Where's My Democracy, Dude?

BT rails against the Stupidity of Americans in continuously reelecting corrupt congressmen who work (directly or indirectly) for the wealthy elite and/or international corporations.

We've had a pretty good run here in the U.S. in my life-time.  (I was born at the leading edge of the first wave of the post-war baby boom.)   Since Reagan, it's been slipping away.  This is the motivation for my economics, Deep Stupid, and Republican = Wrong posts.  I'm trying to rattle the pots and pans (as the late Molly Ivins urged) and maybe help the scales fall of the eyes of one or two people who might stumble across this blog.

Here is my comment on BT's post.

When you have an aggregate of over 300 million, you're talking about human nature. If Americans are stupid, it's because humans are stupid.

But there's a lot more to it than that. There is a powerful and very well funded right wing talk machine that has enormous influence over the ignorant and the prejudiced, as well as the merely uninformed, who get duped by their potent misinformation campaign.

The wealthy elite, at all times and places, work hard to keep their advantage - and that comes at the expense of all the rest of us. Same as it ever was.

These days, most people are too damned busy dealing with the problems of their own life to be able to get a good handle on politics and economics as well. Plus, regressives have succeeded in diluting education so that people don't understand civics. And many don't have a good grasp of rational thought processes.

As I think about what is slipping away, it occurs to me that the best time and place to have been alive - maybe ever, was the post WWII U.S. And, in a strange way, we owe a great deal of what we've had to the Great Depression. No GD -- no New Deal, no unemployment compensation, no Social Security, no strong union movement; i.e, no strong middle class.

And this is what we are losing, because it is what the rich and their minions are taking away. Historically, the life time of a democracy is about 200 years. Look where we are.

Good bye, America. It was good while it lasted.

If Obama is progressive at all, it is in a very tepid way.  Repugs are likely to make gains in both houses this next mid-term election, stifling any chance for Obama to make any headway with any progressive agenda.  I think a double dip into deep recession is now inevitable, and it could well be Great Depression II.

The first time it lead to progressive populism in the U.S. but regressive, nationalistic populism in Germany.  My read of the national mood is that now, moving down the fascist path will be very easy.  And the rest of the world is likely going that way as well.

We are truly, seriously screwed.