Dear Friend & Reader:
Forgive me in advance for entitling myself to this rant. I am still trying to wrap myself around what’s unfolding before our eyes.
A bit of history: I’ve been blogging in the progressive (aka “liberal”) blogosphere since 2003 for political campaigns and progressive advocacy sites, all of which led me right here and our community. When I started blogging, there were clear lines of political demarcation: Democrats and Republicans.
Over the course of the decade, lines evolved, branching into further-left progressive Democrats like Howard Dean and far right neoconservative Republicans like Dick Cheney. Many people being uncomfortable with the political extremes, and trying to find the niche between, centrist Blue Dog Democrats such as Jim Webb of Virginia began to win elections. The Blue Dogs — Democrats from states with a large conservative constituency — were on par with traditionally moderate Republicans like Arlen Specter (who is now a Democrat). They’re socially progressive, fiscally conservative, and strong on defense. Blue Dog Democrats scored victories to make it into Congress while Bush was in his final two years in office, a signal the country was itching for change.
The progressive blogosphere has been the voting bloc leaning leftward for political change the past ten years. Active and aggressive. Working to get Democrats–liberals and blue dogs alike into Congress to combat the Republican bloc equally as aggressive, that voted with discipline down party lines. Progressives chipped away at the bloc like Papillon from his cage on Devil’s Island. By and large, with the help of Republicans getting caught hitting on Congressional pages and soliciting sex in airport bathrooms and an increasingly unpopular President, Mr. Bush, we came to answer the solid Republican block with the internet as our battering ram. As we had hoped, we built a Democratic majority in Congress and the Senate and a Democrat in the White House. The progressives won. Or so we thought.
Democrats and Republicans play two different games when it comes to power in Washington, D.C. Democrats are said to know how to govern, while Republicans know how to campaign. Democrats play nice after they win. Republicans take more power and they don’t care. Democrats try to be more like Republicans as they govern, or they move to the center. Republicans turn even more into themselves and do what they want. Republicans believe, as in the NFL, that on playing defense, even if you’re losing you act like you’re winning with each little play, and eventually you will win. On the other hand, instead of playing football, Democrats play bridge.
Instead of using their majority, Democrats, including the President, have been placating the minority–the democratic Blue Dogs and the Republicans. Given how much importance was placed on Martha Coakley’s Senate campaign in Massachusetts and the yearning for a filibuster-proof Senate majority for the Democrats, they wanted absolute cover of a 20-vote cushion to protect them. That didn’t happen.
59 votes out of 100 in the Senate is still a majority, but with the way the Democrats still fear them, and possible repercussions at home, the Republicans might as well be the majority. And blue dog Democrats vote with them, still shaking off the ghost of Ronald Reagan branding the Democrats as tax-and-spend liberals. Even with the decade of Republican excess, corruption and treasury-draining as the majority under Clinton and Bush, the Republicans know it and take advantage of it, particularly with mid-term elections in coming in 10 months. They’re still playing football.
The Republican party has been successful in forestalling the passage of the health care bill and eroding the base of support the President enjoyed a year ago. But then again, so have the progressives. Up until the unfolding of the Massachusetts Senate drama, the push for the public option and the hard line drawn in the sand by blue dog democrats who fear the wrath of their conservative constituents in their states, made for an unlikely alliance between progressives and the Tea Baggers.
Jane Hamsher, a left-wing progressive and founder of the website Firedoglake, and Grover Norquist, Ronald Reagan’s fiscal policy advisor (the guy who wanted government to be small enough to drown in a bathtub) formed a partnership to kill the health care bill. Both want the current health care bill scrapped, though for entirely different reasons. Jane wanted it better. Grover just wanted it gone.
Issues-wise, the lines between progressive and conservative, Democrat and Republican, blue Dog and liberal are blurred. Now traditional enemies have formed alliances uniting a large disgruntled portion of the country. A magnet for people who are angry and fed up. After ten years of democracy and now an economy gone haywire, there is no faith in democracy or government, and from the looks of things the White House and Congress, particularly the Senate, are out of touch and aren’t doing enough, fast enough. The foot dragging and tone deafness while the house is burning is pissing everyone off. It was progressive Democrats who stayed home in Massachusetts on election day last Tuesday and cost Coakley key votes and a win.
