The system is broken. It is broken because we allowed big money interests to corrupt our government. It is broken because we decided that we would fight each other on trivial social issues while ignoring the destruction of the Middle Class.

Bill Clinton said it best; its the economy stupid. More to the point it is how a greedy and selfish elite managed to hijack the government for its own narrow purpose. It is how that effort was aided and abetted by our two party system. It is how we allowed both Republicans and Democrats to be taken over by corrupting corporate dollars. Until we get smart and rebuild our public sphere, until we rebuild the commons we are just going to see more and more of this. Corporate power needs to be checked and rolled back. We have to rebuild and believe in the common good again.

Our government does not function because we bought the Reganite lie that government does not work and only the market knows best. We have to put a stop to the deregulation and the privatization of the nation. It has got to be We the People, to form a more perfect union once more.

BP is going to act like the robber barons they are, they are going to maximize profits for their shareholders. They don’t care about anything else; that is why you need a strong counterweight to the blind greed of BP and other corporations. It is a shame that the true face of corporate malfeasance had to be shown once more, that we had to see the U.S. Gulf Coast ruined by a oil slick from hell to get the message. Large transnationals are at base a-moral in the best of times. It is not all that hard for them to become immoral. It is not that hard for them to become deeply and banally evil. It is just their nature. It is inevitable that any politician who is corporate friendly, will in the end become hostile to the public good. It follows as night follows day.

Lieberman comes to mind as someone who represents the less ideal end of the independent candidate spectrum. He also ran a campaign claiming his position outside the two major parties made him a better representative. I think all independent candidates do.

Of course Crist is actually a good guy and Lieberman’s a piece of, well…. Crist is from the part of Florida where I’m originally from and I’ve known him since he was a state senator.

I feel he will still caucus with the Republicans when all is said and done, and probably run for reelection as one assuming they haven’ gone extinct by then.

Even if this bipartisan commission suggests cutting benefits, which isn’t certain, they are most certainly going to suggest higher taxes as well. That’s a given.

Will anyone listen to either of those suggestions in this economy? No.

We cannot sustain offshore drilling, so people are going to have to re-tool.

This has been our problem. No one wants to ever start the painful process, so we ended up where we are today.

Too many of us have looked the other way because of jobs, etc.

IT MUST STOP NOW.

http://nyti.ms/c6GH0o

**The real issue is getting REPRESENTATIVE government, not simply politicians that protect their own party against what the people who elected them want.**

Ah! If only it were that simple nowadays. What does the Democratic party stand for? Nothing. Obama is plotting right now to privatize social security. Abortion rights? Climate change? More and more the positions of the two parties are almost a blur as the DEMS compromise so much.

No, if we cannot have public financing of elections, it’s getting politicians to protect the people rather than the monied interests who fund their campaigns.

http://blogs.orlandosentinel.com/news_politics/2010/06/mccollum-pressuring-crist-to-sign-abortion-ultrasound-bill.html

McCain has no intellectual or moral compass any longer. If you don’t like his position on an issue, wait until the political winds shift and so will he.

The real issue is getting REPRESENTATIVE government, not simply politicians that protect their own party against what the people who elected them want.

It’s one reason I’m secretly rooting for Charlie Crist. An insider turned independent, with name ID, is a start in the right direction IF he can win. He won’t be beholden to party, but only to issues and Floridians. THAT’S what is needed.

Check out the renegades on the left & the right, one of them Sestak, though he’s still an insider-centrist of sorts, but also Halter in Arkansas.

I am in total agreement on that statement also. That is why I want new blood in the Government and I really don’t care if the people are Repubs or Dems, as long as they listen to what their constituents want.

That is why I call myself a Tea Partier, I want change and I want government fixed. although some issues have gone down and things have been said by Tea Party members, that make my eyes pop out. So I guess really I am just a Centrist.

Yes, that’s it in a nutshell. I know McCain/Palin wouldn’t have done any better, and probably worse, but who would have thought it would be this bad? One can’t tell the difference between R and D anymore. And the political ads running now just make me hit *mute* and we’ve got months to go. I don’t think any Dem is going to do well in ND.

But it’s not just Pres. Obama, but the entire federal government has been proven incompetent.

Part of the problem is that MMS, through Bush-Cheney, was made into a corrupt crony operation. Additionally, deregulation, which began in earnest under Reagan, has not been checked by any president, so that when disaster hits our tax monies are proven to have been wasted on paychecks, with no infrastructure to show for it.

I’m as critical as anyone on Obama, which he has earned on the BP blowout, but no one should be under the impression that McCain-Palin would have handled this any better. In fact, likely worse, because not only are they in bed with BP, like Obama, but they have no respect for government’s function.

Our GOVERNMENT is broken, from Executive Branch to Legislative. We are inept. The big two parties basically the same, except for nagging details, which don’t make any difference, because either way the government doesn’t function.

Taylor,

You have just stated exactly how I have been feeling for a long time and I want to thank you for it. I am not a wordsmith like you, but, I definitely have thoughts and ideas to express, and in this case, you did it for me, beautifully. As I stated in an earlier post, we need to take care of ourselves, before we can take care of others.

I know we don’t agree on several issues, but, I respect you as a journalist. Sometimes, I think you go overboard a bit, but, we all do.

Anyway, I am in tears a lot lately. I feel like our country is falling apart sometimes, especially, with this BP catasrophe and I feel our President is in way over his head, and have thouhgt that way for a long time, and not just on this issue. I did not vote for him because I felt this way, that he is too inexperienced, incompetent and arrogant.

When he got elected,even though I was against him, I was willing to respect him and give him a chance, simply because he is the President of my country. Unfortunately, my fears have been proven correct, and I cannot offer this man respect.