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American politics doesn't exist, everything (idea & people) that remotely endangers status quo is on the margin of silence (and sometimes repression). Main stream clowns just play their roles in a well rehearsed "battle between Good and Evil" staged and conducted specifically to fool plebeians (it doesn't take much). Republicans or Democrats, "Liberal" or "Conservative" OR PLEASE, it doesn't really matter as far as my or your life goes. Obama or Bush, yup, huge difference.
No matter what non-issues masters of illusions would pick to stir "Battle of Good vs Evil" around every other election year, I can guarantee that:
a) the "issue" is a minor one, non-threatening to power&wealth and ultimately it's irrelevant to the most of plebeian's lives and wallets
b) the "issue" will not be resolved to be dusted and bloated out of proportion again, again, and again
c) American Imperialism, Social control techniques, propaganda style, etc., etc., will not be affected regardless of who's elected.
d) Plebeians have no control whatsoever over "who's on the ballot", "what non-issue corporate media will create hysteria around", "whom and what are getting favorable and overwhelming media (over)exposure", etc.
American "politics" is nothing but a spectacle for pre-dumbed citizenry and foreign admirers.
Little reminders for oversea "democracy" lovers
a) 9 out of 10 American elections are won by a guy with the largest pile of campaign funds, guess what social group has got the money and doesn't live hand to mouth?
b) American public opinion is swayed by 30 sec TV ads, this alone should expose so called "democracy" as a huge fraud and spectacle.
c) Supreme court gave green light to the unlimited corporate contributions (after all corporations are American people, they have lots of rights)
d) Most of corporations and rich individuals "prefer" not to be vocal about their campaign contributions. Instead they channel money through "Grass roots" organizations and "Political Action committees" these entities are not required to disclose the sources of their funding. Combine a, b, c & d. If you still call USA democratic, I'm afraid I cannot reason with that amount of indoctrination.
I understand that many "democracy" lovers in backward countries love "democracy" because of its promise of higher consumption standards as it was sold by American agitprop (so you could trash your countries and open them for the transnational looting). Sorry, pals, goodies are not distributed according to the democracy levels. Otherwise, USA would have close to none. USA consumes 30% of world's energy and I'm afraid your "democratic" fervor will not be rewarded by American share of the energy pie. Lastly, USA sold itself as an "freedom" alternative to the socialist totalitarian states, but it's not, it's another kind of totalitarian state, manipulation based, it's more diabolical, less obvious, and ultimately less free, it messes with people on brain cellular levels. Be really thankful that soviet comrades relied mostly on the direct repression instead of emulating "New Brave Western World".
Last edited by RememberMee; 01-07-2012 at 08:24 AM..
I agree but blind rage is completely counter intuitive and counter productive in my experience. Reason and a genuine desire to move forward has to be far more constructive. Screaming until you are blue in the face achieves nothing apart from making the culprit look insane and unhinged.
Very few of us will not be enraged or at least frustrated by our Politicians but there has to be a better way than mud slinging and personal attacks. Whichever side of the fence you are from you have to learn to live with the other side if not in harmony at least in a civil fashion.
I see a lot of rage, anger and frustration but I also see blind hatred, unfocused arguments and a lack of direction as well as to be blunt a lot of ignorance on a lot of issues. A lot of people prefer to speak before they think and I think that causes a lot of damage to whatever causes they are proponents of.
Excluding both extreme sides of the arguments, left or right I would argue that reasonable people from both moderate sides should be able to come together, have civilised discussions and respectfully listen. A consensus simply has to be reached on most issues so that moderation is the main force behind mainstream politics not rage and emotional outbursts.
We ALL are affected by our Politicians for good or worse, but at the end of the day as voters we have duties of care as well as rights.
I cannot fathom how we can ever move forward when we spend most of our time throwing excrement at the other side instead of trying to find a middle ground on many issues. Not everything has to be black and white, a little in-between grey is often the only mature thing to do. It might satisfy our lust for blood and all out political warfare but I can't honestly say how it would be worse than what is in existence at the moment. Give and take. Compromise. It works for couples and can work for parties.
I find Politics fascinating because all aspects of it impact on us all no matter who we are and I believe the only way to even begin and make a difference is to be a little more thoughtful, to keep ourselves a little better informed , to be more socially and politically engaged and active and to want to change the system without completely destroying it.
In many ways I believe the American Political system is eating itself up from within as well as from without. Politicians at each other's throats , not engaging in rational discourse whilst their followers descend into their own madness and simply let good judgement and common sense fly to the winds. Not exactly a very positive outcome.
