I honestly believe that if enough small contributors can work together to get uncorrupted officials into office, we can change this trend that has consistently allowed a few elite business people to run this country for all these years.

I have nothing against businesses, per se. In fact, for years, when the Republicans stood for businesses, I considered myself to be one of them. I believe that unless there are businesses to provide jobs, this nation cannot survive or thrive.

Now, the Republicans and the Democrats have all become so corrupt that the only diffrence between the parties is the type of mud they sling in their attempts to get elected.

Today, the businesses that once made this economy secure have abused their power and sent literally thousands of our jobs overseas while they imported literally millions of foreign nationals to work for slave wages while American workers stand in the unemployment lines until they drop off the roles. They say the unemployment rate is down but it is a bold faced lie! The people have exhausted their benefits and dropped off the radar screen. There are actually FAMILIES living in homeless shelters because the job situation is so poor. Because of those factors, I can't see my way clear to support the anti-American leanings of todays' businessmen.

The business values that once made us a proud nation are gone. We have third rate merchandise in our stores that is made somewhere else. Our ports, with ships filled with this substandard merchandise, aren't even secure and now our government wants to let sworn enemies police those very ports. What kind of government, what kind of businessmen, do this to their own countrymen?

Abbe Allen,
I was 47 before I discovered the reality that you now understand.
Better late than never, I guess.
Yes, parties are not really the problem, but the irresponsible incumbents in all parties is the problem.

Like you, I am all for free markets. A few common-sense laws are needed to limit the corruption that can come from too much power of monopolies that can destroy competition and subsequently bleed every last drop out of everyone else.

Unfortunately, we are seeing a rise in corporatism and corpocrisy, in-league with bought-and-paid for incumbents, fleecing tax payers, and giving rise to legal plunder, government FOR SALE, corporate welfare, pork-barrel, graft, etc.

Abbe Allen wrote: The business values that once made us a proud nation are gone.

Yes, almost. I'm afraid you are correct. It is not a global village. It is global pillage. Corpocrisy and Corporatism in-league with corrupt, bought-and-paid-for politicians, allows global corporations to decend upon cheap labor in one nation. After the standard of living and wages increase, they flee and decend upon another poor nation, leaving the economy of nation or region they left to begin to fall again. This ensures a never ending supply of cheap labor.

That is happening in the U.S. In a perfect world, some day, wages would be comparable world wide. But, as long as they are not, and there are no other mechanisms to limit the exploit-and-abandon-system we are seeing, it will continue. New technology, immigration, raising or cutting taxes, and corporate welfare are not the solution. I'm not sure what the solution is, but one step in the right direction is education about the exploit-and-abandon-system, and honest government that is not FOR SALE.

But, ofcourse, voters must make that happen.

Education + Transparency + Accountability = Responsibility

Abbe Allen
You mean there is a difference in the mud they sling?
What kind of folks would do the things you discribed to their own country? Folks that have sold out to the highest bidder. Folks that only care about what's in it for them. Folks without any moral convictions. In other words our current crop of politicians and their cronies.
It's a sad state of affairs when things get like this. This is one of many reason I'm for the VOID movement.

d.a.n., excellent comment. It's called vulture capitalism and to undo its devastating effects we must strike at its root, our corrupt, privatized, interest-based monetary system.

Rep. Ron Paul from Texas addressed this issue head on before the House in a special session last week.

Also, a great video that illustrates the dynamics of global corporatism, or WAR corporatism.

qrswave,

Yes, we have to first focus on the one prerequisite.

Few (if any) reforms are possible until the voters get the politicians' attention first.

Voters need education.
We know how powerfully distracting the petty partisan warfare is.
And, we know that many have given up.
And, the rest don't care.
As a whole, they are not receptive.

The question is how to get their attention, and then convince them to do the one simple, peaceful, common-sense, responsible thing they were supposed to be doing all along: vote out (or recall) all irresponsible incumbents, always.

Otherwise, the corruption will grow worse.

Corruption = Power
- Education
- Transparency
- Accountability

Fortunately, the economy is stable at the moment, but how long can it last? Recessions are inevitable, but is what we are doing (or not doing) now going to make the next recovery more difficult and painful?