Reply #83: your 'belief' would be just fine,

[Bluerthanblue]

if everyone in a position to manipulate the results were honest- The sad, very REAL reality Seriousstan, is they are NOT- and enough of them have amassed power and influence to ensure the will of 'the people' is not always or even sometimes the end result.

Not to mention the fact that the chance of an 'average' Joe/Jane can enter politics any longer without being sponsored by 'corporate interest' is history-

Your asinine comment about people "taking to the street" making 'us' look 'impotent' or 'juvenile' reveals too much about the arrogant, lazy, apathetic mentality of why the protests and strikes "never amount to more than a handful of people".(Which is a lie- there were FAR more than a handfull of the people of this WORLD who took to the streets in opposition to this Iraq hell)

It's a HELL of a lot easier to play the 'safe and sound' card- Than to put your body- your very life on the line- against un-checked, and FASCIST power. As for believing that 'voting' works- how has it worked in Iraq? How has it worked in Palestine?
As my wise neighbor would say "If a board is too short, no matter how many times you cut it, it's still too short".

I highly recommend you think back on the ways in which 'taking to the streets have changed the world"-

The Civil Rights Movement? Non-violent demonstrations in India to win India's sovereignty? The ending of Apartheid in South Africa? The Womens Suffrage Movement? The waking up of the US to the futility of Vietnam????

If these examples are juvenile, or impotent, then let me be an impotent juvenile forever-