No President can rescue this system.

[mahina]

After all the work we did in 2004* and again in 2008, and the disapointments and victories that followed, one thing has become very clear to me. Reading the Wikileaks stories about our ambassadors fighting for Monsanto, Bank of America etc, taking peoples' homes, it is evident that our campaign finance system and the patronage it fosters is a monster that has gone out of control.

No candidate is going to fix this. It's going to be necessary for individuals across the country to support Common Cause and any other sound campaign for publicly financed elections.

We took our eyes off the ball for a few decades, even though we worked for change. Here it is 2010 and it seems to me to be our only real chance to come out of this mess with an America anything like the one we grew up in- or the one we told ourselves we did.

http://www.commoncause.org/site/pp.asp?c=dkLNK1MQIwG&b=4741359

[Whoa_Nelly]

1. Well, it would help if we had a decent Congress

but, it's been a long time since we have had any governmental decency, moreover, decent ethics...

[BeFree]

5. To get a decent congress

We must have thousands of ordinary men and women enlisted to do our work.

But we are stuck at 435 which is one rep for every 600,000 people.

A better average might be about one rep for every 100,000 people. But that is unthinkable, right?

[Whoa_Nelly]

8. Redistricting does need to address population

and accommodate per the numbers with representation.
However, it would greatly help if corpocracy was not in the mix, too :(

[blindpig]

2. Why should we want to?

Let's tear it down and build something fit for humans.

[WCGreen]

3. The system is broken and yet we do nothing about it..

[Davis_X_Machina]

4. You're wrong.

President Dean Weiner Grayson Sanders Warren Feingold Clinton Krugman Kucinich Mosler could.

By sheer force of will.

(Who's turn is it this week? It's not Bernie's...)

[T Wolf]

6. Actually, Obama has rescued the corrupt system that we all are stuck in. He shoveled

trillions to the banksters and Wall Street, gutted any attempt at regulation, "bargained" away any benefits in health care reform, escalated the wars for the MIC, covered the crimes of BoA and the others when they stole homes via accounting and legal paper cons, etc., etc., etc.

If anyone deserves credit :sarcasm: for taking actions that shored up the collapsing system, thus preventing a rebuilding on a more human-oriented philosophy, it would be the socialist at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. The cons could not have done it without him.

Of course, those who truly want a better system know that what we suffer under does not need reform, but destruction and rebuilding. But, as long as it continues to limp along, it will survive to the detriment of us all (except the top 1%).

[Volaris]

11. I cant help but agree with this assessment...

If you have an (economic and governmental) airline crash, and the concept of accomplishment is to get the planes flying again, then you get what we got, I.E., guys like Bernanke and Gietner, guys who understand the system that your trying to SAVE. Makes sense to me.
IF, of the other hand, your goal is to build a better system (I.E., replacing passenger air with High Speed Rail), these are NOT the men you want in charge; nothing in their background/education/career allows for the implementation of a NEW and BETTER system, they lack the vision, they CAN'T do it, they don't understand what it is that you want them to do.
As an aside, I also agree with the statement that NO President can get this change accomplished, but I would stress that I don't think that something like this falls under the purview of the Executive Branch. These kinds of institutional changes must first come from CONGRESS, can ONLY come by means of LEGISLATION, Constitutionally speaking. I agree that Publicly-Funded Elections and Corporate Non-Person-hood are the Keys to the Kingdom. Everything else that needs doing hinges on that getting done. If they can't buy elections under the guise of Free Speech, they really don't have any way to out-speak the Will of the People.
But then again I also think that We the People would be well-served if everyone running for Senate were required by law to have a Masters Degree in something OTHER than History, Politics, Law, or Business, as it would be nice to have actual ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENTISTS sitting on the ENVIRONMENTAL COMMITTEE. So disagreements with my opinion are welcome, as always.
Heres hoping everyone had a wonderful Christmas.=)

[leftstreet]

12. +1

[eleny]

7. And do it before the generation that remembers how America was is gone

[mahina]

10. +1

[msongs]

9. none since LBJ and those accomplishments nt

[bemildred]

13. Yep, we are corrupt and decadent, able to compete with any kleptocracy on the planet.

Though we are not #1 yet, except for dollar volume of course, there we are way ahead.

[TheKentuckian]

14. It is hard to judge considering how little effort has been made in such a direction

I don't see any effort to change directions. I see corporate hacks appointed to the most crucial and powerful bureaucracies and willful maintenance of the status quo.

The criminals that the last two Democratic Presidents have put in charge of the economy are a sinful shame.