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

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)

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That's actually a very funny joke. I like the part where you indulge the fantasy that the president is on "our side," whatever that is. Half of the people rooting for the occupant of the Oval Office want to blame Republicans for cutting too much in the recent budget deal! Leadership isn't the issue. The politicians in Washington believe that they are leading. They think they are working the system and preserving it for all the right people. They don't see anything wrong with their leadership.

The problem is one of power, not leadership. The politicians in Washington have usurped entirely too much of it. Five hundred people in the imperial capital's echo chamber cannot successfully comandeer the lives, fortunes, and sacred honor of three hundred fifty million people across a three thousand mile wide continent to the outrageous extent that they have without causing all sorts of corruption, dysfunction, and conflict. If anyone wants to fix that problem, the federal government needs to be dismantled, before it collapses anyway. I can't see many people being ready to do that, despite the fact that a recent poll shows that most of the population has lost faith in the federal behemoth.

Thank you so much for being an apologist for the status quo, and the demonstration of your knee-jerk response to anything remotely suggesting Obama loves his country more than he loves his corporations.

I am not advocating for the status quo. It does not matter what Obama may or may not love. It is the system that is broken. It ought to be dismantled, but it won't be. Instead it will collapse.

Bullshit, the USA's going to be in 2100 one of the greatest powers in the world. Other societies said to replace it may not make through the 21st Century intact, much less as rivals.

Depends upon what you mean by "the USA." Empires don't reform themselves; they collapse. Nevertheless, there's still an England, but it isn't the same creature that it was in 1500. The city of Rome is still standing in the 21st century, as well, but the Roman Empire lies in dust and ruins. Frankly, I agree with Martin van Creveld: (http://mises.org/store/Rise-and-Decline-of-the-State-The-P271.aspx) the entire structure we recognize as the Westphalian nation state is crumbling all around us. In 2100 there may well be some socio-political entity to which people refer to as "The United States of America," but I think it won't be very much like the monolithic centralized government full of bureaucrats and authoritarians possessed by an overweening hubris that exists now.

People have predicted that collapse forever. I will believe it when I see it.

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

Encourage this president to do those sorts of things?

Re: Encourage this president to do those sorts of things?

Re: Encourage this president to do those sorts of things?

Re: Encourage this president to do those sorts of things?

Re: Encourage this president to do those sorts of things?

Re: Encourage this president to do those sorts of things?