This is not a rant, but I am pi***d off!

There is something called the ‘Old Left’. It was entire political alignments many now know it as the New Deal Coalition. This coalition was designed by Franklin Roosevelt and it was first used after his death in 1948 which helped propel Harry Truman to presidency. This coalition was formed by Big City machines, labor unions, liberals, ethnic and racial minorities and Southern whites.

I know many on ATS despise FDR and what he did to/for America. They accuse him of starting the decline of America and unconstitutional actions that have ruined our country. Whether you like him or not he regulated the financial industry and gave a minimal safety net to all needy Americans which most Americans would not want to remove. He laid the foundation for exponential growth under the Eisenhower administration which maintained and enlarged his domestic policies.

This New Deal Coalition continued with the election of JFK to the presidency, bringing an intelligent and kind man to the office of president. After his death LBJ became president and won an overwhelming win against his Republican opponent. This was sadly the last New Deal Coalition election in US history.

Let us now look at the ‘Old Right’. These people support Liassez-faire classical liberalism, pro-business, and southern conservative agrarians. This bloc strongly opposed the New Deal and opposed an interventionist foreign policy which was supported by Democrats. While this coalition never actually formed a president in their 30 years they did form a unified bloc against intervention and big government.

The ‘Old Right’ collapsed in 1964, just before the ‘Old Left’ collapsed. The ‘New Left’ no longer focused on labor issues and began to focus on social issues. The ‘New Left’ opposed an interventionist foreign policy of the ‘Old Left’; they opposed organized labor, reining in corporations, redistribution of wealth, and welfare. They began to focus on non-interventionism, individuality, equal rights, limited regulation, and other social issues.

The ‘New Right’ no longer focused on the New Deal and began to focus on social issues. The ‘New Right’ opposed a non-interventionist foreign policy of the ‘Old Right’; they supported New Deal, religion, family, military intervention, and abolishing Glass-Steagall. They began to focus on military intervention, tradition, social conservatism, limited regulation, and other social issues.

Are you seeing a trend here? When the New Left and New Right formed they were both opposed to regulation and supported social issues. THEY BOTH OPPOSED REGULATION! We entered a period where the two parties began to talk about corporations, Wall Street, and banking (but not in a bad way). Our interest shifted away from keeping jobs, creating better working conditions, and helping the poor like we previously did. Both parties turned their back on the issues that were truly important and began to talk about social issues.

When they turned their back they made it clear to the Americans that our economy is stable and we have great jobs and a strong economy based upon workers. All this while they are chasing Wall Street to kiss their ass! Our politicians started focusing on Wall Street and social issues.

What do you see when you turn on the news, read a newspaper, or look at online news; what do you always see? Stock market, mega-corporations, trade policies, Wall Street, profits, sales, etc… When we actually hear our politicians speaking what are they talking about? How Wall Street is doing! Our media has slowly been chipping away from the real issues so that we don’t think about them. They don’t want us thinking about what is going on in our own country let alone our own neighborhoods as factories close, people become unemployed and homeless, and poverty/crime.

They have successfully diverted our attention away from our own lives to focus upon our corporate economy which they describe as our whole economy. I see on the news all of the time that monthly earnings reports are in for corporations and who they are firing, where the hell are they talking about Main Street!? Have we disappeared!?

They ship our jobs out of the country with special perks for any company that is willing to send our jobs to Mexico or China! They rigged the system where corporations can take our money and gamble upon it then when they win they reap massive profits and when they lose we pay their #ing bills and lose our retirement, savings, and investments! They show thousands of commercials to invest in their companies, before Reagan Americans would stash money in their homes for a safety net, now they have convinced Americans to invest in stocks and other risky investments to abolish our savings accounts. But don’t worry you can always run to the government for a welfare check after your savings are gone and you are unemployed!

This is the results of two parties who have both lost their way! Two demonic entities that are hell bent on helping their corporations and convincing us the only major issues are foreign policy and social issues; don’t pay any attention to the economy (or what’s left of it). We have spiraled into huge debt and are teetering on collapse and the media and government still does not want to mention the real issues because that would mean they would have to turn against their wallets!

The corporations now own the future generation too. They give students loans to go to college then burry them in so much debt that when they leave college they work for them. The young people are lazy, when they graduate they want to become CEO’s already, hard work is a thing of the past. The young people aren’t involved in using their hands to make things, which is the only real way of EARNING money and not just MAKING money.

We need to do a complete reform of our entire economy, government, politics, media and culture to save ourselves from an abyss of hell which will lead us to a future of war, authoritarianism, corporatism, laziness, and debt. We must find that spark of entrepreneurship, hard work and determination that was the cornerstone of the American way of life and the only true way to the American dream. It’s not through manipulating markets, gambling with other people’s money, and manipulating the government to make huge profit.

I am beginning to gain faith though as the libertarians in the Republican Party are coming back and the pro-union main street Democrats are coming back. The establishment does not want to recognize either side, they want to keep them out at any cost. They know they aren’t going anywhere, the two party states will continue for as long as we can see. We are seeing signs of hope from people like Ron Paul who are gaining a huge following inside and outside of the Republican Party. The Democrats won’t see any hero of unions coming because we have a corporate inner circle in control.