The square of Saturn and Pluto in cardinal signs is forcing us to look at that which we need to strip away, digging deeper for answers to questions we never thought we needed or wanted to ask. Pluto in Capricorn is about governments and corporations. Saturn in Libra is about fairness and justice. We need to wake this boat of a country and its leaders up. Its no longer 1980, 1995 or 2000. Its 2010. The large majority of the country wants a public option and/or affordable health care. The large majority of the country wants jobs back. We know the country’s been fucked over and we need change to accelerate.
We’re waking from a fever dream of being lied to by government so long that we tuned out to sleep. So now we’re waking up. Everyone is yelling. I am yelling. After Martha Coakley’s loss Tuesday, what the fuck is it going to take to get the message that we look to the government to lead when we’re in trouble? When the government doesn’t get the message, we end up fighting back. How much harder do we have to yell?
So what if Martha lost? Our people need our leadership to be better than the pettiness, foot-dragging, sense of entitlement and petty viciousness pervading current national politics. There’s not enough force majeur making an earthquake against the corporations who stranglehold this Congress and the nation’s capital. We’re getting roughed up in this football game. And we’re reacting. We need some true fearlessness out of Washington and a clear game plan, or else a whole lot of others are going to continue to react, and that won’t be pretty. We’re itching for a change that has to be more than a promise.
Yours and truly,
Fe Bongolan
San Francisco
art and animals:
See the threads below on the Massachusetts Special Election. The one called Mr. Handsome and the Mystical Longing.
Look for Len and Eric’s exchange on the chart in the comments. Quite interesting.
Hi Fe,
I just wrote to Bob Herbert of The New York Times and am about to write to Arianna Huffington. Arianna has been suggesting that people move their money to small local banks. Bob wrote another moving op-ed piece in today’s Times. There are prominent members of the press who are already writing in a similar vein but have not taken it to the limit.
Yesterday, a friend said she might just take her money out of the bank totally. Eric had suggested taking fake money to the bank as a form of Yes Men type protest. If we all do something are are vocal about what we are doing and why, it will have an impact. It must have an impact.
Tax time is upon us with our 2009 taxes due in April. What if everyone filed and no one paid? If we all look at where we can send a message of protest and do so, the time to do it is now.
Massachusetts voters may think they were protesting by electing Scott Brown. Instead they threw their power away by giving it to someone who possesses superficial attributes but who is not a leader. His daughter may have been on American Idol and his wife Gail may be a broadcaster (have your seen her music video “The Girl With The Curious Hand”?) but this is not the type of recognition I want from my Senate. If Glenn Beck finds Brown scary, we are in for some surprises, that’s for sure.
There’s a Transition Town I know of in Santa Cruz, about 100 miles south of where Im at in Berkeley. I’m not sure of one here in the Bay Area, though I suspect there’s a movement afoot. And I know there’s a sustainable development movement growing here in the Bay Area.
Most of this here is started by millennials. They seem to have their eye on the ball.
As for me, I’ve started a long haul project of clearing out what I don’t need, getting rid of clothes I haven’t used in over a year to Goodwill, making sure I’ve thinned out my pantry to essentials, and getting myself pared down in general. I know that’s a first step. I don’t have a mortgage, but I do have a car payment and rent, which my landlady appreciates.
I do have skills to offer. If some of you haven’t heard, I’m a caterer and I can cook for a minimum of 50 at the drop of a hat, and at reasonable cost. I figure cooking is a skill for a Transition Town, so I’m literally taking that one to the bank.
