I think I have political fatigue...

[CoffeeCat]

I am so tired of being lied to by our government and so tired of watching our democracy
being dismantled--that I find myself feeling unmoved by what most politicians say to us.

I've drifted beyond being skeptical and slipped into some sort of "whatEVER" nether region. It's become
a chore to try and figure out if they're lying or just completely stupid and making horrendous mistakes.

We've watched them lie us into war, bailout the banks, cut taxes for the rich while winter heating
programs for seniors are killed. We've watched Wall Street have their way with our economy and the health-insurance
companies have their way with our lives. The Patriot Act has frittered away our freedoms and our
privacy. Habeas Corpus is gone and torture is here to stay. We've watched BP get away with destroying the Gulf and
it appears that the energy companies will have their way as well--as radiation continues to billow
out of Fukushima.

Our country has spent us into a horrible corner with unnecessary, disgusting wars that are nothing more
that neocon games. And now, after they've run up the debts--they tell us there is nothing left and we MUST
cut Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security.

I don't trust any of it anymore.

I find myself nearly tuning out--because it's hard to know who to believe.

This whole bin Laden chapter. I find myself not wanting to climb on board and "take a side" as
politically charged camps jockey for position--and become farther apart as they scream past each other
and lob verbal grenades at one another.

I'm just sick of it ALL. Our government is owned by the corporations. Elections are easily stolen. Our
politicians are bought and paid for.

No news, no matter how big--changes those facts.

I'm exhausted from politicians and politics being about EVERYTHING that has nothing to do with what's
really wrong with this country.

[quinnox]

1. right there too

The more I see the Bush policies continued by a supposed change agent in Obama, the more cynical I become.
Fuck it, you can't win with these clowns in politics, they all seem to be puppets being pulled by master puppeteers. What is the point. When a true change agent comes along every once in a great while they either get assassinated or die mysteriously in small planes or other means.
Rant Over.

[SugarShack]

4. The puppet masters are the corporations. Dare I say it's fascism?

[CoffeeCat]

22. That's exactly what it is...Fascism...

...but if you say it (or write it) out loud--you're a pessimist, a malcontent or just someone who is misguided.

People look around and everything looks ok--but they miss the fact that the walls are closing in. They're closing
in slowly, but they're closing.

[Enthusiast]

29. It is fascism.

I'll say it for you.

When state interests become indistinguishable from corporate interests, it is fascism. They control the entire media apparatus. They have convinced half of America that there is justification for outspending the entire rest of the world on the military. They have used this media to convince half of America that it is fine to cut taxes on corporations and millionaires while they scream about social security spending and collective bargaining. This is fascism.

[MrMickeysMom]

2. Perhaps that is why I've been inflamed with some comments...

I don't believe a lot and I am involved as a local official. From what I witness at the local level, and from the number of very intelligent people there are in the world, I can say without hesitation that POWER DESTROYS PEOPLE.

It takes a good strong constitution for a person to stay true. So, don't hesitate to pull away. As for me... I am helping other people get elected ... locally.

That, believe it or not, sustains me.

I still call fascists who they are, regardless of my position, I simply do it as a citizen and not in a public meeting. I'm not afraid to continue to task my useless US Congressman for his incompetence and dishonesty, I just write it so that I don't sound like a nut.

Now, HERE on DU... that's a different story. But you know, even HERE there are a few things that oppress me, which I have to swallow, cause it's "not my board".

Hang in there.

[CoffeeCat]

3. Hey thanks...it's just exhausting

to keep up with the lies and distortions.

And how can politicians these days have any credibility when they've allowed themselves to be
corrupted by corporate money? The politicians serve the corporations. We see glaring examples
of that every week.

So how can we take seriously anything that these people have to say?

We're going to trust people who have corrupted our government and sold our democracy to the
energy companies, the health-insurance companies, big pharma and the banks?

It's nutty.

[MrMickeysMom]

6. Try to join a "sustainable" group of people in your area...

Sometimes you have to go back and be a flower child (I was born in 53, so that's easy for me)

I am truly inspired by some young people who show up to these meetings, usually locally and geared towards municipalities who want to do something that doesn't destroy the planet.

Then, rip somebody a new ass who is behaving like the corporate whores they are. This is bound to shake you up and give you something to believe in at the same time.

