Why do we accept living this way?

[Danmel]

It is time for us to say no to this madness. We need to make our representatives fear us- not the NRA.

Fear us and not health insurance and pharmaceutical companies

Fear us and not the gas and oil industry

How do we do this? How do we elect people with courage?

We shouldn't have to live this way.

[villager]

1. Because we have allowed ourselves to be terrorized by sociopaths.

it's so pervasive, you even see many of the talking points of these sociopaths' talking points dutifully reposted here...

[RKP5637]

2. +1, n/t

[Squinch]

5. And every one of those talking points is completely lame.

[rhett o rick]

3. Apathy. nm

[upaloopa]

4. you have to find the right people and be able to give them the same amounts of money those other

interests have.
That's why they want to get rid of unions. We need to be willing to work for political campaigns and be willing to pay with your time and money. Already OofA is working toward 2014. Join in.

[Arugula Latte]

6. There are many things about this country that I do not get.

Why do we allow ourselves to be terrorized by and drowning in guns?

Why do we allow for-profit health insurance companies to make life-or-death decisions?

Why do we allow untold billions of our tax money to be flushed away on the military-industrial complex while people live in the streets and our education system crumbles and college is now out of reach for middle class families?

Other "civilized" countries do not allow these things, but we do. Why? I don't know.

[Sarah Ibarruri]

12. Because we've been mesmerized by bullshit on TV, drinking beer, and accepted the idea

that no matter how bad off this country is, it still is the 'greatest country in the world,' so there's nothing at all to fix.

[woo me with science]

7. And we allow ourselves to be divided, constantly.

We allow the corporate one percent to stoke and generalize our hatred of "the other team" to the point that we will excuse policies that we deplored under the other party, just because our party is doing it. They keep us fighting each other, instead of uniting against what they are doing to all of us.

Until we can acknowledge our common humanity and maintain our convictions about what is right and wrong no matter who is doing it, we will never have a united opposition to predatory policies that are destroying us all.

[Demeter]

8. Rational people are trying to find a rational way to deal with madness

because the only other alternative is a bloody civil war, or revolution.

Unfortunately, the Greedy, who benefit from the status quo, are cutting off all rational changes and discourse. They are the ones that will force the rational over the edge to violence. Economic violence, if we are lucky...physical, if we are not.

[tk2kewl]

9. i think we are at real tipping point

i think sanity and reason has some momentum. let's hope people start to recognize the true leaders and that more importantly they start to get involved

[woo me with science]

10. K&R

[Cleita]

11. Because the people who can change this live in gated communities, have good security

and tax payer funded body guards if they are elected officials. They don't have the same vulnerability the ordinary middle class family has. Even their kids go to private schools not public schools. It's not that they can't be shot like Kathy Giffords was, it's just the chances of them getting shot is really far less than our chances.

[CheapShotArtist]

13. Because money talks.

Money from lobbying groups and special interests is the reason why our gun laws are too lenient, why the War on Drugs is still being waged, and why we have yet to get universal health care. Politicians need the money for ads in order to sway public opinion, and if the lobbying groups decide to fund their opponents instead, then that's bad for them.