Now I'm going to walk AWAY FROM MY KEYBOARD and go feed my chickens, corral some dust bunnies, DO SOMETHING -- ANYTHING except watch The Drama.

Democrats today are the liberal wing of the Republican Party.

<<It's just us fringe mavericks out on the edge of the herd who see the open spaces and think it should be different. We're friggin' mutants!<p> A standing ovation, from one friggin mutant to another.

ONward!

'Bout time you showed yourself.  
This diary is so beautiful I am jealous.

I'm finally out in the sticks too, hoping to get less citified.  It's Hard Work, how do you do it?

I don't think you'd be happier if you escaped everything. I just read that lonely and isolated people are more likely to get Alzheimer's - is that some level of happiness?

broken up? I didn't put no stinkin' space between the "a" and the "ts." Will someone with power fix it? heh. It's just so fucking typical! "democrats" can't even stay together on a line; us ts's keep dropping off... Total Shitheads, True Skeptics, Trouble-makin' Shit-stirrers...

We CAN form a commune - but we can't live together.  You know that - somebody says "I don't care if she scrubbed the floors, I sweated in the hot sun, and she doesn't deserve to eat my food." Just being married is hard enough, more people than two is a circus.

You're working way harder than me,  I'm just working on being able to cope with whatever's coming, and trying to help other people cope too.

Try reposting it with a new title.  There's always a way around  a problem.
Tip: use the word 'naked'

 

This not only pertains no non-democrats. It also pertains to frustated Democrats like myself. To continue to vote for them will only encourage them to do what they please.

Last mid-term election I did not vote. I will no longer vote for anyone who does not deserve my vote. It is getting to the point when I will start voting aginst them. And then they wonder why people leave and vote for third parties (I know cause I was one of them)

If you want me to go back to the place that I was born, tell your corporations to leave my country (Leon Gieco)

The whole edifice of The American Empire is crumbling under our feet.

I think you are right. It's a general trait of empires, I guess, that once they get to a certain stage, they become behemoths that can't be reformed or fixed. They have to collapse under their own weight.

I guess the place of Bush in history is to accelerate the collapse, so that America doesn't take the rest of the world down with it.

I think that what we are seeing now is that individuals, even having such a powerful tool as the Internet at their disposal, can't change the destiny of nations. At bottom, the culture—with its idea of American exceptionalism, the idea that America has perfected the way that society should be organized—is the problem. And individuals are stuck with the culture they've got. Significantly changing a culture takes generations, but America doesn't have that long to get its act together.

Thank you for such an eloquent, if bleak, diary.

The Clintons represent the Republican wing of the Democratic party.

So let the revolution begin. I don't believe that just getting a few 'good dems' elected is answer any more-they can Rage against the Machine all they want but a few lone voices are pretty much just pissing in the wind now. And we all know that all that that gets you is wet and smelly so no one will come near you.

The Machine has become like a stinking rotted mackerel left out in the sun for a week-no amount of resuscitation, deodorant or makeup is ever going to make it look, smell or taste good.

We need a new movement like the Civil Rights Movement...something new and astounding say like a government for the people by the people(corporations are not people)...... where gay people aren't told to well just wait awhile this isn't the season to be pushing for equal rights or that only Black people who are acceptable to white people can be considered the first Black to run for president or that disabled people seem to be hidden away because they have no access ramps, Roe v Wade is not optional, faith or no faith is a personal thing and not a political talking point or.....well you get my meaning I guess..I'm tired of listening to triangulating mealy mouthed dems who sold out long ago.

And first on my agenda would be to get rid of the media as it is now known..the root of half the evil of a dumbed down, misinformed society.

'Poverty is the worst form of violence'--Gandhi

It is hard to stay enthused for change after being a loyal dem for 40 some years. At least the Republicans get radical right wing behavior for their commitment. We in the left seldom get any radical left encouragement from the MSP (main stream politicians). The wingers, on the other hand, send nut after nut to Congress who pushes for any radical idea they wish. Soon the radical idea becomes more mainstream and eventually the norm. Torture anyone? Pre-emptive War? Spying on Americans? Habeaus Corpus? Restrict women's rights?  Restrict gay rights? repeal Roe v Wade? Become a theocracy? Disband the U.N?
 Nothing is off the table or too extreme in the  right's agenda. EVERYTHHING is off the table to the radical left. We are to keep holding our nose and vote for the Dem that has arisen from the festering pile of corporate politics. We can't have mass transit. We can't quit putting ANWAR on the chopping block. We can't question defense spending. We can't reduce consumption. We can't have human rights for women and gays. We can't have universal health care.
It has become difficult to stay engaged. I too do the garden, small footprint life in rural America. I realize it is not enough. A small as my contribution is  I still fund the empire that is strangling the planet.

While I want to applaud every sentiment while I'm reading this diary, the concrete sequential part of me takes hold as soon as I step back from the computer. When I try to do everything at once, I get absolutely nothing done!

A third party is a very positive step toward breaking the corporate hold on candidates. But you don't start by trying to elect a third party president. (See where that got us?) You begin by establishing a third party block in the House--one with which we MUST deal when we try to get legislation passed. If all the money donated to Nader in 2000 had been donated to getting half a dozen Greens in congress, the entire planet would be different.

We need uniform recall policies across the nation, so that when someone like Lieberman lies his way into office, the electorate has an option.

We need a candidate who is not a white European male--Yes, I like Edwards and Dodd. It's just that the world is watching. Break the mold, and you start people thinking.

And more than anything else, we need verifiable voting. At AAAS last Friday (and again Saturday in Oakland) a group of renowned computer scientists resurrected the evidence to show that we don't have any way to know who won the last few elections. Forget doing anything until that gets fixed.

Sorry, going out to feed the chickens or (in my case) trying to get the labrador to smell a little better won't do it. We have to identify concrete steps, not throw the dog out with the bath water.

Michaela

I too am extremely isolated-I like it that way.
It would be nice to have a third party, but it will never happen if people keep looking for the perfect candidate.

That's why I will vote for Hillary. A sex change in the white house is, in my opinion, the only chance to ever having a third party.

If the American masses can and are willing to make that switch over, eventually a third party will get a chance.

I know lots of people don't like Hillary because she's playing the as-is political game, but what other choice does she have or any other female politician at this point in time. To not see her as a step to real change is just more mind blindness.

Now those of us who isolate themselves from the mainstream may look like we have our head in the sand, but I think we know that it is because we see the answers that others refuse to see or listen too.

The Road Less Traveled is a lonely one, but it sure builds character. And I'll take a 'new' character any day over the status quo.

"Time is for careful people, not passionate ones."

What changes systems, even big nasty empires is competition from a viable alternative. All this talk of living in isolation, off the grid etc, is part of the solution as I see it. The more people that are outside the system the more opportunity for this competition I see. So take what you are learning about non-participation and share it, coordinate with others; provide the alternative through leading by example..

Fighting the Commies gave us the Great Society because we had to compete with free bread and vodka for all. The worst part about a unipolar world is the stagnation and corruption of what got the US to this pinnacle in the first place.

Viva Presidente Ezequiel - Aquí no hay quien viva!