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OpEdNews Op Eds    H2'ed 5/28/16

Putting Boots (Birkenstocks) on the Ground: Part II

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'Revolution is the festival of the oppressed.'
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It looks like the American public, or some significant portion of it, is waking up. There is now a new populist uprising in the making. Long beaten into submission, the cowering lumps of disengaged despairing doormats have finally seen the writing on the wall, are breathing a new life, and getting ready to strike back at their oppressors -- the 1% and the .1% and the .01% -- who just about have it all, but want even the few remaining scraps.

The statistics have been clear for some time. Everyday Americans -- the 99% -- have been getting royally screwed. Government of the people, by the people, for the people has been turned into a hollow slogan, a fading recollection of a noble, now irrelevant, improbable, and ostensibly inoperable idea.

In spite of the best efforts by the media -- always in service of the rich elite -- to hide the rotten news mounting during this democratic devolution, people have grown increasingly aware of the problems and outcomes. They didn't need to look at charts and statistics. They felt the pain personally. Individual wealth for everyday Americans is shrinking. Wages and purchasing power are in decline. People are in debt up to their eyebrows. Schools, roads, whole communities are falling apart. The water isn't even fit to drink.

The Sanders/Trump populist uprising is the inevitable result. Eventually, the pain becomes unbearable and people understandably look for some way or some one to fix things. Sanders has some great ideas, Trump has a big mouth. They each in their own unique and characteristic ways represent a "savior" to the masses.

But neither of these men, or any presidential candidate for that matter, can get the job done. That is written in stone. Read the Constitution.

How does it get done?

We get it done. Sure, you can follow the campaign, go to your favorite candidate's rallies, watch the battle for the presidency unfold on the boob tube. After all, it's the best reality show in town. Better than Mud Wrestling With The Stars!

Then, when you want to actually do something for yourself, your family and friends, your community, your country, please tear yourself away from this insulting media circus and begin to actually change the world for the better.

Forget about the labels. Forget Democrat, Republican, liberal, conservative, right wing, left wing, socialist, Green Party, Tea Party.

Americans actually agree on a lot of important things. Arguably most!

With all of the shouting, the cage fighting of the Republican debates, the far more civil and intelligent but still largely irrelevant Democratic debates, muddled by the sports-team-like coverage of all matters political by our entertainment-oriented media, you wouldn't know this. But most Americans actually share a host of values and priorities, and even more surprisingly, specifically agree on much of what needs to be done and not done.

Here is a short list of things U.S. citizens by sizable majorities agree on:

75% of Americans want a federal minimum wage of $12.50 per hour.
63% of Americans want a federal minimum wage of $15.00 per hour.
75% of voters want fair trade agreements protecting jobs, workers, the environment.
76% of voters want a cut back on military spending.
76% of voters want the U.S. completely out of Afghanistan.
79% of voters want no reductions in Social Security, 70% support expanding it.
79% of voters want no reductions in Medicare.
80% of voters oppose the "Citizens United" U.S. Supreme Court decision.
68% of voters think taxes on the wealthy should be increased.
71% of voters support massive infrastructure renewal.
74% of American voters are for ending oil industry subsidies.
93% of voters want GMO labeling on their food.

These are huge majorities!

These astonishing and powerful consensuses get lost in the trivialization, marginalization, and other weapons of mass distraction and sheer propaganda we all endure just trying to find out and understand what's going on. We are teased, taunted, cajoled, manipulated, titillated, dazzled, disturbed, and generally overwhelmed by the main stream media.

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John Rachel has a B.A. in Philosophy, and has written eight novels and three political non-fiction books. His political articles have appeared at OpEdNews, Russia Insider, The Greanville Post, and other alternative media outlets. Since (more...)
 

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