Demeter

I no longer know what this means because it has been so distorted by corporate input into legislating and legislation. Voters are regularly ignored even when they vote for legislators who claim to support certain policies. A perfect example is my Congressman who as a Democrat did not vote for the Healthcare Bill or the TARP. This is not an insignificant veering from the party platform nor is it the only time he hasn't supported party positions. I don't expect straight party votes but his are ridiculous. What the opposition offers is even worse on many other issues of economic importance! I am fuming in a way that makes Tea Partiers look whimpy but I have nowhere to go!

We no longer talk about actual problems in concrete details, and one party is simply acting like a three-year old: my way or no way! The media treat all information as if it were true without making any attempt to verify it or challenge it. People do not understand how much of our Congress and our laws are pushed and manipulated by corporations. We are in the process of becoming a Corporate Oligarchy.

The public now accepts emotional talk as if it had the force of "Reality." If the economics of this nation hadn't been destroyed by 25 or 30 years of foolhardy economic philosophy, the Tea Party would be getting nowhere. People are activated by disappointment and frustration-driven anger. Mostly they don't have facts and they don't understand what is happening to them; they are just angry.

More talk that is really specific not bromides and baloney. When Carly Fiorina was asked yesterday which "radical" environmental groups her opponent was supporting she couldn't name one! This is exactly the kind of "throw out an accusation" that is never verified, never forced to become specific. I want a real discussion not the kind of trading of vague positions that you get on the Sunday morning encounters. I want numbers and facts not ambiguous sound bites. I want BS revealed instead of my having to go to Politifact to find out. I want people to understand that the increase in productivity that they created over the 90s went primarily into corporate profits and into corporate CEO's (and others') pockets. It wasn't shared by working people.

Keep your interviewees feet to the fire. I want to know specifically what they are offering -- no more vacuous, ambiguous plans. I am tired of these politicians pointing out the weakness in the other guy's argument but offering nothing that is any better -- just more emotional nonsense that feeds anger.