If you have something to say...
Say it on the Huffington Post
If you have something to say...
Say it on the Huffington Post
No matter what's going on in the world, the right can find a cultural issue that will get the left to fight itself, to atomize into little groups, and to give voice to factions that frighten Americans on the sidelines -- often, the left-out white middle and working class -- and the country winds up the worse for it.
Corporations the world over are trying to get to the bottom of disrespectful protests, blogs and videos that make a mockery of the profit they hold so dear.
You can't be president of the United States if you don't want to be the president of everyone, but that's what Republican candidate Mitt Romney said in a remarkably arrogant speech to a closed-door high-donor fundraiser -- all captured on video.
How in the world are we supposed to feel about a presidential candidate who is a real "Mr. One Percent" and who explicitly only desires representing no more than 53 percent of us?
People voting for Romney don't even like him, they just dislike Obama. Of those who would vote for Romney in an April 2012 poll, 63 percent were voting against Obama and only 35 percent were voting for Romney.
Both the Occupiers and the Tea Partiers changed the American political conversation in a large way. Still, it cannot be denied that the Tea Party has moved closer to actually changing the American political system and its laws than the Occupiers have managed.
While you still hear noises about "corrupt union bosses," what people complain about today it that labor unions are "elitist." Shocking as it may be, America's working people actually use the E-word when referring to other working people.
The real issue that divides the country right now is not the precise tax rate but whether we as a people share a common fate or not.
Mitt Romney epitomizes the unfairness of the American economy in this new Gilded Age. For that same reason, Romney is the quintessence of an economic approach shown to be anti-growth and anti-jobs. The president needs to tell this to the American people.
May Day, the Occupy movement and the 99 percent narrative have raised the voices of low-wage workers in this city who have joined together under the banner "Organize, Legalize, and Unionize."
Without the restoration of middle class jobs for Americans, the lights will not go back on and support for education will continue to fade.
Not only do mainstream outlets simply disregard or grossly simplify important events and ideas in the Occupy Wall Street movement, but they also neglect to mention the publication of important books that clarify, criticize, buttress, and provide a holistic view of the movement.
The Republic based on the people's interests having sway through an unpolluted representative democracy is gone. Money and government are nearly one. The interests of the earth and our people -- the 99% -- are virtually unrepresented.
The Occupy movement has been in hibernation mode for several months, but with warmer weather on the horizon, odds are it will become a fixture in every major city in America during this election year.
In a true democracy, our officials are elected by and held accountable to us, the citizen, the highest office in the land. By focusing on the issues that unite instead of divide, and organizing with other citizens who meet on common ground, we can reject the status quo and its servants.
In a Washington full of revolving-door sellouts who effortlessly glide between special-interest sinecures and government jobs earning personal fortunes on the payroll of the 1 percent, Elizabeth Warren will never sell her public conscience for private wealth.
