I find myself in the ever shrinking world of unpopular opinion these days. Hell, when Maryscott laughs at you and tells you eventually its about winning at all costs by a certain point in the game, it is truly, very, almost, hell, not convincing to me in the end. When AG asks if we are all working for McCain these days, when former Mr Radical-as-hell toes the party line, it truly, very, almost, hell, doesn’t at all convince me thats whats wrong.
I see the point. Heck, I’ve made the that point many times, and I am sure I will again. Just yesterday in the Open I mentioned a Obama sign for my yard.
Here’s your sign!
The Republicans win because they are unified!!!!
Here’s the underlying meme:
We need to rally behind anyone we get to beat the Republicans.
Here’s your deeper explanation:
Change is made in increments. Lesser of the two evils. Look at the damage the other side has/can/will have wrought should we lose!
Which of course, has basis in fact. All of it. I can’t argue with any of it.
Not that I believe there are really two parties anymore, I think there’s just one with two competing groups pandering to two different sets of fools. Red fools, Blue fools, you fool, me fool. Red tools, Blue tools, flesh tools, blood tools.
Little cogs to build the machine by any means necessary, and the people who pay those politician’s bills don’t really care which side’s tools are the predominate tools de jour; as long as we keep building their machine.
I think most people in this country are wildly dissatisfied with what the Power Structure has been doing for/to them. Most people deep down, are like me.
They don’t have to do anything about the “Me’s” out here on the fringes, they know the red fools, blue fools will do their work for them: “YOU MUST JOIN UP OR LOSE!” The great American sense of competition will do it for them. We must WIN! Our psyches have been formed since we could barely wipe our own asses. From the innocent days of Cowboys and Indians, to the Baseball Sandlots, to the High School Basketball teams, to our grading in SATs, right up to American Idol and War. All you have to do to Americans to divert their attention is to make it about winning, give us something to compete about, and we do the rest of distracting ourselves… well, ourselves.
It is not an accident that our media has promoted and popularized all the law and order shows, not an accident that the few that aren’t that are reality shows in which people divide and compete. Competition and winning… all things come back to that.
You might say that coming together behind a candidate (or island group, or sports team) is an act of cooperation. I dig, I dig…
But I’ll bet dollars to donuts that the other candidate, (or island group, or sports team) doesn’t feel that cooperation.
America started losing a long time ago. Until recently there were no choices in electoral representatives… smoke filled rooms and all were not that long ago. They handed us a game to play when unrest of the masses got too pesky. They gave us a competition to play with for a year.
Me? I’d much rather be like that cold Christmas morning and start singing with the Germans across the field. Eat with them, drink with them, refuse to fight them.
It really isn’t a bloodsport, politics… its WWF wrestling where the handlers just want to put on a good show.
I don’t want the Democrats to lose. I don’t want the Republicans to lose either, anymore. I want Americans to win. I want us to quit playing the game, instead join up and cooperate together for what we really want in our hearts.
I want to believe we can de-program the competition mindset and cooperate until we all win.
Asking the questions? Exposing the lies? Acting against injustice everywhere?
That’s how we win.
Getting the people to ACTUALLY speak and act towards what we really want?
That is my dream. My dream of an America who takes politics back from the game show mentality and says no more tools for the machine. We are the machine, not you, we made you and we can stop you. OUR interests come first.
Americans love Competition.
That’s why we lose.
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Exactly. this is what i tried to say… but you’ve done it so much better…
Brilliant Diane!
To put on a good show, money in large quantities is needed. Until there is real campaign finance reform, then we will get the same old shit. The politicians who feed at the trough of big money are not going to right airtight laws to eliminate its influence – and the wheel goes round and round.
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CAVEAT:
My essay isn’t about why Dem’s Lose, its Why Americans Lose.
When all the hourly wage jobs are goned from GM (and they almost are) who will they come for next?
Those 200k a year white collar jobs.
Hell, they are tearing factories down in South China, because GET THIS, they found somewhere cheaper to build them and produce their shit.
Until people quite being hispanic, white, black, jewish, christian, democrat, republican, until the laborers represent themselves again….
(lost my train of thought)
We need to represent our own interests again. Every person in America, hell the world, only wants to feed their family, have somewhere to live and be healthy. That’s not so much to ask, but the middle class is now really the poor, or a check or two from the street.
This year again, no matter who we voted for, we were not voting in our own interests. None of them!
You have to wonder how short sighted these Corporate Conglomerates are? Think people in Indochina can afford their refrigerators/TV’s or Nikes?
We the people. We the workers.
The bigger picture is we have to start Unionizing again, we have to start voting in our collective interest in which there is only ONE.
Survival, man.
Survival together, divided we fall.
We fall as hispanic, white, black, jewish, christian, democrat, republicans…
But united as “workers” and “Americans” we can live again.
Then we’ll again have the strength to help the world, not fucking exploit them, and we’ll join them too.
because they are unified. Unified in choreographing the circus clown show to keep people asleep enough to believe the dream.
The Tao of Disgust
Because it’s inarguable. Will Rogers said, “I belong to no organized party. I am a Democrat.” That statement is as true today as it was when he uttered those words.
I’ve been holding a discussion on my political board (linked to in my signature) about getting Progressives to go over to a newly formed and reinvigorated Progressive Party. If the Democrats will not represent us, then to hell with them. They deserve to be relegated to the dustbin of history, for having abandoned the New Deal. The Roosevelts are turning in their graves.
Maybe those that stay home election day are the smart ones. I don’t really mean that–because they aid and abet the lunatic fringe, but wtf, pols are in it for the power trip–not the common good. I’m in thje miority here–not enamored by “him” or by “her.” Edwards and Dodd had better messages–but were White guys–and that gave them a handicap in the sense that it’s the type that got us in this mess.
But Pelosi is proving that breaking the White man stranglehold is window dressing–she’s a match for any cracker piece of shit. The stock market will crash soon–we’ll get FDR pretenders–but if look too closely you’ll find that he was no great shakes either.
The US had a great run–due to natural resources and immigrant yearnings. It ain’t got none of that advantage no more, and it can’t afford its political system anymore. Edwards saw that, the rest of the field might look different, but won’t be different.
We the people (of any political view) lose because we don’t own and control the political process. When the costs of running for office are outside the ability of the lower and middle class, we lose. When lobbyists can drop large sums of money to influence the political outcome, we lose. When lobbyists write 98% of the bills that reach the floor for a vote (as was true a couple of years ago), we lose.
What is the solution? Clean money elections until the Constitution can be amended to make all election financed by we the people. The outlawing of any gift, donation or perk by lobbyists. When we own the electoral and legislative process we will be on the fast track to owning our government.
If the people and not the corporations controlled the government and the people wanted to outspend the rest of the world combined on the military as we do now, then I would have to accept it or move. The people would have spoken. But I refuse to accept that the will of the people is for the USA to be the source of so much misery, because currently the interests of real people matter little to corporatocracy.
If we had Clean Money elections, instant runoff voting, and proportional representation we wouldn’t have to have a united Democratic Party.
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