Stop looking small, focus on the big picture!
To some extent, we're looking at a few of the same struggles here in Canada that you are facing in the United States. However, we are not in an election year right now, so a lot of us up here are watching how the wind blows in the USA right now, to see what's going to become of our biggest trade partner, and our closest neighbour.
Sometimes it seems so futile. It feels like progressives in the USA and North America are fighting a horribly lopsided uphill battle to win hearts and minds, but who are we really fighting against? The people we're fighting against believe that what they're doing is right, but why? How do the myths about government remain propagated?
It's extremely complicated, which makes it hard to talk about in any meaningful way. Are huge corporations to blame? Yes. Are the wealthy owners of those corporations who outsource and downsize to maintain the bottom line to blame? Yes. Is the media to blame? Yes. Are we to blame? Yes.
Wait... what? We need to stop, slow down and look at what's being fed to us. These discussion boards are a good example. We're so busy jumping on every little mistake that a candidate makes (moaning about an Obama misstep and crowing over a Romney misstep) that we're missing the big picture. The small things like what the pundits on Fox think, or Rush Limbaugh's latest calamity are the birdie.
And we're watching the birdie.
In the mean time, corporations are buying and selling our lives using politicians as puppets. We can't even have a meaningful discussion without some of the basic assumptions we've been working with changing drastically. For example:
The government should be run like a business. A successful businessman would be a successful president and lead to a successful country. Except... no.
Here's an article from Forbes:
http://www.forbes.com/sites/johntharvey/2012/10/05/government-vs-business/
And one from policymic.com:
http://www.policymic.com/articles/3355/why-government-can-t-be-run-like-a-business
The right can argue until they're blue in the face that the problem with government is that it's not run more like a business, but that will never make it true. But this is one of the basic assumptions in many discussions. It needs to be broken down, and we need to be able to actively and intelligently say "No. And here's why..."
Another example:
Taxes are socialist, and lower taxes will allow "job creators" to create jobs. But... also no.
An interesting explanation at HowStuffWorks:
http://money.howstuffworks.com/taxes-socialist.htm
When taxes on corporations and the rich are essentially gone, and there are still no jobs, the fix is in. In countries with far higher tax rates, there are effective and functioning social safety nets. This one goes hand in hand with the profit assumption from the first example. Are social programs profitable? Of course not. Should they be? Of course not.
The Tea Party and many of the regressive policies of the current crop of republicans are in place to break down the relationships between people and encourage everyone to look out for number one. The social contract is breaking down entirely. Everyone's out for their own interests, even if those interests are at the expense of the common good or society at large. Devotees of Ayn Rand are pouring toxic sludge into the mental environment, and we need to work our absolute hardest to clean it out.
Sorry, this was long, rambling, and possible incoherent and directionless. I just needed to get some of this off my chest. We can't allow ourselves to be distracted by the birdies that are going to always be shoved in our faces. Educate yourself. Make sure that everything you say is backed up in fact. As you know, reality has a strong left-wing bias!
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