If We the People take over the Democratic Party or the Libertarian Party as you suggested, one key element of building popular democracy must be to amend the Constitution so that corporations do not have constitutional rights.
What Trump brought to the table was the systemic rot of both sides and how the people have been conned for most of their lives believing that either side would address the needs of the people.
What we need is a series of clear, people focused policy statements that end the takeover of government by corporations, which is fascism. Here is a sample:
1. Corporations are not people and cannot be allowed to finance campaigns or buy access to elected members of congress.
2. Universal health care - no one left out.
3. Expanded child care and improved education for all.
4. Raising the minimum wage, variable by cost of living in each state, but a minimum of $15
5. Carbon taxes to end the use of fossil fuels, and those taxes used to finance the transition to electric energy.
6. Improve transport system that reduces dependence on cars and trucks. No internal combustion engines after 2035.
7. Elimination of lead and other toxins in our water systems.
8. Tougher regulation on chemical pollution that kills bees, birds and us. The precautionary principle should have priority. You can't sell until you prove it does no harm.
9. A new civilian conservation core to actively restore degraded environments and seal up the damaging leaks from old mines and wells. This last paid for by the companies (and people) that caused the damage as far as possible.
10. Graduated income tax, with a top rate for the rich approaching 90%
11. No cap on social security payroll tax. The wealthy continue to pay 7.25% on all their income, including stocks.
These are just a few things that require pushing. Others can add more with better clarity. We must have plain, simple, people and environment centered policies or the entire global system will cease to function. We are already seeing signs of global disfunction happening now. Gaza, Sudan, and Afghanistan are symptoms, as are the collapse of coral reefs and tropical rainforests. These are not disconnected, and the fault lies with the governments of wealthy nations, foremost among them, the United States.
The US has been engaged in a battle against socialism in every form since the early twentieth century. This battle figures prominently in the public policy positions of rival parties here. The Trump administration is already engaged in quashing Nicolás Maduro in Venezuela, in large part because of his socialist leanings. I am a lifelong Democrat and know that the American Democratic Party has been advocating numerous socialist leaning positions for a hundred years. Roosevelt's Four Freedoms —freedom of speech, freedom of worship, freedom from want, and freedom from fear —are the opposite of a Capitalist credo. And so the DNA of the Democrats is programmed in opposition to the Republicans. The Conservatives say they are in favor of States' Rights, local control, and strong policing, but those are all echoes of 160-year-old Confederate policies. Democrats are in a bind, which Republicans, including Trump's buddy Roy Cohn, constructed as an eternal trap. PT Barnum knew Americans weren't too bright and that he could sell them on virtually anything if the hyperbole were sufficient. The "House Un-American Activities Committee' established 'Socialism' and its related ideal 'Communism' as offensive words. This was effective propaganda that has twisted our ideas of what America is and what community stands for to this day. My father was friends with a songwriter whose pseudonym was Lewis Allan. Lewis Allan, whose real name was Abel Meeropol, wrote the lyrics for "The House I Live In," scored by Earl Robinson. If you read it carefully, you find that it is precisely what the Democratic Party stands for, but has long forgotten:
We’ll fight, as my wife and I have been doing, we might win, maybe, and then the Centrist Do Nothing’s will take credit, blame progressives and continue the looting.
How do we defeat Trump and the Centrist Do Nothing’s? My friends think I’m a raging lunatic when I criticize the Democratic Party. I begin to believe it. I question my own understanding but then Schumer or Slotkin or Jeffries will say something, I will watch the Talking Heads, and they confirm my understanding of their priorities clothed in false compassion.
I look for one thing now, Conviction. There is passion behind conviction, moral outrage that is difficult to contain, a burning for justice despite the personal cost.
The Democratic Party lacks conviction. I can still feel it from Bernie, sometimes AOC.
This is all correct with some exceptions. Right now, regurgitating "Trump is bad" is almost comical. The clear shot the Dems could have at the Reps would be through a corporate campaign on their money ties. The Disney/Jimmy Kimmel boycott was a model. But the Dems, with their war chests won't do it because they have the same exposure. We keep electing neocons and hoping they will do the right thing. Still, there are some great people emerging and tides are somewhat shifting. Citizens United has to be a central focus for us. But in terms of a galvanizing, catalytic moment that gets everyone in the streets, I keep wondering what, where it is?
I think it's coming. People have been in the streets about Gaza, and I think it will be bad when the Sumud Flotilla gets stopped and perhaps something very bad happens to them. But the American people are slow to react to anything outside the neighborhood. Somebody like Mamdani has the leadership qualities to steer a different course, as does Corbin Trent in these gadfly posts. But a George Floyd moment may be coming soon.
