I have said it many times, there is only one force that can truly change America…for the better. (Bushco has poreved how easy it is to change it for the worse.)
The People.
Despite the “coup” in 2000, despite the latest empowerment of the aristocracy and ruling class, or as Bush calls them, “his base,” despite decades of voter suppression in its most insidious form, convincing The People that they ARE powerless, despite rigged gerrymandering that makes incumbents nearly impossible to unseat, and most of all despite the politics of fear that now holds America in its seemingly insurmountable thrall…..this IS still a representative democracy. It HAS been proven that citizen activism works, and all the structures for a peaceful yet powerful Citizens Revolution are still in place.
Our government is just sitting there, waiting for us to take it back. The potential and promise of a real America and all it was supposed to stand for is still extant under the layers and layers of bullshit that have been heaped atop it. The heart of freedom still beats….barely. But it won’t be resuscitated by some singular savior, and the savior du jour has been sure to point that out over and over again. Only The People can save it. The question is not whether they can, the question is whether they want to, the question is whether they can be convinced that they can. The question is….do The People still believe in America enough to do the hard work required and show the patience and perseverance required to take it back.
Or has “it” worked? Are The People now too indoctrinated, tired, busy, self-absorbed and just plain beaten down to even try?
There is no doubt that we are on the cusp of a mighty change. There is no doubt that America, The People, want a mighty change. There is no doubt that the foundations for change are there in both the People backed campaign of Barack Obama, and the technology of the internet. There is no doubt that the actual methods and means for change are known. The only doubt is how deep will the change go. The only real question is the Will of The People (or just enough of them to make a difference) to cast off their carefully imposed apathy and take the chance to fully embrace the change that IS possible now.
These days, Just a casual glance proves that the status quo ….sucks. A mere poke under the rocks shows that our ‘elite’ … isn’t. A slight effort to pass through the thin veil of illusion that the Powers That Be have erected to try to fool enough of the people all of the time, shows how thin and fragile that veil is….and the corruption and rot beneath it after the decades that the American people have allowed themselves to be convinced that their “betters” in both the government and the press deserve the trust that we have given them. They have proven that they don’t. Time and time again.
Our mission, We The Rabble Rousers among We The People is to penetrate the veil, to pierce the bubble of illusion and to show The People a new and better way. To reach and convince them that real change is possible and to overcome their apathy and distrust just far enough that they can see the light that we see, the light of a new day. The light of freedom from the tyranny of a self-appointed ruling class. The light of a true, accountable, democracy. The light that only the Power of The people can provide.
No matter what may happen, no matter what obstacles we face, no matter what the Cheney’s of the world do to outrage and discourage us, there is only one way we can lose, giving up and joining the ranks of those who throw their hands in the air and ask” what’s the use?” the ranks of the apathetic, the ranks of those that have given up, because that, above all, is exactly what they want.
Keep yelling!
And let’s see if the rest of The People want their government back, their country back, their freedom back enough to join in.
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to a meme we’ve been hearing about a lot lately, deliberate stupidity as a policy (see Krugman today, http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08… Unfortunately, once someone has made the decision to bury one’s head in the sand or to act in the most stubbornly reactive fashion, it is hard to change that course of conduct without real pain. And as problems become even more overwhelming, the stupidity strategy will only become more entrenched. This, in essence, is what happened in Nazi Germany imho.
The only solution is try to have citizens act like citizens, but that’s no simple task.
…that justice and happiness are limited resources that have to be fought for at the expense of others, that if someone else deserves some of that, it will decrease the size of the pool of common welfare. So we fight each other rather than realizing there should be room for us all.
Robyn (packed and waiting for departure on the next leg)
it doesn’t appear so, unfortunately.
They don’t even know they’ve lost it.
there is a major problem citizens can’t touch with their votes.
It’s the control the dark forces have over the MSM.
Back in the 1970s, Carl Bernstein wrote an article revealing how the heads of CBS, etc., were CIA guys. Bernstein had the evidence to prove it.
No wonder, then, that various attempts to uncover the truth of the 1960s assassinations (for example, the Garrison prosecution and the HSCA investigation) got badly derailed.
The dark forces today certainly include the same elements as in the 1960s (military, FBI, CIA, large corporations, many politicians). But unlike the 1960s, the dark forces today include certain Supreme Court justices.
Voting can hardly touch these fucks.
A revolution is needed, and not just at the ballot box.
