Al Gore: 'Our system of government itself, is in real trouble'

[Rufus2007]

"I think this should be a wake-up call for all Americans, Keith — that our system of government, itself, is in real trouble," Gore said. "We have been making, as a country, a whole series of really bad decisions, and we became the greatest country in the world, as we still like to describe our country, by making better decisions than practically any other country in history because we had a high-quality debate among ourselves."

(Video)TheDC.com

[CleanGreenFuture]

1. Love Al, always have, but...

Tell us something we don't already know.

[LiberalEsto]

2. He made a bad decision too

by not fighting the theft of the 2000 election.

[Big Blue Marble]

3. So what he says now is not relevant?

I assume you have never made any mistakes in your life. Not one.

[rhett o rick]

5. I would agree if I was sure it was a mistake. Has he ever said it was? Does he regret

his decision? Or was it political expedience? And if it was a mistake, it was huge. Maybe a pivotal event.

[Big Blue Marble]

7. You are so right.

It was a pivotal event. We sensed that then and, in respect, it is confirmed.
As to whether it was a mistake, you ask an important question. We probably will never know.
And what about Kerry in 04, why did he not fight the fraud in Ohio?

It often seems like it is all staged for our "benefit." Never the less, I think Gore does care about protecting
our system of governance And his words are a clarion call to us all.

Any of us can be imperfect vessels of truth-telling and in this case I am listening.

[rhett o rick]

6. Duplicate post. Is it me or is the system acting weird today. nm

[Snoutport]

4. yeah....maybe they had tapped his phone.

[CarmanK]

8. It began with Reagan's TRICKLE DOWN and demonize the poor!

And it has continued down hill ever since. Ronald Reagan and the Norquist, Rove gang have been picking off the most vulnerable for years. THE TPARTY NATION has been built upon by picking off the potential resistants one at a time. The adage is profound, true and implemented brilliantly by CORPORATE AMERICA, WALL STREET and the Military Industrial complex. " First they came for... and I did nothing, then they came for .... I did nothing and then they came for me and there was no one left". The TPARTY funders demonized the POOR, attacked the UNIONS for being greedy and interfering with BUSINESS-Reagan fired the AIR TRAFFIC CONTROLLERs, Others followed. American companies shipped jobs overseas without vocal opposition, because the unions were weakened. De-regulated energy companies:created the monster ENRON. They allowed SHELL companies to flourish off shore and avoid millions in TAX dollars undermining blue and white collar jobs. They went after govt workers, teachers, firefighters etc... then they de-regulated WALL STREET setting the criminals free to prey on the AMERICAN AND WORLD economies. And then they went after the state govts. Installing Ideologues in positions of power, and started PRIVATIZING govt services which has not worked out well for taxpayers but has made companies like BLACKWATER and Halliburtan very, very rich. Used their power to start two wars of choice. I could go on you get the message. THE TPARTY NATION was constructed to replace the US OF AMERICA with a plutocracy by shrinking the middle class and the federal govt which in turn would allow the states to operate as individual fiefdoms. their ULTIMATE GOAL make the US a ONE PARTY RULE, THE TPARTY AND sell off public assets, promote unbridled commerce and enrich the few.

[Uncle Joe]

9. Gore analyzes the fundamental structural problem during the Olbermann Interview and

has/is providing the solution.

“We put the facts on the table and tried to find the best evidence of what was true and what was not, and then apply the rule of reason and try to get good policies,” Gore added. “It didn’t always work perfectly, but it worked a whole lot better than it is working now. And what we have now is a lot of bad decisions that are based on flawed premises and illusions and special-interest arguments.”

(snip)

“ think we got to this bad place partly because there was a massive change in the way political conversation in our democracy takes place,” he said. “Back when our founders wrote the Constitution and hammered out all of this, all of the design for America, all of the communication took place in the printed word. And with television it’s very differently. It’s centralized, and you know Thomas Paine could walk out his front door and find a dozen print shops within a five-block area, all of them low cost. If you go down to the local TV station and say I would like to deliver this essay or whatever, they would laugh you out of the premises. You have to have lots of money.”

According to Gore, the antidote would be the Internet and he offered Markos Moulitsas, the editor of the Daily Kos, as an example of its success.

“Now, we have a new medium of communication that is already beginning to affect television, and that’s the Internet,” Gore said. “And it has low-entry barriers for individuals, Markos Moulitsas, who you had on earlier is an example of the kind of voice that is now being heard on the Internet, and eventually, when more and more people get involved and express themselves and organize, we need to use the digital tools that are now available to organize around the views that we think are important to implement to make our country a better place. As long as people stay relaxed and laid back, if they feel strongly about something, it’s not going to work.”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BswJNrFkS1g

Thanks for the thread, Rufus