:hi:

[napoleon_in_rags]

5. You know what strikes me? A lack of cause across America.

A lack of a real cause, a real meaning to our lives which transcends ourselves. We still remember JFK's line "ask what you can do for your country" because of the the chills it sends up our spines, the same with MLK's speeches. But why do those lines matter? Because they offer us an opportunity to transcend ourselves, which we ultimately understand are doomed in the greatness of time.

The way the US clawed its way out of the last depression was through great cause. Fools look at FDR and suggest it was about the war or this or that or something else, but it was really about the fact that an idea spread, which made people willing to work for something greater and bigger than their own personal lives, and a great society blossomed out of that mentality.

I believe that once we've accepted that this higher cause is what people really want, we can look at all this corruption and greed as we should: with compassion and sympathy, sympathy for these poor souls who sell their souls for the short term aid of a self that is ultimately doomed by the great equalizer. And I believe it is from this compassion, not from rage or anger, that the most positive change for our country will ultimately come.

[WiffenPoof]

13. Wow...very well written...

You should start your own thread on the subject.

-P

[Horse with no Name]

18. Along the same lines, as I was driving the other day

I realized that what you call "a lack of cause" (good term, btw) is very evident in our music and our culture.

I think of the music of the 60's and 70's and the social awareness that was created.

Now, I do know there are a few songs here and there that are brilliant--but there isn't a "movement" of music like there was in those days.

[napoleon_in_rags]

34. Yeah, good point. There isn't a movement in general, but you see it in culture.

I'm 35, at that age where I EXPECT the teenagers to have come up with their own new weird awful sound that hurts my ears and makes me yearn for the classic days of Metallica, but it hasn't come, their music mostly sounds like digitized rehashes of the stuff I used to listen to. In the 60s you clearly had this sense of direction, this sense of cause that shined in the music, and even in the 70's 80's 90's music you had some of that, some sense of the direction of the times. I'm just not hearing that in the music, or really anywhere.

[CoffeeCat]

23. So very true...

...and I agree that ultimately, it is compassion and selflessness (as you mentioned Kennedy's words) that will
save us.

However, compassion and empathy are traits exhibited by healthy, functioning people. I think many people in
this country are in a state of shock/trauma. They're pulled inward. They're in survival mode.

There's so many examples of how our politicians have actively discouraged compassion/empathy and have encouraged
people to be selfish and narcissistic. Wall Street and the banks made it easy for people to drown themselves
in debt--which enslaves people and narrows their choices. Bush encouraged us all to "go shopping" and 70 percent
of the US economy is dependent on consumers buying stuff. Our system encourages materialism.

Many of our leaders (in government and industry) are sociopaths and narcissists. People sense this. It makes
them afraid (and they pull inward to protect themselves) or the join the game and become part of the dysfunction.

We've lost our creativity and our imagination. No one cares about the space program anymore. We're not looking
out, and outside of ourselves. We're consumed with ourselves.

There are many, many good people in the world doing great things. However, our government and society as a whole--reinforces
and rewards greedy, selfish and destructive behavior.

[raccoon]

31. You know that's right, "However, our government and society as a whole--reinforces

and rewards greedy, selfish and destructive behavior."

[napoleon_in_rags]

35. I've been looking for the nobility in the right.

Looking at the Tea Party people (grass roots, not the big Koch owned voices) and I have found some good stuff. I think the bridge is really Gandhi, I posted about this last night:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=115&topic_id=292622&mesg_id=292625
The idea is "self reliance", which the right espouses. Why do people on the right look at this as a virtue rather than rule of the jungle? For the same reason Gandhi burned the English factory made cloth and advocated Indians spin their own, though the process was FAR less efficient: Lack of reliance on the British gave the people a source of pride and dignity, even in poverty.

So when the left espouses solutions that involve central government planners, high tech geniuses and Wall street financiers, they are unwitting committing Bush's post 9/11 "go shopping" mistake: They are broadcasting to the people that they have nothing to give, they don't matter and they should be happy to be dependents. They leave the people with no great cause, and the grassroots right don't like this dependence. They want to be part of something.

So my point is, you're right - of course there are these sociopaths and narcissists in power, of course things are wrong. But never look at this a problem that includes the MAJORITY of people in this country, even when the other half support a different political cause. The great lesson of empathy is that we are all more alike than different, and in this we can find a great source of strength and inspiration for returning power to the people.

