How about a responsibility fee for 220 years of exploiting others in the name of
freedom and progress.

Aren’t we all intimately tied to this dysfunctional and exploitive system where no
one group is really in control.

dAVE3Xz:  “... small federal government… tightening the belt… reducing the deficit ... paying off the debt… creating opportunities for small business jobs… preserving the constitution and freedom,...”
  The last time I looked, every shibboleth you present is traditional cant for both major parties now, though the change toward conservatism among Democrats is relatively recent.  Historically, Democrats since Roosevelt have stood more for the “common man”—welfare, unions, equal rights—all of which are “common man” benefits, yet millions of “common men and woman” insist on voting Repubican against their own interests. This is hard to explain, but maybe it’s because, even though they can’t get money, they want to associate with it just in case some change makes their situation worse. Maybe it’s the influence of consertative religions.
  Reaganism and Bushism can scarcely be called
“freedom” “constitutional” or “beneficial to the common man.”
  If only a Repub or a Dem can win, and there isn’t any substantial difference now between the two parties, and if a viable third party can’t be presented, then no matter which party “wins,” it will be more of the same—war, corporate exploitation, pollution of earth and air, huge gaps in income from the few rich to the inceasingly many poor, insufficient insurance, welfare, education etc.
  Ergo, we need a viable third party.  But can we do it, and do it without pulling some of the “common people” who are sick of both parties?  It’s hugely unpredictable—especially without tons of money for TV and radio ads and fair coverage, plus the willingness of thousands of community-minded people who are willing to work hard to organize.  Organization is the bottleneck, in my opinion.

We the people voted all you, Democrats and Republicans into the positions that you now hold.  Have you forgotten that we are your employer and can also vote you all out of your positions just as quickly.

Many of you say you vote your constituents wishes, while you sit on your thrones of authority make your decisions often about our lives and deaths, do you really vote your conscience or do you vote what would best keep your butts in office.

There are many things that perhaps could be put up for a vote by the people such as your yearly salary increase, all the perks you receive, the great health care you all receive, not to mention the retirement benefits.  How would you feel if this were to happen. If your health care is so wonderful then why isn’t it wonderful for all American citizens?

Lobbyists are allowed to roam the offices of each and every one of you offering you deals about everything you do or are about to do.  We, your employer have no such rights.  We can sit quietly through some of the congressional sessions and hearings, but only if we are very quiet.  Sit to hear what?  The games you all pay is becoming the normal procedure and the bickering, contentious, me great friend, my gentle this and my whatever that.  You waste more time than the time you spend working, which has gotten shorter and shorter year after year.  We all have to work a certain number of days per week or month and if we don’t guess what happens.  But you don’t have to worry until the next election do you.  The lobbyists are now grouping to kill legislation on education and banking.

When some of you are outed regarding underhanded deals, or sexual misconduct, what happens?  You still sit on your thrones and throw stones at everybody else.

A few of you have been brought to task but not enough of you.  The poor kid gets caught with a minute bit of marijuana and lands in jail but some of you tell GOD you are sorry and go about your merry way. Hipocricy abounds.

Real so-called Christians show people their Christianity, they don’t preach it to others and then do the opposite.  Saying you are sorry does not cut it.  The radical Christians are dangerous and seem to be allowed to get away with just about anything they want, including lying and twisting truth, misquoting etc.  They are rude and intolerant and disgusting.

Those who spoke of losing our freedoms make me wonder.  What about the rights of women to have control of their own bodies?  The Stupak amendment stripped them of that right by putting in so many hurdles to make choice available.  We pay for Viagra but not birth control, family planning but abstinence and no sex pacts have produced more unwanted pregnancies than we are told about. Pharmacists can refuse to fill a birth control prescription because their conscience won’t let them.  Fine, either do your job or get out of the business.  Oral and anal sex now rules the sexual encounters and think of the diseases spread through those decisions.

It seems our country is being legislated around abortion and gay rights. The gays have become the black men of the century. Birth rights are being slaughtered. Those who objected to Roe vs Wade have been trying to overturn it and will continue until they get their way.  No way is the right way unless it is their way.  All this talk about family values, but whose values, the right wing (not all Repubs) fanatics or all those American families whose family values just might outshine theirs.

American innovation, inventive entreponurs are being strangled.  So much has been twisted around that nothing will get done because of the obstructive policies being used by both sides. 

