So what are YOU going to do about this Moyers-Greider info?

[grasswire]

Greider said that FDR allowed himself to be rolled into the New Deal by public pressure. Greider said that Obama and Congress need cover -- public agitation -- to give them space to create a new financial system.

Greider said that we need to act like CITIZENS -- we need to participate in democracy, we need to become "unruly" in non-violent ways and make our thoughts and demands part of the solutions.

So what, specifically, are YOU going to do about this challenge?

Apparently it isn't enough to send e-mails, to make phone calls, to watch cable news, to blog or comment on the Internet. As Harry Reid has now told us, that stuff is easily and deliberately ignored by those we elect.

What are YOU going to do? When? Everything is at stake.

[Sarah Ibarruri]

1. I already do a lot considering what I can do. For example....

1) I am on top of the news on DU and e-mail govt. officials, the White House, the media, make phone calls, tell people.
2) I donate whatever I can to DU and lib organizations.
3) I e-mail my friends and family with issues that need immediate attention and ask them to e-mail govt. officials, the White House, the media, make phone calls, tell people.

If all of us did whatever we COULD (I realize some of us can do almost nothing), can you imagine how well we'd shape our country? It'd be amazing.

[grasswire]

5. okay, the way to gin that up...

....apparently is to ask people to write PAPER letters instead of e-mails. A paper letter is not ignored. A paper letter (Paul Begala has informed us) is worth a hundred e-mails in weight. It doesn't take any longer to write a paper letter or send a postcard than to write an e-mail.

According to Greider and Moyers, we need to be more demanding and more visible and "unruly."

I'm lecturing myself here, while I'm pushing everyone else. We must do more. Each of us.

[Sarah Ibarruri]

GOOD IDEA! Thanks! I promise I'll start doing paper letters instead. nt

[eleny]

16. I'm getting myself a stack of postcards

That way they might not have to go through security and they make it easier to dash off a thought and get it in the mailbox.

[Sarah Ibarruri]

19. Now THAT is a super idea - easy! Thanks! nt

[eleny]

22. If my handwriting is bad I can always print and also use a return address label

:hi:

[Captain Hilts]

2. No, I have to give credit to FDR for wanting the New Deal as much as anybody else. Remember...

his polio - and the realization that if he were not wealthy his family would be broke, and the experience of seeing rural poverty in Georgia enlightened him.

He got rolled away from the New Deal in 1937 when he imposed tight money policies. A mistake.

I am re-reading The Secret Diary of Harold Ickes and in it he relates his concern in late '36 that FDR might abandon parts of his progressive agenda. And FDR did. Interesting reading.

[omega minimo]

8. "And we're going to bang on your door until you get it right."

WILLIAM GREIDER: Here's my take on the New Deal and the history of what actually happened. And it conveniently fits my deeper prejudices about the country and how progress is achieved in America. That is, people in the streets or churches or wherever found their voice and made it happen by agitating and informing the higher authorities. In the early '30s, Franklin Roosevelt had a set of things he thought he could do to right the ship of the Depression. He tried some of them. They didn't work very well. Meanwhile, organized labor, others, were all over the country lighting bonfires for bigger changes. Social security came out of that. Labor rights, the first attempt to give people the right to organize their own voices in a company came out of that. A whole bunch of other reforms that we now take for granted. And Roosevelt didn't stand athwart and try to stop them. But he let them roll him. And he- and I think that's what, I hope for now. That people of every stripe will stand up and say, we love you Mr. President, but you don't have it right yet. And we're going to bang on your door until you get it right.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x5345808

[Captain Hilts]

10. Yes. Thank goodness FDR supported and pushed The Wagner Act, among others to diversify...

the power centers in economic debates and pull them to the left.

[omega minimo]

12. people of every stripe will stand up and say, we love you Mr. President, but you don't have it right

yet


http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x5345808

[Captain Hilts]

13. Unlike the 1990s, the people are more progressive now than the Congress, or Prez.

So it seems to me.

[omega minimo]

14. Doesn't matter if people keep allowing scoundrels to dismantle protections and repeat history's ills

do it?

