Is our system, political and economic, rotten to the core? Like the

[KlatooBNikto]

old Soviet Union? And likely to come down like a house of cards if things continue like they are ?

My own view is that it has had corruption for a long time as the grease that made our machinery move but it was well hidden in the past because our rulers needed perception management. The wheels of perception management have come off with a deranged numbskull like Bush at the helm.That is the difference. It is now highly visible and overt.

[salinen]

1. It's only highly visible and overt

to those who possess eyeballs.

[Mend]

2. I think Clinton build up the country so well

that it is taking this long for the rot to spread, but I do think the country is fracturing finally.

[KlatooBNikto]

4. For a long time I think the system was kept alive by the dominance of

of our corporations in the world economy.As that dominance is fading fast and even our own corporations no longer think that they owe anything to the American public in their chasing of profits in India and China,the rot in our politics is finally showing.

I was reminded of a saying attributed to Lenin that give the capitalists enough rope and they will hang themselves. I didn't know that Lenin was that smart!

[PA Democrat]

3. I think the biggest problem we face is the influence of money in politics

Election campaigns have become multi-million dollar media blitzes that force politicians to spend so much of their time fund raising that that they have compromised their ethics. Politicians in a desperate effort to out-fundraise their opponents make promises to their wealthy campaign contributors that more and more often do not represent the best interests of the majority of Americans.

[pretzel4gore]

5. politically correct dishonesty....

'communism' was never a fearsome philosophy that had to be destroyed....drugs aren't 'bad' no matter how much money spent on saying they are, greed is not the 'only' good and might does not make right, at least until the present it didn't; america isn't a 'christian' country anymore the the european colonizers were. These simple lies create a climate where tobacco could be foisted on an entire unsuspecting population with gov assistance; where nuke power could be seriously be considered despite impossible problems associated with radiation; where mass transit could be relegated to afterthought when transport system was being planned and built, where mara wanna could be made illegal cuz the alchohol/drug business couldn't control it and wanted no competition etc...all this eventually lead to a situ where a pervert like geebush is president, and the law serves the lawyers (rightwingers only of course)

[donsu]

6. yes, america should be surrounded with crime scene tape

nt

[Doctor_J]

7. I think that up until 4 years ago,

some nominal attention was paid to the government actually serving the people. There's been too much corporate money for a long time, and the citizen's voice has been fading, but as long as the Dems had some voice, some service to the people was a part of the apparatus.

Once the GOP took over the entire establishment, any semblance of government of, by, and for the people was gone, and with it the hope for long-term survival. With *, Scalia, Frist, Delay, and Murdock as heads of the various branches of the government, you are looking at a country being run by pure evil. It's different than the third Reich, IMO - Hitler was insane, actually thought he could take over the world. The people in charge now are sane, but evil and corrupt to the core. I fear that our best hope is economic collapse and quiet internal revolution. Worst case we end up like the 3rd Reich.

[Goathead]

8. Yes, you are right, it has always been there.

I find it so ironic when people used to look at "banana republics" and chastise them as being corrupt third world nations. You don't have to go to Central America, you need only go as far as your local school board to find corruption in politics.

[davekriss]

9. I liken the situation to this oft seen quote in these parts...

The illusion of freedom in America will continue as long as it's profitable to continue the illusion. At the point where the illusion becomes too expensive to maintain, they will just take down the scenery, they will pull back the curtains, they will move the tables and chairs out of the way, and you will see the brick wall at the back of the theatre.
--Frank Zappa, 1977


Clearly the cost-benefit of maintaining the illusion have gone negative and the oligarchy is allowing it to unravel.

[AG78]

10. Isn't every giant system like that?

http://www.counterpunch.org/goff04022005.html

There is no WE. There is a THEY. I may as well explain this wild-eyed leftist claim. THEY are an imperial ruling class. THEY really do exist, and with about a month's dedicated research, it would be possible for a small staff to list them out with names and addresses... but then someone would accuse us of developing hit lists. Hmmm.

THEY operate very like a mafia, and THEY rely very much on their US state to keep things running smoothly, including sending out hirelings to kill their enemies and victims. The difference is that the hirelings, who are vast numbers of working class kids, have been convinced all their lives by a zillion-dollar-a-year Orwellian brainwashing apparatus to believe that killing for bankers and currency speculators and politicians is some noble cause.
__________________________________________________________________


It's a crazy world. I wonder about the very question you ask everyday. I wonder where we're going as a species, and I still don't have an answer.