[Sosfbay-discuss] Fw: Re: Some jarring stats

[Tian Harter]

[Fwd:
Wes Rolley wrote:
> Eric A Meece wrote:

>> The system is stacked against 3rd parties. The famous former 
>> conservative commentator Kevin Phillips said on Bill Moyers that if 
>> the people continue to be frustrated, they will continue to desert the 
>> major parties, which already have less power to shape events than they 
>> used to have.
> I disagree with Phillips and I disagree with the idea that Washington 
> will become less contentious because of the election of Obama.  His 
> choice of Rahm Emanuel as Chief of Staff shows that he needs an enforcer 
> and intends to use one.  The most recent statements from Congressman 
> John Boehner <http://www.sacbee.com/opinion/story/1383857.html>, House 
> Minority Leader, indicate that he is going to fall back on the failed 
> Newt Gingrich tactic of brining government to a halt to make a point.  
> He will talk one way, but act the other.  Washington will become more 
> divisive than ever if we, the citizens allow that to happen.
> 
> Unfortunately, we live in an era where Rush Limbaugh has ~20 million 
> listeners and Bill Moyers may have 200,000.  It is an era where image, 
> soundbite, and simplistic narrative have replaced contemplation or 
> reflection, where Obama,  speaking to the public with a 9th grade 
> vocabulary is a great improvement over W whose public utterances require 
> only a 6th grade level of comprehension.
> 
> I am of the opinion that we need not more demonstrations but rather 
> active engagement with the political process at all level: city, county, 
> state, federal.  The opportunity to do this is right now when no one 
> really knows what is going to happen to allow the ongoing funding of 
> government in California, but we will all be victims if we don't find a 
> way to make it work.
> 
Next year they will come out with a DC quarter. Trying to explain that
DC is not a state but a special district where our national compromises
are worked out is bound to be a challenging exercise for me. Last night
I was reading a book that explained that California is so much larger
than the other states because it was admitted to the Union "as if it was
a nation". This is very different from many of the other States, which
were defined from Washington by incumbents who had been drinking the
manifest destiny kool-aid. I think we need active engagement on the
"one dollar one vote" level in a real way. Stop voting for clean coal
(as they call it) at the light switch!
-- 
Tian
http://tian.greens.org
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