It seems to me our current revolution is more an intellectual one than marching in the streets, although I am all in favor of marching in the streets in non-violent protest. We need to use our minds to organize in an effective way that will send the message loud and clear to Washington and corporate America. Because of the internet and all it offers, ideas can spread in an instant. It’s time to organize. If that means taking your money out of banks, or out of big banks and bringing your business to small local banks, do it. If that means withholding mortgage payments, credit card payments, taxes, do it. If that means living without that new car or tv, do it. Open an escrow account at your local bank. Deposit your payments there when they are due. Document everything. And write about what you are doing and why you are doing it.
Last summer, I took the Transition Town training. I suggest you Google the Transition Town movement and see what they are all about. That is, a program that helps people to create sustainable communities and prepare for what may lie ahead for all of us if we do not take action now. I live in a small town in Vermont and have found an extraordinary community here of people who help their neighbors and walk their talk. If all of the internet sites such as Freecycle, Modest Needs, Craigslist, etc… got together to create one master clearing house of what is available by catagory, with links to all of their own participating sites, a master list of trade, barter, gift, share, exchange of goods and services could be created. I have been working on it here in Vermont. It could be arranged state by state or county by county in larger states. With the use of the internet, an entire free economic culture could be created virtually overnight. This idea is not new or unique but what would be unique would be for all of us working along these lines to join forces to facilitate new avenues for people to get what they need. To ORGANIZE.
My old life is gone and though I miss a few of the comforts, I see very clearly how much easier it is to live without “stuff.” We have no need for most of what we have. My daily joy comes from the beauty that surrounds me, the animals I live with (a whole other discussion about the gift animals give this planet and us!), and the company and connection I have with the people I love. We all need to name what is important to us, what are the elements that make our lives meaningful. We are a mindful community. We are brought together here by our desire to grow spiritually, emotionally and politically. And let us not forget sexually (wink, Eric!). We are ahead of the curve because of our commitment to learn about ourselves and the Universe in which we live. We can make a difference that can spread and inspire and create real change.
Let’s do it!
Excellent passionate rant Fe!
Kitty J – I was stating the same thing to someone this eve that in the 60s people were in the streets. Guess it hasn’t gotten bad enough yet to motivate the masses to take that kind of action.
Agree with carecare and arts and animals that we need to hit them by becoming more self sustaining and reducing our purchases. Imagine what a statement it would make if we all took our money out of the banks. Why not, with the Fed locking rates at zero, free money for the banks, they are not paying any interest at the moment. Something is very wrong when banks can go from crisis to record profits in one year while the rest of the country suffers.
bkoehler: I respectfully disagree that we need to be patient while the government is fixed. That we are all spoiled brats. I haven’t seen even baby steps toward meaningful change just more of the status quo, more ignoring the people, more words about the people don’t understand we must not be getting our message out. Different party, same actions. A healthcare bill with loopholes that benefited the insurers and screwed the people. A deal with pharmaceutical companies. What happened to negotiating prices with them. You bet I’m angry, at both parties.
To me after the election victory, knowing the mood of the country, a great first step forward would have been to put together a lean clean stimulus bill that addressed only the immediate economic issues at hand instead of an encyclopedia filled with pork and non essentials. The President had promised to veto these pork packages and instead said next time I will. Should have stood his ground right then. The Congress is corrupt on both sides and I am almost grateful about Mass. as it seems to have jolted the Dems as well as lit a fire under the President (who I believe is a good man suffering from the insulation of the office). The people are angry, myself included and he has not stood up to those in Congress backed by special interests. I haven’t seen that passion for change in him since he took office. I did see on CNBC, that this year was a record year in profits for the lobbyists.
art and animals, carecare and all:
This is about a Kitchen Table Revolution. This is a ground up operation. Community building against corporations is ripe.
The thing we need for this revolution now is music.
Fe and Carecare:
Now yous are spot on! I have been reducing my consumptions for a few years (out of necessity), and it’s not so bad…actually, it is nice and REAL. Also, I have been able to trade my services with others and we have newly founded value/respect, forming more sense of community as a result.
carecare:
Even better. I love it, and have been thinking this all this morning. We need to wean ourselves off of products they sell on television. Since we’re in the a Pluto in Capricorn Age, how about tools, products and skills that have long-lasting value:
A new investment: Sewing machine.
