Reform or rebellion; which do we need most in America? Or is it reform and rebellion?
We do have a Constitution, the concept of the rule of law (though in practice justice for all is far from being achieved) and a democratic republic (that is in need of complete overhaul). For there is little doubt our country has become usurped, corrupted and dysfunctional, resembling a plutocracy more than a representative democracy.
It is supposed to be of, by and for the people. Instead it has become of, by and for the rich and powerful, the United States of Corporate America.
The people are marketed as just another commodity by insidious corporate propaganda and given lip service and essentially disregarded by elected officials who are beholden to those interests that underwrite their campaigns, but certainly not the people they supposedly represent.
In our current state of affairs the Constitution and the rule of law are impediments the lords of our plutocracy work around, to pay homage to but in reality are laws and regulations to be ignored and disregarded.
We have legislation enacted and signed into law by the president who is then allowed to use "signing statements" where in essence he agrees to adhere to parts of the law he just signed and will follow and those parts of the law he disagrees with will just arbitrarily be disregarded and ignored. This alone is unconstitutional but is never challenged and become accepted practice.
The wars we engage in are supposed to be solely within the province of the Congress to declare. Now our wars are not only undeclared but that authority has been usurped by the executive. The funding of those wars remains within the purview of the Congress but is a mere formality as no Congress will withhold the funding of these wars (for which they believe withholding of funds would be tantamount to treason). So our wars continue unabated pretty much with a life of their own.
Our election process has been so thoroughly corrupted by corporate and special interest largesse it is representative of the people in name only, not in reality. For in reality those elected are beholden to the interests that bankroll them while the people's interests are left to wither.
The current electoral system has corrupted BOTH major parties so thoroughly that neither party is capable of reforming themselves; so completely they have become beholden to the big corporate and special interests.
The people may squabble over Republican or the Democrat policies reviling and recoiling against the other, but this is all just a side show. For it's not just one party or the other to blame but both parties that are complicit, both parties have been malevolent (to the interests of the people) and neither is capable of the type of reform necessary to turn the country around to fulfill the intent of the Constitution which is supposed to be of, by and for the people.
Only a third party, untainted and uncorrupted by big corporate and special interests could be capable of reforming our electoral system to where it truly represents the will of the people.
Yet in America, the history of reform movement's success is at best peripheral and one issue oriented i.e. woman's suffrage, civil rights. In our elections 3rd party candidates have been spoilers, helping to elect either the Republican or the Democrat.
So if a 3rd party in America has shown an incapability to break the stranglehold of the two party system then it appears the ONE solution that remains is for the people to rebel against BOTH Republicans and Democrats and form a new party.
The last rebellion in America was of course the Civil War.
We now have an un-civil culture war raging between a polarized left and right each respectively confined within the two existing parties. The "tea party" is essentially an extreme right wing of the Republicans while the progressive left sides reluctantly with the Democrats.
At first glance it may seem incomprehensible but if the most active and vocal of the right and left came together to form a 3rd party in a people driven unity movement it could be capable of breaking the stranglehold of the corporate dominated Democrats and Republicans.
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