This is a very harsh critique of the American public. But democracy in the States seems very sick at the moment, and probably has been for many years. Oil, money, political dynasties, the corporations, and the military-industrial complex have a complete stranglehold over it. Is there any point in voting for the next POTUS? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HeMGqTwWA6U
The simple reason voting does not mean shit is that people vote for a new president every four years, but what ever changes? Not a damn thing. That alone is proof that voting is irrelevant. If voting really mattered, you would think we woud see real changes with each passing election, but we don't. It's all an illusion.
In one way Carlin is right if you vote for people with bad policies you are likely to have to live with bad policies as he says – Garbage in Garbage out. So we come to this election The neo-liberal/free market ideas that so many Trump Republicans now rile against, the outsourcing, the inequality, the wage stagnations, the hollowing out of manufacturing, the decline in infrastructure and public services - where not hidden from the American people YET many Americans over the last 30 odd years have consistently voted for people that held those flawed neo-liberal free market views. In that context it is not surprising that many in the Democrat Party including the Clinton Admin were seduced by neoliberalism seeing that Americans gave it so much support. It seems strange to me that many that voted for free market politicians seem surprised when they brought in free market policies. You might say they didn’t know what they were doing – BUT there were/are plenty of people out there explaining the detrimental effects of neoliberal policies they were just ignored or attacked. BUT the thing is that they voted – they did change things – they changed things for the worse by voting for right wingers with idiotic neoliberal policies and if you don’t vote for something else they will continue to vote for people with idiotic ideas – just look at those that want to vote for Trump.
Without wanting to sound facetious, I think the first step is to lower your expectations. Don't be seduced by false hope that any candidate is going to make real change.It seems to me that Obama was a paradigm case. People thought he was going to change the States, if not the world. But that hasn't happened.He even won the Nobel Peace Prize shortly before sending in an extra 60,000 troops to Afghanistan. The next step is to protest in any way you can,publicly, on social media etc. Don't be a couch potato about it, raise awareness. Yes this is exactly what Carlin was saying, I don't know if you watched the video. But what real choice is there in this election, apart from the Greens who seem to be completely marginalised? And what difference would Trump make domestically, beyond further destabilising global peace and security?
[SIZE=11pt]Soul[/SIZE] [SIZE=11pt][/SIZE] [SIZE=11pt]But is what you protest for that is the question.[/SIZE] [SIZE=11pt]I’ve suggested many things over my years here – but a beginning would be to try and lessen the impact of wealth on the political system (both institutional and individual) but many people are opposed to what that might mean in terms of public money and the first amendment. [/SIZE] [SIZE=11pt][/SIZE] [SIZE=11pt]But people’s votes did bring about change they voted for politicians that supported neoliberal policies so the thing is they voted to make things worse. [/SIZE] [SIZE=11pt][/SIZE] To me Trump is still neoliberal in some ways (tax cuts, etc ) but not in others (opposing trade deals etc) I think what we are getting is a bastard form of neoliberalism, that could be called nationalist or put another way National Neoliberalism, you could say that mutation is similar to the way socialism was corrupted into National Socialism. What is needed is a inverted tea party movement but without neoliberalism as its heart but neo-socialism.
Yes I take your point Balbus. Change for the worse has happened. I suppose what I was arguing is that change for the better is a remote possibility at the moment by voting for current mainstream candidates. Trump is obviously a basket case, but by voting for Clinton you would simply endorse and legitimise the establishment. She would be able to strut the world stage believing herself to be a champion of Western democracy with a mandate to preach the Word to other countries, or invade them in the name of democracy, which seems to have been the trend over the last several decades in American foreign policy.
Some people wake up and some will not. The evidence is all there. What happened to Bernie Sanders along should be enough for people. Hillary gets a dozen people at a rally and needs all sorts of shady rule changes to "win". Sanders draws thousands and has more support then perhaps any candidate in history. The way he inspired people who had lost faith in the system will probably never been seen again in our lifetimes. Hillary always had feminists who only required her to be a women. But every other type of Democratic party American supported Sanders. Now we have the illusion of control of voting for her or the orange walking embarrassment. But really it's Hillary's time and it does not matter.