Things to teach our young: Cooking, knitting, gardening
Things I want to learn how to do: Making candles, soap, and doing diagnostics on my car.
People we need to start supporting: Our local shoe repairman, tailor, and equipment repairperson, and the good auto mechanic who tells you the truth
I am with you, carecare7. I was born in 1956 and I have used coffee filters for toilet paper. Necessity is the mother of invention. We all need to hold back the money that we have in whatever way we can, but we need to send a message. As President Obama says on a regular basis, “Let me be clear…” Interesting I was writing my post as you were writing yours. Thank you!
Yes fe, we all need to wake the @#$%^ up. That may mean writing your congresspersons and threatening them with losing their seat, despite all the corporate campaign money. Remind then that their friends lost despite being given lots of money in 2006 and 2008. WE the People will vote them out. Remind them of that every day if we have to. Write newspapers, twitter that, facebook it, e-mail list it, call friends and friends of friends. Gather and picket with that message.
We need to stop spending and let the corporations KNOW that we are stopping spending until they get the message: we will NOT tolerate their abuses anymore. Make no loans, use no credit cards, TELL the banks you are going to stop giving them your money until they stop the abuse. Live with friends or relatives, trade cars and goods, BARTER until they lose so much money they come begging and pleading for us to start “consuming” again. We have been spoiled but it is time to live as though we have NOTHING so that if we end up with nothing, they cannot hurt us anymore because we are already used to it.
I call all Generation Jones folks (Obama is one, too) born from 1956-1964 to do these things. We can vote out the incumbent bastards and bring companies to their knees even if it means using leaves, fabric strips from old clothes, or paper from old magazines for toilet paper. I have done that and I know you can survive. Grow your own food, raise your own livestock, if you cannot then contract with someone who can and do community gardens. I am NOT kidding. Just DO these things and imagine the change by attrition that will happen.
Having just celebrated Martin Luther King’s birthday at the beginning of the week, we are reminded of the Civil Rights Movement 40 years ago. We were facing similar challenges and aspects in the 60’s when local communities, grassroots organizing and women lead the way with the bus boycott in Montgomery, which was also Reverand King’s first victory. Private citizens walked or car pooled to work, minority housekeepers were picked up by the women they worked for, hiding this fact from their husbands. No one predicted that the boycott would last for as long as it did, greatly diminishing the local economy for its duration. People stayed home in protest, and city government was left with unhappy businesses. White families were not having their meals cooked and laundry done by their hired help, and the Transit Authority lost considerable revenue with the loss of bus fares. Why can’t we do something similar???
People are turning to the internet, posting their refusal to pay their credit cards until their interest rates are reduced to something reasonable. What if we all held back our credit card and mortgage payments for one month? Would that send the message to corporations and government that we are no longer willing to support what is happening here? Would one month’s deliquency hurt our credit scores so very much? Sending letters to the press and the White House, declaring what we are doing so the message is clear. If the middle class does not continue to fund this mess, will it be able to continue? Since all of this is ultimately about money, let how we spend our money speak for us.
Truly, I am a supporter of President Obama and one year in the big picture is nothing. However, we all know the importance of timing and how a moment at an important juncture can change the course of history. Part of why Obama was elected was the massive amount of money that was contributed to his campaign. That came in the form of all types of contributions, primarily over the internet. Why can’t we use the internet in the same way, but send the message to withhold the money that we do have until our voices are heard? I am an Aquarian. I have been greatly impacted over the last five years and have learned how to let go of my old life and work with my new one. I would like to see some positive change happen in our country and am committed to do my part to make that happen. However, if corporate money is ruling Washington, then let us use our “corporate power” in whatever way we need to. Dr. King’s “Poor Man’s March on Washington” was about this very issue. It was the direction his work was headed at the time of his death. It is time for our voices to be heard.
