Is bypassing Congress gridlock and appealing directly to the people the only hope Obama has?

[rick-day.livejournal.com]

 

Some fiery shit right here. Shuts them other suits right up proper.


Questions for the group: Is he right regarding Obama's (and ours, collectively) only hope of turning this around? Is Congressional election system so money corrupt that we, the people, must literally fire them from their jobs? 

Does anyone know anything about his references to previous presidents bypassing Congress LIKE A BOSS and going to the people, even at the risk of alienating his own party (even more than he has)?


And what about this new bank idea of his, loaning business capital @ 2%? Which side claims that idea?

EDITED FOR CLARIFICATION: Folks, checks and balances are not the issue here. Not is the abolition of Congress and establishing  Executive dictatorships. That is silly talk.

The issue is the speaker in the video suggests the POTUS, who is free to speak directly to the people, should rally the people against the Congress incumbency.

Some think he has to have Congressional oversight to do so. Er, no. He is not passing laws here, folks.

What the gentleman in the video is suggesting is that Obama talk directly to the people as our LEADER, to point the blame at the entire congress, including his party (80% of the country agree). He has the bully pulpit.

The purpose of the bully pulpit being to rally the people to purge Congress of incumbents, replace them with 'clean' legislators (read clarifications in my comments to those below who misinterpreted the intent), who will pledge to work in a non-partisan manner to get the country back on track (whatever that is; another post for another time)

Comments

[mrbogey.livejournal.com]

Hate it and ridicule it but here we are.

[dukexmachismo.livejournal.com]

If we could get rid of Congress, jury trials and similar fripperies, we could balance the budget and restore America to greatness!

[policraticus.livejournal.com]

Maybe Herr Obama can finally get the trains to run on time.

[rick-day.livejournal.com]

oh there you tow go, fragmenting again!

I take it you are now apologists for the status quo.

[rick-day.livejournal.com]

I'd speculate your problem is if Obama points the finger of blame at BOTH members of Congress, you would probably blow a head gasket trying to anti-Obama your way out of him blaming the Dems in Congress.

Do you agree with the POTUS or do you defend the Democrats, who are equal to the GOP in blame here?

*pop* <---your mind

If we could get rid of unicorns..wait..we did!

[rick-day.livejournal.com]

Total point.

missed.

you.

Don't replace the structure (only you suggest that), instead replace the incumbents. Don't vote for candidates who take PAC money, or money from 'player lobbyists' in Congress (I'm sure there is a list somewhere of the top 2000 donors to Congress). Candidate refuse. Voter. Refuse.

Get it? We the people. But it starts with leadership. This revolution needs a ballsy leader. Whacha got over on the right there, citizen, who is not a poster child for the status quo, or The Christian American Agenda™?

*crickets*

Re: If we could get rid of unicorns..wait..we did!

[gunslnger.livejournal.com]

Don't replace the structure (only you suggest that), instead replace the incumbents.

Since the problem is the structure, what good would that do in the long run?

Re: If we could get rid of unicorns..wait..we did!

[rick-day.livejournal.com]

We disagree. The problem is the human rights given to the structure known as The Corporation, and its corruptible influence, not the structure of the Federal government.

Again, we agree to disagree on this point.

Re: If we could get rid of unicorns..wait..we did!

[gunslnger.livejournal.com]

That is an additional problem, that stems from the problem of the structure of gov't.

[nevermind6794.livejournal.com]

Thank god we have 90-year-old comic book blurbs to explain everything for us. That's way better than anything we've learned since then!

[mrbogey.livejournal.com]

Yea, fuck history. What does it know.

The comic book blurb was for the inevitable "tl;dr" crowd. There's a book, you know

[nevermind6794.livejournal.com]

Fuck history, indeed.

It was just a lot more fun to call it a comic book, partly because I can't believe anyone illustrated it. How odd.

Excellent! It needs links though

[montecristo.livejournal.com]

You've cited The Readers Digest Condensed version of Friedrich Hayek's The Road to Serfdom (http://www.iea.org.uk/sites/default/files/publications/files/upldbook43pdf.pdf) [PDF, 96 pages, with a nice little comic book style pamphlet at the end for the really text-phobic]

This is indeed where the situation stands. You can hear it in the political discussions everywhere, including in this very forum. People have a misguided religious faith in the power of collective coercion to achieve "unity" and "consensus." It is a fool's errand. Freedom escapes them entirely. They want a LEADER.

"What the common man longs for in this world, before and above all his other longings, is the simplest and most ignominious sort of peace -- the peace of a trusty in a well-managed penitentiary. He is willing to sacrifice everything else to it. He puts it above his dignity and he puts it above his pride. Above all, he puts it above his liberty. The fact, perhaps, explains his veneration for policemen, in all the forms they take -- his belief that there is a mysterious sanctity in law, however absurd it may be in fact. A policeman is a charlatan who offers, in return for obedience, to protect him (a) from his superiors, (b) from his equals, and (c) from himself. This last service, under democracy, is commonly the most esteemed of them all. In the United States, at least theoretically, it is the only thing that keeps ice-wagon drivers, Y.M.C.A. secretaries, insurance collectors and other such human camels from smoking opium, ruining themselves in the night clubs, and going to Palm Beach witn Follies girls. It is a democratic invention.

Here, though the common man is deceived, he starts from a sound premise: to wit, that liberty is something too hot for his hands -- or, as Nietzsche puts it, too cold for his spine."
— H.L. Mencken, The Disease of Democracy (http://www.ditext.com/mencken/democracy.html)

[luzribeiro.livejournal.com]

Yes, but do tell us what do *you* think.

[gunslnger.livejournal.com]

Is there some reason you think he doesn't think that?

[rick-day.livejournal.com]

Is there some problem with asking for some "original thought" or "opinion" in a serious topic posting?

[gunslnger.livejournal.com]

I have a problem with someone claiming that "I agree with X's opinion as presented here..." is not "original thought" or "opinion".

[montecristo.livejournal.com]

You have to understand what is being demanded when people hear reasoning and then ask, "Yes, but do tell us what do *you* think." The translation for that is: "Tell us what your unsupported, unreasoned, feelings are."

[luzribeiro.livejournal.com]

No, I'm just asking you to state an opinion of your own and support it with facts, not with someone else's cited opinions. And I'm not demanding anything, it's strange that you've interpreted it as a demand.

[luzribeiro.livejournal.com]

It would be sad if what his innumerable citations of someone else's thoughts are showing is that he simply follows others' ideas. I hope that isn't the case.

MAD PASTE SKILLS, BOSS

[rick-day.livejournal.com]

I'm not sure they can....I didn't see one original word in that post.

Re: Excellent! It needs links though

[underlankers.livejournal.com]

OK, so a dead white dude of another era thought this. How about someone from the 21st Century?

Re: Excellent! It needs links though

[htpcl.livejournal.com]

Under-L, is that really you? :-)

Re: Excellent! It needs links though

[montecristo.livejournal.com]

Well, if you don't like dead white thinkers, I could point you to a few live melanin-enriched thinkers who embrace these ideas:

• Thomas Sowell


• Walter E. Williams


• Wilton Alston (http://www.lewrockwell.com/alston/alston-arch.html)

If it's only the fact that Hayek is dead to which you are objecting, I could point you to Hans Hermann-Hoppe. (http://mises.org/literature.aspx?action=author&ID=164)

Re: Excellent! It needs links though

[underlankers.livejournal.com]

The point went to Moscow while you were going to Antarctica.