"Angry and frustrated, American voters went to the polls in November 2010 to “take back” their country. Just as they had done in 2008. And 2006. And repeatedly for decades, whether it was Republicans or Democrats from whom they were taking the country back. No matter who was put in charge, things didn’t get better. They won’t this time, either; spending levels may go down, taxes may go up, budgets will change, but American government will go on the way it has, not as a collective enterprise but as a battle between warring tribes..."
(Mickey Edwards)
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"Truth goes through three stages. First it is ridiculed. Then violently opposed. Finally, it is accepted as self-evident."
11 comments:
Nice post by Mickey Edwards.
"If we really want change—change that will yield a Congress that is more representative and more functional, change that can be replicated in state and local governments—we need to rethink the party-driven structures we have so casually accepted for decades. This change would produce another important effect: it would strengthen Congress’s ability to discharge its constitutional role. The Constitution grants Congress most of the federal government’s real powers—to spend, tax, create federal programs, declare war, approve treaties, confirm federal court appointments. By thinking of the House and Senate in constitutional rather than partisan terms, we would eliminate party-driven links between Congress and the president and avoid the spectacle of legislative leaders acting as though they were either members of the president’s staff or his sworn enemies. The Constitution intended the legislative branch to be separate, independent, and equal; to be the people’s voice; and to exercise, when necessary, a check on the executive, an obligation rendered moot in the context of party-versus-party governance.
In a democracy that is open to intelligent and civil debate about competing ideas rather than programmed for automatic opposition to another party’s proposals, we might yet find ourselves able to manage the task of self-government. Our current political dysfunction is not inevitable; it results from deliberate decisions that have backfired and left us mired in the trenches of hyper-partisan warfare. Political parties will not disappear; as a free people, we will continue to honor freedom of association. The goal is not to destroy parties but to transcend them; to welcome their contributions but end their dominance; and to take back from these private clubs control of our own elections and our own Congress."
Power has to be pushed down back to the people. We are hungry for real change---and I'm not talking Obama change.
These social protests overtaking Spain, Greece, Portugal, Tel Aviv...and now Wall Street.
How about an "Occupy Washington DC?" A Get the $ out of politics drive?
Gut the lobbying system. Where does Michelle Obama have lunch when she comes to Aspen?
We've done it before: Lincoln, Teddy R, and FDR.
We, the working people, must stand up to these corporations the elites hide behind. We are the 99%. End these wars. Rebuild America.
And quit arresting protesters. It's an American right.
As Nanny says, let freedom ring.
Never forget that the Tea Party is an organic movement. The Tea Party should do as Mickey suggests: come together with these protesters of corporate greed and build a movment.
Left and Right; Brothers and Sisters: Americans.
We are the 99%. tHERE ARE MORE OF US THAN THEM.
We may not have the deep need for physical survival that comes from being ruled by a dictator. Egyptian and Libyan rebels are the extreme need.
What we need to see clearly is that public protest has moved out into the open again with the revolts in London recently.
Yesterday, or the day before, the news carried the story of hundreds of protesters on the east coast showing dissent againt Bank of America. Quite a few arrests made.
I feel deep concern for my country and our people that even in a nation so free we are censored, banned and dissent is held down by a type of martial law.
Here's to the little guy.
And another little guy who said this before slavery was repealed:
" The whole history of the progress of human liberty shows that all concessions yet made ... have been born of earnest struggle. If there is no struggle there is no progress. Those who profess to favor freedom and yet depreciate agitation, are men who want crops without plowing, they want rain without thunder and lightening. They want the ocean without the awful roar of its many waters. Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will." -Frederick Douglass, 1857
The very nature of life and death is struggle.
I've long been an advocate for the dissolving of our two-party system. And that statement is coming from what used to be a card carrying Republican.
When we were starting out on smalltown we had a few rounds that left us all speechless. There were so many layers of government and social class to get into we felt like a tsunami was coming straight at us. It wasn't just the local problems, it was the national problems with non-profits. The system of systemic failure, corruption, greed, blind leadership, nowhere to go with anybody in charge was so obviously sucking up millions of dollars to billions of dollars of the common man's money; we just felt powerless.
All of us were sitting at bosk's dinner table one night and decided that if we were going to go the distance we couldn't do it without taking a personal stand. We all went and changed our registered status to unaffiliated. Here in Colorado there is no Independent classification in our voting system. One of us is a half-timer resident and could take the status of Independent in their home state.
Lee, I've come to believe that the folks have too much to handle to take on these big protests and riots. That we need to save those for when the day comes that we may have a problem like Libya and Egypt did. I believe what every American that feels the energy to stand up needs to do is get involved in effective ways.
Is trying to join a board or a council in Aspen or Glenwood effective? Good lord, no. Talk about a waste of time. But what can be done is to become a minion out here until that complete waste is reformed. The people have more ability to affect change by holding the power of their vote and voice over the heads of big money and dead weight electeds.
On regional, state and national levels there needs to be an organized effort to band together the moderates and Independent voices. All those millions that live with a foot in one belief, a foot in another, a finger dipped in another belief and the list goes on.