Califia:
Rumor has it that alot of young people and progressives did not show up to vote, not that they voted for Brown, which in a way is predictable, but the timing could not have been worse.
be:
Can’t wait for March!
califia,
Two more Saturn/Uranus oppositions: 4/26/10 and 7/26/10
Another thing to be aware of is that transiting Mars has passed over the Pluto’s of most of the Baby Boomers born through August ’52. The agitation and anger we have been experiencing lately is at least partly due to the snake-brain, fearful part of us that Pluto represents. Mars is retracing its path over all those angry Plutos and will go direct in March. When it goes forward in Leo this time maybe, if we are lucky, it will be a more thought-out and civil reaction from the citizens of the USA.
March will also bring us the powerful New Moon in Pisces that is joined by Mercury (thinking and communicating) and Uranus (new ideas) in the sign of compassion, hospitals, ego-relenquishing and dissolving. This NM will be quite close to the deceased Sen. Kennedy’s north node, the path his soul was following, and I believe, still is. President Obama’s planner asteroid, Pallas Athene is conjunct this NM also; a fortunate thing for us citizens of the USA. If we are really lucky, the forward moving Mars and the intense New Moon will find the politicians in a more cooperative mood to come up with a better health care reform plan. I’m all for that!
be
Dear Fe,
SOMEONE(S) must stand up to the bankers! Get some rest and regroup! The ‘parties’ are all playing by the same game plan that has enabled the bankers and their corporations to bully, rape and loot. Let them continue with their rule book of decorum so that we can see who’s really pulling their strings. The supreme judges look pretty stupid in their robes right now through my eyes, also. The system can make you sick as it operates presently.
I would hope each of us has woken up, and I am proud of President Obama for not breaking and running, for stating things as they are. He is holding firm, I believe, to reveal the mechanations of the bankers.
The reality is that most people have not roused from their drunkardness yet, and the bankers are strategically banking on that. It is obvious that most of our troubles are because of the ruthlessness of these $$$ guys. They have created money out of thin air for decades and arrogantly charged ludicrous interest, are fat and pouting because they are not welcome in the sandbox these days. They are not happy with the reasonable resolution with the break they were given.
They have bullied ANYONE: Bankers don’t care what color you are, what religion you are, what party you are, what sex you are, what nationality you are….they don’t care that you are struggling to eat and live, that you have faced trauma and disaster, that your children are medicated, slaughtered and exploited, that you are intelligent….we are all simply entities to demean and exploit and abuse in their orientation.
It is rumored that President John F. Kennedy was assassinated because he introduced U.S. gold as the standard for his proclaimed issued currency to give us weight as a nation and people vs the exploitation of the banking system. Apparently, it would have left room for capitalism banking and corporations to still operate, lest people want to borrow if they chose to. He took action without exposing them (world banks/corps) first.
Personally, I am going to stand firm, also, right behind the Prez. I am being exploited and I am small potatoes to ‘them’. I am not able to pay up on my debt that is tripling and quadrupling because the entity has been buying and selling my loan, allowing me to “rehabilitate” with minimal payments until I have to default continuously because my revenues have dropped; I am 58 years old this year, and do not see a way to generate anymore cash than I already am. I simply want to continue surviving great personal loss with grace and understanding.
The psychic Sylvia Brown once stated: “What are they going to do next; eat us?” The parties and their favored politicians are ready to lick their lips and continue with the status quo, because who wants to give up their lifestyle and not partake of the scraps the corps will supply to them with their ‘created out of thin air’ donation checks? The thrill of the hunt and torture have really been the motive for politicians in general, not representing and serving the citizens.
I love Judith Gayle…her assertion that a Jubilee Year should be put in place is pretty much the only tried solution that allows ‘the system’ to continue to fornicate and still allows the rest of us to live.
Once you have rested, Fe, just stand up, and choose to eventually ditch the politics orientation, let em go…they will just break your heart, because they like the system as it is.
@KittyJ – HOW do we get that will to action back? We have to step up for ourselves.
