Forum Post: Focus on one issue: Corruption
Posted 12 years ago on Oct. 5, 2011, 9:29 a.m. EST by ijustliketoprotest
(15)
from Wilmington, NC
This content is user submitted and not an official statement
Read this on redditt last night and totally agree. Don't get worked up because the Unions are involved. They and other special interests on both sides will use you for everything you are worth. Beware all institutions. They are all corrupt at this point and you are a force for change. They fear change (regardless of lip service).
Focus on two things: Corruption and how to prevent it (i.e. transparency).
and by all means people, READ SAUL ALINKSY!!!! Rules for Radicals: A Pragmatic Primer for Realistic Radicals
Corporatism=Corruption. The corrupt pols have legalized their corruption and we have to re-criminalize it and them.
Also, I agree that reading Alinsky is a good idea, but read it with your critical thinking hat on. Changing the composition of the 1% does not equal representative government. It just trades one group of tyrants for another. Read everything you can about the history of all forms of governments and the ways they have failed. They don't teach these things in school--you have to educate yourselves. Be sure you are VERY well read on all sides of the arguments before you choose a prophet. Better yet, don't choose a prophet at all---educate yourself and pave your own path.
Corruption is absolutely the problem. The ONLY issue is returning control of the government to he people--out of the clutches of big money. The rest is policy, which can and should be decided democratically by the people once the system is free of corruption.
If we start proposing policy issues, we will only divide the 99%. Taxation, foreign policy, the structure of the government---all of these issues are moot unless and until the people actually have control of the government.
Don't forget, we also need more democracy too. I would like to vote on a new law everytime it is ready to be instated. Whether before or after.
The US gov't is a federation, not a democracy. States are democracies. If you want to give the people more power, give the federal government less power.
The federal government is a republic, all we need to do is make the Federal Government act like a Republic AND a Democracy. We can have a Senate and a direct democracy. Or a Senate, HoR, and a Direct Democracy.
But the federal gov't is not a democracy, so it's going to be kind of hard to make it act like one. The federal gov't is already too big to be held accountable. Let's not make things worse by continuing to feed the monster with a federal income tax. Keep your federal income tax and give it to the state gov't where you can actually vote on the kinds of public programs you support. The federal gov't will just keep feeding your income tax money to the industrial military complex.
I agree with this, though not all states are much better than the Federal Government.
But yes, why do we pay the Feds? For war, for other countries, for politicians that don't deserve it, for programs that are broken.
"...not all states are much better than the Federal Government." This is very true and some local gov't are horrible too. But these are problems that can be addressed more easily through the democratic process. The problems at the Federal level are so momentous, they distract us from the state level problems. If we diminish the power of the federal gov't we can spend more energy trying to fix state gov't.
The Fed should be for War and Constitutional amendments. I do feel that the Federal government is meant to step in though when States are abusing their people, like when slavery was still legal in some states.