June 15, 2012
Adelson is the name corruption the game!
Sheldon Adelson. We all cringed whenever we learned that he gave Newt another 5 or 10 million dollars during primary season. Five or 10 million is a lot for us to think about--a pittance for the ultra rich. We knew Adelson's views on the Middle East. He wanted assurances that president Newt would bomb Iran as soon as he got to the White House! And he was not shy about it. Mitt will be as loyal a lap dog as Newt! Just watch. Adedlson is back and he brought cash with him. He has given $35 million to GOP super PACS already and it is only June! He promises to personally give $100 million to super PACS.
The NY Times says Obama is struggling to compete. No kidding! And our old pals David and Charles Koch have pledged to raise $400 million for issue groups aligned with their brand of ultra-conservatie nonsense.
Adelson is known for his hawkish views on American foreign policy--and Israeli politics. So, if you are worried that the boots on the ground will be your son's boots, call Adelson now. It is now obvious even to the Obama administration that there is simply too much money to overcome even with help from labor and all the rich Democrats! Sorry--back of the fundraising bus for you!
Democracy is not dying. It is dead. I mean it and so should you. Throughout the Walker campaign I heard "wishes not thoughts" that hard work and shoe leather could beat the Koch fortune. We relied on our delusions to get us through. We didn't make it.
So, what can we do? Step one, we spend more time in working groups at Fighting Bob Fest on September 15.
Second, we come up with a plan for post-democratic America. Third--well, your turn. But for heaven's sake don't tell us that money doesn't count! It does!
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We could begin by getting a real people's party going. Dems and Reps serve the people no longer. Both are too corrupt to salvage and neither worth saving. We also need to take back the country from the rich and powerful. Whose country is this anyway?
-Pietr Hiakkuu | Hurley, Wis | June 15, 2012
OK, you know how I feel about these BobFest etc. grievance committee meetings with breakout sessions and you refuse to print my posts in that regard. Maybe they hit too close to home. Fine, it is your site and if you want to keep whistling past the graveyard and think that one more meeting and grouse fest will cure anything go right ahead.
But, here is something to think about. Why, when it is plain that the Dems will go to the big money whenever they can too did all those protestors in Madison decide to stick with them and their proven track record of screwing up and losing elections?
Why, when progressives think that the society should operate from the bottom up, do they continually put so much mental, emotional, and physical energy into the most corrupted top of the ticket office seekers?
If big money is the problem then it is also true that the spenders are able to concentrate their fire on only a few targets. There are 99 assembly seats up for election this fall. Does the ground game work better there than in an ill-advised recall? All too often the WisDems cherry pick those races and decide who they will "help" and who they won't. That has worked well for them huh?
Are there districts where a third party could toss the eletion into a near three way vote split? It is a lot easier to get 34% of the vote than 50%. It is still a win if you do that in a three way.
Why, oh why, did no third progressive party form out of all that mess in Madison?
Just asking.
-Griebnotz Doerkpfester | (Really Glad) I Escaped, WI. | June 15, 2012
Ed, you wrote "Democracy is not dying. It is dead." I have felt that way for many years. But I would like to add a few words.
This country has seen democracy "killed" before. There is a kind of inevitability that when the "1%" finally achieve their seizure of all wealth and power they will leave behind a nation of serfs who will find things *so* bad and that they will begin to rise up and they will rise up outside the "system" of wealth-power that has claimed the United States.
We already see this in the Occupy movement (something little mentioned here at Fighting Bob) and as one of their more recent website posts put it "the rumors of our demise have been greatly exaggerated." In fact, the seizure of all wealth and power is not just a national issue, it is a world wide phenomena and Occupy and similar movements are spreading and growing in spite of the total blackout by the corporate media. Unregulated capitalism is reaching its' apex and thus begins the counter swing.
The movement has and will continue to move to the streets and non-violent civil disobedience will be the tool. We will be beaten, pepper sprayed, clubbed and jailed but a nation of serfs will not "go quietly" into any "good night." As Bob Marley put it, "a hungry man is an angry man." So too is a family living from their car or trying to survive a Wisconsin winter in tents. So too are a nation who cannot receive medical care and sicken and die without help.
Knowing all this, it would be easier if I was 20 and not nearing 60, but I and others will not lay down while our homes are seized, families destroyed and people sicken and die outside hospital emergency rooms.
Democracy may very will be dead...for now. But the story isn't over.
-Gone Underground | Rural, WI | June 15, 2012
Remember that the military and police are here to serve the pleasure of the powerful, the wealthy, those who really control the country. Walker's not including cops in his draconian cuts was not by accident.
The ones with the guns usually win the battle.
-Franz Fripplfrappl | madison | June 15, 2012
Years ago, both sides of my family, French socialists, moved to Milwaukee because of the very honest government under the Hoan to Ziedler administrations. What happened to that movement and how did it do so well for so long? Wish I had not been so young that I didn't talk more to my now deceased elders and find out.
-JB Bauer | Shorewood, WI | June 15, 2012
I find the strategy outlined by Griebnotz Doerkpfester makes a great deal of sense. Running as third party candidates (Green, I hope) we should run for every office from the ground up that we can. Town board supervisors, board members of electric cooperatives, Wisconsin assembly, every race, every locality, every board we can. If we have to make up neighborhood associations and advisory boards, so be it. But, we can't rely just on the electoral process. The traditional pillars of liberalism are: universities & colleges, churches, the press, labor, popular culture and the Democratic party. Unfortunately, all six have been co-opted by the 1%. The Democratic party is not unique in that regard. These are all viable avenues down which to march in our journey toward social justice. It won't be a quick effort. It will span generations. It is important to educate children about the struggle. Do you think that in our great grandparents' times union families who gathered at the dinner table shielded their sons and daughters from their invective-filled conversations about oppression? Hardly! Do you think our enemies won't stoop to seducing our children to their point of view? Look at the butchery-filled video games that kids love to play. Pay attention to the propaganda sandwiched into and around every second of television they watch. We must gird our loins for the battle, and get it on. No less will do. Put up signs in your yards, and call the press if there is vandalism, and, later, the police. Write letters to the editor. Start a low power FM radio station; anybody can do it. Home school your children. If you are lucky enough to have a community public radio station like WOJB or WORT, be a volunteer. This sure as hell isn't just about electoral politics. It is an all-out assault on us, so we must replicate it: duration, depth, inventiveness, passion, all of it. We will add one unbeatable quality to that equation. Humor. Mock the crap out of the 1%. As Bruce Springsteen put it, "Dethrone the dictaphone. Hit 'em in the funny bone. That's where they expect it the least."
-James Richard Bailey | Cable, Wisconsin | June 16, 2012
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