So I am reading a different Matt Taibbi book: The Great Derangement and it has got me thinking. How can we as citizens get our fellow citizens back into the body politic so we can regain the government we really want?
1. Congress, State Houses, Governors and even the President are at best captive to big interests and big money. At worst they are willing collaborators in a system where real change is just not going to happen. As long as roughly 70% of Americans do not really have a voice in the day to day operations of government how can we expect that government to respond to our wishes? Our elected representatives do not truly hear the 'voice of the people'. Oh there are polls after polls out there, and the politicians can speak out about those poll results, and give voice showing support for whatever position those polls show. But realistically that is talk, not action.
2. When the leading contender on polls for a major party is a reality TV star with seriously questionable credentials as a businessman you have to question those polls. Especially when that figures single biggest issue that he has spoken out about is to question a simple fact that has been proven over and over and over to the satisfaction of every legal level in the land. Truly the whole Birther issue makes any of the many other 'hot button' faked issues that have occurred before pale in comparison. And yet the main stream media, and the internet stream media and the polls make this issue a huge deal. This is how you kill democracy.
3. How do you get people to get active, and actually do something about the real issues, and hold their representatives accountable for them when this is the big topic? That is a major distraction, and while I don't believe there is some conspiracy out there saying: "Let's distract the voters by questioning the veracity of legal documents so they don't realize what is really happening." That has become the end result. And really all of the big 2 party arguments are more often than not about this level of actions, just distractions.
4. The real questions and issues that people should be asking and demanding action from their representatives are: where are the jobs, how are you going to end a cycle of near 2 digit unemployment? How are my children going to get educated when education has become a sinkhole and scapegoat profession? What is being done to keep highways, bridges, other major infrastructure from disintegrating before our eyes? Why has no one been held accountable and served actual time in prison for a systematic fraud that nearly destroyed the worldwide economy? Why are we bankrupting our country paying for 3 wars while simultaneously allowing Congress and State governments to strip a regulatory system that has served to keep our people, workers and environment safe for over half a century?
5. I don't have a simple answer to any of the above questions but I think that until we stop letting ourselves be distracted by non-issues, and reality TV stars masquerading as political figures, and accept as gospel economic theories that have been proven wrong both in theory and in practical fact for the last 30+ years we will not see an end to this.
6. So I say it is time to stand up and demand better. Demand real answers from politicians not platitudes. Ask hard questions. Educate yourself about those things that matter to you and don't rely on the media. Because the media is feeding us those distractions, not overtly at the wishes of some shadowy conspiracy, but because we allow them to do so.
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