We, your employer can do nothing until the next election for the congress and house seats.  Meantime, our country is being sold from out under we the people.

Our highways, sewer systems, farms, jobs, etc. have been sold to China and other nations already.
Our country can’t wait or we may not have a country to save.

By gerard, February 5 at 2:45 pm #

“Logically, “the populace” would vote Democratic if they understood how money-politics works against them. Sadly, they do not understand, and many of them prefer not to understand.”

The populace voted democratic in 2008, and look what they got.  More money-politics which works against them, creating unprecedented deficits and national debt, which hardly anyone is stupid enough to not recognize as one of the primary reasons jobs are disappearing regularly. 

The people are not stupid and clearly see that they have been sold down the river by the republicans and the democrats of the past many decades.  Whether by incompetence or deviousness, the results are clear, America is close to losing her sovereignty and constitution.

Traditional political rhetoric on both sides is the kiss of death for any politician that attempts to use it to get elected.  It is time to listen to the people, (or as the arrogant intellectual elite would say the “sheeple”)

The people are not complex in what they ask.  They want to be free, including freedom from excessive government.  They want a job that pays enough to cover their normal bills.  They want their country to be without excessive debt and deficit, knowing there is no freedom without fiscal responsibility.

The politician who talks straight and honestly and delivers jobs, freedom, small federal government and fiscal responsibility will be elected, no matter whether republican or democrat, independent or whatever. 

You underestimate the intelligence of the American public when you say they don’t understand.  They understand all right, and they are starting to move on it.  In my area they are organizing big time, and when you talk to them, you will understand that all the old loyalties and labels are gone.  They are going to elect people who will deliver their simple requirements, regardless of label. 

If you followed the Massachusetts senate race closely, you will know exactly why Brown beat Coakley convincingly.  One of the most liberal, progressive states in the union rejected their own party’s candidate because she was too arrogant to adopt to their current thinking. 

Anyone who attempts to use the old right/left rhetoric will be pushed aside.  It is about freedom, jobs and paying off the debt, everything else and everybody else is going to be sadly disappointed. 

The American people are not stupid, but very patient and forgiving.  But they have a limit, and they have reached it.  They are poised to retake their government and force real reform, which will be much more conservative than progressive.

If your campaign is not about small federal government, tightening the belt, reducing the deficit, paying off the debt, creating opportunities for small business jobs, preserving the constitution and freedom, you are going to have an extremely hard time getting elected in America for a long time in my opinion.

The only reasosn the Republicans cater to “the populace” at all is that there aren’t enough rich people in the country to get them elected.
  Logically, “the populace” would vote Democratic if they understood how money-politics works against them. Sadly, they do not understand, and many of them prefer not to understand.
  It’s this latter preference which makes them such fierce supporters of policies that do them in sooner or later.  It is also the reason why the Roves and the Robertsons and the Glenn Becks of the Republican world can do such a job on them and they don’t catch on.

I think this can all be traced back to August of 1974. The only sitting American President ever to resign/ever to driven from office in total disgrace and humiliation was Richard M. Nixon. For the past 36 years now, the Republican Party has used any and every excuse under the sun to bring the Democratic Party low in the voting public’s eyes.

In honor of this, I composed a small ditty that sums up how I see Republicans in general, and those on Capitol Hill in particular. I call it: “It’s all the Democrat’s Fault” and it goes like this:

“It’s all the Democrat’s fault, it’s all the Democrat’s fault - from the Crucifixion to Richard Nixon, it’s all the Democrat’s fault.”

Gerard:

Points well taken.  LOL.  And I absolutely agree with your last comment!

I certainly agree that it is the repugs who generally appeal to (in both senses of the phrase)  the “sheeple.”  I was simply pointing out that there are religious sheeple and non-religious sheeple, and that automatically assuming that most are religious was…presumptive (?).

That said, you and I are basically in agreement.

Peace.

Stock value is fairly mythical.

If the Republicans got together and backed Ron Paul they would again be a viable party with grassroots representation, not what they are today…...owned.

Balls in a glass jar on a shelf at AIPAC.

Maani,

When stock value goes down it usually means the CEO recieved a multi million dollar bonus.

