"Fifty Million Americans took back their Country"
I came across this article tonight, "American Uprising, Everything is about to Change" on a site called "Truth Revolt". People here like to complain about the Democrats and Daily Kos, here's the other side of the coin.
"This wasn’t an election. It was a revolution.
It’s midnight in America. The day before fifty million Americans got up and stood in front of the great iron wheel that had been grinding them down. They stood there even though the media told them it was useless. They took their stand even while all the chattering classes laughed and taunted them.
They were fathers who couldn’t feed their families anymore. They were mothers who couldn’t afford health care. They were workers whose jobs had been sold off to foreign countries. They were sons who didn’t see a future for themselves. They were daughters afraid of being murdered by the “unaccompanied minors” flooding into their towns. They took a deep breath and they stood.
They held up their hands and the great iron wheel stopped."
http://www.truthrevolt.org/commentary/greenfield-american-uprising
Fucking inspiring isn't it. All that's missing is background music, "God Bless America" Ya, it's no different than the other side though, in an American society divided into two segments, left/right, democrat/republican, Serf/Aristocrat. Remember the Obamabots, early edition. People that were praising the Lord, singing Hallelujah Jesus!. Praise the Mighty Obama and give him a Nobel Peace Prize quick! He's going to Save the World! His supporters bravely elected the first black president.
That reminds me, what could they give Trump. Evidently he has single handedly stopped World War III and a nuclear holocaust from happening. Trump has literally saved life on earth. Tell me that doesn't deserve a Nobel Peace Prize. Or maybe a Nobel Prize for Saving the World, a special category for Trump because no one has ever saved the world before. Hereafter whenever anyone else saves the world, it would be called the "Trump/Nobel Save the World Prize".
But it wasn't just Trump of course, just like it wasn't Obama. It was fifty million brave Americans who weathered all sorts of obstacles and hardships to elect the Man Who will Save the World.
"Instead the people stood in front of the machine. They blocked it with their bodies. They went to vote even though the polls told them it was useless. They mailed in their absentee ballots even while Hillary Clinton was planning her fireworks victory celebration. They looked at the empty factories and barren farms. They drove through the early cold. They waited in line. They came home to their children to tell them that they had done their best for their future. They bet on America. And they won."
I can't tell you how impressed I am. Hell, here we had a Revolution and I didn't even know about it. Not a very democratic Revolution if they don't even tell 250 million of their fellow citizens about it. So I guess that rules out another Revolution for another two hundred years or so. I think that's in the Constitution, "Revolutions will only occur every two hundred years or so". Maybe that was one of the lost verses, I don't know.
That's what we're up against folks.
Comments
Did he say "Kos to the left of me?"
"I’m a human being, first and foremost, and as such I’m for whoever and whatever benefits humanity as a whole.” —Malcolm X
I believe he did.
Little did he know how prescient they'd be.
No, that was "Markos to the right".
"US govt/military = bad. Russian govt/military = bad. Any politician wanting power = bad. Anyone wielding power = bad." --Shahryar
"All power corrupts absolutely!" -- thanatokephaloides
Jokers to the Right...
Same difference...
I'm the only person standing between Richard Nixon and the White House."
~John F. Kennedy~
Economic: -9.13, Social: -7.28,
Sometimes it seems hopeless when so much of the
country is caught up in the illusions. We can only hope Margaret Meade was right,
"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has."
We need to change this political system to prevent this from happening again. The protesters in the streets against Trump are misguided. It's not Trump, it's this system that gave us Trump and the choice of Clinton or Trump. It's this system that requires us to have a president. It's time we consider all options for a better society and world.
"It's not Trump, it's this system"
This, a thousand times.
Every time one of my "liberal" friends blames Trump for racism and misogyny, I repeat that he is a symptom. He is not the cause.
This country was founded on racism toward the indigenous peoples and built by the racist evil of slavery. The "freedoms" in the founding documents were always intended to be for the benefit of white, property-owning men, and the ideals we were taught in our history classes were never intended for those of us who don't fit that model.
Capitalism is a failed system. Empire must fall.
There is no justice in America, but it is the fight for justice that sustains you.
--Amiri Baraka
Courage Big Al
This thing is global for sure. It will take a global movement.
My analogy in another diary is the anti-apartied movement.
We must stick together and support one another.
I want a Pony!
As much truth here as there is snark
Does any one here NOT believe Killary would have started WW3, either with a no fly zone in Syria or pre-emptive war against Iran? That is a rhetorical question, because we all know the answer.
Yes, he will do plenty of harm, like continuing oil exploration (but he won't do coal). However Climate change may be doom in 10 years, Medusa would be doom in 4 years or most likely less.
I am hopeful--not afraid. We can continue working for peace, equality, sustainable environment, etc. with Mr. Trump in the White House. I would not be sanguine about such opportunity were Snakehead to have stolen the election.