[Enthusiast]

30. There was the great cause of 9/11.

A new Pearl Harbor. The PNAC had it all wrong.

On inauguration day 2009 we needed a great American leader to step forward. We didn't get that leader.

[aquart]

7. So?

What on God's earth makes you think it has ever been any different?

You wanna give up and live under a bridge, go do it.

[CoffeeCat]

8. I didn't say that I was giving up on life...

...but I'm damn near giving up on believing on what the politicians have to say because their
recent atrocities leave them with no credibility.

I won't live under a bridge for anyone--but I will most certainly become periodically
weary of being insulted by endless lies and corruption.

[Ramulux]

9. I have felt this way since the election last November

Some incredibly naive part of me actually believe that the mid terms weren't going to be as bad as everyone thought and after election night I truly realized how incredibly screwed we all are and that it likely isn't going to be getting better any time soon.

The thing that worries me the most is the fact that Obama and the dems have tricked so many in this country into thinking that all the problems and the evils that exist today are there because of the republicans and that if we just give the dems a big enough majority they will fix it all and put this country back on the right track. The democratic leadership in this country is just as much a part of the problem as the republicans. I dont even need to list all the reasons Obama and the dems are corporatist sell-outs, everyone knows it.

From our continued imperialist foreign policy to our continued failed free trade policies, the democrats are simply wrong on the most important issues of our time. Its great that the dems support things like repealing DADT and forcing health insurance companies to accept all patients regardless of pre-existing conditions, but all those things seem so pointless when they are just wrong about the things that really matter.

I really find it hard to give a shit about republicans nowadays simply because I know that within 10 to 20 years the demographic changes in this country will render them obsolete. The thing that worries more than anything is the continuance of neo-liberal policies under the guise of a supposedly progressive democratic party. I feel that the battle for the soul of the democratic party will be the real fight in the coming years as republicans become less and less relevant.

[quinnox]

10. The Democrats in power definitely need a wake up call

Apparently, the shellacking they took in the mid-terms wasn't enough, and they learned all the wrong lessons from that defeat.

I'm afraid 2012 is going to be a very painful wake-up call for President Obama and the Democratic party. The Republicans will always do well when the Democrats earnestly try and imitate them.

[Horse with no Name]

20. I think that is when I realized it was as bad as I thought

and to be fair, I don't think Obama misled anyone--really. Campaign rhetoric is exactly that...and those are almost always empty promises.

I looked at his previous records. He wasn't the Progressive that many labeled him with, and again to be fair, he didn't pretend to be.

I think that many people expected more from him than he ever promised to deliver.
There was an awful lot of projection being done during that period of time.

The other thing is, while I wasn't happy with him being the Democratic candidate--I do feel he would have been an OUTSTANDING Independent candidate. I also feel that he would have won under that as well.
I also feel that the Democratic base would have been better off if he had run Indy as well--he would have at least had to pander to us like he panders to the republicans.

[Imagevision]

11. It seems we'll be hearing about Osama offing till the 2012 election rolls around... ugh!

[WiffenPoof]

12. And We All...

...jumped on the "Hope and Change" bandwagon thinking those days would soon be behind us.

I'm with you my friend. I'm completely fatigued. I mean, where do you turn when the very people you put your trust in betrayed you from day one? I know where the Republicans are coming from. It never surprises me when they act in favor of corporations or get us into unnecessary wars. What really hurts is when your own party engages in similar activities. That I didn't expect.

-PLA

[Imagevision]

14. "Hope and Change" bandwagon? unfortunately and depressing, how do you trust anymore? It boils

down to look out for yourself, your government couldn't care less about you.

[emilyg]

19. Right.

[CoffeeCat]

25. One positive note...

...is that I am totally and completely convinced that the changes this country needs---absolutely will not happen
with our current politicians.

It's corrupt to the core. The system is fueled on corruption and power volleyed back and forth between the politcians
and the corporations. They've got their party going on. We aren't invited.

Change has to come from the people. Outside of the system.

As overwhelming as that realization is--it's a realization that is an honest assessment, and it defines the problem
and a solution.

The solutions aren't easy. However, operating within this dysfuntional system and believing that we have a democracy
and that everything is fine--is just denial. Living in denial is not living--it's coping.

