 masbury says: Excellent B-1 Bomber example: politically engineered. While voting is essential, it is not enough. “Unless we see our vote as part of a commitment to involve ourselves consistently and unrelentingly in the political process , our vote is wasted. This is because the forces that have led us to this economic, military, and political precipice exert such awesome power over...Washington that no single candidate or group of legislators, whatever their intentions, can possibly go up against them unless armed with an irrepressible public mandate.” The problem with that is that corporate personhood trumps our vote. The only solution is to start over. commitment to involve ourselves that's the key... Thanks, Masbury--I think this is the biggest problem Obama will face (if Mac wins--forget it--we're doomed)--taking on the Pentagon and the war profiteers...if he even wants to, which I kinda doubt. What a shame for us all to be a part of such military madness. A movie was made a few years back called Pentagon Wars, which takes a comedic look at this very subject with respect to the development of the M2 Bradley. Worth a look. yeah, i was going to mention pentagon wars. the trouble is, the rest of us have to earn a living, spend time with our families, etc. etc. in addition to spending time governing the government; whereas the military industrial complex just assigns well-paid people to lobby as their full time job. you either let the government be hijacked, or you sacrifice part of your life. Yes, it is difficult - but I think the point is for as many people as possible to do something small. I am often tempted to say "What's the use?" because what I can do seems so small as to be meaningless. But down deep I think that is the only way lasting change comes - when the little people do the small thing they can do. As that grows, it becomes a tsunami, and it can't be stopped like the work of a single individual can. Civil rights, Vietnam's end, child labor laws, mine safety laws, voting rights for minorities and women - on and on - these things changed when enough little people demanded it be so. There were leaders of great sacrifice, but it was the public making its voice heard that ultimately made the difference. Just as there is a constituency built around NASA and the space station and around Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and their use in giving houses to people who couldn't afford to pay for them and giving billions of dollars to car companies that are going broke making cars we don't want and on and on and on. And it will keep on building until the Ponzi scheme that is Social Security goes bust and makes 2008's financial crisis look like a popgun. Here's a thought experiment. Just name one government program that has actually shut down in the past 100 years. Midnight basketball is still doling out money, you are still paying a tax on your phone bill to fund the Spanish-American war (of course it... I've seen program after program come through the local public school, funded by the govt, then shut down. I've seen the space program rise and fall and rise and fall - falling especially hard with the killing off of the Apollo program under Nixon. Bush's horrendous tax cuts will soon end. Star wars defense blows hot and cold. Reagan put the brakes on the New Deal. Nixon stopped armed intervention in SE Asia. We used to have a draft. Reagan especially delighted in stopping regulation, especially over the savings bank industry. Gitmo will close in the year ahead, thank God. We used to be able to deduct interest we paid on our credit cards. |
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