Dum spiro, spero.
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BnRsaHXHznQ]
Well ya, I think it's been settled pretty much in these
here parts that Trump appeared to be the lesser evil. What he does now and what happens now with a republican controlled Congress and Senate is another story, just like it was with Obama. Some of his team, Gingrich, Guiliani, Christie, etc., are slimeballs extraordinaire, it appears he'll appoint Treasury by Goldman Sachs, continue the fake War OF Terror, etc.
Basically that's what its come down to for many, no change except maybe no WWIII. So there's that. But a real WWIII was ten years out or so anyway so it could very well still happen. Remember the seven countries in five years plan, it's going on 15. They're not proceeding as planned but they're very patient.
Al, Trump's crew will match Obama's slime ball for slime ball.
But without Obama's warmongers. That alone is cause for thanks.
He's Got to Be Careful With His Cabinet Posts... If He Goes too
corporate he's going to lose the trust of many of his faithful flock.
Let's not forget that he ran Left of Hillary on Trade, War, and Jobs (hat tip to some smarty here
). He strays too far from that and he'll have a weak left flank. That's the key to his little coalition. The people that bought his populist rhetoric so much that they ignored his cultural insensitivity.
“Tactics without strategy is the noise before defeat.” ~ Sun Tzu
"if he goes to corporate" you mean like today already?
Instant betrayal, woo! #SwampDrawn.
Team Trump is already filled with Washington insiders
LOL! Uh-huh. Same as it ever was 40 years ago, everybody over the side.
Thanks
Gross.
It's the new exceptionalism.
I did enjoy the moving sale though.
http://www.truthrevolt.org/news/ha-moving-sale-ads-pop-around-la-celebs-...
Regardless of the path in life I chose, I realize it's always forward, never straight.
It's more like a wandering lunatic uprising.
How do the "Democrats" keep losing to them???
Because democrats
raise a towering middle finger to the working class and poor every time they're in power.
What Do You Expect? They Don't Have Any Money.
All the freedom money can buy. And we're fixin to get that in spades via Drumpf. I hope we're aware and fight for human rights and human dignity hard enough to make it a habit.
“Tactics without strategy is the noise before defeat.” ~ Sun Tzu
If people can't be bothered to fight for it
Then they deserve what comes their way, the same way they deserved Trump.
The American Dream, Big Al. It's what's for breakfast. Peace.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tODaH_fGtMY
A truth of the nuclear age/climate change: we can no longer have endless war and survive on this planet. Oh sh*t.
OK, I will confess that was an audio phase of life
and I never heard the words. Breakfast in America translated as brekkies in AMerica and i didn't quite get the double irony. Nice listen at nearly 2AM.
Hey! my dear friends or soon-to-be's, JtC could use the donations to keep this site functioning for those of us who can still see the life preserver or flotsam in the water.
Friend, those fifty million voters saved many on this site from
wailing and gnashing of the teeth.
There are plenty of people who are utterly crushed by the oligarchic capitalism of the past decades. I do not share their nationalistic viewpoint and I do not agree with their prejudices. However, for many who are uneducated, and many who are, this is a coping mechanism to deal with being GROUND DOWN BY THE SYCOPHANTIC ENABLERS OF THE ELITE.
There is no place for racism. However, there is no place for looking at a group and demeaning their aspirations to a life of dignity.
Trump was willing to engage them. Restoring any semblance of fairness and dignity requires restoring it to EVERY IDENTITY and EVERY CLASS.
Anything else is punitive. Justice demands dismantling both parties as tools of those who want billions around the world to live in squalor and slave to death as disposable tools so that a few can horde everything, and satisfy the cravings of their warped minds.
If I were consistent in the belief, that only those like me deserve dignity, I would reach out to no one, and would silence even myself.
Perhaps this is what those who are in charge of the political game would like to see happen.
I have full solidarity with those who live in poor conditions, of every identity, and who struggle for a life of dignity.
I do not agree with their lifestyle or culture, but I am no better than they are, and no less deserving of that dignity.
Peace and love be with you, reader.
I always laugh when people bring up education.
Education usually is associated with reading and logic. When it comes to reading , if you spend your whole life reading lies can you be educated. Can you be well read and still be ignorant? Can you inform yourself with cable TV and still be left in the dark? Can you listen to Maddow's logic and still be a moron? I'm not even sure what education is or even what the truth is. I am reminded of my friend who graduated Princeton. Very "educated" but IMO ignorant. But that's just my opinion. Am I educated? Who knows? I don't read much and I don't have cable TV.
"Politics is the art of looking for trouble, finding it everywhere, diagnosing it incorrectly and applying the wrong remedies." - Groucho
It depends on what these terms educated and ignorant mean.
I use education to mean something along the lines of a disciplined approach to the acquisition of cognitive or other skills.
