Today the New York Times had a great opinion piece about Glen Beck. And I mean that it looked at the rage of the recent demonstrations in Washington, not from a Right Wing / Left Wing, but as the manifestation of anger about things not being stacked against the little guy in this country.
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So I thought, there is something to this line of reasoning.
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After all, hadn't I felt that same anger during the Bush Administration? If the Left had a Glen Beck or Rush Limbaugh that rallied all of us, wouldn't I have marched on Washington? The answer is yes I would have. But there is no Left version of Rush Limbaugh. We are either too honest or too wishy-washy. But we were freakin' mad.
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And the difference between this administration and W Bush's is, quite honestly, tiny in the scope of things. We are pulling out of Iraq on a compromise of the Bush and Obama time frames. We are doubling downing in Afghanistan. And big business still own the government.
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The media, perhaps misunderstanding this originally, as jumped -rather too quickly - on the new "accepted knowledge" that populism on the right (an echo of earlier times) will flame out.
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I gotta say, the media's most amazing accomplishment has been to keep the populism on the right and the populism on the left at odds. We both feel the government is intruding too far into the people's affairs. That the deck is stacked against us. But the fine dance of having those who actually are in power blame the opposite idiolgical side is amazing to step back and watch - in order, no doubt, to avoid the true arbiters of power in this country, corporations that pour untold billions into our elected leaders' coffers.
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Gays or illegal aliens aren't keeping the Republicans from fulfilling their desires. Republicans were controlled the House, the Senate and the Presidency and spending, government intervention and government control (wiretapping, detaining etc.) went up!
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Just as conservatives and religious nuts aren't keeping Democrats from fulfilling our desires. We have a Democratic House, Senate, President and NOTHING has changed. Not One Thing.
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At some point maybe the people will decide to run this country again. But I can't see it happening within the current system of unbridled corporate money. Maybe we could get a few congressional elections or even a President - but the grease of the country is built on corporate money now.
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I suppose that this is their game and we just must learn toplay the best we can. It would be like being born in a Kingdom in the 1800s. It does no good to protest the King, you have to succeed within the system.
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The happiest people I know are people that don't care. I think they are the smart ones.