Bernie Sanders
Related: About this forumWhat do you think is the most important issue facing the American People (99%) Today?
Cross posted from GD: P - http://www.democraticunderground.com/1251906229
I think there will be a lot of different answers but I think that by far the most important issue facing the 99% is the survival of, or re-establishment of our democracy.
Without democracy we will eventually lose everything. In the last 40 years we've seen the decline of The People (99%) for the gain of the Oligarch Class (1%). We must end the continuing trend of the looting of our collective wealth, freedoms, and liberties.
I am sure that all progressive support the struggle for social justice. The problem is, that when we lose our representative form of government, there will be no means for The People to bring about change or even maintain any of the gains we've made. This includes social justice, economic justice, and Constitutional rights and liberties. We will be at the complete mercy of the Oligarch Class (the 1%).
Some people have accepted that we've already lost much of our democracy. A recent Princeton Study indicates that the wealthy class controls our political system to the point that we now live in an oligarchy and have lost many of our democratic freedoms.
Using the war on terror as an excuse our government has taken serious steps that violate our Constitution to control us via the Patriot Act, domestic spying, and other means.
The Oligarch Class has, for the last 40 years, been transferring wealth from The People to themselves via a tax structure that excludes them from most taxation. The wealth gap between The People and the Oligarchs is the largest in the world and ever growing.
The local police forces have been militarized and we've imprisoned a very large portion of our population.
The Oligarch Class owns and controls most of our media and are making efforts to regulate (read control) the internet.
We are in a continued state of war to justify controlling us to keep us secure (read under control) and to justify a crippling defense budget that drains The People of resources.
We must fight we must fight to take back our government from the control of the billionaires of the Oligarch Class.
This presidential election is a test of how badly we really want democracy. The Oligarch Class has made it crystal clear that they want someone that will represent their interests and they have openly stated that that would be either Clinton or Bush as president. It should be obvious that what the Oligarchy Class wants is not what's best for us, The People.
We must elect a president that is looking to change the current system of big money corruption of our government. That person is Senator Bernie Sanders.
SmittynMo
(3,544 posts)And 100% ALL IN!!!!
sonofspy777
(360 posts)"We are in a continued state of war to justify controlling us to keep us secure (read under control) and to justify a crippling defense budget that drains The People of resources. "
TIME TO PANIC
(1,894 posts)We are regressing back to feudalism.
toddwv
(2,830 posts)I don't think it'll happen because he's hated by people on both sides of the aisle, but Bush got elected twice, so who knows?
libdem4life
(13,877 posts)Bernie has been using the phrase, but I think most are unfamiliar with it, as we're still brainwashed to think we live in a Democracy. Another way to look at it is a Banana Republic. That which we have labeled so many countries as we lecture them on things like "free elections" and "feeding their people" and "human rights violations".
I put it in here a lot...thanks for the opportunity..this particular clip explains what has happened to Big Labor and the endorsements of Hillary Clinton...fellow Oligarchs.
"One of the most famous modern uses of the term occurs in iron law of oligarchy, a concept devised by the German sociologist Robert Michels to refer to the alleged inevitable tendency of political parties and trade unions to become bureaucratized, centralized, and conservative. His reasoning was that, no matter how egalitarian or even radical the original ideology and goals of a party or union may be, there must emerge a limited group of leaders at the centre who can direct power efficiently, get things done through an administrative staff, and evolve some kind of rigorous order and ideology to ensure the survival of the organization when faced by internal division and external opposition."
http://www.britannica.com/topic/oligarchy
Enthusiast
(50,983 posts)TBF
(32,060 posts)It is a systemic problem. I am willing to severely reign in capitalism (which we did in the 1950s and it worked for awhile), or we can go straight to the revolution. Your move, 1%ers.