PhilsFan
Blue Crack Addict
Obama is not going in the right direction (he is far too right wing), but the GOP would take us in an even worse direction.
the only way to slow down the building of McMansions around Washington, D.C.
The exact opposite direction this administration is taking us.
Is there anything we can do to try and get the last part of your post to be a reality? Or is it a losing battle at this point?
Mention the “99%” in my boss’ presence and feel his wrath. So proudly does he wear his 1% badge of honor that he tips exactly 1% every time he feels the server doesn’t sufficiently bow down to his Holiness. Oh, and he always makes sure to include a “tip” of his own.
Term limits, banning lobbyists in whatever way possible, real election reform, many things that NOBODY is talking about. Not Romney, not Gingrich, not Obama, not even Ron Paul, really.
The system has designed itself, through years of political strategy, into a two party corporatized monopoly. People as wide on the spectrum as Ralph Nader and Pat Buchanan have been saying this for years. More and more people are seeing this as a reality, which is really the only antidote -people wising up to it. Neither party is a good alternative to THIS particular problem. They are both, precisely, the problem.
I'll have a detailed answer to your question later on when I have more time.
Regan and Clinton administration deregulation of the financial industry laid the groundwork for the financial crisis we currently find ourselves scrambling up the other side of. Saying we need less government regulation of everything across the board is ignoring the reality selfish human interest and greed.Crony capitalism 101. Republicans and Democrats are equally guilty and I agree, it has to be changed. Uniform tax codes, and lessening the governments' involvement in the economy is the only way to get corporations competing in the marketplace, rather than K street, with their dollars. the only way to slow down the building of McMansions around Washington, D.C.
The exact opposite direction this administration is taking us.
I look forward to your detailed response when you have the time .
Regan and Clinton administration deregulation of the financial industry laid the groundwork for the financial crisis we currently find ourselves scrambling up the other side of. Saying we need less government regulation of everything across the board is ignoring the reality selfish human interest and greed.
How do you explain the economic upswings during the Reagan and Clinton administrations then?
How do you explain the economic upswings during the Reagan and Clinton administrations then?
(My apologies for forgetting my American history.)
while i dislike the culture of assumed tipping, this guy should probably be fed to the wolves.
Every time I begin to post something, I retract it and start over. Turns out my 'detailed answers' were much more about the problem than the answer.
It's complicated, there are so many issues...I feel like I could type a thousand words on this. It's such a clusterfuck, that I feel each facet needs to be explained, rather than making statements as facts without justification. And yet...any solution that can reach the idiotic masses, needs to be able to be dumbed down into a very concise argument.
And that 'winnable' argument is that Republicans and Democrats don't care about the people anymore. They are more concerned with holding on to their elected office. I think you could get just about anyone to digest this, if it's done in the proper way.
So, to begin...I think the easiest way to getting real reform is a motivated non-partisan grassroots effort and for the media to pick up on it. If we could get the John King's and Brett Baer's of the world to start talking to candidates about it, we could at least start a public dialogue. One of the big stumbling blocks to it, is making sure that the movement itself isn't swallowed up into the hyper-partisan bullshit. Both the Occupy movement and the Tea Party had a more wide appeal than they were eventually tagged with...part of this is after the politicians get involved (and the super simple news media) most of the 'middle' crowd says 'fuck this' and doesn't want to be associated with ignorance (see: Occupy Oakland and certain elements of the Tea Party).
So the grassroots movement would have to be, from the jump, decidedly Independent. Conservative Independents, Libertarian Independents, Green Independents, Liberal Independents, Moderate Independents. All coalescing around one key issue. Returning the U.S. Government to true representative democracy.
Essentially, we're gonna have to bust up the Two Party Monopoly together. And this can only be done by totally disassociating with ALL Republicans and Democrats and considering them the enemy. You can be as conservative or liberal as you want, no ideological disagreements would matter. The main goal would be for petitions to circulate to get an Independent, from either side (more Liberal and more Conservative) on the national ballot.
The asshole news media, which spent more time on Whitney Houston in one week than it has EVER spent covering term limits or lobby reform, would follow the herd. All they care about is getting asses in front of televisions, or clicks on websites. And so we should use the media to form the grassroots and not the other way around. Otherwise, the grassroots would quickly skew ideological from ignorant radicals.
Now, this is going to sound ridiculous at first but hear me out. What does the media flock to quicker than anything else? You could get a B-level celebrity on MSNBC or FOX quicker than you could get just about anyone short of Obama. Because as Boner likes to say, celebrity is ridiculous but it is currency and they should spend it wisely. If we could get a couple of real A-listers like Boner, ideally a conservative and a liberal, to team up and start selling the message of ending Big 'sold out' Government, then maybe people would at least start talking about it. The only agenda being - REFORM of the SYSTEM. No issues with which to divide us, just about having our votes mean something and forcing Republicans and Democrats to be accountable, only, to the people.
I think it would need to resemble...as ironic as this sounds...a lobby.
A Grover Norquist-like pledge system. They either pledge to support term limits, lobby reform and election reform, or we find primary candidates that will and defeat them.
That's about the only way I can see it happening. There are a couple of others but they would be MUCH more difficult. And part of what I was writing earlier (before erasing it), explaining the problem, was why there are so very, very few plausible options.
In 2009, President Barack Obama reportedly called members of the Tea Party "teabaggers." It turns out that our fourth greatest president, first in so many things, may have been the first "teabagger" himself, as seen in the 1997 photograph above. Yes, that really is Barack Obama wearing a regimental coat and carrying a tricorn hat in his hand. And that flag behind him really is a Gadsden flag, with its serpent and its "Don't Tread On Me" slogan. You may want to let all of this sink in a bit, especially if you're a Tea Party-bashing progressive.
I didn't realize the Tea Party had a monopoly on use of colonial outfits and rhetoric, Indie.Barack slow jammin' the Tea Party.
If you think it's about the tricorn hats and Gadsden then you haven't learned or figured out a single thing in the last two years.INDY500 said:Two years of snark here, from the left-wing media and President Obama himself directed at the tricorn hats and Gadsden flag and low and behold...:
IRS official apologizes to tea party groups for "incorrect" scrutiny during 2012 election
An IRS official apologized on Friday to tea party organizations and other conservative groups for inappropriately targeting them during the 2012 election, the Associated Press reports.
The groups, which enjoyed tax-exempt status under the internal revenue code, were singled out for additional scrutiny of their tax exemption if their names included the words "tea party" or "patriot." In several cases, the groups were asked to provide a list of donors for review, usually a violation of IRS policy.
"That was wrong. That was absolutely incorrect, it was insensitive, and it was inappropriate. That's not how we go about selecting cases," said Lois Lerner, the head of the IRS division that oversees tax-exempt groups. "The IRS would like to apologize for that."