Why the 2016 Election Is a Political Volcano

[Tom Joad]

http://www.alternet.org/news-amp-pol...-full-eruption

This is how I feel about it too. And it's why Bernie is my #1 choice on the Democratic side, and Trump is my #1 choice on the Republican side.

I kept bumping into people who told me they were trying to make up their minds in the upcoming election between Sanders and Trump.

At first I was dumbfounded. The two are at opposite ends of the political divide.

But as I talked with these people, I kept hearing the same refrains. They wanted to end “crony capitalism.” They detested “corporate welfare,” such as the Wall Street bailout.

They wanted to prevent the big banks from extorting us ever again. Close tax loopholes for hedge-fund partners. Stop the drug companies and health insurers from ripping off American consumers. End trade treaties that sell out American workers. Get big money out of politics.

Somewhere in all this I came to see the volcanic core of what’s fueling this election.

If you’re one of the tens of millions of Americans who are working harder than ever but getting nowhere, and who understand that the political-economic system is rigged against you and in favor of the rich and powerful, what are you going to do?

Either you’re going to be attracted to an authoritarian son-of-a-bitch who promises to make America great again by keeping out people different from you and creating “great” jobs in America, who sounds like he won’t let anything or anybody stand in his way, and who’s so rich he can’t be bought off. Or you’ll go for a political activist who tells it like it is, who has lived by his convictions for fifty years, who won’t take a dime of money from big corporations or Wall Street or the very rich, and who is leading a grass-roots “political revolution” to regain control over our democracy and economy.

In other words, either a dictator who promises to bring power back to the people, or a movement leader who asks us to join together to bring power back to the people.

[MrPots]

Makes sense......

[donquixote99]

Except for the 'dictator bringing power back to the people' part. As if any dictator ever did that.

[finnbow]

Originally Posted by donquixote99

Except for the 'dictator bringing power back to the people' part. As if any dictator ever did that.

No shit. Trumpsters want an authoritarian because they can't abide the messy business called democracy.

[Boreas]

Originally Posted by finnbow

No shit. Trumpsters want an authoritarian because they can't abide the messy business called democracy.

Democracy's for losers!

[MrPots]

Ahem....

We don't have a democracy gents. We have what is laughingly called a "representative republic", "representative" meaning representing the richest and most powerful political doners. Come election time we elect a small army of tinpot dictators who do exactly what they want regardless of campaign promises or the will of the people, usually making things worse. Then next election when we install a new group tinpot dictators based upon a new set of lies.


The will of the people is never ever obtained.

[Boreas]

Originally Posted by MrPots

Ahem....

We don't have a democracy gents. We have what is laughingly called a "representative republic", "representative" meaning representing the richest and most powerful political doners. Come election time we elect a small army of tinpot dictators who do exactly what they want regardless of campaign promises or the will of the people, usually making things worse. Then next election when we install a new group tinpot dictators based upon a new set of lies.


The will of the people is never ever obtained.

We have a representative democracy, a.k.s. a republic. Republic is just the name for a democracy in which power resides in the hands of elected representatives.

Really, this is probably the best system of government we can hope for in a country as large as any that currently exist. Direct democracy would just be unintelligible noise. The problem comes when money enters the equation. When politicians elected by the people ceases to be beholden to the people who elected them and instead become indebted to the people who financed their campaign in direct proportion to the size of their contributions, the people find themselves marginalized, essentially disenfranchised.

[Tom Joad]

Originally Posted by Boreas

Democracy's for losers!

I love It!


I'm gonna use that in my signature line!

Hope you don't mind.

[BlueStreak]

Originally Posted by donquixote99

Except for the 'dictator bringing power back to the people' part. As if any dictator ever did that.

No shit. And anybody who thinks TRUMP is going to bring an end to "crony capitalism" to an end is paralyzed from the neck up. Who is the dumbass who actually thinks that?

[Tom Joad]

Originally Posted by BlueStreak

No shit. And anybody who thinks TRUMP is going to bring an end to "crony capitalism" to an end is paralyzed from the neck up. Who is the dumbass who actually thinks that?

You have a point there. Trump is a Real Estate Developer. Having lived in Florida almost my whole life I have intimate knowledge of the way they operate and it ain't pretty.