We need to move beyond denial and coping and into REALITY--so we can enact real, meaningful change.

[OnyxCollie]

26. "... I am totally and completely convinced that the changes this country needs---

absolutely will not happen with our current politicians."

You got that right.

The totalitarian economy, as many have observed, has been developed in keeping with plans oriented to
a final (if not yet precisely defined) goal. It is thus a goal-oriented economy, the goal being communism.
Those in charge of the Soviet society have assumed that economic and social development in all its
aspects can be purposefully steered by man in the direction of an ideal solution.

This produces consequences not only economic but also political, where, to a large extent, economic life
is self-directive and ultimate goals, such as plenty and progress, are purposely vague.

~snip~

To be less totalitarian such operations would have to involve some degree of withdrawal on the part of
those in charge from their commitment to total social and economic engineering, thus granting to those
living under the system the opportunity to make important choices not in keeping with the goal.

But such a politically meaningful development would in turn involve a further condition, which at the
present appears highly unlikely, namely the decline of ideology and a basic reconsideration of the firmly
instituted schemes of economic development. Barring that, the totalitarian economic system would
continue to exert pressures for the maintenance of a dictatorship capable of enforcing the kind of
discipline that such total plans demand. It is doubtful that as long as the party remains in power the
tendency of the regime to stress unattainable goals will vanish. Indeed, it is these goals, inherent
in the current ideology, which justify to the population the sacrifices which the party's domination involves.
Thus, as long as the party continues to hold its successful grip on the instruments of power, we can
expect it to continue stressing first the long-range goals of an ultimate utopia, and then the consequent
sacrifices to achieve them, even though possibly at a diminishing rate of effort.

Brzezinski, Z. (1956). Totalitarianism and rationality. The American Political Science Review, 50(3), 751-763.

[Imagevision]

15. Billions allowed for Tax subsidies for oil companies while gas hikes are installed for speculation

"They tell us there is nothing left" while insisting on more tax cuts for the Billionaires/Millionaires

[hfojvt]

16. sounds to me more like depression

you see everything as negative and think you somehow know more than anybody else.

I still think the bank bailout was a good idea. Maybe some rich people got even richer because of it, but that's better than the end of civilization.

the health insurance companies do not have their way with my life, so I am not sure what you are complaining about there. It just sounds doom and gloomish. Oh gosh, the world isn't perfect. Some people get sick and die, eventually we all do. That's life. It happens even in the Netherlands.

"The Patriot act has frittered away our Freedoms" And yet, I do not feel any less free than I did in 1997. In fact I feel more free since I am only working part-time with benefits instead of two jobs with no benefits.

"and our privacy". Bah, privacy is over-rated. Personally I hope thousands of people read this post and visit my website. http://www.koch2congress.com/5.html

It's easy enough to pick and poke around and dig up something negative until you are wallowing in complete negativity. For myself, my own little corner does not seem that bad, and I find most of the political problems to come from the other side.

[raccoon]

32. Maybe you're lucky enough to have group insurance now, but a great many Americans aren't.

Some people get sick and die, eventually we all do. That's life. It happens even in the Netherlands.

But the USA is the only industrialized country without national health care. Would you rather die in the US without any health care, or in civilized country where you might die from the same cause, but at least received health care?


In fact I feel more free since I am only working part-time with benefits instead of two jobs with no benefits.

Lucky you! IME most part-time jobs, including the one I have, offer no benefits.

[Horse with no Name]

17. It is just Kabuki Theatre

I am right there with you.

The cause of our dismay is inescapable.

Our two-party system has morphed into a giant one-party system that is controlled by the corporations.

There is a word for that and anyone with any knowledge of politics knows what it is and largely, to that end, knows how it will all end.

Perhaps that is the reason for the fatigue.

I honestly don't know what to do. There are some truths that I do know:

Writing to my Congress critters is a joke. My interests are supposedly represented by Hutchison, Cornyn, and Ralph Hall. There is NOTHING that they stand for that I stand for--so I am, in effect, without any type of representation. I vote, I volunteer, but I also know that unless I move, there are thirty low-information Rush-loving voters to cancel my one vote out.

I also see where this country is going and the low-information voters are useful idiots to the new governmental structure that is being put in place, piece by piece.