It’s not weakness, it is the defeat of democracy. The U.S. is over, it just doesn’t realize it. Fascism has taken hold in America. If you think some bit of legislation is going to rescue the situation, the weakness is in your understanding of collapse — it’s already here.
Last night on Tee Vee, Schumer and Jeffries appeared (after meeting with Trump) and said Dems will not vote to fund the government unless Trumpies refund Medicaid and put ACA benefits back in place. I guess the proof is in the pudding, and we will see if the mean what they said. Stay tuned...
I have written to Sen. Klobuchar (who represents my state) many MANY times asking her what is her strategy to reestablish the rule of law and fairness, etc. Her answer is always the same. She has no intention of doing anything differently or changing anything because "that is not her job." Her job is "to listen" not to DO anything. So nothing can change on her watch.
Copied from her email to me (which is always the same answer to my inquiries):
Thank you for taking the time to contact me. I appreciate hearing from you on this important matter, and I will keep your views in mind as relevant legislation and other decisions related to this issue come before the Senate.
I continue to be humbled to be your Senator, and one of the most important parts of my job is listening to the people of Minnesota. I am here in our nation’s capital to do the public’s business. I hope you will contact me again about matters of concern to you.
You can't fight people who have tens or hundreds of billions of dollars at their disposal. The government, "news organizations", universities, think tanks and of course the entire financial system are all run by sociopathic billionaires and their sycophants. You can't fight that with protests if the police are also compromised by the wealthy. Unless some way is devised to defund the billionaires, we will continue down the path of sociopathic devolution.
If We the People take over the Democratic Party or the Libertarian Party as you suggested, one key element of building popular democracy must be to amend the Constitution so that corporations do not have constitutional rights.
HJR-54 ends both corporate personhood and the concept of money as speech. Contact your congressional representatives and …. Demand…. their support.
MoveToAmend.org
What Trump brought to the table was the systemic rot of both sides and how the people have been conned for most of their lives believing that either side would address the needs of the people.
The following is an update of a previous post:
What we need is a series of clear, people focused policy statements that end the takeover of government by corporations, which is fascism. Here is a sample:
1. Corporations are not people and cannot be allowed to finance campaigns or buy access to elected members of congress.
2. Universal health care - no one left out.
3. Expanded child care and improved education for all.
4. Raising the minimum wage, variable by cost of living in each state, but a minimum of $15
5. Carbon taxes to end the use of fossil fuels, and those taxes used to finance the transition to electric energy.
6. Improve transport system that reduces dependence on cars and trucks. No internal combustion engines after 2035.
7. Elimination of lead and other toxins in our water systems.
8. Tougher regulation on chemical pollution that kills bees, birds and us. The precautionary principle should have priority. You can't sell until you prove it does no harm.
9. A new civilian conservation core to actively restore degraded environments and seal up the damaging leaks from old mines and wells. This last paid for by the companies (and people) that caused the damage as far as possible.
10. Graduated income tax, with a top rate for the rich approaching 90%
11. No cap on social security payroll tax. The wealthy continue to pay 7.25% on all their income, including stocks.
These are just a few things that require pushing. Others can add more with better clarity. We must have plain, simple, people and environment centered policies or the entire global system will cease to function. We are already seeing signs of global disfunction happening now. Gaza, Sudan, and Afghanistan are symptoms, as are the collapse of coral reefs and tropical rainforests. These are not disconnected, and the fault lies with the governments of wealthy nations, foremost among them, the United States.
The US has been engaged in a battle against socialism in every form since the early twentieth century. This battle figures prominently in the public policy positions of rival parties here. The Trump administration is already engaged in quashing Nicolás Maduro in Venezuela, in large part because of his socialist leanings. I am a lifelong Democrat and know that the American Democratic Party has been advocating numerous socialist leaning positions for a hundred years. Roosevelt's Four Freedoms —freedom of speech, freedom of worship, freedom from want, and freedom from fear —are the opposite of a Capitalist credo. And so the DNA of the Democrats is programmed in opposition to the Republicans. The Conservatives say they are in favor of States' Rights, local control, and strong policing, but those are all echoes of 160-year-old Confederate policies. Democrats are in a bind, which Republicans, including Trump's buddy Roy Cohn, constructed as an eternal trap. PT Barnum knew Americans weren't too bright and that he could sell them on virtually anything if the hyperbole were sufficient. The "House Un-American Activities Committee' established 'Socialism' and its related ideal 'Communism' as offensive words. This was effective propaganda that has twisted our ideas of what America is and what community stands for to this day. My father was friends with a songwriter whose pseudonym was Lewis Allan. Lewis Allan, whose real name was Abel Meeropol, wrote the lyrics for "The House I Live In," scored by Earl Robinson. If you read it carefully, you find that it is precisely what the Democratic Party stands for, but has long forgotten:
What is America to me
A name, a map, or a flag I see
A certain word, democracy
What is America to me
The house I live in
A plot of earth, the street
The grocer and the butcher
Or the people that I meet
The children in the playground
The faces that I see
All races and religions
That's America to me
The place I work in
The worker by my side
The little town, the city
Where my people lived and died
The howdy and the handshake
The air a feeling free
And the right to speak your mind out
That's America to me
The things I see about me
The big things and the small
That little corner newsstand
Or the house a mile tall
The wedding and the churchyard
The laughter and the tears
The dream that's been a growing
For more than two hundred years
Copyright © 1942 (Renewed) by Music Sales Corporation (ASCAP)
Thanks for referring to that song. That's America to me too.