Democracy as we know it is still our best form of governance despite its many flaws and to engage truly in the process we have to be truly willing to see the other side and come to rational consensus and moderate our ridiculous outburts of churlishness.
Politics should not be a playground. It is far too serious, far too important to mess around and up with and deserves genuine desire to move forward, to be positive and to engage without constantly demeaning the other side. We must bring back Politics from the brink and accord it the respect it deserves.
Rage might be a catalyst for positive action but it cannot take over the process because that to me is simply a total failure.
Don't get me wrong, I really love the USA and the American people. Having said that I would like to say that American politics embodies everything that is bad about the country. It's nearly totally corrupt. Just for a minute consider the number of politicians that are either in jail, under indictment or investigation. It's just historical in the country. Big corrupt political machines are and have been used in all manner of criminal ways. There really is not a whole lot of difference between organized crime and organized corrupt political machines. This corruption goes from the bottom power structure at the local level through the state level and right on up to the federal level. It's impacts on the justice system is just a travesty. Just as wall street is defined by it's greed to the uttermost degree, American politics is defined by a different sort of greed and betrayal of the people.
I wonder what a Canadian or European political forum looks like...I'd be interested in comparing the two.
There is no "we" as there certainly is nothing in common between us. The rest of the world is made up of banana republics with Europe leading the stupidity as everyone else tries to be like Europe. The problem with Europe and most of the world is the Borg mentality which is what has led to many bloody wars and genocides in Europe. When a political ideal picks up steam in Europe the individual fools all compete to be the most extreme along the lines of that political view mostly as a form of peer pressure to remain part of the collective. Europe hasn't learned and is moving toward another genocide which will involve the middle eastern people who are moving to Europe. The rest of the world erroneously tries to be like Europe.
Your belief that the political views that are not like yours are held by stupid uneducated primitives is exactly why europeans have managed to bring about so many bloody wars and genocides because they and you are so intolerant of the political views of others that you do not even believe that people with different political views are equals or are as human as you and you therefore feel like an uebermensch and we know what uebermenschen do when they are free to do what they want to the "dumb, uneducated and primitive" people that they despise.
Just watch a political debate. Our politicians are just dumb. They can't compete on a intellectual base with their European counterparts. And our political climate is way more toxic than in Europe. We are heading towards a civil war. Europe has learned from its many mistakes.
I wonder what a Canadian or European political forum looks like...I'd be interested in comparing the two.
They are kinda hard to find as not many Canadians find politics very exiting . this major Canadian news link is almost totally devoid of political discussion.Sympatico
I personally come to the politics section of CD forums as its kind of amusing and entertaining in its bizarre topics and content,kinda like watching a train (freight) wreck.
What a joke. We are the most powerful developed country in the world and you post BS like this? You need to wake up.
Look at our streets, we look like a third world country. You need to wake up. We are the most powerful country, but not the most developed. The american culture is inferior compared with the sophisticated European culture.
They are kinda hard to find as not many Canadians find politics very exiting . this major Canadian news link is almost totally devoid of political discussion.Sympatico
I personally come to the politics section of CD forums as its kind of amusing and entertaining in its bizarre topics and content,kinda like watching a train (freight) wreck.
I feel the same way. As an American, I know that American presidential politics is an absolute joke, but I still like watching the train wreck anyway. This place really is a riot sometimes.
...American Politics to me don't seem to be entirely about progress but about scoring points and that baffles me. And yes I do find it quite uncivilised. And it rather defeats the purpose of Politics which is not about self interest, petty scores to settle or personality wars but about issues which affect the people and how to best deal with a problem and find a long term solution. Politics is such an important topic and it is demeaned and dragged into the mud by both politicians and many people. Sullied by a lack of genuine interest.
I don't know anything about the politics in England, but democratic politics are probably the same all over. There is public and back room politicking. The public side is less nuanced, and it is all about scoring points (I agree with you there) and gathering up the loudest (not necessarily the largest) public backing. That is all done to gain an advantage in the real-world dealing that goes on behind closed doors.
The public has no deep knowledge of any issue unless it is directly involved or immensely interested in it. An issue has to be explained to it in simple terms. Include subtleties at the risk of losing the audience. Arguments tend to be black or white or personal.
In the back room you are dealing with people who have a vested interest in an issue and know an awful lot about it. There is no black or white argument, it is all about nuance... and who has the public backing.
In my opinion, a country's political system has to be judged by accomplishments and not spectacle. Despite much pettiness, corruption, obstruction, incompatibility, disfunction, and fist fights, this nation's politicians and politics have accomplished great things throughout the history of America.
That's my not very in-depth argument in defense of American politics.
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