The media is beginning to show signs of change too as many are reporting on the issues that really matter; main street, jobs, corporate dictatorship, and war. Don’t give up hope; we can change this monster if we really want to.

I am ready to support anyone who is true in support: main street, hard work, entrepreneurship, wall street regulation, reining in corporations, fixing our trade policies, and making America a country of building thing for money NOT manipulating money to make money!

[edit on 4/29/10 by Misoir]

reply to post by Misoir


There is only one way and one way only to remove power from the corrupt.

To not give them the power. Keep the power in the people and the government closest to the people.

Libertarianism and individual responsibility.

Both parties are the problem.

Divide and conquer.

Cause problem, offer a solution.

Demonize those that could actually bring about change.

Use intermediaries to vilify, that way the mud does not stick to those in power.

And in ALL elections, remove incumbents and vote in third party at every chance.

Individual rights, not collective rights.

The collective can be controlled, the individual cannot.

Do not have a leader, have a coalition of like minded individuals, a movement cannot be destroyed or vilified if their is no head, just a body.

Read up on the Art of War and use it in everyday life and in business.

Coming soon to a thread near you, the Art of War in modern day politics and government, by the endisnighe.

reply to post by endisnighe


I am beginning to think that we just can't trust government, PERIOD. I'm sure there are some big government politicians who are doing what they think is best but I am beginning to think that the only thing government should do is...

Protect people and protect the nation.

They just can't be trusted, so they should just leave everything except protection from violence to the citizens to choose.

This would give us jobs, a strong economy, and our right to choose how to live our lives. No laws against or for gay marriage, abortion, etc...

reply to post by Misoir


You make an excellent point, talking about how both parties turned from economic issues to social issues.

TPTB know that social issues are an excellent tool for distracting the masses. On most social issues, people are either for or against them based upon their social, religious or moral backgrounds. There is often no common middle ground on many of these issues. They keep us divided and at each other's throats in order to keep us distracted from their real agenda.

Their real agenda has , for years, been to slowly sell the American people into slavery to Wall Street and the big banking cartels. Every day, they keep selling us deeper and deeper into debt and we keep personally digging ourselves deeper as well. Many project that it is now impossible for the US to ever pay off it's debt, even if they taxed the citizens 100% of their earnings.

We are now all chattel slaves for the big financial interests of the world.

Originally posted by Misoir
reply to post by endisnighe

 

so they should just leave everything except protection from violence to the citizens to choose.

Because there are a lot of working parts to society, and they can not all be determined by the laws of free markets.

Most of the things you want to buy, like food, clothing, houses (oops, maybe not that one.. there was just a huge housing bubble), etc, is pretty well determined by the market (although, not always, IE the oil bubble, the tech bubble, housing bubble, etc).

But that's not all it takes to run a society, and there are many downfalls to capitalism, one being the inability to make R&D possible without massive government intervention in the market in the form of private monopolies (IE, patents). The market also doesn't factor in externalities, like environmental pollution of all kinds, inequality, crippling poverty, etc.


In a functioning democracy, the government is suppose to do what the people want. We're not suppose to be fighting 2 unpopular wars right now, have a liberalized economy (has nothing to do with the "left"), or for that matter have a financial economy.

Unfortunately, though, big business is great at manipulating people, and so they can get candidates elected who are sympathetic to their causes. What happens then is that the government ends up working for big business, instead of the people.


I want to stress, though, this is mostly a failure of democracy; no single business ever lobbied a congressman, senator, president, or state supreme court justice by force. They all used the vote, and all their cronies were legally and democratically elected by the populace.



My suggestion is to get politically active, and make sure to have an open mind and critical thinking skills.. don't get politically active and half ass it. Don't get politically active and yell and scream and froth at the mouth about socialism and death panels, either... That doesn't help anything.

reply to post by Kaytagg


Our greatest innovation came when government minded its own business. Look at the 19th century, government did not get involved and that was a time of great innovation and creation.


In addition it should be up to people to decide what's good for our nation by buying from companies that do good and boycotting the ones that do bad. Government should only oversee anything and that is how can see what these corporations are doing so people can boycott them. If people don't boycot them and just go on their way then it's our own faults what happens to us.

FYI I do not believe in death panels or that we are socialist. We are corporatist which is way worse. We already have death panels and they are the board of directors at Cigna. We should be allowed to have a private doctor come to our home and pay him in cash and only have health insurance for emergency situations.

I understand how you feel, and it p's me off as well, but somewhere in the last ten years I began to refuse to use my energies on righteous indignation. It's just wasted energy, and you suffer as an individual when you get that upset. Why give yourself an ulcer or a stroke. When you add the reality that millions of American's just don't give a crap anymore, it is no wonder we are going down the tubes. I don't know which is worse, the uninformed, or the apathy behind everything. We ain't got a dog in this fight anymore. Where does it say anywhere in any location in our pedigree papers that two parties run everything? The ONLY chance I can even think of is for a group of independants to appeal to the Supreme Court that the 2-party system is Unconstitutional. There is adequate precedent to the reality that we shouldn't be limited in our choices. Throw it open to everyone! You wouldn't sue the gov't, you would sue the Dems and Reps for limiting equal opportunity. I think, at this late date, it's too late anyway. I hate to feel that way.