- Joined
- Apr 22, 2019
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Plutocrats have been successfully waging war on America a very long time, and especially winning since Reagan, basically controlling all of the Republican politicians and a large party of the Democrats, easily holding a majority which is all that matters.
As I look in history about when American democracy has 'functioned as intended', it's rare. We had the progressive movement circa 1900, women's suffrage, prohibition for and against, labor rights, the last successful popular uprising was the environmental movement when the EPA and endangered species acts were passed, and then the last was the unsuccessful 'no nukes' movement.
It seemed that as our government became owned by the plutocrats, as our media became owned by a handful of mega corporations, that it was harder and harder for the public to organize a big movement. The main one we saw was the plutocrat-backed Tea Party movement. Whoop de doo.
A smaller effort came with the Occupy movement, that seemed to prove the point how unable the public was to organize and take charge of an issue.
And then, suddenly, we have this civil rights police abuse movement that came out of nowhere, and seems to be effectively influencing the country. Wow. I'm impressed. I don't know what role the virus and economic crash might have played in making protest easier, but either way, it's a real populist movement it seems. And it's good to see.
Now, if only we could do better at movements around plutocracy and healthcare. But we just showed we can't right now, or Bernie would have won. But I'm glad to see the public organizing, not something the plutocrats or media are pushing for their own benefit. It's still way too hard, there are still too many obstacles, but I'll admit it's more than I thought was likely to happen.
As I look in history about when American democracy has 'functioned as intended', it's rare. We had the progressive movement circa 1900, women's suffrage, prohibition for and against, labor rights, the last successful popular uprising was the environmental movement when the EPA and endangered species acts were passed, and then the last was the unsuccessful 'no nukes' movement.
It seemed that as our government became owned by the plutocrats, as our media became owned by a handful of mega corporations, that it was harder and harder for the public to organize a big movement. The main one we saw was the plutocrat-backed Tea Party movement. Whoop de doo.
A smaller effort came with the Occupy movement, that seemed to prove the point how unable the public was to organize and take charge of an issue.
And then, suddenly, we have this civil rights police abuse movement that came out of nowhere, and seems to be effectively influencing the country. Wow. I'm impressed. I don't know what role the virus and economic crash might have played in making protest easier, but either way, it's a real populist movement it seems. And it's good to see.
Now, if only we could do better at movements around plutocracy and healthcare. But we just showed we can't right now, or Bernie would have won. But I'm glad to see the public organizing, not something the plutocrats or media are pushing for their own benefit. It's still way too hard, there are still too many obstacles, but I'll admit it's more than I thought was likely to happen.