Ghosts of King George III: Top 5 Things that threaten American Independence Today

[unhappycamper]

http://www.juancole.com/2015/07/threaten-american-independence.html

Ghosts of King George III: Top 5 Things that threaten American Independence Today
By Juan Cole | Jul. 5, 2015

~snip~

1. That many states give the state legislature the right to gerrymander voting districts guarantees that those districts will be drawn so as to disenfranchise the other party. This step has been taken in Texas, South Carlina and other states. In contrast, California’s voting districts are drawn by an impartial panel. Gerrymandering deprives members of the other party of fair representation, and therefore subjects them to taxation without representation and deprives them of the principle of ‘consent of the governed.’ Since very often the party members being disenfranchised are members of minorities, the practice is also arguably a violation of the 14th amendment.

2. There is nothing wrong with being wealthy. But when billionaires use their wealth essentially to buy our politicians, that is corruption. They know this, which is why they try to hide their activities behind front organizations such as ALEC or behind “institutes,” whether the fraudulent “Heartland Institute” that spreads falsehoods attempting to debunk climate change on behalf of the Koch brothers’ dirty Oil interests or the American Enterprise Institute. The degree of money in American politics is disgusting, and in most democratic countries our ordinary political funding activities would land donors and politicians in jail. We need a constitutional amendment defining money as “not speech” for campaign finance reform purposes. It is hard to see the difference between being ruled by appointees of King George III and being ruled by appointees of the Koch brothers, Sheldon Adelson, and etc.

3. Police brutality has become a scourge on the land and it seems clear after Ferguson and Baltimore that there is a systematic racial component to it. For minority Americans, there is a Boston massacre every year. Police need to be community police, protectors and servants of the people and not, as in Ferguson, a reverse-Robin Hood instrument of extortion from the poor. That kind of thing is what the Redcoats were up to here before 1776.

4. Likewise, the voter identification laws passed with alacrity by the former Confederate states and some others as soon as the Supreme Court struck down continued enforcement of the Voting Rights act, do not address any real problem of voter fraud. They are solely intended to make it hard for students, the urban poor and the elderly to vote. The US should not be a country where citizens must “show their papers” to the authorities. Voting should be made easier, not harder. Indeed, true democracy probably requires a constitutional amendment imposing a $10 fine on citizens who do not vote in national elections for congress and the president. Our government is a government by and for the upper middle class and the rich, and it is disproportionately for and by those of northern European heritage. Our current systems of voting and restrictions on it amount to taxation without representation for about half of Americans.

[Ilsa]

1. The 5th one is spying on Americans and the FISA courts. nt

[HereSince1628]

2. There are others, too, i.e. the signers complained of decisions made in distant assemblies...

In Wi, the public input for the monstrous Gogebic mine pushed for far northern WI, was scheduled for hearing in southwestern WI so as to make it difficult for the local public with the most immediate interests to actually attend.

[Demeter]

3. The US replaced the English Empire and became the USSR

and did a really bad job of it, even compared to England OR the USSR.

[raouldukelives]

4. Thanks to corporate money and Wall St influence.

Some animals truly are more equal than others.

As evidenced by the cold shoulder my candidate has received, despite the obvious grassroots support from across the country, the corporate media and their mouthpieces continue to do the bidding of the piglets.

They know full well access equals money. Access equals a career. Access equals success.

And in the end, that is all they truly care about. Themselves.

Democracy and freedom? What a joke to them. What a ruse. The real world is concrete towers of glass, air conditioned limos, exclusive events and expensive luncheons. It is one long party but if you crap in the punchbowl by reporting the truth, you are cut off.

Some people were willing to die for democracy so we could have it. Some so we could keep it.

Others can't even be bothered to not fully support the forces destroying what so many suffered, cried and bled out for.

For them, it is all a game. Like little Charlie Sheen's, all they care about is "winning". Even at the loss of everything, for everyone, forever.

[citizen blues]

5. For those of us who know our history. . .

this has a lot of meaning. However, we no longer care about educating our population, so we end up with folks like those in this following video:

[link:

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