Blog Posts108
By Mark Mason at Jul 12, 2011 |
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I will continue to report on the little stuff. The little stuff is, in many instances, repeated many times over across the nation, around the globe. Workplaces with real people being really thrown out of work.
We have a crisis now that, if we allow Obama to continue acting as if he's on planet Mars, will deteriorate---get far worse. The economy is fine for the bankers in New York, but the other 299,999,000 of us are not okay.
The corporate media and the White House are living in a fantasy land that belongs in a video game scripted by the likes of Bank of America and Goldman Sachs, not in the real world out here. A few people around Washington are speaking some truths. Bernie Sanders, for one. Alan Grayson, former Congressman now running to regain his seat is another. Dennis Kucinich, also. The Democratic Progressive Caucus, febbly, nibble around the edges of respectability.
We have no national organized progressive political base. The labor unions have either been crushed or co-opted by leadership who have sold out to corporate power and big money. On one of my rare forays into turning on the TV tube, I saw an AFL-CIO officer physically and verbally back-slapping a Republican senator on a talk show. I turned off the TV. That's how far into the abyss organized labor has fallen.
Fixing the political system can't be done overnight, but it can be fixed through education, organization, and action. The Democratic Party isn't worth trying to reclaim. Clinton and Obama have sold it to the big money on Wall Street. Marching and carrying banners won't cut it. The Republicans and the money behind them have enormous power, acting in defiance of the public opinion. They are attempting to destroy everything good about the government for which people struggled since the 1930's. The Right is banking on the belief that they can destroy Social Security and Medicare, even though the current polls show strong support for these programs. Their strategy is to throw massive amounts of money into PR as the election approaches, intending to buy the election regardless of how much damage they do contrary to the wishes of the people. Public opinion no longer matters because the public can be swayed by massive TV ad campaigns to vote Republican. This is much like a car company fighting safety features that save lives, while pounding TV with deceptive ads focusing on chrome, not seat belts. The Republicans know how to sell political chrome, while tearing out the seat belts of human survival......if we allow them.
