A key reason Sanders' message is important -- Why government REALLY doesn't "work."

[Armstead]

This is why we have to get beyond the same old stuff in the moribund political dialogue.

It seems like every election, all politicians address how government is failing us. It becomes a cliche. "I'll reinvigorate the government and bring it back to the people...." blah,blah,blah.

But they always skirt around WHY it doesn't work. Oh sometimes they use the words like "special interests" or something equally nebulous. Or they blame the other party. It's the same stuff that both Democrats and Republicans spout -- every year.

When we call it a nebulous "failure" without identifying WHY, we don't give a focus to actually begin to change that problem. And it makes it worse, by helping to advance the CONservative message that government is incapable of constructive action.

However, the dirty little truth is that government DOES work. It is immensely effective for the wealthy and powerful. And the better it works for them, the worse it works for everyone else. As the government continues to work better and better for them, they have gained ever-growing resources to basically take it over.....And weaken the ability of the majority to have any meaningful influence on it.

And this results in an Oligarchy in which a smaller and smaller number of people and business control more, and feed themselves and starve everyone else.

Maybe oligarchy isn't a cool political buzzword - but we need to identify the real problem instead of ignoring it -- and stop portraying it as a systemic force of nature that can't be controlled.

Whatever one thinks of Sanders, that identification of the actual core problem is a major injection of truth into an otherwise moribund political process. That is needed to shift the tide in a more truly productive direction.

[Arkana]

1. It's Obama's fault. He didn't use his Green Lantern ring hard enough.

His constructs were weak.

[Armstead]

2. Not Obama's fault. But it needs to move to the next step forward.

I wish President Obama were more undiluted in the Sanders/FDR mold, in terms of identifying the real culprits.

But he did push the needle a little further in the direction it needs to go.

However, we really do need a more major course correction -- both for the process of politics, and for the necessity of larger progress, or more accurately, survival.