Thank you Alan for your reply ! I have been thinking all day about this, having been born and raised in the system we now have. In my naive understanding of our system today, the government must look out for the people, and check the power of the market, of majority rule, and be constantly vigilant for new and developing threats.
Something is broken.
I would simply posit that the best we have now is Bernie and AOC, so letās start with them and build from there.
ā¦and donāt forget the democratic party demonizers-
Difficult to disagree with that. Wonder which entity will be willing to remove him.
Iād volunteer to remove him.
I bet many others would love to join in on that.
āWonder which entity will be willing to remove him.ā
There are any number of entities who could remove him, including the District of Columbia Police Department, but no one seems to be willing to do that. Awhile back someone on here asked, āWhy donāt they just change the locks on the White House.ā Thereās no need to āchange the locks.ā The White House is a locked, gated compound. Iāve never seen any former president or White House occupant carrying around a key ring with various keys on it to get in the front door or the other doors. From what Iāve seen, they walk around freely inside. There are no ālocks to changeā because the WH compound is locked. The bedrooms might have the ability to be locked from the inside but thatās about it. I donāt see anyone removing him nor will anyone be requested to remove him no matter what he does. Most of the congress seem absolutely terrified of him despite their mealy-mouthed words to the contrary before network cameras.
This is a quick down and dirty summation of The Republic by Plato. Not much has changed since it was written, just names and faces.
A possible explanation for the rise of the right everywhere is the inability of power structures in control in addressing pressing problems, i.e. the climate emergency, there are others as well. This inability increases stress, which increase fear(s) of the unknown. Fear at itās base is hate, hate is fear. This is not being effectively addressed anywhere. Instead what we get are denials and disinformation, which only exaserbates the fear/hate complex. Have you read my page titled āHate is a diseaseā on my site? It may answer many of your questions.
You mention alienation under capitalism. It is in all systems, too many people and we have burned up the planets resources. All systems being from the family unit to governments. The one with the wallet is in control and the further you are from that wallet the more aleinated you become.
This ādisagreementāā¦if you take the time to really dig into my site it is my hope youāll come to understand that this is genetic for me, it is my DNA. The ideaās and idealās of good governance is in my blood, I couldnāt stop it if I tried and it is making my life short through exercise but teach I must. We are here to learn and to teach. As Buddha said, doubt everything, become your own light.
Thanks for letting me babbleā¦Peace.
I never read Plato but I did come across this quote by him
āAny city, however small, is in fact divided into two, one the city of the poor, the other of the rich; these are at war with one another.ā
And the Buddha said many wise things
āThousands of candles can be lit from a single candle, and the life of the candle will not be shortened. Happiness never decreases by being sharedā
And for Marx said his motto was De omnibus dubitandum āDoubt Everythingā
https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1865/04/01.htm
And Joseph Dietzgen, the workersā philosopher, said
" If a worker wants to take part in the self-emancipation of his class, the basic requirement is that he should cease allowing others to teach him and should set about teaching himself."
So it seems we Marxists and yourself share much the same core beliefs, Ditton
This position always brings us back to the lesser evil dilemma where principles are subordinated to tactical voting.
In 2016 it was Trump who swayed many with the argument that he was the lesser evil to the Wall St candidate, Clinton. (Did we ever get the texts of those speeches she made and refused to make public to the Big Corporations or are we still waiting for them like Trumpās tax returns? Honest question)
Can I refer you to the words of the Internationale:
No saviour from on high delivers
No faith have we in prince or peer
Our own right hand the chains must shiver
Chains of hatred, greed and fear
And also to the words of Eugene Debs
āIf you are looking for a Moses to lead you out of this capitalist wilderness, you will stay right where you are. I would not lead you into the promised land if I could, because if I led you in, some one else would lead you out. You must use your heads as well as your hands, and get yourself out of your present conditionā
I think Bernie is saying basically the same thing, just not using such poetic language. Not Me, Us. He is not saying, follow me and I will lead you to the golden gates. If he was that type of politician, he would have been chasing the presidential dream for the past 40 years like the other presidential hopefuls have been/will be doing. He is saying that all of us must do the work together to create a better society. And yes, sometimes we need that leader to give us a push. Itās kinda the human condition to act that way.
