Forum Post: ROBERT REICH: You're Giving Up On Democracy
Posted 11 years ago on Oct. 14, 2013, 8:18 p.m. EST by WSmith
(2698)
from Cornelius, OR
This content is user submitted and not an official statement
ROBERT REICH: They're totally cynical.
Well, if you give up on politics, you're giving up on democracy. And if you give up on democracy, you're basically saying to the moneyed interests, the powerful people and institutions of society [the 1% of the 1%], take it all. That's a self-fulfilling prophecy. Then we give up. Then we are 100 percent plutocracy.
'Inequality is bad for everyone': Robert Reich fights against economic imbalance ~ Inequality For All: http://inequalityforall.com/
"We make the rules of the economy – and we have the power to change those rules." – Robert Reich
We need to approach the problem of widening income inequality from 6 different directions. The trick is to understand how they all fit together while choosing manageable actions that make sense to who you are. We may not be able to do everything at once but think of each action you take as an incremental step towards the structural change our economy needs. To get started, tell us who you are or select an issue that matters to you below.
Inequality For All: http://inequalityforall.com/
Economics correspondent Paul Solman talks to Robert Reich about "Inequality for All," a documentary about the former labor secretary's personal crusade to explain to Americans why everyone should care about the nation's growing economic disparity and divisiveness. Text & Video:
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Robert Reich: Don't give in to cynicism - get out and raise hell
By ROBERT REICH
An old friend who has been active in politics for more than 30 years tells me he's giving up. "I can't stomach what's going on in Washington anymore," he says. "The hell with all of them. I have better things to do with my life."
My friend is falling into exactly the trap that the extreme right wants all of us to fall into -- such disgust and cynicism that we all give up on politics. Then they're free to take over everything.
Read more here: http://www.adn.com/2013/10/14/3122599/robert-reich-dont-give-in-to-cynicism.html#storylink=cpy
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Why Giving Republican Bullies a Bloody Nose Isn’t Enough
[The GOP is the classic sci-fi/horror monster that finally gets killed, relieved the hero & heroine embrace in wild-abandon and behind them the GOP monster comes back to life to rip them apart. Chop the monster into pieces and shoot each piece to a different star!]
Saturday, October 12, 2013
Now is the time to lance the boil of Republican extremism once and for all.
Since Barack Obama became president, the extremists who have taken over the Republican Party have escalated their demands every time he’s caved, using the entire government of the United States as their bargaining chit.
In 2010 he agreed to extend all of the Bush tax cuts through the end of 2012. Were they satisfied? Of course not.
In the summer of 2011, goaded by an influx of Tea Partiers, they demanded huge spending cuts in return for raising the debt ceiling. In response, the President offered an overly-generous $4 trillion “Grand Bargain,” including cuts in Social Security and Medicare and whopping cuts in domestic spending (bringing it to its lowest level as a share of gross domestic product in over half a century).
Were Republicans content? No. When they demanded more, Obama agreed to a Super Committee to find bigger cuts, and if the Super Committee failed, a “sequester” that would automatically and indiscriminately slice everything in the federal budget except Social Security and Medicare.
Not even Obama’s re-election put a damper on their increasing demands. By the end of 2012, they insisted that the Bush tax cuts be permanently extended or the nation would go over the “fiscal cliff.” Once again, Obama caved, agreeing to permanently extend the Bush tax cuts for incomes up to $400,000.
Early this year, after the sequester went into effect, Republicans demanded even bigger spending cuts. Obama offered more cuts in Medicare and a “chained CPI” to reduce Social Security payments, in exchange for Republican concessions on taxes.
Refusing the offer, and seemingly delirious with their power to hold the nation hostage, they demanded that the Affordable Care Act be repealed as a condition for funding the government and again raising the debt ceiling.
This time, though, Obama didn’t cave — at least, not yet.
The government is shuttered and the nation is on the verge of defaulting on its debts. But public opinion has turned sharply against the Republican Party. And the GOP’s corporate and Wall Street backers are threatening to de-fund it.
Suddenly the Republicans are acting like the school-yard bully who terrorized the playground but finally got punched in the face. They’re in shock. They’re humiliated. They’re trying to come up with ways of saving face.
With bloodied nose, House Republicans are running home. They’ve abruptly turned negotiations over to their Senate colleagues.
And just as suddenly, their demand to repeal or delay the Affordable Care Act has vanished. (An email from the group Tea Party Express says: “Are you like us wondering where the fight against Obamacare went?”) At a lunch meeting in the Capitol, Senator John McCain asked a roomful of Republican senators if they still believed it was possible to reverse parts of the program. According to someone briefed on the meeting, no one raised a hand — not even Ted Cruz.
It appears that negotiations over the federal budget deficit are about to begin once again, and presumably Senate Republicans will insist that Obama and the Democrats give way on taxes and spending in exchange for reopening the government and raising the debt ceiling for at least another year.
But keeping the government running and paying the nation’s bills should never have been bargaining chits in the first place, and the President and Democrats shouldn’t begin to negotiate over future budgets until they’re taken off the table.
The question is how thoroughly President Obama has learned that extortionist demands escalate if you give in to them.
http://robertreich.org/
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http://www.alternet.org/belief/how-christian-delusions-are-driving-gop-insane
We must recognize the tactic of making BOTH Parties appear equally culpable.
They are not.
This is a RepubliCon Cult attempt to drown our government in their bath tub!