As democracy is perfected, the office of president represents, more and more closely, the inner soul of the people. On some great and glorious day the plain folks of the land will reach their heart's desire at last and the White House will be adorned by a downright moron.
CarlWaPIRG: Rep Baird: 'hypocrisy' & 'extremism' by Republicans in healthcare debate will affect his final decision on vote http://tr.im/baird#hcr#wa3»
Article by missy on January 14th, 2010 at 11:42 am
It only takes a 7.0 earthquake devastating the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere to get me back blogging again. I’m so lame.
I’m donating 100% of gross receipts from my Etsy shop til the end of January to Dr. Paul Farmer’s organization, Partners in Health, if you want to make a donation and get something spiffy for your Valentine to boot. I’m going to make the donations daily, whatever cumulative sales I have that day, to keep the money flowing throughout the month. I’ll also do my best to post more items this weekend that are ready to go but I haven’t had a chance to photograph yet.
I’ll post my paypal receipts daily over at my blog, no fish, no nuts, so you know this is legit.
Whatever way you can help, please do. And if you want some background on Dr. Paul Farmer and Partners in Health, please read Mountains Beyond Mountains by Tracy Kidder. The poverty in Haiti is almost beyond our fat-and-happy American ability to comprehend – and that was before this latest tragedy.
If you have watched any old mob movies, you know that any racket needs a front. In America the front is called democracy. Like the term populism, the people have no idea what democracy really is, but has something to do with the free market capitalism that issues forth such things as bass boats. And it certainly it has to do with every citizen having a small piece in the determination of national matters. Clearly untrue as that is, nevertheless it is one helluva a sales point, revered by the proles and not to be fucked with if you are to maintain the illusion of the consent of the people among the people. The front.
So the people are given such narrow electoral choices as not to even be real choices, but packaged in somewhat different wrappers — such as skin color. Or if a president and Congress can see a clear path in rolling over the dimwits out there, the dimwits are given no choice at all. Such as going to war against Iraq.
Still, there are always those citizens who will not settle for simply voting based on what they have been fed. They detect the odor of swill, but cannot quite name the ingredients. So they feel they must test democracy, exercise their uncontrolled “freedom of choice,” as fully as possible through activism.
So they turn to one of the two controlling political parties to put them to work. After all, anyone who doesn’t is considered a kook. Right?
In a marvelous bit of Mobius strip logic, the activists end up working toward the success of some minute difference in national policy that serves the purposes of the established power cartels. The main difference is in the degree of profitability for the corporate state. More profit or a helluva lot more profit.
In the end the activists find themselves working for the election of someone who, by the very nature of being selected as a candidate by the system, has been vetted by his or her own elite peers as one who will — ta ta! — preserve the system from change.
I keep reading in various places the concept that the D’s are not better than the R’s and only slightly different. Also keep seeing “vote the incumbents out” in a lot of recent articles.
It seems people have finally awakened and realized that there is mostly only one Party in DC and they (the citizenry) are not invited.
So what happens now? Capitalism is a failure. Corporatists, with their stranglehold on the media, have convinced most everyone that “socialism is too terrible to contemplate”. Voting out incumbents just puts another preselected candidate in office who will serve only to maintain the status quo. Activism is a waste of time since it goes ignored by those in power making all the big decisions.
So what happens now? A new Middle Age of staticism captured in HD?
“I am thrilled to be joining the great talent and management team at Fox News,” Palin said in a statement posted on the network’s Web site. “It’s wonderful to be part of a place that so values fair and balanced news.”
Fox said that according to the multiyear deal, Palin will offer political commentary and analysis. She also will host occasional episodes of Fox News “Real American Stories,” a series featuring true inspirational stories about Americans.
“Governor Palin has captivated everyone on both sides of the political spectrum and we are excited to add her dynamic voice to the FOX News lineup,” Bill Shine, executive vice president of programming, said in a statement.
Palin captivating “both sides of the political spectrum” gives a new and very special meaning to “fair and balanced news”. But then Fox News being fair and balanced is right up there with “Saddam was behind the 9/11 attack” and “the dog ate my homework”.
Perhaps this career move will help Sarah in her 2012 run for the Presidency. Let’s hope so. Never watched a Fox Newscast (except for youtube clips), so it really doesn’t matter…
The Observer of Guardian Uk has an article about the resurgence of Howard Dean in the national debate concerning health insurance reform and as champion of a rebellion within the Democratic Party.
Much of the success of Obama’s campaign was copied from Howard Dean’s original campaign for the Presidency. However now that we are a year into the Obama presidency, it is evident that “Obama the President” is a very different person than “Obama the Candidate”. President Obama, so far, has turned out to be a much more eloquent but only a slightly milder version of Bush II. The right-wing conservatives can keep hollering socialist, communist, liberal, etc. at Obama but as Al Franken said on the Senate floor last month, “We are entitled to our own opinions; we’re not entitled to our own facts.”
Much like the extreme discontent that arose from George W Bush’s domestic and foreign agendas, Howard Dean is once again being looked to for leadership that has gone missing in D.C. I am not one who spent much time or effort trying to get Obama elected. Even though I admired his speaking skills and hoped that he would bring change I could believe in, he just never inspired me to spend the days and weeks of organizing, tabling and door belling that I did for Howard Dean. Perhaps it was my intuition telling me that what you saw in Barrack Obama on the surface was not what was lurking underneath.
In any case, it will be interesting to see what happens going forward as the Democrats take a beating in November and the ongoing discontent with President Obama and Congress continues to boil over. I still have an archive copy of my “Dean for Vancouver” website on my hard drive just waiting to be resurrected.
Hard for me to write much these days. There are no words left to express my contempt for and discontent with most of the people pretending to lead our country.
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