When these idiots wake up--no doubt they will blame ME...even though I tried to warn them of what was coming.

Everything our country used to stand for is gone.

[readmoreoften]

21. Big BIG K&R

I feel like we're back in that Bush Era pro-Patriot Act rah-rah bullshit and I can't take it. This time, even the so-called liberals are rattling their imaginary kalashnikovs and calling for the flaming tires around the necks of those who lack patriotism. It's really been showing me how far left I've moved from the Democrats since the 2006 do-nothing congress.

[CoffeeCat]

27. Thank you...

I won't climb on board with the current narrative--which is really just additional chapters of the Bush/Cheney "We must
all live in fear of terror" mantra.

Bush and Cheney used 9/11 to lie us into war, to cajole us into accepting the Patriot Act and to help us look the other way
when we enact torture as a national pastime--among other horrors.

We all understood what they were doing. DU talked extensively about how it was all bullshit on steroids.

I'm glad that bin Laden is dead. But how will his death be used by our government? Will events surrounding terror
and 9/11 be, yet again, used to strong-arm Americans into accepting more war, more torture, more military spending--as well as
the erosion of our freedoms, rights and privacy?

There's a pattern here with 9/11. The Republicans spearheaded war/Patriot Act/torture efforts with 9/11 at the helm, "What...you
don't like the Patriot Act? Then you must sympathize with the terrorists."

I just don't want to watch us slip into deeper and darker chapters--with (once again) terror-related propaganda making it oh-so
easy to turn the pages.

[TBF]

24. I am right there with you -

I don't buy any of it.

[Enthusiast]

28. I wanted to start an OP

that said exactly what you said.

I couldn't even muster the energy to try. I'm happy that you have spoken for me. This Osama Bin Laden thing has finally drained me of any remaining energy.

I'm tired of the uphill battle against the lies. And I grow weary of betrayals by even our own party. I'm suck to death of "Democrats" that would vote against collective bargaining and would consider privatizing medicare and social security.

[SoCalDem]

33. Every now and then we all need to take a break..It will all still be here when we come back

and surprisingly, in much the same shape:(

Indulge in some guilty (or non guilty) pleasures..

chuck the whole politics thing for a week... a month, a few days..

We'll keep the light on for you :hug:

[City Lights]

36. I'm right there with you.

I'm so turned off by all of it that I barely give a shit anymore. We're on our own. Giving our opinions to our reps has little to no effect. For the most part, they will do what their corporate masters tell them to do.

The vast majority of them can go cheney themselves.

On edit: Rec'd.

[Capitalocracy]

37. But if we give up and check out, it all gets worse.

That's the worst part. I feel for you.

[CoffeeCat]

38. I am not necessarily resigned...

...to giving up. However, I truly feel that true change cannot happen to our system
with the current cast of politicians that we have in office.

They are all so entrenched and corrupt. Can you imagine the goods they all have on
each other--the money they've taken from corporations, the votes they've made in
favor of corporations after taking God-only-knows-what from the corporations--and lots of
other corruption and selling out.

That's what binds them all together. They've all sold us out. They've all probably
been recorded and filmed in compromising positions or talking about what idiots we
all are.

There's no busting up this cabal. Change must be demanded by the citizens outside
of the system. We have to bust this up. They are a tiny, tiny minority. We
are the majority. If a movement began and people really galvanized, it could happen.

I don't pretend to know the particulars of how this would play out. However, I
think it's possible.

Others in this thread said that I sound depressed or that I'm giving up. I feel that
it's quite the opposite. I see a huge problem. I'm not in denial about how significant
it is and how corrupt our system is. It takes guts to see it. It's much easier to roll
along in denial--go to work, eat your lunch--and hope that things change. I see the
harsh reality. I'm especially tired this week, because I'm so tired of both sides
jockeying for position as they lie to us--especially with regard to the "war on terror".

It all seems like such a sideshow. I get frustrated and tired of watching people buy
into the theater that they're playing for us. They want us all amped up, hating
each other and focused on terror, fear and a bunch of other ancillary topics--to distract
us from the fact that our government is being engulfed by the corporations and the
politicians who are in bed with them. Sick of the shiny objects, I guess.

I'm ready to make real change, instead of getting all emotional about a sideshow
that has nothing to do with anything meaningful.