Am I the only one that thinks nothing will change regardless of who is elected November?

[devilgrrl]

Do you honestly think that Barack Obama or Hillary Clinton will be able to accomplish anything with the media in the abysmal state that it is? Considering what assholes the likes of Chris Matthews are, don't you think that the MSM is going to be all over them like flies to shit? Don't you think it's going to be the 90's all over again?

Why should I feel optimistic about the future?

[devilgrrl]

1. Apparently yes. Cool, I'm staying home election day.

:hi:

[blondeatlast]

5. I was typing the same time you were. see below. nt

[blondeatlast]

2. I've said for some time we need a candidate willing to serve only one term and piss people off

royally.

Out of Iraq and Afghanistan, stacking the Supreme Court, restoring civil rights, making public education strong again, and getting all in the MSM's face--that's my ideal candidate.

[devilgrrl]

8. That works for me...

now if one of the two candidates has the gumption to do that.

[blondeatlast]

9. I'm ever the foolish optimist...

:rofl:

[devilgrrl]

10. I'll take it.

:shrug:

[Redbear]

3. Dick Cheney will be gone.

Thats enough to give me hope right there.

In the 90s we only had Congress and the Presidnecy for two years and that was an anomaly.

A new era has begun ... I hope.

[VP505]

4. I try to stay hopeful

but its damned hard to do considering all that's not being done just to get change started.

[ulysses]

6. I'm willing to be pleasantly surprised.

[taterguy]

7. There are people on the ballot other than the President

Hell, even in the abysmal election of 1972 Pat Schroeder got elected, and if you don't think she made a difference then you don't know much about history.

[bigwillq]

11. The future is as optimistic as we make it.

We can sit here and bitch and moan or we can try and do something about it.

First off is to try and elect officials (city, state, federal) who we feel can do this for us.
Second is to turn the tv off and stop listening to what the M$M hacks have to say.
We can also volunteer or even get a job at a social program/business or even get into politics ourselves.

You made a post in GDP that says you are not voting. Well, sorry, but you're not helping the cause of trying to make this country better. You're just adding to its downfall.

[devilgrrl]

13. I'm just one person. Not a very powerful one either.

I doubt anyone would notice.

[bigwillq]

14. You can be powerful

if you wanted to. We all can. Especially if we all stand together.

[griffi94]

12. no i don't think anything will change much either

no matter who wins the odds are we'll be disappointed. the mark of success will be how all the people in the political middle feel.
the true believers are the ones who suffer terminal disappointment...if obama becomes president look for some of his supporters to
be on suicide watch by 2010....also look for all the new blood he's attracting to drop out of ever participating in the process again.
i guess i'm too cynical....hell i expect the bastards to lie to me and disappoint me

[blues90]

15. I don't know how anyone can still believe things will change

How many years have we been hearing this same stuff only in different words , words all carefully chosen to produce a different way of saying the same thing and that same thing is ( we will tell you what we know you want to hear !)

Each presidential campaign has hundreds of people building a slogan of hype , promised to inspire hope as all the past is washed away as if it never existed . It's a new fresh look people , it's a new plan and we are here to help you , trust one of us .

Things become so bad people are desperate for change of any sort even when change never comes and is in a new package with a new look . The change is in the packaging .

This is the same sort of strategy used by any number of product adds .

[Dyedinthewoolliberal]

16. Ummmmmmm

the more I think about it, the more I agree with you. It will take a monumental turn around of attitudes within the media (and we all know how likely that is to happen :eyes:)
In fact, unless and until the control of the media is taken back from our corporate masters, I'm afraid we are forever doomed to stories about haircuts, personalities and other shallow, substanceless, cotton candy news and information........ :shrug:

[dysfunctional press]

17. nothing is going to change, except the names on the doors...

those who think otherwise obviously haven't been around long enough to learn/understand how the world really works.

[mohinoaklawnillinois]

21. I am a 54 year old woman who first voted in the 1972 election and I agree.

I got my hopes up in 1976 with Carter only to see then dashed again when Ronnie Rayguns and Poppy got elected in 1980 & 1984. 1988 didn't really like Dukakis but I voted for him. In 92 I got all caught up with the fact that Bill Clinton was actually beating Poppy here in Illinois, when just a year earlier he was the best thing sliced bread. In 1996, I voted for the Big Dawg with no hesitation. I thought he was great.

Along came the 2000 election and I remember thinking that Shrub was possibly the most unappealing candidate since Nixon that the Pukes had put up. It was so obvious that this cretin had absolutely no clue. But then again in 2000 I didn't listen to any of the talking heads. We all know what happened.

In 2004 I voted for John Kerry and John Edwards. I was absolutely positive that they would win, but I didn't think KKKarl would steal the election again. But he did. And nobody did anything about it.

