rigging the game. We allow legalized bribery of our politicians and then wonder why they will not listen to us. We cling to traditional labels of Democrat and Republican, though they don't mean what they did before. The Democratic Party decided to join Republicans in taking the corporate money to preserve their power, the price for this was abandoning the base, average working Americans.
No example could be more clear than Wall Street. In addition to the 2008 crash brought on by the Big Banks fraudulent mortgage backed securities, the banks have been busted in one financial crime after another, yet NONE GET CHARGED, MUCH LESS GO TO PRISON! After such a serious collapse of the economy, few safeguards were put in place to prevent this from happening again. The ones that were (Dodd/Frank) have just been eliminated with no discussion in Congress.
They keep us divided, fighting each other like we are rival football teams with a media owned by 6 corporations. None of these media companies will do real reporting and focus on what is really at the core of our problems, the fact that not since the Gilded Age has our political system been so corrupt. We get 24/7 coverage of missing planes and the like, but scandals such as LIBOR where the worlds biggest banks ripped off the rest of the world gets virtually no coverage at all. RW media has their base angry and afraid and believing that the poor, sick, minorities, and us "Libruls" are the cause of their problems. What purports to be LW media has us believing that electing more Democrats will solve our problems. The problem with that is when they run for election/re-election they take the donations from business. We call them "spineless" when they "cave" to republicans, as if they are somehow weaker than the opposition. We overlook the continued appointments of Wall Street insiders and NSA spying because they are on our "team!"
It is time to realize that we cannot improve the situation by doing what we have been doing, it doesn't work! We have to eliminate the Plutocrats/corporations ability to buy our Representatives and brainwash the masses with propaganda. The banking and media oligopolies must be broken up. We must demand complete Publicly Funded Elections and outlaw campaign contributions and the "revolving door!" If we were to join together all of the groups that have been fighting they "symptoms" of this corruption we can get it done. What I mean by "symptoms" is where, for example, an issue like Climate Change , which most Americans will admit we need to do something, but in trying to make the changes we find our Representatives will not do anything substantial because the Lobbyists for the energy companies give them to much money. They media confuses the issue and gives the impression that man made climate change is controversial. This plays out on almost every issue where the needs of the people conflict with the desires of the Plutocrats.
Other symptoms would be TPP, NSA Spying, Public Education, Immigration, Reasonable Gun Restrictions, Equal Pay for Women, Student Debt/High Costs for College, LGBT rights, Alternative Energy, Minimum Wage, Social Safety Net, Infrastructure... the list could go on and on. The rich and powerful get things their way and we continue to spiral down regardless of whether we have a Democrat or a Republican in the Presidency. Joining the people fighting for these issues, getting them to understand that their chances of success for what they care about most are dramatically improved if we can beat back the corruption that has allowed a shadow government to control our actual government.
This fight would make what happened to the protesters in OWS look like a love fest because we would be fighting for the return of our Democracy. Although many of you write off Bernie Sanders, he is the only national politician that wants to run and do something about the corruption. He could be a focal point for all of these groups to rally around. The more support we can give him, the more this message will get out. Other politicians will join in if they see that enough Americans are demanding that things change. Many DU'ers are members of the groups fighting for the issues mentioned above. I ask you to use your influence to link all of these groups. Stop saying it cannot be done and spread the word to make it happen. Each day do a little bit to advance this cause. There are some extremely intelligent, creative and articulate people here, more than enough to start this movement. We the people have to be the ones to fix this untenable situation before it is too late, voting alone will not do it!
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