So far the best thing that has happened since Obama got elected is the exposure of just how nakedly corrupt the System is.
80% of Democrats and 65% of Americans want an inclusive Public Option. But instead of listening to The People they represent, Congress is listening to the Bought and paid for Corporate Republican Party and the very industries (just as with the financial crisis) that created the problem in the first place.
The fact that our government works for the Corporations and not The People is now completely out in the open….for anyone who cares to look. Michael Moore’s movie will open even more eyes to the reality we live in.
Education, the education that is a HUGE component of What We Are Doing Here IS taking place. The blinders ARE coming off for at least a few.
And as those blinders come off, a certain percentage of The People will look for another way, as they realize that no matter how many Dems they elect, the very election process itself is rigged to favor the Corporations.
The System is broken. And as the One man who was supposed to change the system all on his own is proved powerless to do ANYTHING the Corporations don’t want him to do, more and more people will come to that conclusion. The question then becomes…as one poster at DK put it…
I Just Saw Michael Moore’s New Movie- What Now?
Though we can still….and MUST…affect The System, the System is broken enough that it is foolish to the point of being suicidal to rely ONLY on working through The System to achieve change.
That much is now obvious…but the question remains, what now?
Banger has the general solution in this comment…
We need to build alternative institutions that support us and those who could come over to the other side. There are positive steps we can take that aren’t “flaky” or weird but take commitment and an ability to go back to America’s pragmatist roots. We have the potential to make change. We have access to tools like never before. We still have enough freedoms left that were a result of intense struggle by those that came before us on the left who actually accomplished powerful things (go back and read about it). We whine very well but fight very poorly.
But what are those non-flaky alternative institutions? What can we build that will attract enough of The People to achieve the numbers and resources needed to get to the critical mass of numbers that we need?
Developing that strategy (a people’s Lobby? The long hard slog to start and empower a fringish Third Party, facing down SWAT in the streets?) is our challenge now.
Finding a way to effectively affect The System from outside The System…WHILE also doing what we can from inside The System.
Iow…a New Way
I will be thinking and working on this, and I encourage you to as well.
We seem to have no other choice.
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we just need to find it!
The solidarity movement in Poland was one of the best examples of what seemed to be powerless and despairing people rising up and throwing off the darkness that had enveloped their country.
There are other examples in American history. There is the Revolutionary War, for one, and we don’t really have to look much farther back than 1946 and The Battle of Athens, Tennessee to find people refusing to give in to corruption and abuse from government:
…when I posted my diary at the Orange?
There will always be people whose reaction is, “It can’t be done.”
For example, outlaw deposit taking by financial institutions with capital market financial assets on their balance sheet. Commercial banks and credit unions can have and hold loans that they issued, and Treasury securities, can accept deposits, and can clear payments, Investment banks can do everything else but cannot accept deposits or clear payments, and cannot own or be owned by any corporation that is or owns a commercial banks.
We know that feed-in tariffs work to get lots of renewable power capacity built.
We know that a political movement that has one foot standing inside a major political party and one foot standing outside the party has the ability to leverage disproportionate influence – the radical reactionary “Conservative” movement taught us that one.
We know that cap and trade systems actually do work if the cap is tight enough and the coverage is broad enough.
We know that gasoline taxes protect the countries that have them from a substantial part of the inflationary impact of oil price shocks.
We actually know a lot in terms of bits and pieces of needed institutions. We don’t know how it will all fit together, but nobody ever knows how it will all fit together when they start something like this – ask the Puritans in the Midlands in the Puritan Revolution or the Zapatistas in Morelos, or the Encyclopedists of the French Revolution – the form it all takes in the end is never what people imagined going into it, so the fact that we do not have a grand design is no big failing.
about foreign policy and brought up the fact that the US has over 1000 bases spread around the world. He didn’t know that. I’ve been giving a good education but it’s amazing. He’s not a repub, just a guy going thru life with a wife, kids and a house. Lost 200K in the last ripoff and I warn him about what could happen next. He’s coming around but slowly. Education is a key part of whatever approach is taken.
not from the Gov, but from the Corporations and the corporations that control our Government.
That is where the wingnuts swing and miss, the Fox crowd is dangerously giving them half the idea, if we can give them the other half we can turn them to our side, and away from the dark side
things would be vastly different.
Unfortunately we’ve elected a guy who gives great speeches but does little else.
He has no idea how to lead, or any desire to do so.
He seems content to just play middle-man between the Dem corporatists and the Repub corporatists.
He’ll make a lot of money when he gets out of office, and he’ll continue to be yet another Plutocrat.
What we need in this country is to fire ALL of these fools and start over.
We need to get corporate money out of politics.
We need entirely new political parties.
Alan Grayson is the only guy I’ve seen in years and years who is actually in any house of Congress who actually seems to get it.
In my opinion, Grayson is being mild. Gentle. Kind.
The fact of the matter is that the Republican party and the corporatists have nearly destroyed this country. They should be so embarrassed to call themselves Republicans that the party itself should cease to exist simply for no one daring to be a member of it any more. The Democrats, if they were for real, and they most certainly are not, should be pissing on the grave of the Republican party. Instead, they seem determined to resurrect it, for without Republicans, they cannot exist.
The media has been 100% co-opted by these people, to the point where Michael Moore and Amy Goodman are the only people telling the truth anymore, and they are so far out of the mainstream it’s ridiculous.
Ive seen more than a few people (orangites) ask that too, re Moores movie after-effects.
Here’s the WHAT NOW? tab. at his place.
going to read david’s essay, back in a few. (Im one of the WEIRD people that reads all the comments too. heh.)
Swine vaccine detox kit check
Food check
Generator check
Sta-bil check
Water/purifier check
Class consciousness
Social solidarity
Building affinity groups as base structures
there is time to change the system from within?
I think Obama was our last hope.
I am afraid we are out of time.
I will never resort to violence.
The only thing left to do is prepare for the worst and hope it doesn’t happen. By being prepared we will be able to pick up the pieces.
Members vaguely present already:
Some prospective members that are to a greater or lesser extent MIA, often not even understanding who badly they need to join a Progressive Populist coalition to achieve the ends they prize the most highly:
Co-ops of all kinds, for purchasing everything from food to health-insurance — a kind of left-wing Amazon.
Start our own corporations and businesses — rather than work for the the capitalists who always need growth to pay off interest. I can get into detail at some other time.
Revitalize the union movement to include all sorts of workers.
Clinics and alternative education programs. Both health care and education is becoming too expensive for most people. The young must forfeit their future and work for the oligarchy to pay off their debts — they are indentured servants essentially.
Community housing and jobs programs — certainly if we start our own businesses we can provide jobs and if we own land we can provide housing. We should live together with those that share our values because we are moving into a neo-feudal age where tribes, families and all kinds of voluntary associations could flourish or we will be forced to work for and live with those we don’t feel an affinity with. In other words, more of the same only worse.
We don’t have to make a very dramatic change right now we can take little steps. It almost doesn’t matter what those steps are — if we are wrong and we are together we can change course as needed. The issue is that we must take definite steps towards creating a community that shares our interests even if it doesn’t ultimately work — it will be good practice in creating community wherever we are.
Take steps wherever you are. If I have time and there is interest I will put up a blog or website dedicated to that endeavor with a list of resources that I think are worth looking into.