What have we got now. A Congress that is afraid of its shadow and a Constitution that has been shredded by the likes of Bush, Cheney, Gonzales, Addington, Yoo etc. We're facing a recession that's sure to be as bad as any previous one. In fact this might be the The Great Depression 2.0.

I've never been so depressed in my entire life. I always had hope for my beloved country, but I can't help but feel that the great experiment of the Founding Fathers is going to end up on the scrap heap.

We should have listened to Dwight Eisenhower in his last speech to the American people as President. He was completely right about the military-industrial complex.

[calico1]

18. If you want a little motivation to vote I will give you one:

Justice John Paul Stevens is in his 80's and unlikely to last another 8 years. He is the most liberal judge on the court. Also, justice Ruth Bader is not in great health. She may retire due to health problems. All the liberals on the court are older than the Conservatives. So with the next presidential term we could see several new judges appointed to the court. The next president could end up sucking as president and be gone in one term. A supreme court justice could serve for decades and influence your daily life and mine for decades. Just as an example, when Justice Stevens became a Supreme Court Justice I was 17. I will be 50 next month.

The other reason why you should go out and vote in November is because of all those "little" elections. The ones for your town elections, any proposition that affects your town, etc. So many people only vote in the "big" elections and neglect the ones that most affect their lives directly.

I am a Clinton supporter because I think she has a good, pragmatic head on her shoulders and she is tough. I am not crazy at all about Obama but if he ends up being the nominee, I will vote for him unless I see him eating a live baby on national TV or something like that. You will see me vent a lot in some posts on the other board but it is mainly letting off steam. The reality is I have had enough of Republican rule. even if our candidates are not perfect, we can't change anything by staying home and not getting involved at all. In 2000 many people expressed discontent by voting for a 3rd party candidate and in doing so helped usher in 8 miserable years. I also want to see a lot of things changed but I would rather do that with a Democrat in the WH.

[Individualist]

19. You're not the only one.

[L. Coyote]

20. You mean nothing like in nothing? Then probably!

[Orsino]

22. I'm trying to keep hope alive.

I want the Democratic president to end the war, first and foremost. Our candidates are making some of the right sort of noises, but I haven't seen much passion about it yet.

The rest of the vital work that needs doing, though, is probably going to go undone. :-(

[warren pease]

23. How could it?

By the time mass media got through weeding out the "radicals" -- Kucinich, Gravel and finally Edwards -- the corporate androids were the only ones left standing. So now we get to choose among candidates from the moderate right, the corporate right, the religiously insane right or the Curtis LeMay right.

This was pre-ordained from the moment mass media eliminated the first "unelectable" candidate and force-fed us only the safe and trustworthy ones -- those carefully vetted and found acceptable to the corporate oligarchy because they show absolutely no interest in tampering with the status quo.

It's axiomatic that as long as you can limit the debate to a narrow spectrum that you define and control, you can't lose. Which is to say, if a panel discussion only includes conservatives and their ideologies range from hard right to moderate right, a conservative point of view is inevitably going to prevail. Same goes for presidential politics; get rid of the progressives early on and the status quo can't lose.

Now it's our job to troop dutifully to the polls this fall and ratify one of the pre-selected status quo stick figures who pretend to represent opposing agendas -- neither of whom a sane, bright, reasonably self-interested person would ever vote for if there were any real alternatives. This helps perpetuate the illusion that we live in a democratic republic where elected representatives are actually accountable to the people and work tirelessly to serve their constituents. And other such mythological nonsense.

Thanks to the mind-numbing influence of corporate media and its amazing collection of lint-headed political "experts," people now experience politics as passive consumers rather than as active participants. Which is the idea, since that approach has a way of keeping the peasants docile, compliant and hopeless.

So no, expecting change in the form of actual improvement in the US quality of life is a sure way to make you crazy. We've been taught by television to purge our minds of important issues like REAL universal health care that eliminates the insurance industry parasites, ending US military and corporate imperialism around the globe, dealing somehow with the massive debt and trade imbalance that's Bush gift to our grandkids, figuring out some way to avoid another 1929-class depression, shifting scarce federal money to programs that actually help Americans rather than those that efficiently murder Middle Eastern non-combatants... those things are "off the table," to quote one of the era's most pathetically inept politicians. A new administration will tinker around the edges but will never actually address the systemic failures that lie at the heart of the American scam.

Or, as George Carlin says, they call it the American dream because you have to be asleep to believe it.

Time to begin drinking heavily.


wp

[SammyWinstonJack]

25. ...

:applause:

[DaDooRonRon]

24. It has very little to do with the media

It has EVERYTHING to do with the fact that said "accomplishments' must be pre-approved by the folks who will bring either Clinton or Obama to power.

Don't blame the media - it's a convenient out and any politician with half a brain can lead them wherever he/she wants to go (see: Bush, George)

Blame the Demopublian Party for pretending that it cares for anyone who can't further its agenda.