Reply #71: Even LBJ's Ghost calls Bullshit on the OP.

[ThomCat]

You make a great point. History shows that the point in the OP is total nonsense.

Regardless of how beholden politicians are to their corporate benefactors, a leader can rally them, cajole them, coerce them, or shame them into doing what needs to be done.

Appealing directly to the will of the public has been done in the past, and it is the only way campaigns to help the poor and dispossessed have ever succeeded. Obama wasn't willing to do this because he isn't a real progressive or populist, and that is why he has failed and we have this shit legislation.


If Obama has been willing to appeal to the public base directly instead of shunning us and keeping us in the dark, we could have been a huge force helping him publicly pressure politicians.

We could have created a huge public campaigns and media campaigns shaming them until there was a public narrative framing this issue entirely differently than than the way they allowed the insurance industry to frame it. Just framing this differently, and making it a populist issue, and getting people involved would have pushed this farther.

The only time politicians listen to voters is when a critical mass of them shout loud enough all at once, for long enough, consistently enough and don't shut up. When the politicians hear this everywhere they go, and it competes with the message of lobbyists, then politicians can be coerced or shamed into voting for our needs instead of lobbyist's greed.