Sort of causes one to ask: Who is served by this government?

Unfortunately I don't think the tenement or trailer park folks, even implicitly, know the U.S. is a failed or failing state, as I doubt the "we, the people" or "government of the people, by the people, for the people" PR ever played well. Struggling day to day doesn't allow much time or energy to contemplate the state of the nation. And those struggles are personalized - after all, this is 'merica where everyone can make it. And if you can't? Why, there must be something wrong with you.

Those who dance are considered insane by those who can't hear the music. (George Carlin)

I really like the idea of a manifesto. The act of crafting one would be a challenging way to get people talking and listening to one another.

If you want things to get better, be prepared to deal with change.

I dare anyone who's going to these conferences, to work out a manifesto while you're there and attempt to have it read from the main stage on the day of the keynote.  Report back on what happened, it should be illuminating.

w/ all due respect, the point is that the  passionate action is bubbling just below the surface.

I'm not arguing that any of the candidates gives a shit...although Edwards' is talking the talk...it's not what I was trying to point out.

My work brings me into contact w/ these guys like those in the survey, all the time, hell, I'm one of them....carpenters, masons, stl workers, all the construction trades....I pay attention, I talk to them....they're pissed, they're scared and they're tired of getting fucked....if the pols don't wake up, it's going to get ugly, and in fact may do so anyway...there's a huge amount of pent up anger and it's going to find a vent, those who ignore do so at their peril.

hasn't happened yet, but don't think for a moment that it's to far fetched a scenario. the workers could shut this country down if they ever got their shit together...bet on it, as AG says...and they will if this continues.

my2¢

like it or not...there ain't no saviours coming...just read the fucking survey...hell take it, then draw your own conclusions.

lTMF'sA...the revolution will not be televised...Peace

It's gonna take a lot more passionate action to change the course of this nation, that, or economic collapse...than a few run of the mill politicians, playing within the system.

You are right that it is going to take us to get things changed.  And, sadly, enough passionate action may not come until we experience economic collapse.

As you said in a point below, people are holding on because they are only a pay check or two away from disaster.  I'm afraid it won't be long before even that "safety net" is gone.

Our politicians won't make any changes unless they are forced by us to do so. Hell, most people won't make changes unless something cataclysmic happens.

Nonetheless, I'm encouraged by what Dada is saying.  People are waking up -- slowly -- and realizing they are getting screwed by their own government and politicians.

As of yet, not many are willing to take the risks and pay the price that early labor organizers did.  We'd all like to believe that if we get and stay engaged in the political process, we can effect significant change.  On good days, I believe that.

Regardless of what it takes to effect the change, their is no doubt that it will come from us, not the politicians. They are, at best, allies in our cause -- and then only if they see it as a political necessity.

Peace.

If you want things to get better, be prepared to deal with change.

I think Edwards and Clinton and Obama and Kucinich all care. But they can't do it alone. That's the myth of America - that we have these great elected leaders. But nearly all major social change in this country has come from outside the Oval Office, the notable exception of course being Roosevelt's New Deal. And even then, he did that because that was what Upton Sinclair and Huey Long were gaining power with - plans for jobs and economic fairness. Had they not come before, Roosevelt may have gone a different route.

It IS up to us. But I don't think we have to slam potential leaders in the process.

"If you look for the social economic motive, you will not have to wait for history to tell you what was propaganda and what was truth." - George Seldes

some people did/do...unfortunately, it bodes ill for the future...

[...]

Goodling is only one of 150 graduates of Regent University currently serving in this administration, as Regent's Web site proclaims proudly, a huge number for a 29-year-old school. Regent estimates that "approximately one out of every six Regent alumni is employed in some form of government work." And that's precisely what its founder desired. The school's motto is "Christian Leadership To Change the World," and the world seems to be changing apace. Former Attorney General John Ashcroft teaches at Regent, and graduates have achieved senior positions in the Bush administration. The express goal is not only to tear down the wall between church and state in America (a "lie of the left," according to Robertson) but also to enmesh the two.

[...]

via Slate

lTMF'sA...the revolution will not be televised...Peace

Once the next crisis or set of crises completely undermine the fundamental assumptions that these kids (soon-to-be adults), they will be embracing whatever seems to make their post-consumerism life more meaningful. This could play out any of a number of ways - maybe along the lines of embracing a Venezuela-style 21st century socialism, maybe along the lines of some form of fascism (at this point my bet would be the latter, though I hope I'm wrong), maybe something else. Just as the ruling elites were caught off guard by the Great Depression, I'm expecting that the current elites will be  caught off guard by the next socio-economic crisis. Regardless, whatever emerges from the ashes in the coming years or decades will be almost unrecognizable to those of us who are pondering the future from our early 21st century blogs.

The Mahatma X Files. Peace With Attitude.