Remember the tea party before we learned of the Koch bros involvement? We asked questions and learned the truth. Something that strikes me as odd, we haven't really asked about the occupy movement. We're all angry at the top 1%, we're all disgusted in how they've created this mess and refuse to help clean it up.
The last time we acted with emotion without asking didn't bode well. We acted under fear. The first time in 2001 with the patriot act, which eroded our rights. The second time we were concerned about weapons of mass destruction and the terrorist threat in Iraq. The third time, we handed Hank Paulson a blank check with zero oversight.
My point is, that every time we act from emotion it's a recipe for disaster.
Remember the tea party before we learned of the Koch bros involvement? We asked questions and learned the truth. Something that strikes me as odd, we haven't really asked about the occupy movement. We're all angry at the top 1%, we're all disgusted in how they've created this mess and refuse to help clean it up.
The last time we acted with emotion without asking didn't bode well. We acted under fear. The first time in 2001 with the patriot act, which eroded our rights. The second time we were concerned about weapons of mass destruction and the terrorist threat in Iraq. The third time, we handed Hank Paulson a blank check with zero oversight.
My point is, that every time we act from emotion it's a recipe for disaster.
Which is why the occupy movement concerns me. I know this is the part when I'm called a corporate puppet and yada yada, who am I getting paid by, yada yada, HEAR ME OUT.
I don't dislike them, I'm jaded. I remember Nader in 2000, and I remember his funding by the RNC in 2004. Two distinct opportunities to usher in real leadership, squandered. I remember how a lack of voting en mass, enabled the election to be stolen, and robbed our country of a true leader, Al Gore. Al Gore, who would have protected us on Sept 11th, and
enabled us to fight the real war, the war against climate change and the
corporate cronies who endorse profit over our environment. Then I remember the election in 2004 in which we squandered an opportunity to elect Kerry. Kerry who not only understood we were duped into going into Iraq, but who would have pulled us out of the useless conflicts a lot sooner. Also hindering the economic crisis we saw in 2008. Those opportunities were squandered due to the self professed, "real" progressives. Those real progressives who allowed their emotions to supersede the lessons of history and the basic fact. They didn't quite remember that sitting out a vote(as they did in 2004) does little more than hand the election over to the opposition. Hand over our country to the very people who enabled the current mess we have today. The "real" progressives are just as much to blame as the misinformed who voted for Bush, TWICE, and now support the tea party. Both the tea party, and those "real" progressives looked before the leaped. Looked without remembering, understanding, and embracing the full history, and understanding where the money came from.
We have a real president now, and I'm not willing to see him voted out of office due to the oldest trick in the Rovian playbook protest and don't vote. We saw the manifestation of that with Cantor and the congress we have now. President Obama has yet to have the opportunity to implement his ideas due to the gigantic messes left in the wake of he who should have to pay/Bush. The good people at the Randi Rhodes Message Board put together a list of several pages of President Obama's accomplishments and then pinned it here, Even with his cleaning, he is perceived as not doing enough. Again, I don't want real leadership squandered due to the shortsightedness, impatience, and emotions that are possibly being exploited due to one organization. An organization who has yet to state where they stand with regards to voting and voting rights.
Considering our recent history, I have several pointed questions. Will they encourage people to sit out the vote? Will they encourage people to vote? Where was this outrage when Hank Paulson paid the banks bills? This protest comes at the heels of WI, How do we know that the Koch brothers pegged a demographic and aren't secretly funding this? Where's the money trail? Will one the end results be an erosion of our right to peacefully assemble?
So call me crazy, (it wouldn't be the first time ). Label me a sympathizer of the corporate masters. It won't shut me up about it, it doesn't mean I'm not a liberal, it just makes me a victim of memory, and observation.
I remember what happened in the 2000 election and the months leading up to it.
I remember that we gave up protesting for a short time after Sept 11th, the injustice that was Bush taking office.I remember the Bush years and all we went through and are
still having to go through due to their little land mines.
I'm not willing to go back to that, we can't afford it in any way. I'm jaded and I'm skeptical because I truly care, I'm allowed, and given our recent history of acting upon the impulse of emotion, I have more than sufficient evidence to justify my concern. I just want everyone to look before they leap.I understand, this will anger a lot of people reading ts. To that I say welcome to my world. I've watched this voice prevail, and enable the wrong people to attain power for close to 10 years now, and I hope this gives you the opportunity to survey the damage done in 2000, 2004, and again in 2010. For once, look past your anger and ask questions please. I have to live here too.
The bright side is that this movement has Cantor"wont'" worried. Always fun. The bad news is he takes the opportunity to blame the mob on our President. Again I'll ask, will the occupy movement allow their protests to be used by that ilk for political gain? They used this many times, think before you jump.
Thu Oct 13, 2011 at 3:48 PM PT: please sign these petitions as Bloomberg is attempting to evict the protestors!
http://act.boldprogressives.org/...
and the moveon petition:
http://www.civic.moveon.org/...
more to come on what i've researched. for now OWS needs to stay and continue our fight!