WILLIAM GREIDER: Well, among other things that are missing from that story is that we had the rules and regulations, the agencies created some 80 years ago and afterwards to prevent this sort of catastrophe. And these same political players, Republicans and Democrats holding hands, stripped them away, eviscerated them. The same agencies these reformers want to put in power to prevent this from happening again. Starting with the Federal Reserve, the Securities Exchange Commission, other regulators, utterly failed in their duty to do that. Now, we're going to give them new power.
I'm offering a breath of skepticism toward this grand transformation of government. I don't want to be a cynic, but it feels more to me like trying to restore the old order that failed. And I mean by that these big mega banks that had been liberated by deregulation to do as they pleased and the other rules that were undermined. I think this President, and I'm a big fan of this President, but I think his first priority seems to be to recreate those institutions which, some of which are now insolvent, as healthy again.

And actually it's quite scary, because unless they set about to make much more fundamental changes, I fear we will, sure enough, get this back again.

THEN HE WARNS OF THE CONSEQUENCES:

BILL MOYERS: A corporate state?
WILLIAM GREIDER: A corporate state. And by that I mean a rather small but very powerful circle of financial institutions the old Wall Street banks, famous names. But also some industrial corporations that bought banks. Or General Electric, which is already half of big financial capital, GE Capital. And that circle will be our new Wall Street club. Too big to fail. Yes, watched closely by the Federal Reserve and others in government, but also protected by them. And that's a really insidious departure. To admit that and put it into law. And then think of all those thousands of smaller banks. How are they going to perform against these behemoths that have an inside track to the government spigot? And for just ordinary enterprise in general? Before you even get to the citizens. How are citizens supposed to feel about that? And I-- my point is, in this situation, with if the leading banks and corporations are sort of at the trough, ahead of everybody else in Washington, they will have the means to monopolize democracy. And I mean that literally. Some of my friends would say, hey, that already happened.

BILL MOYERS: Yeah, the corporate state is here.

WILLIAM GREIDER: The corporate state is here. And I'd say, let's not argue over that. The fact is, if the Congress goes down the road I see them going down, they will institutionalize the corporate state in a way that will be severely damaging to any possibility of restoring democracy. And I want people to grab their pitch forks, yes, and be unruly. Get in the streets. Be as noisy and as nonviolently provocative as you can be. And stop the politicians from going down that road. And let me add a lot of politicians need that to be able to stand up. Our President needs that to be able to stand up.

[Captain Hilts]

15. People are lazy. The press is lazy. nt

[omega minimo]

17. Then they are hypocrites.

[Captain Hilts]

3. 'Citizens' as compared to 'subjects'. A lot of folks here are 'subjects', actually. nt

[southernyankeebelle]

4. I WISH I COULD ORGANIZE

WHERE ARE ALL THE YOUNG PEOPLE WHO STOOD UP TO POWER AND DEMONSTRATED FOR THE RIGHT CAUSES. I AM TO OLD TO GET OUT THERE NOW. MY HEALTH WON'T ALLOW ME TO. WHY DON'T THE BLOGGERS THAT LIVE IN DC START A DEMONSTRATION IN A MONTH. I DARE THEM TOO.

[grasswire]

7. I hear ya!

There is a nationwide demonstration planned for April 11. Even if you can't go, you can pass the word to everyone you know.

And you can write paper letters. By hand if necessary. A paper letter is worth a hundred e-mails. A handwritten letter makes an impression.

You can put up a sign supporting unions and the law that allows unions to be formed more easily.

Power to the people.

[Sarah Ibarruri]

21. Power! Someone needs to post the nationwide demonstration. I'll be participating! nt

[Sarah Ibarruri]

20. I'm not a kid but I'm there! nt

[omega minimo]

6. Have you looked at the video or transcript?

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x5345808

[grasswire]

9. I watched it last night.

Thanks for posting the transcript.

[omega minimo]

11. very clear, informative and it answers your question, posted in reply above.

:thumbsup:

[acmavm]

18. Shhhhhh! Be quiet! Shut up! Do not agitate! Things are perfect! Do not

complain you will bring down this democratic president! No dissent allowed!

Did I miss anything?

:sarcasm: