October 25, 2009

 

Who is Howard Beale?

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Incensed by the continuing wholesale kleptomania of the financial world as described in the Washington Post, El Jefe at Boiled Dinner did that "write to your senators" thing that passionate citizens do when they're mad as hell and not going to take it anymore. Kudos to Jeff for a succinct and effective note.

As happens from time to time, here is a typical "comment on a blog that became a post instead."

I have fear that increases a bit with each article I read about all this financial stuff. It's a fear that America, like some strung-out junkie, will have to hit rock bottom in order to snap out of the consumerist greedocracy in which it has become so comfortable living. And yes, as Jeff pointed out, rage is something else I have - it's about the only thing that keeps me from being burned out on concern for our nation's future.

It is a frustrating thing to be unable to muster any trust for our elected officials to fashion a proper solution to our troubles.

The only things that I can so far agree to, based on a plethora of news and commentary both organized and informal, are the following rather nebulous points of indeterminate feasibility:

1. Break the grip of the two-party system. One more viable party would great, two seems to be the impossible dream.

2. Declare 100 percent public financing of all elections. How much would this cost in comparison to American military deployments and financial bailouts? Seems like a bargain to me.

3. Reform of corporate personhood designations that facilitate loopholes in everything from liability to taxes to government lobbying.

4. (Write-in)

5. (Et cetera)

6. (Et cetera)

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Comments:
Well, I agree with all of your points, especially # 5, but I don't think that railing against Washington will work. No one in DC, for instance, is going to want to turn off the money faucet, especially those on the side with the deep-pocketed mega-corporations. However, it's also true that few if any in DC wanted to give attention to global warming, either, nor civil rights nor a host of other issues, until these things became important to the people in great numbers. Get them involved in these issues en masse and Washington starts to consider it necessary for survival.

I believe that there ARE a lot of people who are concerned about these things but not ACTIVELY. They are actively pursuing other hot-button issues and overall partisanship. If they could be aligned toward looking at the big picture instead, then you'd have something. Your issues need awareness, but even more, I think they need "polarization," if you will.
 
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