Iām struggling to understand how anyone could think that the DNC and Democratic Party that threw Bernie Sanders under the bus during 2016 could possibly make him their nominee in 2020? That makes absolutely no sense to me. Theyāre merely using him as they did then by his endorsement of war criminal Hillary. He didnāt have to say, āI will endorse whoever the nominee is.ā That wasnāt a very intelligent thing for him to say since he could have endorsed Dr Jill Stein. But he chose to help the corrupt who threw him under the bus. Poor judgment. Do people not remember that? How can people not see that? You really think that the party of right-wing Dianne Feinstein and Nancy Pelosi would ever have Sanders as their nominee?
Pinkbarrio raises a valid point. Bernie hasnāt founded any new independent movement of workers but attached himself to the coat-tails of the Democratic Party. He has dragged along the DSA and other leftists such as the Justice Democrats into the same strategy of endeavouring to change the Democratic Party. But we can see that the ruling class position is anybody but Bernie (or Warren) and when push becomes shove, the Democrat establishment and its lap-dog media will stick the knife in with a stab in the back.
We can see the same in the UK where there are constant smear campaigns against the Jeremy Corbyn.
Already it appears by the Iowa polls that smarmy Pete is the new horse being saddled. In fact, who knows, Wall St Clinton might be a late entry into the horse-race if either Bernie or Warren looks like winning the nomination.
But once again I raise as I have on other related articles the scenario of a President Sanders. How does he get any of his policies passed when Democrats combine with Republicans to oppose him in both Houses?
Mobilize his grass-roots movement to act outside the political arena? Or rather than create a revolutionary moment which such an act would become, will he compromise with concessions?
Weāll have to wait and see if such a future possibility arises.
But for myself, I stand by principles rather than tactical lesser evil voting.
Iād rather vote for something I want and not get it than vote for something I donāt want, and get it. Eugene V. Debs
Even where there is no prospect of achieving their election the workers must put up their own candidates to preserve their independence, to gauge their own strength and to bring their revolutionary position and party standpoint to public attention. They must not be led astray by the empty phrases of the democrats, who will maintain that the workersā candidates will split the democratic party and offer the forces of reaction the chance of victory. All such talk means, in the final analysis, that the proletariat is to be swindled. Karl Marx
Of course it is. You arenāt bringing anyone along with your endorsement and AOC will bring millions over to Bernie.
I agree, but if I were betting in Vegas, I would bet that Bernie has no chance to be nominated for POTUS in 2020. BUT THAT IS ONE BET I WOULD LIKE TO LOSE!
We may not like the choices every time, but we still have to choose, or let someone else do it for us in one way or another.
Would we want a person at our dinner table who would make fun of anyone, who couldnāt keep their nose from dripping moisture having been stuck up in the clouds? And when it came down from the clouds briefly, it grew to unimaginable length.
On the other hand we might like the company of the worldās best looking, most intelligent, most non-racist, self proclaimed most honest person ever.
Is it really an honest choice in reality?
That just could be a tiny problem.
Core beliefs are basic truths :-)))
Hi Ditton, and thank you for this Mr Weaver and his information! Yes, I like to think of the Green New Deal as a natural continuation of what FDR started. : )
Weaver is me, itās my middle name :-)))
I can see the CORPORATE OVERLOARDS already trying to bring Warren down----her 2% wealth tax has been resonating -------THE OVERLOARDS ARE NOT HAPPY! And my reading is they donāt see Bernie going anywhere----though yes they just pretend he is not thereāand it seems to work. And the two people who are getting the attention are Mayor Pete and Klobuchar ------they know Biden is not up to this.
I think all these candidates fail at calling out the media----and if they do call the media out it should not be about themselves.
