I’m posting this piece, not because I agree with the author’s prescription for change, but because it illustrates the frustration so widely spread these days. Organizing “radical acts of civil disobedience to disrupt our current political system” will bring about repression, not change. Lots of us voted for change in 2004, 2006, 2008, and last month. We didn’t get the change we wanted; in fact, we might find ourselves in even more serious trouble, should the Republicans make good on their threat to shut down the government in February. Personally, I don’t see how a peaceful revolution can occur – we as a people are so at each other’s throats, pointing fingers and screaming at each other that the oligarchy just sits back, laughs and says, “buy, buy, buy!” Therein lies the answer to our difficulties. Don’t buy any more than you need and certainly don’t buy from Corporate America. Every dollar that you give to them just compounds the problem. Instead, barter, participate in the underground economy, get food from local farms if possible and shun Corporate America whenever possible. Start building a new economy, an economy that provides for us, not for them. I’ll post more articles in the near future providing examples to emulate. <\/p>\n
The following article appeared on the Online Journal<\/a> on October 21, 2010.<\/p>\n By Carmen Yarrusso<\/p>\n \u201cThose who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable<\/em>.\u201d –John F. Kennedy<\/p>\n In God-blest America, the land of the free, our founding fathers\u2019 sacred idea of a government \u201cof the people, by the people, for the people\u201d has become but a cruel joke — along with that \u201cgodamned piece of paper\u201d we call our Constitution.<\/p>\n Our political system is openly rigged against the best interests of the American people. A massive market mechanism is securely entrenched in our political system where political influence is openly bought and sold. 10s of thousands of highly-paid middlemen called \u201clobbyists\u201d facilitate the legal transfer of millions between moneyed special interests and our so-called \u201crepresentatives\u201d in Congress.<\/p>\n This very lucrative business of buying and selling political influence (which wouldn\u2019t be very lucrative if it didn\u2019t produce very lucrative results) has become the driving engine of our government. Our so-called \u201crepresentatives\u201d in Congress vie for millions in legal bribes in return for delivering billions of our tax dollars to moneyed special interests. It\u2019s pure folly to think our current political system could possibly look out for the best interests of the American people.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Just ponder what our government has done to us (not for us) in the last 10 years alone. It\u2019s utterly mind boggling. The best interests of the American people have been sacrificed to moneyed special interests time and time again. But that\u2019s exactly how our current political system is designed to work.<\/p>\n The banking industries paid millions in bribes for a legal license to steal billions from the American people. When greed got them in trouble, our so-called \u201crepresentatives\u201d gave them billions more of our money. But that\u2019s exactly how our current political system is designed to work.<\/p>\n After the health insurance industry paid its bribes, our so-called \u201crepresentatives\u201d refused to even consider single-payer (despite its proven track record of providing cheaper, superior health care, and providing it to all citizens). Instead, millions of Americans will continue to suffer (or go bankrupt or die) for lack of health insurance. If a policy would significantly reduce the profits of moneyed special interests, it\u2019s simply designated \u201coff the table\u201d by our so-called \u201crepresentatives.\u201d But that\u2019s exactly how our current political system is designed to work.<\/p>\n In the last 10 years, our so-called \u201crepresentatives\u201d shared nearly a billion in bribes from the \u201cdefense\u201d industry. In return, they doubled our defense budget to $700 billion (equal to all other countries combined!) and lied us into unnecessary, endless, expanding wars that will ultimately cost us trillions (aside from the extreme human costs).<\/p>\n Our so-called \u201crepresentatives\u201d are cutting social spending just when the American people need it most. Yet they continue to spend hundreds of billions on weapons of mass destruction to \u201cprotect us\u201d from our enemies. But most of our \u201cenemies\u201d are purposely created by our government\u2019s blatantly unjust foreign policies (that openly support regimes that oppress millions of human beings) and by our violent military occupations of their homelands. Without a perpetual supply of \u201cenemies,\u201d \u201cdefense\u201d industry profits would plummet.<\/p>\n If that weren\u2019t enough, our so-called \u201crepresentatives\u201d have worked hard to keep America the number one weapons merchant on earth. Our so-called \u201crepresentatives\u201d continue to support the sale of billions in weapons to oppressive regimes around the world, which creates still more \u201cenemies,\u201d which creates more special interests profits, etc. But that\u2019s exactly how our current political system is designed to work.<\/p>\n All these outrageous government actions are exactly what we should expect from a government openly for sale to the highest bidder. Moneyed special interests paid for these outrageous government actions, and they got what they paid for. We, the people, got screwed.<\/p>\n We, the people, are just government-controlled fodder for moneyed special interests. But that\u2019s exactly how our current political system is designed to work.