Why does President Obama keep Appointing Monsanto Shills to Key Gov. Positions?

[Cal Carpenter]

55. And therein lies the rub

Your question: "how can we change a damn thing, when the change we elected does the same thing as everyone else?"

is a good one, but I think to answer it, we have to take a step back and consider another question:

If we don't have any semblance of economic democracy, can we possibly have a functioning political democracy?

Are the people's voices or the 'common good' even relevant in US electoral politics today, given the influence of big $$ over elections, pres appointments, lobbyists writing legislation, etc?

Can this influence ever be changed by people elected in the current system?

Not trying to derail the thread or take it off topic, but I don't think it is a stretch to say very little, if any, significant, lasting change can happen through the ballot box.

Even the New Deal didn't come from the ballot box. It came from millions of Americans literally risking life and limb to protest the conditions created by capitalism, in their workplaces and in the streets....

At this point, the global character of capitalism makes it even harder, because even if we managed to get the US political system to reflect and work for the benefit of the common good, the global economic system in which we have to exist will constantly push back, and generally with more resources and firepower (see Latin America and how some of its nations' efforts to protect it's people and resources from global capitalism has gone over the last several decades).

While this may not be a popular viewpoint here on a partisan, election-oriented site, the bottom line is that historically and objectively, the most significant and lasting changes come from independent movements that have forced the politician's hands at threat of mass uprising, 'commies' , etc, but not from the ballot box itself.

It all comes down to how much change one thinks is necessary or acceptable.