Hi, Maani:  Painting with a broad brush is always stereotyping.  How could anyone prove such a broad brush statement?  Does one even need to?  But the point is, there may be more than a grain of truth in the “sticking power” of these hidebound and habituated Republican appeals, because they make people feel “secure” “safe” “true believers” etc.
  Generally speaking (broad brush again) it is the Republicans who tend (notice the “tend”?) to appeal to God and country, Christian values, hard work, traditional marriage, dominion over such and such, people deserving what they get, etc. etc.—all notions of “the elect”—a “special people” “elite” whose “values” are unique and superior and above all must be believed and upheld, not changed to meet changing tmes or special needs. The party almost never initiaties change that benefits those very people who believe in it most strongly—a fact which those people never seem to notice.
  Religion and reigion-ness is itself a whole other ball of wax.  My religous beliefs tend (notice the “tend” again) toward the dreaded “secular humanism” because I want to help bring about a more humane world free from hatred and killing and open to change and improvement, which I believe (get the word “believe”) is possible.  I choose to believe this, and it is my freedom to do so.  I need never enter a church to prove its vakye, I rebel at typical Republican self-righteousness and discrimination, thoughtless conformity and scorn for science and intellectualism in general.  All these generalities it is scarcely necessary to “prove” as my opinion is shared by millions of others, which would seem to verify such conclusions at least in part.
  As with you, my big problem comes in respecting opposite opinions, yet that respect is absolutely crucial to democracy. Both of us need to hold on fast to mutual respect or we will lose the whole game.

Gerard said, “As I see it, Republican ‘policies’ are largely a charade—making undereducated and tradition-loving religious followers believe that people ‘deserve’ or ‘don’t deserve’ this or that gain or loss. Psychologically the notion works because of ignorance and clinging to beliefs in historical American cliches like “rugged individualism, ‘dominionism’ and ‘private enterprise.’  Based on Calvinism, these beliefs are considered to be sacrosanct facts in spite of evidence disproving them.”

Your predictable broad-brush anti-religious attitude apparently makes you blind to the fact that there are plenty of “undereducated and tradition-loving” NON-religious people who ALSO follow the Republican line.  In fact, unless you can show some support for the idea that more of those “undereducated, tradition-loving” Republicans are “religious” as opposed to non-religious, you might want to refrain from that sort of stereotyping.

Purple Girl said, “What the hell do I care if the market takes a 200 pt drop. I’m still broke and will retire when I drop dead- a two for one deal on party favors?!”

Actually, you unintentionally bring up an important point.  The stock market is ultimately a representation of shareholder value of company stock.  And shareholder value goes up when “bad” things happen: layoffs, downsizing, etc.  Thus, perhaps counter-intuitively, liberals (and particularly the far left) should rejoice when the stock market goes down, becuase it means that less “bad” things are happening: i.e., if shareholder value goes down, it means the company is (or may be) “doing the right thing” by keeping employees, paying a living wage, making investments in green technology, etc.

Peace.

As I see it, Republican “policies” are largely a charade—making undereducated and tradition-loving religious followers believe that people “deserve” or “don’t deserve” this or that gain or loss. Psychologically the notion works because of ignorance and clinging to beliefs in historical American cliches like “rugged individualism, “dominionism” and “private enterprise. 
  Based on Calvinism, these beliefs are considered to be sacrosanct facts in spite of evidence disproving them.  Added together, they represent a kind of “security” that says:  “Things will be okay if we keep things tshe same,” (operative word “keep”)in spite of the fact that everything, by its very nature, is bound to change forever. 
  Rank and file repubs are desperate to stop the clock to somewhere around “the family hour.”  Rich corporate managers and political operators secretly regard them as a huge and maleable constituency to be exploited as “populism.”

Those who are real Populists are laughing when the pussies on Wall Street Drive down their own stocks.
We got nothing to lose anymore. Our ‘nesteggs’ have been sucked dry. Besides “Retirement” has become a one word Cruel Joke for Middle Agers. so what the hell do I care if the market takes a 200 pt drop. I’m still broke and will retire when I drop dead- a two for one deal on party favors?!
In fact a Populist wants to see the Criminals who perpetrated this Great act of Treason prosecuted to the fullest extent. If not the chopping block- then the Auction block. They sold US out and our children- an Eye for an Eye.
#1 On a Populist menu- “Revenge Gazpacho”

There is an old-fashioned label for the current crop of Congressional Republicans: scum bags!

You could have saved a lot of white space by simply stating the truth: these scum bags cannot accept the fact that they have no ideas, no vision, no imagination, no anything. It’s easier to let the President do the heavy lifting whilst they sit on their hands with their thumbs up their butts.