Getting the money out of politics is our only hope of saving anything good about the United States. Several of those reforms have been introduced and were adopted but they only made things worse (citizens united having the largest impact on our loss of power). This doesn't mean I don't think we need to work for campaign finance reform. We ought to dump the two party system for a multi-party model too. I believe we need publicly financed campaigns that support multiple candidates, who could more truly represent us in congress.
That said I really want to applaud and recommend your push for community action and working together, with our neighbors, to solve local problems.
Here is a post I made last night in response to a similar idea being promoted by Le Taz Hot, here on DU. I have pasted it here because it is late and I am too tired to rework the ideas well.
An excellent post, Le Taz Hot. You have pinpointed
the absolute best action (political, social, economic, or religious) that any and all of us can afford to take.
We need to go out and talk to, and listen to, other people in our communities. If the problems we face as a nation/society are to be addressed and solved, it is we, the community, who will have to solve them.
Your assertion that the American people have more interests and goals in common than we are led to believe is 100% on target.
I too, have bridged the artificial divide, designed to weaken and distract us, with right winged relatives, neighbors, and work-place contacts, many times. It is not hard to do, in fact, it is the natural, human, and polite way to act and most of us do it every single day. Yes, we are unique individuals but we have the same needs and desires, we share the same hopes and dreams, and our ethics and values, are for the most part, compatible.
When the tornado strikes it will be our neighbors, who help us or are helped by us. Our survival will depend on each other, not on some distant entity or institution (the distant aid should be provided but the community should decide how to put itself back together), that will want compensation for its efforts.
The "old wives" were right, "If you want something done well you have to do it yourself". Hiring/electing/asking a third party to solve one's problems is fool-hearty. The hireling will have no interest in fixing the problem, he/she was hired to solve, because once the problem is solved he/she will be out of a job. They don't know or represent what is in the best interests of the community (disputing parties) and their proposed solutions will reflect their own bias and conflicts of interest. They take away our individual sovereignty and they take vital resources (needed in the community) as compensation for their efforts, further weakening the community and making it harder for it to solve its own problems.
We need to sponsor and encourage block parties, communal garage sales, public celebrations and any other events to get people together. When we talk to each other, share our concerns and goals, and re-establish a common language (accepting standard definitions for words and concepts) we will discover our true strength and we can work together to oust false governance and anti-democratic and anti-community legislation and attitudes from our midst.
Thank you for reminding us of our own power, and our responsibility to use that power to better our own lives and the lives of other beings on the planet.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=2895979
= new reply since forum marked as read
