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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsTo all the third way purgies
Response to wyldwolf.
It makes precious little difference whether the President who deals with Congress to sell out American sovereignty to an unelected body of corporate lawyers with the power to fine elected governments for regulating businesses under the TPP or TTIP, to start another Middle Eastern war (or perhaps more than one) in order to keep the oil corporations on life support, to enact "entitlement reform" that will result in retirees starving in the streets, who fails to prosecute too big for their breeches Wall Street bankers for fraud and enact badly need financial reform and re-regulation or who fails to act on climate change is a Republican like Ted Cruz or a third-way Democrat like she who shall not be named for the fear of offending any one.
It isn't in the spirit of Henry Wallace in which this missive is written. Henry Wallace still had a functioning political system in which he could operate. That no longer seems to be the case.
This is rather a warning: What do we do when the political system becomes so dysfunctional that the only viable candidates being offered in what only vaguely resembles a free and fair election are those who conspire with the wolves to sell out us sheep? If the political system is so corrupt and rigged that it will not protect citizens from criminals like the Koch brothers or Legs Dimon and Pretty Boy Lloyd, then it becomes irrelevant and the fallacy that needs to be identified is a red herring, also called the irrelevant thesis.
That logical fallacy is your lesson for today.
It won't matter who is president passing pioneering civil liberties for homosexuals if the oligarchs starve us to death, kill our children in wars that benefits only them, make our water flammable or put our homes literally underwater as sea level rise and that same president doesn't do anything to stop them.
The power to fix the political system and make it work for the many may already be beyond the power of the ballot box. Direct action in the streets may be required.
The Republicans did not win last Tuesday's election. They were boosted to power a low voter turnout, voter suppression and the unfair advantage of corporate money drowning out popular sentiment. To address the first point, I recall that Lenin, who was at least admirable in the respect that he was a hard nosed realist (except when he was writing the fanciful nonsense called State and Revolution), was once asked who voted for the Bolsheviks to take power. "The Soldiers did," he replied. "They voted with their feet when they deserted."
So who voted for direct action against the oligarchs? The people did. They voted with their asses by sitting on them on election day. They did not participate in an election that offered nothing relevant except some ballot initiatives about raising the minimum wage, which they passed while tea baggers took over the US Senate.
djean111
(14,255 posts)Rex
(65,616 posts)The SCOTUS told 'business leaders' they could put people into political offices with their vast army of dollars.
And they did.
Phlem
(6,323 posts)What are you going to attract? People concerned with governing, people, or the US?
SomethingFishy
(4,876 posts)We need public financing of campaigns bad... Everyone gets the same reasonable amount of money and good luck to you.
passiveporcupine
(8,175 posts)Do you realize that this is not a paragraph, but one fucking sentence?
I'd love to hear what you have to say, but, I"m exhausted and my brain is not able to compile all this and sort it out. Please learn how to write more coherently.
Jack Rabbit
(45,984 posts)I'll take that as constructive criticism.
passiveporcupine
(8,175 posts)It's been a long hard day for me and I'm dragging. But I really do want to hear what you have to say.
JanMichael
(24,887 posts)No nonsense period.
Jack Rabbit
(45,984 posts)I'm not going to hold my breath for the state to wither away. Men are not angels, and therefore it will not.
Also, the state is something more than police power. It is a facilitator of discussion for whatever decisions need to be made affecting the entire community. No matter how ideal a society one lives in, there's always a little problem of whether the community should build a dam, and, if so, where. Problems like that aren't going to resolve themselves, therefore there will always be some sort of official social organization, i.e., the state.
I first read State and Revolution just over forty years ago. Those were my main problems with it.
lovemydog
(11,833 posts)then what direct action against the oligarchs is being taken or will be taken?
I'm not trying to be facetious or play some game with you. I understand the frustration and share it.
But I do not believe that not voting sends any kind of signal other than 'I don't care that republicans are winning.' And they did win this time. They will exert their pressures, regardless of whatever spin is put on it.
Phlem
(6,323 posts)period end of story. That belongs to you and it's your tool to tell the country which way to go. Own it.
I vote every election - local, state, federal, primaries, etc. And I'm far left. I would prefer single payer health care, taxing the ultra-rich at 90%, tripling the minimum wage, every single thing on that a progressive socialist like me favors.
I agree Phlem. It's my tool. And I have voted for some tools, lol! Hope you have a good rest of the weekend!
Jack Rabbit
(45,984 posts)I voted. I urged people to vote. I may do no good, but it never does any harm.
Unfortunately, that doesn't sound very enthusiastic and it is all the enthusiasm I can get up for voting right now. Realizing that, there's problem and I don't think it's with me. Although I have voted in every general election since 1972, I have never felt so disenfranchised as I do now.
The direct action will have to be nonviolent. There is no way we can win a armed conflict with the establishment. We need to be more creative and hit them where it hurts. We don't have to buy what they're selling. We don't have to help them build what they're building. They can pass laws, but we don't have to obey them. They can pass trade agreements, but we are not party to a secretly negotiated agreement and don't have to feel bound by it. We should never let them think we accept their self-appointed rule over us or that we respect them in the least.
We have to find somebody who can lead the movement (I know it's not me, if anybody thinks that's my angle.). That is what is holding us back now. We are a movement looking for a leader. It will have to be somebody special, but a Martin Luther King doesn't come along every day.
lovemydog
(11,833 posts)So true and an important point, Jack Rabbit!
I favor direct nonviolent action in every way shape and form. Start local and personal.
Getting all money out of big banks & their usury credit cards, dropping out of the big corporate world and being cognizant of local merchants and friends who can benefit from my services via barter or cash.
Each and every one of these things has a direct impact.
For me personally, doing these things has made my life significantly better and helped me to cope with a lot of nonsense because I've met very caring and compassionate people who I know have my back.
jonjensen
(168 posts)the democrats are no better then the republicans/hindenberg is no better then hitler. some things never change.