Hey, United States! Where Are You Going?
Those of us concerned about the sustainability of our civilization cannot ignore, even if we’d like to, the political rancor right now to go around in the U.S. Thus, I thought readers would in interested in this riveting debate between journalist, activist, and author Chris Hedges (pictured) and political commentator and professor Robert Reich. This is seriously good stuff for people trying to make sense of where our nation is headed.
Hedges is brilliant, and I agree with essentially everything he says—except for his horrifically impractical solution (i.e., voting for a third party candidate in this coming election). Please take a moment and check this out.
Ironically, this comes on the same day as the revelation that, thanks to the U.S. Supreme Court decision “Citizens United,” huge amounts of money from foreign states is pouring in to corrupt our democracy even further.
Mr. Hedges asserts that “…corporate power has seized all of the levers of control.”. Perhaps, but only because the voters have permitted corporations to do so.
It has been established that publicity, which can be bought with money, greatly influences the outcome of elections. So do the images projected by candidates. If people would not influenced by the endless repetition bought with money and were not influenced by personality but rather were influenced by competence and fairness, the amount spent on political campaigns would not matter one iota.
Of course politicians will take advantage of the irrational behavior of the voters; doing so is the way to win elections.
Craig,
You’re going to really hate my observation, but here goes:
Here are two old leftist irrelevancies, rabbiting on about issues no one except themselves gives a damn about!
If a guy like Donald Trump can easily outclass the better funded candidates, and come close to matching hugely better funded candidates, it goes to show how little funding means if no-one’s listening !
The American people don’t give a damn about politicians whining about how unfair the system is, they want to know what their leaders are going to do about real issues.
Sure Trumps a chump, but that doesn’t mean anyone’s too happy about HC. The best you can say, is she’s the best of a bad bunch!
The truth is that US corporate power is at it’s lowest ebb, Everywhere US corporations are in full retreat (with a few exceptions. The US oil industry is reeling from low prices and low profits, US national debt is soaring. Meanwhile US tax revenues are plummeting. This is not a time to be corporation bashing ! (Well not unless your European or Asian)
The only guy talking about the real issues has no idea how to solve them, while Bernie Saunders just has a complicated way of making things worse.
Hilary Clinton faces a herculean task to focus on the main issues, while her opponents and supporters alike, keep distracting her with all kinds of irrelevancies.
America has been given a tremendous economic reprieve with an unexpected energy boom. The US must not fritter this opportunity away. no more idealistic adventures ! It’s time for the US to buckle down to hard work and rebuild the US economy. The US needs debt reduction, social and economic reform, and recapitalizing US industry. It could be America’s last change to deliver on it’s promise.
It needs all citizens and institutions to participate in producing the economic conditions necessary to create long term reform and restoration.
No more talkfests ! No more endless infighting, stop arguing about how to cut up the cake, just concentrate on making the cake bigger!
(see, I told you you’d hate my observation :).
LOL. Sorry to break the news, but I don’t hate your observation. 🙂
On PBS, Charlie Rose just interviewed a guest who expects Trump to be the next president. I hope that he is wrong.