This will be a short diary since I'm working on another one where I try to address these issues in a more substantive manner... Think about trends on a few areas concerning the well-being of the citizenry. Let's say economic security, income inequality, education, civil and constitutional rights, etc. Imagine you come up with some metrics to measure the trends on each one of those issues, and then you plot them in a chart, over time.
I think most of the readers will agree that the overall "citizens' well-being" trend line would be going down, while that of the 1% or the ruling class would show to be going up, sharply.
Now think of something else... At the very top of the "ruling class pyramid," you'll find the Koch Brothers, the Third Way (so-called left-leaning corporatist-funded group), ALEC, big Pharma, big Insurance, Wall Street, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, think tanks, and a handful of billionaires.
They are operating pretty much in a very disciplined, strategic, and sustained fashion with what seem to be very specific goals: constantly push for increased productivity while keeping wages down; the tearing down of what's left of the regulatory framework; the undermining of the public sector in favor of private profiteering; further lowering of taxes of corporations and wealthy individuals; the militarization of police agencies around the country... The agenda is actually pretty easy to identify and it is being carried out in a very systematic and disciplined manner. It is an agenda born our of a confluence of interests--the interests of the ruling class...
Right below the corporate state pecking order is the political establishment which is basically controlled by the corporate state, and hence are responsible for moving their agenda forward. An agenda that is anti-democratic, increasingly oppressive, and exploitative. An agenda that chips away at our economic security, at our civil and constitutional rights, seemingly unmolested, or undisturbed.
Do we, the 99%, likewise have a confluence of interests? It would seem so, right? As productivity goes up, our wages should go up; labor unions should be spreading like wild fire; public education should be supported and strengthened, not weakened and debased by so-called "charter schools"; the water we drink and the air we breath should be healthy (safe); the rich should pay their fair share of taxes; the regulatory framework should be strengthened, not weakened; the rule of law should be applied equally to all; the police should not be able to kill innocent people without meaningful consequences; the state and corporations should stop spying on us and building detailed dossiers that puts us all in danger.
Do we have a strategy to make sure we advance our agenda? Are we working on putting together a united front against the tiny ruling elite that has somehow been able to utterly dominate, both mentally and physically, almost an entire population? Are we smart enough to figure out exactly how the ruling elite exerts that control, and then come up with a strategy, dissent, to oppose, to reject that control?
Or are we being bombarded every day with bullshit scandal after scandal, diverting our attention (and rage, anger, emotions, hopes, and disappointments), from one news cycle to the next?
What's your take? Do you feel that all the progressive organizations out there are doing everything they can to both, continue advocating for their specific issues, and working together to form a powerful united front against the depravities of the corporate state?
Do you think that our energies, attention, and passions are being channeled in such a way as to strengthen social justice movement so we can one day bring about the real reforms we need, i.e., removing the deathly choke-hold the corporate state has on our democracy?