A Dead Democracy

[unionworks]

As I see everyone getting revved up over the 2012 elections, a sobering thought comes back to me. Here in Pa, we lost Kathy Dahlkempers race to a teabaggger named Mike Kelly, and a REAL progressive canidate, Joe Sestak, was narrowly beaten by right wing lunatic Pat Toomey. What both of these disasters have in common is that both democrats were outspent 7 to one or better by the republicans, with Citizens United corporate money flooding the rethug coffers.
To the extent corporations are people, democracy is dead. Yes, I realize how impotant it is to vote, our democracy is on life support and we must try to stop the bleeding.
But it has reached the point where voting is not enough. The real issues facing the middle class will be the planks of the Occupy platform, these issues will be shouted in the public squares and on the steps of OUR PUBLIC OFFICES.
I will vote, but will also be at my local occupation. There is an Occupation near you. Find it and support it. The enslavement you avoid may be your own.

[TheWraith]

1. People thought the same thing back in the 1840s.

The phrase back then was "slave power." As in the wealth and voting power of the southern plantation owners. Eventually those plantation owners lost at the ballot box so badly they had to start a war to try and stay on top.

Same thing in the 1880s and the rise of the labor movement.

Same for the 1950s and McCarthyism.

You know what? The people who organize politically kick ass. Those who don't, lose.

[Hardrada]

2. There was an agreement in 1840's Washington not to discuss slavery.

Now there is apparently an agreement not to discuss US militarism and imperialism.

[rug]

4. Politics did not end slavery, the Civil War did.

This is what politics accomplished:

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part4/4p2951.html

This is what people accomplished:

"Passage of the Fugitive Slave Act made abolitionists all the more resolved to put an end to slavery. The Underground Railroad became more active, reaching its peak between 1850 and 1860. The act also brought the subject of slavery before the nation. Many who had previously been ambivalent about slavery now took a definitive stance against the institution."

[Zalatix]

5. Indeed, California held back Meg Whitman and stopped all Republicans from taking Dem seats

And Oregon, apparently, did the same thing.

[PETRUS]

3. The better funded candidate wins an overwhelming majority of the time.

Close to nine times out of ten in recent years. And more than two-thirds of campaign funds come from the top 1%.

[unionworks]

6. I'd like to see

Occupy embarrass the shit out of tweedle dee and tweedle dum by holding it's own national "anti-convention" on each coast,at the same times as the repub and dem conventions. I wouldn't hold it in the same city as the mainstream parties, thus avoiding the police militia. They would draw plenty of press attention - Occupy is lively and colorful,as opposed to dull and boring. And then reporters might just maybe start asking, along with the public, why neither major party is addressing the issues that Occupy is... the possibilities are staggering.

[uncleroy]

8. what a fantastic idea!

haven t heard anything resembling it; the closest would be the dnc, which has already been threatened with a large police presence- and while that might be the point as far as attention paid, i still think yours is a much more positive kind of attention...now how do we get it to go viral?!

[unionworks]

9. I wish I knew

You have two political parties. One of them is guaranteed to win every election. Both of them need a small army to protect their convention from the dissatisfied citizenry. Strange kind of democracy, isn't it?

[getdown]

14. good idea. aren't there already

some sort of alternative events held in (some) convention cities?

[CrispyQ]

16. "...Occupy embarrass the shit out of tweedle dee and tweedle dum..."

Great idea!

"They would draw plenty of press attention - Occupy is lively and colorful,as opposed to dull and boring."

So true. The signs alone are show so much creativity & out-of-the-box thinking - what we need to solve the problems we are facing! I would love to have Ocuppy stand up & ask, "Why isn't the D/R National Convention addressing these issues?" and then pull out the very long, long list of citizen needs & concerns that are not being discussed.

[ashling]

7. " it has reached the point where voting is not enough"

Last edited Wed Dec 28, 2011, 04:34 AM - Edit history (1)

The real problem is that too many people with otherwise good intentions never realized tha

voting was never enough.

Conventional political participation is not now - and never was - limited to voting. There are many forms of conventional political participation, including supporting candidates before they are the only two left.

That said, unconventional political participation has always been an open route - in fact many times the only route - to real change. James Wilson called this "politics out of doors." and it has long been an American tradition.

But neither conventional political participation short of voting, nor unconventional political participation means we should not continue to exercise that privilege.

Unfortunately, in this country. too many people can't be bothered to participate at all.

[Dewey Finn]

10. Thank you for injecting some sense into this discussion.

Your words cut through an awful lot of bullshit. What you've said should be self-evident received wisdom here, part of the site culture, but it isn't. I don't understand how any politically aware left-leaning person, no matter how naive or inexperienced or ill-informed, can fail to get this.

[unionworks]

11. Sad but true

With the outsourcing of the jobs of the middle class, they will have lots of time for causes. Too bad it had to be that way.

[Dewey Finn]

12. Quit posturing and listen to what the poster is telling you.

You have much to learn. Start there.

[Selatius]

13. Voting is never enough if the voters are propagandized and misinformed.

An informed citizenry is necessary for a functioning republic. Without that, there can be nothing but corruption and decay.

[joshcryer]

15. Progressives sat home in 2010. They didn't fight. Teabaggers got 9% more votes.

It was a foregone conclusion that if you sit home and don't fight you lose. Particularly in an off-season election. Maybe we'll learn our lesson. Maybe we won't. Sestak, Grayson, Feingold, all lost because we sat home.

[unionworks]

17. I didn't sit at home.

But we are all paying the price for those who did.