If we could find one leader who is an experienced politician to just round up all of us out here in Colorado then that's one state. Then sell the concept to other states. Before you know it we've got juice.
That juice might someday be the same necessary driving force that can then stand on the Brooklyn Bridge without being suppressed.
Thing is, it probably wouldn't be needed as an extreme. The power is in talking and sharing with like minds.
It was the extremist liberal views of Howard Dean that birthed the organic movement of online political activism.
The efforts of Dean to organize a cyber base is still the most successful cyber fundraising effort recorded.
Twitter, Facebook and the blogosphere have risen past the efforts of Dean as the most powerful way to share policy and opinion.
Organization in an online environment is the key.
Occupy Aspen?
when?
nothings on www.occupytogether.org
Glenwood22, Well said.
Occupy Aspen?
Oct 15th my house @4pm.
Informal Occupy Aspen planning and strategizing session.
This was in the Guardian today:
The core group, Occupy Wall Street (OWS), claims people will take part in demonstrations in as many as 147 US cities this month, while the website occupytogether.org lists 47 US states as being involved. Around the world, protests in Canada, the UK, Germany and Sweden are also planned, they say.
The speed of the leaderless movement's growth has taken many by surprise. Occupytogether.org, one of several sites associated with the protest, has had to be rebuilt to accommodate the traffic.
OWS media spokesman Patrick Bruner said: "We have on our board right now 147 US cities. I don't know whether they are occupied or they are planning on being occupied. My guess would be over 30 cities are occupied."
The original call by the Canadian magazine Adbusters to occupy Wall Street drew hundreds of protesters on 17 September and 2,000 attended a march the following Saturday. But the movement, which organisers say has its roots in the Arab spring and in Madrid's Puerta del Sol protests, has been galvanised by recent media attention.
Last week, the Guardian reported that a NYPD police officer had been filmed spraying four women protesters with pepper spray. On Saturday, a peaceful march on Brooklyn bridge intended as a call to the other four boroughs of New York to join in resulted in 700 arrests. Some protesters claim the police trapped them.
There are now two investigations, including an internal police inquiry, into the pepper spraying incident.
Bruner said the protest had snowballed in the last few days: "The American people have realised that the American dream has been assassinated and the murderer is still on the loose."
A message on the occupytogether site apologises for the site rebuild and directs readers to update links. It reads: "Wow, the groups organising and occupations popping up across the country is growing exponentially by the day. So much so that, in order to have proper navigation and organisation on the site, we had to begin categorising these pages by state. Because of this, every occupation's permalink has been changed."
Thornin Caristo, of OWS, said the movement had taken hold because it had tapped into anger at inequality, unemployment and corporate greed. He predicted it would continue to grow.
Caristo said: "It was always going to be a hit or miss situation but it's a hit and I don't think it will be reversing. So much of the population has no hope and those people are desperate."
Other websites publicising the protests have also become hugely popular. One, named wearethe99percent, in reference to the statistic that 1% of the US population owns a third of the wealth, posts pictures of people holding handwritten messages daily.
One said: "Last year, my 60-year-old mother was evicted. This year I graduated with my master's. I am unemployed with over $120,000 in student loans. I no longer believe the American Dream is for me because … We are the 99 per cent."
Another person holds up a sign which reads: "When you're young, you're told you can be anything, I'm sick of being fed lies. I graduated with a BA in 2009 and I've been searching for a job ever since. My generation is lost, depressed, in debt, struggling. We are taking unpaid internships and temporary contracts with no health insurance in desperation. We will forever be living at our parent's house."
Unions have have also expressed solidarity with the protests.
On Monday, the Transit Workers Union said it had applied for an injunction to stop the NYPD from forcing bus drivers to carry arrested OWS demonstrators.
Tea Party + Occupy Together=Right + Left = Power to the people
I found this online statement from Occupy Wall Street:
As we gather together in solidarity to express a feeling of mass injustice, we must not lose sight of what brought us together. We write so that all people who feel wronged by the corporate forces of the world can know that we are your allies.
As one people, united, we acknowledge the reality: that the future of the human race requires the cooperation of its members; that our system must protect our rights, and upon corruption of that system, it is up to the individuals to protect their own rights, and those of their neighbors; that a democratic government derives its just power from the people, but corporations do not seek consent to extract wealth from the people and the Earth; and that no true democracy is attainable when the process is determined by economic power. We come to you at a time when corporations, which place profit over people, self-interest over justice, and oppression over equality, run our governments. We have peaceably assembled here, as is our right, to let these facts be known.
They have taken our houses through an illegal foreclosure process, despite not having the original mortgage.
They have taken bailouts from taxpayers with impunity, and continue to give Executives exorbitant bonuses.
They have perpetuated inequality and discrimination in the workplace based on age, the color of one's skin, sex, gender identity and sexual orientation.
They have poisoned the food supply through negligence, and undermined the farming system through monopolization.
They have profited off of the torture, confinement, and cruel treatment of countless nonhuman animals, and actively hide these practices.
They have continuously sought to strip employees of the right to negotiate for better pay and safer working conditions.
They have held students hostage with tens of thousands of dollars of debt on education, which is itself a human right
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