. I've been hearing this meme expressed more often

"It's not enough to take that small action online," Parker said. "A referral or notification is not really the same thing as showing up at a protest or actually opening up your wallet."

[Blue Owl]

3. Hacked by a fella named "Corporation," my friend...

n/t

[Uncle Joe]

4. "When we win the conversation"

"While blasting the Supreme Court's ruling in the Citizens United case that allowed for big-money "super PACs" in political campaigns -- "a Supreme Court I have not always agreed with," said the 2000 presidential nominee -- Gore said that successful political activism online can decrease the influence of money from special interests."

"When we win the conversation, then the pressure can be put on the politicians and elected officials to do the right thing," Gore said."

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

That's the inherent power of the Internet; facilitating reason to "win the conversation" on a massive scale.

Thanks for the thread, kpete.

[sad sally]

5. The ruling class in America (those with all the wealth) not only

own and run all the politicians and corporations, they also control any discourse against their ruling class interests - thru propaganda via the media outlets, which we generally eagerly buy into.

EJ Dionne recently wrote, "Oh, yes, it works nicely for the wealthiest and most powerful people in the country, especially if they want to shroud their efforts to influence politics behind shell corporations. It just doesn't happen to work if you think we are a democracy and not a plutocracy," speaking of super pac influence.

Americans think we live under a democracy - Citizens United has proven we don't - we live under an oligarchy of billionaire capitalists.

Interesting that Gore and Parker, two members of the ruling class, seem surprised democracy no longer works.

[GopperStopper2680]

6. That's the problem...

What's the solution? The trouble is that now Wall Street is in the White House and the men in power are certainly not going to introduce bills that truncate their own power. First things first we need to unroot the Wall Street weed from politics. (Easier said than done)

[TBF]

11. It's gonna take killing the tree in the center - capitalism.

The wall street casino is just one aspect of it ...

[Land Shark]

7. Internet can be an answer, but not internet voting. n/t

[rdking647]

8. Great tslk

I was at his speech. A great speech. He told the audience it's time for a wiki politics so the outlandish lies can be instantly refuted. He said its time to get the big money out of politics. Time for people to leArn for themselves rather than believing the nonsense they hear on tv or the radio. I don't always agree with him but in this case he was spot on.

(and I got some great pictures)

[Odin2005]

9. K&R for Al!!!

[TBF]

10. All I can say is that it has never worked too well for poor folks,

looks like people are finally figuring out that they may not be immune to the whims of our very richest citizens.