Paul Krugman nails it: Why we're on DEMOCRATIC Underground

[cascadiance]

105. I guess we're more screwed up than Australia... They at least have IRV...

Their citizens are obviously more empowered to put have leadership to put in place such laws more than ours.

You can say that we are just going to continue to go to where political office in this country is only bought, and the election is just window dressing and that this is something we should just accept it. I don't think it's being an egomaniac to want and demand what our forefathers created in this country.

DEMOCRACY!!!!

REPRESENTATION OF REAL PEOPLE, NOT CORPORATE PEOPLE!

The problem happens when we accept this infestation instead of fighting it. Then democracy is lost.

Most democratic presidents have things we praise them for. But just about every one of them have some evils that depending on the degree either damage this country or at least have had to be fixed in subsequent years.

Even FDR had the evil of Japanese internment camps, even if he had so much other stuff that has helped Americans that I look thankfully back for. Lyndon Johnson had a lot of problems with many actions of his in the Vietnam war, but he was instrumental in getting the Voting Rights Act passed, Medicare set up, and so many other really good things too.

Obama has helped really lead the fight for gay people's rights recently, but has had a lot of problems (and I would say "evil" with what he's doing with things like the TPP, drone strikes, and domestic spying).

Evil is a relative term. No one president, even most Republicans are TOTALLY evil! There are some things even Ronald Reagan did which were relatively better than other presidents. His justice department actually prosecuted and put in prison many of the criminals involved in the Savings and Loan scandal of his day. Today of course we haven't done jack to prosecute the banksters that have committed many crimes that should be prosecuted.

The bottom line is that most of the evil today in many politicians is an aspect of a corrupt system that demands that they run for office with heavy debts to campaign finance donors in terms of favors and other treatment that isn't the way a politician should be working in a democratic system. And those that profit from it and are a part of it, but don't at some point fight it to fix this corruption and say that the corruption is just "today's reality" are in my book part of the evil that is infesting Washington now.

We send them to Washington to run our country and make changes in laws where it is needed to run more effectively and run more in the interests of all of us as a whole. If they can't do that, they don't belong there.