Our government is not representing us.

[L0oniX]

No ...it's not breaking news. The glaring evidence in front of all Americans is the gun issue. They are supposed to represent the majority of us ...not the majority of corporations, banksters and the NRA. Even our diplomats are representing corporate interests ...not our interests. What more evidence is needed to prove that our representatives do NOT represent us? If it doesn't represent us then what will we do about it? NOTHING! Vote Dem even if they don't represent us ...cause the alternate is unthinkable? You would think that the glaring evidence of non-representation would cause anger and action across party lines. Would we dare to cross party lines to join in one big movement to restore our government back to us? Nope! We are just as lock step as they are IMO.

[woo me with science]

1. K&R Thank you.

At a certain point we need to stand for what is right, and against what is wrong, regardless of party.

At a certain point we need to stop falling for the partisan game the One Percent uses, over and over again, to ensure that half of us will always circle our partisan wagons and defend the indefensible.

At a certain point, we need to become the 99 percent and demand our representation back.

[emulatorloo]

2. The GOP blocked the gun control bill

If you want gun control, as we all do, then work to defeat Republicans.

[L0oniX]

3. Sorry ...Dems for the most part are also not representing us. n/t

[emulatorloo]

6. Gun Control was the example you chose.

Dems were behind the bill, those are the facts.

[L0oniX]

7. "corporations, banksters and the NRA" Maybe in your reality Dems represent us.

[woo me with science]

16. +1

[corkhead]

4. I dream of a day when I have a viable alternative to Kock Bros toady Tim Walberg as my congressman

[octoberlib]

5. We're living in Lesterland.

Last edited Wed May 15, 2013, 11:17 PM - Edit history (1)

The funders pick the candidates and then we vote on them. http://www.ted.com/talks/lawrence_lessig_we_the_people_and_the_republic_we_must_reclaim.html

The American political system has been foundationally weakened by a corrupt campaign funding system, creating a dangerously unstable and inequitable design that could destroy our republic — if we let it. In Le$terland: The Corruption of Congress and How To End It, Harvard law professor Lawrence Lessig takes on the deep flaws in our campaign finance system and lays out a plan for fixing it. Lessig describes a place called Lesterland, a fictional land with a population of 311 million people of whom the 144,000, or 0.05 percent, named Lester are the people really in charge. It’s the United States, of course, and Lesters are the people who fund the election. Lessig notes that just 132 Americans gave 60 percent of the SuperPAC money spent in the election cycle. It’s these few, he says, who are our Lesters, and our dependence on them is perverting the democracy of the country. After all, if candidates have to spend 30 to 70 percent of their time trying to raise funds to get back to Congress, which they do, might that not affect their principles, their beliefs, their ideals, and what they’re prepared to fight for on behalf of the people? It's time to change the system.

[pampango]

8. "Would we dare to cross party lines to join in one big movement to restore our government back to

us?"

Does that not assume that there are republicans who are equally willing to "cross party lines"? If so, who are these potentially bipartisan republicans and where have they been hiding?

Republicans seem to belong to either the corporate wing or the fundamentalist/libertarian (tea party) wing. Where are our potential allies in "restoring our government back to us"?

[L0oniX]

9. Ask a republican if they think the house is representing them and find out...

or would you rather the house represent just us Dems and not them?

[pampango]

10. Of course many of them think exactly that.

Particularly if they belong to the fundamentalist/libertarian wing of their party which is not fond of "big government liberals". If the republicans you know are unhappy with the House and want to fight for the "99%", congratulations. You know a better class of republican than I do.

[L0oniX]

11. I don't know any republicans who will say they don't want representation.

Look ...they are not all liars and cheaters and dumb asses and the idea that only Dems are right is a delusion at best. Some demonizing is merited but here on DU it is way overboard.

[pampango]

12. Who is trying to keep republicans from having any representation?

I agree that many of them are not "liars and dumb asses". Many of them are not that political. They are republicans out of habit without giving it much thought.

"the idea that only Dems are right is a delusion at best"

Sometimes we agree on something so in that sense "republicans are right sometimes." I have a harder time thinking of a policy on which we disagreed and on which republicans were right and Democrats were wrong.

[L0oniX]

14. I think what we are calling republicans has changed. Some might say that the Dem party has moved...

to the right so much that the lines are being blurred ...dinos ...DLC. In that case what we are calling republican could really be the far right of what the republicans used to be. Of course the more stupid and nuts some are the more they get noticed and put on tv ....it's the spectacle of it all. In the same way here on DU we look for the spectacle of the stupid and demonize the republicans as if they are all that way. Mean while some Dems are or have moved center right or away from what once was core principles of the Dem party. I am sure that the tea baggers wanted representation and they got it ...to the detriment of the republican party. So now we have the crazy in the house but that doesn't mean that they are representing the majority of republicans ...IMO it just looks that way because the media thrives on the controversy they bring out. IMO the "represented" (minority) republicans have moved to the far right and the Dems have moved to the center. I don't believe the tea party is really as large of an entity as the media would have us believe. I do agree with you about having a harder time thinking of a policy on which we disagreed and on which republicans were right and Democrats were wrong. I just don't think we or they are being represented as we should be. The tea baggers who are being represented are just useful fools for the Koch's and others of same ilk. I'd hardly call them core republicans.

[woo me with science]

13. Every poll shows that Republicans are as angry as we are.

Last edited Thu May 16, 2013, 01:47 PM - Edit history (1)

Our government, both parties, was purchased by the one percent, and 99 percent of us have been disenfranchised. They are not running Republicans and Democrats for office anymore. All major party candidates are corporatists, or they do not have the money to compete.

We are ALL being played and exploited by the one percent. The corporate media has been systematically divided so that we have our channels and pundits, and they have their channels and pundits, and we are each fed lies and propaganda to make us hate and fight each other rather than the ones who are impoverishing ALL of us.

The big unacknowledged secret on DU is that Republicans across the country are just as angry as we are.

Just as our politicians lie to us about wanting to protect public education and the social safety nets and unions and the environment, their politicians lie to them about wanting to stand for small government, limited government interference in private lives, and the defense of civil liberties. Yet no matter which party is elected, we get the same corporate direction of larger, more oppressive and authoritarian government, assaults on and privatization of public services, and more warmongering.

If we could agree across party lines on just one thing....that our representation has been stolen from ALL of us by the corruption of money in the system....we could join together as the 99 percent to get the corporate money out and demand our representation back. When elections are for the people again, and corporations are not allowed to select our candidates, we can have a real fight in the public square about Democratic versus Republican philosophy. And real Democrats will win.

Right now, we don't get any choice at all. We get two candidates pushing essentially the same corporate agenda, by and for the one percent.

[L0oniX]

15. THIS ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^