Those skills include how to make valid inferences from data, how to analyse arguments and sets of data, how to inform oneself and how to structure complex data.
They include too any profession which requires disciplined training for proper results.
I think that some relevant questions about education include, what does it mean to have the education for being a good citizen? What is the objective of education in the social context? What do we need to know in order to create a society in which everyone is allowed to participate fully, and to determine in harmony with others the material and non-material goals and ideals of that society?
To put it another way, we are always led back to the first principles of what it means to be a free person among free persons limited by material conditions and time.
I believe that only a well-thought-out system of education and politics can support posing these questions and encouraging everyone to work toward the answers.
None of the political parties in the US and certainly not its education system have this quality. It is little better than belonging to a society where one knows what to think from party organs. Instead of the party organ, we have mass media, social media, manipulated, quite directly, to achieve an outcome which favors a very small segment of society to the detriment of the rest.
Peace and love be with you, reader.
My point in highlighting that article was to show
their rather delusional thinking that electing Trump is somehow a working class "victory", and that they've started a fucking revolution by voting for a bigoted billionaire conman. Which is really no different than what happened with Obama in 2008, being labeled the progressive savoir who will end war and save America.
And that THAT is something we, unified, have to understand is getting us nowhere. We cannot have another election like this, it is ridiculous.
That has nothing to do with me thinking I'm better than anyone else.
Many of those 50 million people
Many of those 50 million people would have crossed over and voted for Bernie. That's a big reason (not the only reason, but an important one) why he would have had a much greater chance of beating Trump than Hillary did. Bernie spoke to them, spoke to their lives and their concerns.
A lot of the 50 million were not completely comfortable with Trump. But after Bernie was no longer in the race, Trump was the only remaining major party candidate who was anti-establishment and who acknowledged the things they were concerned about.
I believe there's a revolutionary process that got set in motion during Bernie's candidacy. I have to believe that the events of this week are part of the political revolution. Maybe it's not the way we thought it was going to happen, but that's how life works.
Bernie and his supporters said "enough is enough", and I think we're going to continue saying it. The folks who voted for Trump this week said "enough is enough" in their own way. They kept Hillary from assuming the presidency and the Dem establishment from maintaining control, and in doing so, I believe they placed the revolution in a position of greater vitality, with more room for proceeding more quickly than it would otherwise have had.
When I sense how I would have felt if Clinton had won, it feels so heavy and depressing, like a weight on my chest, preventing me from breathing. I do not feel like that now, with Trump as president-elect. There's a sense of uncertainty, but I can breathe. It feels like we're in a situation with great creative potential, rather than one of having the spirit and life squashed out of us. The folks who voted for Trump played a part in making this happen.
"Don't go back to sleep ... Don't go back to sleep ... Don't go back to sleep."
~Rumi
"If you want revolution, be it."
~Caitlin Johnstone
Brings up an important debate point, what is a revolution?
Bernie's "political" revolution turned out to be nothing more than more and better democrats, "revitalizing" the democratic party. That's no revolution in my book. Trump's so called revolution is going to be another Reaganesque attack on the working class and continuation of extreme wealth at the top. There will be no change in power which is what a revolution is all about. We'll still live in an oligarchy controlled by the rich, corporations, banks, media, etc. We still won't have a say in anything other than who they tell us we can vote for.
Personally I don't see Trump and a republican controlled Congress and Senate doing anything but continuing and solidifying the ruling elite's grip on it's power. In a sense, this election has stifled prospects for a real revolution and perhaps set the stage for one.
Protests started day one, we'll see where we go from here.
a revolution is a bloodbath,
which leads to a change of power. Not always the one desired.
"I’m a human being, first and foremost, and as such I’m for whoever and whatever benefits humanity as a whole.” —Malcolm X
Historically maybe, but not always.
I don't think it has to be that way. I approach a revolution as a change in power, how it happens doesn't have to be violent in my opinion. I think we have the power in numbers and have to find a way to harness that. I think we can use democracy by exercising democracy.
is this may be a little pipe dream?
I know only of one revolution that was called "peaceful" and that was Germany's reunification. But as I am not read and educated enough, I don't even know, if you could call that what happened there a "revolution".
There are two terms I have heard too often and am allergic to: "The American Dream" and "Revolution".
I could live without them.
Ya, it's a pipe dream mimi.
Everything's a fucking pipe dream.
Perhaps if there was one example to the contrary...
we would not think it was a pipe dream.
"I’m a human being, first and foremost, and as such I’m for whoever and whatever benefits humanity as a whole.” —Malcolm X
"We" B? Come on.
There's a couple on here that agree with me. I think.
I just meant me&mimi 'we'
No offense, Al...I am just Yuuuuuuuugely skeptical.
Maybe because I was a military history major at the zoo.
"I’m a human being, first and foremost, and as such I’m for whoever and whatever benefits humanity as a whole.” —Malcolm X