Get back out there. We have a President who is at his best when he has to fight for us. But now he’s in DC and our voices are very far away from him & he’s in “former Senator” mode & who knows what he’s hearing in that heavily insulated white padded house?
He has shown us the way to him. Letters, phone calls, rallys, etc. Can’t we do it on our own or do we truly need the Obamagrassroots Emails to tell us what to do?’
March on DC for your Health. Take the Mountain to Mohammad.
Jude:
Bless you. The quilt I’m about to pull over my head is a sheepskin. I am going to channel the philosopher-lover Diotima, and settle in with a book. And to let you in on the slipstream–the original title of this piece was “Wake the ^%^*&*!! up!”
night my lovelies,
Fe
my be:
I come to you first because you really do know my heart. In my heart of hearts, I am scared for the President. I am scared and ashamed of the depths that we’ve allowed this country to fall, and I am equally embarassed, Pluto in Leo gen that I am, that, after the sacrifices of our Pluto in Cancer parents, that we should really know better. The kind of change that needs to happen takes years, not months. And yes, you and Eric are right, we are spoiled babies expecting everything all at once, all the time.
You have just said something that really starts to put things into place. This President is about the fixing–the clean up of a gargantuan beast that has been allowed to run amuck and far from original intent. In fact the original intent is so far removed it has become a cartoon of itself.
We do need to fix the engine of the nation that has been run into the ground. We need to walk first, and this week, I’ve watched us stumble and fall. But to expect courage of others, one has to be courageous themselves and not be a back seat driver.
I will be back.
By the way — the flag for this post in my tray sez: Wake the &*%$! up
Now, that’s a rallying cry I can get behind. LOL!
Good rant, lovebug — these last few days have been tougher than any I remember since He Who Will Not Be Named was Lord of the Dance. Texas Two-Step, of course.
Me, I’m going for the stiff drink, the hot bath and the quilt over my head now — so I can live to fight another day.
Be blessed,
Jude
Fe, your final two paragraphs express what I’ve been thinking. Our government is essentially emasculated. Recently someone here at PW (I can’t remember if it was Eric or you or someone else) said something to the effect that speaking truth to power doesn’t work now, because there is no one in the traditional power positions to listen. “Power” is not responding, because it isn’t really “power” anymore.
What I see around me is extreme cynicism. People are irate, complaining, feeling aggrieved, but also feeling powerless and not thinking very rationally; which all plays right into the neo-conservative/corporatist hands and, I think, contributed in large part to the Massachusetts scenario. But being cynical and acting like loose cannons will get us nowhere fast. Somehow, some way, we’ve got to (we’re going to) take our power back.
I’ve been talking to some of my fellow Baby Boomers, comparing this time to the late 60s — the activists for civil rights, anti-war, women’s rights, LGBT rights. One big difference is that we got out there and did it. We protested and took action, believing that we could do it and that what we did could make a difference. We didn’t demand guarantees; we understood the risks and were willing to accept them. We didn’t wait for someone else to do it. Instead of waiting for the world to change, we got out there and made the change happen.
So how do we get that “will to action” back?
Add to this the catastrophic Supreme Court decision today, and the bankruptcy and demise of Air America. Not exactly a great day for our team. But Fe, how do you know that progressives voted for Brown? I find that hard to swallow, given that our folks tend to think strategically and would probably tend to respect the symbolic sanctity of that seat. Any documentation? And thanks for a great post.
and @ bkoehler: So when _do_ the Uranus to Saturn oppositions complete their cycle? It can’t happen too soon.
Fe,
Feel better now? It IS painful when things we work so hard for appear to fall apart at the seams. I remember, as you do, the fervor of the presidential campaign and wondering if it we dared to dream that we could rout the bastards that were taking our country to hell in a handbasket. Many times I heard that Barack Obama was not so much a leftist as some ardent supporters believed he was.
I’ve learned something in hindsight since that uphill battle. We as astrologers have the tools and the knowledge to know if an individual is someone likely to start new projects, or stabilize existing projects, or transition between projects. Look at the individual’s chart. Is he mostly cardinal, fixed or mutable?
