My rant at the ultra-progressives who are so unhappy with our President who promised so much and has delivered so little. I deal with them everyday, have unfriended some of the most extreme, have kept on a few, but personally I find them far more difficult to deal with than the baggers because they are intelligent people. They want REAL progressives to run this nation, such as Bernie Sanders and Ralph Nader. Our president is a tool of Wall Street. He is no different from the GOP. He loves Monsanto, he is pushing everyday for the TPP, he most likely favours the XL pipeline. He kills children with his drones and brags about it, takes out old folks too and doesnt blink an eye. He refuses to arrest Bush and Cheney and try them for war crimes. He refuses to jail the crooks on Wall Street. My friends, I have heard enough of this to last me ten lifetimes. Even though all of these friends are highly educated people, they are lacking perspective in their assessment of the reality of the American political system. Because of the electoral college, we are working with only two viable parties on the presidential level. Do away with the electoral college, some say. Well, that is a next to impossible task in todays political environment. It would require a constitutional amendment which is extremely difficult to achieve, requiring a 2/3rds majority vote in both houses of Congress followed up by approval of the state legislatures in 3/4ths of the states. Some of you younger ones might not realize that the Equal Rights for Women amendment has been floating around for 40 years and still failing. Do you seriously think the small population states will ever give up the power they gain from the electoral college? Seriously doubt it, at least in the foreseeable future. Tossing in a 3rd party on the presidental level can have little to no significance. The most effective 3rd party candidates could accomplish would be to throw the election to the least desirable of the two main candidates, as the disaffected vote Green or Christian or whatever or stay at home in protest that both major parties are the same. Did some research awhile back on the power of the Greens in the U.S. and discovered there are 200-300 (forget which) Greens holding office nationwide today. The big majority of those were on city councils, some were on school boards, and a handful of mayors. On the state legislature level there is one Green representative in Arkansas. None at all in any other states. It takes years of unremitting dedication by large numbers of people to gain any political power and so becomes more of an impossible dream. The very same would hold true were the Independents to become a power in the country. The most visible independent today is Bernie Sanders, a great man, a great explainer of things, a man dedicated to improving the lives of the little people. What legislation has Senator Sanders managed to pass in the 8 years he was in the House and the 8 in the Senate? He introduced a bill to increase disability pensions for veterans last year but it failed. Therefore, legal achievements in D.C. are none. Both parties are the same. Sorry, must disagree here altho will agree that both parties have members who have been bought by big money and special interests. That said, one must look to their stances on the issues. One party is consistently for measures to help the little people; the other party is determined to destroy the accomplishments of the last 80 years or so, accomplishments that enable the middle-class to rise up and become a major force in the country. Which party got the following things enacted? Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, Affordable Care Act, Environmental Protection Act, Centers for Disease Control, student loans, VA programs, voting rights, food stamps, child labor laws, disability benefits, environmental improvement issues, etc. The Democrats must be credited with these things. The Republican party, on the other hand, wants to get rid of all of them either completely or turn them over to big business to run and profit from, such as they have done with prisons, with mercenary units, with schools, etc. Now we have been dealt a political system such as described above. There is no quick, easy way to change it. Hate to keep repeating this, but we are holding this hand of cards and in order to keep the status quo or improve our lives and those of our children, it must be done by a skillful play of these cards. It will not be easy because the 1% has been hard at work for more than 30 years taking over control of state governments (they now have 30 of the 50 in their grasp), local governments, they control the Supreme Court and the House of Representatives. Most likely they will maintain control of the House. It is possible for them to take the Senate and pray that Im wrong. Should they accomplish this in November, in my opinion, the game is over. We are so close to the precipice now that it is frightening to me, not for my sake but for the sake of my children and grandchildren. If none of the programs just mentioned above holds any interest for you, then by all means you do not want to vote for a Democrat. Think voting GOP will help you out? It will if you happen to be a millionaire many times over, preferably a billionaire. It will if you think that you will never possibly need any help from the federal government in case of natural disasters, loss of a job, loss of health requiring massive expenditures of money. It will if you can take advantage of all the tax loopholes available to the wealthy. Have run out of steam. I do not agree with everything done by President Obama but do not want to get into justifying all that he has done since entering office. That can be saved for another day because seriously doubt this rant will go far. I known for some time that any post or comment more than 2-3 lines long will be largely ignored.
Posted on: Fri, 23 May 2014 04:20:31 +0000
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