<\/p>\n Our current political system guarantees our so-called \u201crepresentatives\u201d will continue to pass and sustain legislation that transfers billions of our hard-earned tax dollars to moneyed special interests. Why \u201cguarantees\u201d? Because members of Congress who oppose moneyed special interests are promptly punished, ostracized, or replaced (if their offense is great enough). For example, dare to oppose the AIPAC and your days in Congress are numbered.<\/p>\n Further, our current political system guarantees both moneyed special interests and our so-called \u201crepresentatives\u201d must participate in this influence-peddling scam against the American people (because they\u2019d be stupid not to). Big corporations would be at a competitive disadvantage (and would cheat their shareholders) if they refused to buy political influence. Likewise, our so-called \u201crepresentatives\u201d would be at a competitive disadvantage getting elected or staying in office if they refused to sell political influence. But that\u2019s exactly how our current political system is designed to work.<\/p>\n The upcoming midterm elections are merely melodrama for the masses. Our \u201cchoices\u201d have all been pre-chosen for us by moneyed special interests pumping millions into the process. Besides, whoever wins will be forced to play by established political rules that guarantee moneyed special interests will always come ahead of the American people\u2019s best interests.<\/p>\n For weeks before the elections, the lackey mainstream media (using colorful pundits) entertain us with political melodrama. They arouse us by pitting one segment of the American people against another. They make millions bombarding us with empty, emotional, 30-second TV ads that are little more than name-calling or patriotic platitudes.<\/p>\n Congressional elections are sheep fighting among themselves for their favorite pre-chosen wolves. Congressional elections merely determine which segment of the America people gets screwed by which moneyed special interests group. But that\u2019s exactly how our current political system is designed to work.<\/p>\n Trying to reform our current political system using that very same corrupt system is just futile folly. It\u2019s like trying to fix your broken arms using your broken arms. Our current political system is designed to be reform proof. It has well-established mechanisms to protect and maintain the status quo. That\u2019s why \u201ccampaign finance reform\u201d and all other such efforts to \u201creform\u201d our current political system from within are doomed to either fail outright or be so watered-down as to be useless.<\/p>\n rev-o-lu-tion Congressional elections are just rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic. We can\u2019t vote our government back to us. A peaceful, people\u2019s revolution is the only way we can take back our government. The multibillion-dollar business of buying and selling political influence (currently the driving engine of our government) must be overthrown, repudiated and thoroughly replaced if democracy is to survive in America.<\/p>\n This massive influence-peddling scam must become our number one political issue because it underlies and thus greatly affects all other issues. If we don\u2019t get big money out of our politics, our democracy and our well-being will continue to decline and surely we\u2019ll take the rest of the world down with us.<\/p>\n We can\u2019t afford to sit by like sheep meekly waiting for slaughter. We must find ways to hinder and harass the corporate state at every turn. Nothing will change unless we, the people, begin to organize radical acts of civil disobedience to disrupt our current political system, upping the ante until this massive influence-peddling scam is thoroughly exposed and eliminated.<\/p>\n We, the people, must take back our government by peaceful revolution because it will never be given back voluntarily.<\/p>\n Carmen Yarrusso lives on a river in a small town in New Hampshire. He often writes about uncomfortable truths. <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I’m posting this piece, not because I agree with the author’s prescription for change, but because it illustrates the frustration so widely spread these days. Organizing “radical acts of civil disobedience to disrupt our current political system” will bring about …<\/span> Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34,10],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/iomaire.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2140"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/iomaire.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/iomaire.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iomaire.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iomaire.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2140"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/iomaire.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2140\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2141,"href":"https:\/\/iomaire.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2140\/revisions\/2141"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/iomaire.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2140"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iomaire.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2140"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iomaire.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2140"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Why a Peaceful, People\u2019s Revolution is the Only Way to Take Back Our Government<\/h4>\n
Looking Back 10 Years<\/h4>\n
Real Change is Impossible Under Our Current Political System<\/h4>\n
The Catch-22 of Taking Back Our Government<\/h4>\n
\n\u2013noun
\n1. an overthrow or repudiation and the thorough replacement of an established government or political system by the people governed.<\/p>\n