I get comfort in the sheer fact that I am compelled to yell, but very sad that so many refuse to dig their heads out. So many Americans have been struggling hard for the wrong reasons. Let’s put the hard work, sacrifice, sweat and tears behind the right reasons!
Discussing this, from what I can see that has been written lately here is the most important thing we can discuss. It is, to me, irrelevant as I believe it is to most on that post here whether or not anybody else really wants a return to Constitutional Democracy we will do what it is in our nature to do, each in our own way.
Yeah. It’s called “global warming.”
Maybe getting a good tire gauge will solve the problem. Who knows?
LOL!
The government is the preserve of the propertied classes, all the way down to the Mayor’s Office. The moral rule applying here is “keep what you’ve got.” Too bad global warming will snatch it away. Ship of fools!
Man, I don’t understand folks who have children these days. Couldn’t they be bothered to take some responsibility for the world, first, before populating it some more?
and it can’t get back up.
My theory is that the American public have been socialized by twenty years of Neo-Con posturing to assume government is and should be incompetent. They have been trained to subconsciously believe everything should be left to the market even if they don’t actually articulate those words.
The Neo-Cons have twisted the ideas of individuality and freedom to fit into a paradigm in which the government is the enemy of freedom instead of an instrument to ensure it.Thus, the only true individuality can be achieved in the market place in absence of government regulations. The punishment of those regulations is largely responsible for th economic quagmire we are in. We are taught to believe “more” government is a bad thing instead of thinking in terms of a competent responsible government.
That mind set can be overcome but it will take work, effort, and a President who thinks of government as a worthy framework.
My mind takes me to the question of how much of an “IT” there really is that’s worth fighting to save at all. Just when was there ever “freedom for all” or authentic equality for all of us, in this country? Just when wasn’t it a land run by the rich and powerful for the rich and the powerful?
White men showed up, wanted this land and took it, decimating an entire Native American people in the process.It built itself on the backs of the the slaves and the poor and women who serve, and just show me where that’s changed a hell of a lot. Sure looks to me like the white rich guys are still getting richer while the poor get poorer and the middle is flat out disappearing.
They own the whole ball game: lock stock and barrel. The playing field, the ball and the goal posts. They pick the refs,they write the rules. Nobody has a tinkers change of getting near a top leadership position in this government without selling off huge chunks of their soul to the company store. They own the mass media and have used it very skillfully to literally brainwash the masses. And now they have buddied up globally with others just like them.
Why would anyone like us even want to save a societal structure that was THAT flawed, from the very beginning, and has only grown more so?! It’s values, the very bricks used to build it’s foundation, were rotten to start with. And they never really were about the “common good of ALL concerned” at all OR about freedom and liberty for ALL.
It was, and still is, all about assuming the arrogant right to TAKE what you want from others by any means necessary. It was, and still is, all about exploiting the “have not’s” for the good of the “haves”.
I’ve been fighting hard to change things for a over half a century, and now I think I’m finally seeing the light, at least at the end of my own tunnel. 🙂
It’s about rejecting this whole damned materialistic system, with all it’s current forms of “socially sanctioned slavery”. It’s about focusing INWARD now, far enough to locate and define one’s OWN authentic values, AND tap into that nearly endless well of human creativity and courage that truly does exist in all of us.
It’s about two people, then four people, then six people..coming together to brainstorm ways to FREE THEMSELVES as much as possible from dependence on a system designed to enslave and exploit and control and dis-empower anyone it can get it’s hands on.
It’s about refusing to stay hooked into squandering ones life energies serving a sick system;s values, OR trying to change what cannot be changed, and instead, use our combined life forces in ways that DO reflect a individual value system that DOES operate on collaboration, cooperation and authentic concern for the common good of all.
One by one, two by two, neighbors gathering here and there to say “No more, there IS a better way and dammit..we WILL find it! We will imagine it, we will dream it, and THEN WE WILL MAKE IT HAPPEN”
It starts with 2 neighbors deciding to share one lawn mover and one snowblower, rather than buying 4 machines.With showing a kid the sheer joy to be had climbing trees, rather than buying them another set of wires to plug into their ears to shut out the natural world. It’s about experimenting with alternative housing set ups, as we have, to see if it’s possible for two older women to actually share a two bedroom apartment without killing each other! (and it is!)
This kind of revolution takes time, and won’t make the cable news. But I am convinced that it’s the only kind that will ever really work. It comes from the inside out..of each of us, not from the outside in.
Which is really where the only AUTHENTIC freedom lives anyway…