Reply #185: A very thought provoking post ... JFK spoke in interviews about the limits

[rtassi]

of presidential power ... and I don't think he meant not being able to get better theater tickets ... The office, IMO, as evidenced by the events of the early 60's, and his assassination specifically, has been greatly compromised to such an extent as to render any president functionally little more then a business agent for the corporate and military state, as Oliver Stone pointed out in his film. Assuming that President Obama is equally a man of character and moral conscience, and a student of history at the same time, it would be logical to then assume that he would be aware of the risks personally associated with rapid forced change; particularly when the electorate does not have your back! After all, everyone of the powerful elements that JFK dealt with within his failed government still exist, only now more emboldened by their successes of the past, and an increased ability to control the message. A message not intended to promote healthy or civil debate.

It doesn't make it any easier for me to take, given the enormity of the injustices we are forced to endure, that the significant changes we all would hope for ... can't come entirely from the office of the President Of The United States. I am not disappointed in President Obama's performance so far, because I had no great expectations ... although I too phone banked and canvased ... not with a naive belief however that he alone could change our country in 4 or 8 years, but rather because I thought he might inspire our youth, as I once was inspired by a young president, to find perhaps for the first time their collective voices, or to possibly reengage the most jaded among us in a renewed effort ... and of course to defeat soundly on speck, Sarah and John!

I see evidence of a change in thinking beginning to take place among average people ... but it is subtle and tremendously overshadowed by all the noise. I don't have much confidence in the 2 party system being the catalyst for that change either; and as long as we are divided we are "easy pickens" for the corporatist state ... the changes we envision will have to come I think, from a deeper conviction to seeking truth, self awareness, and a reexamination of our attitudes toward others we as yet can't embrace. We must reject as a society, warfare as a means to any end, before we could ever hope to advance the cause of peace, and any attempt to pressure the government to act peacefully, makes us all look stupid in the end if we are not personally committed.

I can't compete with regards to the speed and excellence of some of the responses your post received ... frankly, I don't know where you all find the time to amass the information you have at your fingertips ... I guess I need to read faster!
rt.