Our new President is mostly fixed and mutable. He has Venus in Cancer and Saturn in Capricorn; the rest of his major planets, including Chiron are in Pisces, Gemini, Virgo (mutable) or Aquarius, Leo and Scorpio (fixed). Not a thing wrong with that.
Unless you want a President to create something brand new. What we fought so hard to get was a man who would most likely stabilize existing projects or transition between projects (not created by him though). Yes, he has Saturn in Capricorn, but in the 12th house where behind-closed-doors deals are created. But that doesn’t sit well with the populace in this day and age.
He does have cardinal Venus in Cancer in the 5th house and widely trine his Neptune in Scorpio in the 9th house which he has used to repair our country’s reputation abroad and to create new hope for our country’s citizens. But Venus is presently being opposed by Pluto and squared by Saturn, not a pleasant position for her.
If we could learn to appreciate President Barack Obama’s qualities for what they are, stabalizing and strengthening the existing government and its programs, we probably would not feel we had been lied to. We would not be so very, very angry because nothing seems to be changing for the better. We as a country, we U.S. citizens, as a whole, are very immature (as Eric has repeatedly told us) to expect overnight (meaning in one year) that everything that was made bad by years and years of neglect (banking, healthcare, infrastructure, job creating, etc.) to magically be fixed in 12 months. As a whole, we are a country of spoiled brats.
Individuals are suffering and have no where to turn but to the government. Of course, we are in pain. We don’t have jobs and because of that, we have no healthcare and no money to buy food. But we, as a people, will have to learn new ways to ease our pain and surmount our problems until the government gets fixed. Fixed. Slow, tedious, fixed.
There is a reason to believe that once the Uranus to Saturn oppositions have completed their cycle, our Congress can actually fix some things by working together. Yes, there is the Pluto to Saturn thing, and the Uranus to Pluto thing, and it will be an uphill battle. But not the diametrically opposed factions we are dealing with now. We might finally get a balance (compromise) before its all over, but until then we must not depend on our government for the answers to our problems. And we shouldn’t expect our President to be someone other than who he is.
Please, for all of us that love to read what you have to say, don’t even think about giving up. I know you won’t, because, when you need to, like now, you will rant and rave and tell it like it is. And tomorrow you will feel better and get back to doing what you do so well. And Fe. . . .thanks for that!
be
please forgibe me, my typos and lack of syntax. it’s late in the day for one working lady.
Energetically, whole heartedly, from the core, agree. I salute thee, Fe. Too many women, who would otherwise give a care, are having sex for SECURITY TM. or want to and are too busy working on scoring that way (and a lot of really HOT ones that people would listen to). But before casting blame, remember football is typically male dominated, is it not? Looked at another way, many more men on average play bridge than women play football. But everybody’s observing something that has something to do with all this. What’s that all about? As worlds do, ideas merge and I think many a woman look with the male gaze too. Somebody show me an exposed collar bone before I lose all my confidance in humanity.
fluidity:
Agreed.
yes we’re itching for a change, but not just any change … change for change’s sake isn’t necessarily something to be desired
i get a bit uncomfortable with this whole left-centre-right spectrum, especially given the way it seems democrats are ‘left’, republicans are ‘right’, and the majority of people are in the ‘centre’
first off, making politics two dimensional (ie a line) might not be the best way to see things
second, if you’re going to use the line analogy, i don’t think the democrats are ‘left’ – i don’t think either party is, and i think the majority of people are
take for instance ‘the public option’ in healthcare – a majority of americans wanted just that. if that is ‘left’, then the majority of americans are ‘left’ on that issue
but neither party is, as a whole – maybe just a few individuals
if we want real positive change, we have to be the ones leading it – that’s the only viable option. our real leadership are the people out in the ‘public’, not this privatized governing/ruling system, and it’s about organizing and base-building for mass movement(s) of real people getting together to create change.