We’ll fight, as my wife and I have been doing, we might win, maybe, and then the Centrist Do Nothing’s will take credit, blame progressives and continue the looting.
How do we defeat Trump and the Centrist Do Nothing’s? My friends think I’m a raging lunatic when I criticize the Democratic Party. I begin to believe it. I question my own understanding but then Schumer or Slotkin or Jeffries will say something, I will watch the Talking Heads, and they confirm my understanding of their priorities clothed in false compassion.
I look for one thing now, Conviction. There is passion behind conviction, moral outrage that is difficult to contain, a burning for justice despite the personal cost.
The Democratic Party lacks conviction. I can still feel it from Bernie, sometimes AOC.
I am so tired.
The people who provide the majority of funds to the Democratic Party are fundamentally more invested in the success of Israel than they are of America
Don the con has exposed the rot of both sides.
Both sides have slit the American throat, it’s just that the Dems kiss you while they are cutting!
This is all correct with some exceptions. Right now, regurgitating "Trump is bad" is almost comical. The clear shot the Dems could have at the Reps would be through a corporate campaign on their money ties. The Disney/Jimmy Kimmel boycott was a model. But the Dems, with their war chests won't do it because they have the same exposure. We keep electing neocons and hoping they will do the right thing. Still, there are some great people emerging and tides are somewhat shifting. Citizens United has to be a central focus for us. But in terms of a galvanizing, catalytic moment that gets everyone in the streets, I keep wondering what, where it is?
I think it's coming. People have been in the streets about Gaza, and I think it will be bad when the Sumud Flotilla gets stopped and perhaps something very bad happens to them. But the American people are slow to react to anything outside the neighborhood. Somebody like Mamdani has the leadership qualities to steer a different course, as does Corbin Trent in these gadfly posts. But a George Floyd moment may be coming soon.
Thanks. That's uplifting.
Finally, someone just comes out and says it. Thanks.
It’s not weakness, it is the defeat of democracy. The U.S. is over, it just doesn’t realize it. Fascism has taken hold in America. If you think some bit of legislation is going to rescue the situation, the weakness is in your understanding of collapse — it’s already here.
There are many ways of silencing people. Putting them in “nursing homes” for extended involuntary stays is another!
Can't disagree with this analysis.
Last night on Tee Vee, Schumer and Jeffries appeared (after meeting with Trump) and said Dems will not vote to fund the government unless Trumpies refund Medicaid and put ACA benefits back in place. I guess the proof is in the pudding, and we will see if the mean what they said. Stay tuned...
Wow. That is it in a nutshell. Anyone who loves freedom must agree.
I have written to Sen. Klobuchar (who represents my state) many MANY times asking her what is her strategy to reestablish the rule of law and fairness, etc. Her answer is always the same. She has no intention of doing anything differently or changing anything because "that is not her job." Her job is "to listen" not to DO anything. So nothing can change on her watch.
Copied from her email to me (which is always the same answer to my inquiries):
Thank you for taking the time to contact me. I appreciate hearing from you on this important matter, and I will keep your views in mind as relevant legislation and other decisions related to this issue come before the Senate.
I continue to be humbled to be your Senator, and one of the most important parts of my job is listening to the people of Minnesota. I am here in our nation’s capital to do the public’s business. I hope you will contact me again about matters of concern to you.
- Amy
You can't fight people who have tens or hundreds of billions of dollars at their disposal. The government, "news organizations", universities, think tanks and of course the entire financial system are all run by sociopathic billionaires and their sycophants. You can't fight that with protests if the police are also compromised by the wealthy. Unless some way is devised to defund the billionaires, we will continue down the path of sociopathic devolution.