Change will not come through the White House.

[kentuck]

It doesn't really matter if you elect Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren, or Hillary Clinton, the President can do very little to change the system that is controlled by corporations and the PTB.

If you want change, it must come from the people. The House of Representatives is where change must originate. It would help to have a President that agreed with the House agenda, but alone, the President can do very little to change the status quo.

It is the Congress that represents the voices of the people and that is where our primary focus should be, rather than on the White House. If you are looking for proof, look at the last 6 years of Barack Obama.

[SheilaT]

1. You are absolutely right.

Our current political system, even without the total gridlock currently at the top, is not one that's very conducive to meaningful change.

Unions did not come about because thoughtful business owners encouraged them. There was a lot of actual blood shed in organizing them. And so on.

We do need to start by electing people who will bring about the change we want. Which is, scarily enough, exactly what the Tea Party has done, which is why they are currently controlling so much of what passes for political discourse and action.

[jwirr]

2. K&R

[bhikkhu]

3. Looking at LGBT and other things (pot, for instance) definitely true

As in any good democracy, the people are the dog and the PTB are the tail, that wags as the populace demands. Local control over local issues is a good demand to make, and I can only hope that we maintain a level of education and good-will in the country that allows things to continue as they should - lots more work to do, lots more progress to be made.

[sheshe2]

4. You are so right!

I thank you, kentuck!

[Uncle Joe]

5. Kicked and recommended.

Thanks for the thread, kentuck.

[Skidmore]

6. Good luck with getting that message through

I've been trying to say this in as many ways as I can over the years. There are some who think that a president has the powers of a king. They are wrong. We need representation that works for us.

[kentuck]

7. Our top priority should be to control the "People's House"....

Power to the People!

[pscot]

8. George Bush changed things

So did Reagan. But they didn't do it alone. They each brought in an experienced cadre of loyalists who knew what they wanted to and had a plan for doing it. The only Democrat who could do that probably would hold on to the status quo

[whereisjustice]

9. Disagree - as a singular representative of US, president can muster popular support

Lincoln, the Roosevelts, Kennedy, Reagan, Clinton - all had enormous influence over public opinion and connected with middle class to help move forward an agenda.

Reagan broke the mold and proved that populism can convince the population to work against their own best interests to an extent never before seen in our history. Washington has been doing the same ever since.

[Doctor_J]

15. And LBJ

Just imagine if he'd left the VRA and War On Poverty "up to the states". A real shame that so many Dems think so little of this president to claim that he's completely impotent.

[whereisjustice]

16. Agree, by claiming he's impotent/powerless, it's as if they want him to fail. Hmmm...

[99Forever]

10. Certainly not as long as....

... we have timid capitulating and corporate butt kissing as policy deciders.

If the Presidency is so "unimportant" then why even bother going after it?

I'm not buying.

[Demeter]

11. Change comes when the White House and the People Work Together

or....when the Corporations and the White House work together.


The point is, the White House gets to choose whom it works with....

and far too often, it's NOT the People.

[jtuck004]

12. "Change will not come.." - You can stop right there, until cable tv is no more.

Because the only thing that brings change is "the people", and they have shown zero inclination since they forced the government into relief - marching hungry children down the street and displaying their broken and thin bodies like it was a circus, among other things - in the early part of the last century.

I always thought it interesting - the plantation\slave model is only successful a long as the slaves think the Master at the head controls their future. Which probably tells us more about the slave than whoever is at the head.

"I saved a thousand slaves.I could have saved a thousand more if only they knew they were slaves."
Harriet Tubman

> "It doesn't really matter if you elect..." <

What you said

[cascadiance]

13. The next replacement of one of the "five" of SCOTUS WILL change things!!

We could perhaps overnight overturn some of the corruption enabling laws that their judicial activist decisions put in place!

We need a REAL liberal justice to balance the corporate and right wing types and I think Ruth Bader Ginsberg would be a lot more comfortable retiring with someone like Bernie Sanders or Elizabeth Warren selecting her successor than others (both Republicans and Democrats!)

[H2O Man]

14. Recommended.

I agree 100%.

[FSogol]

17. True, GOTV in 2014.