General Discussion

lostnfound

(16,184 posts) Wed Apr 5, 2017, 09:40 PM Apr 2017

Dear U.S. Billionaires

We know you more or less own our "democracy" and the main levers of power in the U.S. and much of the world. Can you get your little club in order? Raise your standards a bit so that crazies like Mercer (google "Mercer radiation bomb", for example) get kicked out of your club? Letting the Mercers put their man in the Oval Office was reckless. Please, get your act together enough so that Putin doesn't turn the White House into his puppet theatre.

We don't ask for much. Okay, we know you hate us too much to sacrifice a penny on the dollar so that we don't die of curable illnesses. Got the message. But do you HAVE to let the world degrade down into future repeats of duck-and-cover drills? Having Mr. pussy-grabber as the main thing standing between us and North Korean mushroom clouds is downright scary.

And there's got to be better than the Erik Prince - Betsy DeVos family for shaping our future. Prince has been selling his paramilitary services to the highest bidder for a while now, so I don't think his patriotic creds have been renewed, and his sister Betsy doesn't seem to be, well, all that educated for a Secretary of Education.

That Supreme Court nominee, on the other hand, is just your type of guy, looking out for the inalienable right of corporations to insist that peasants who want a job don't expect to escape a fate of hypothermia and early death. So I won't expect you to have a heart and recognize the complete lack of humanity and wisdom in THAT one. But the rest of this nonsense? You got your creeps, your crazies, and your room-temperature-IQ guys. Cheeto and his mob and his extraordinary bumbling ignorance about the world around him -- it's gonna take us decades to live it down.

Y'all insisted through Citizen's United that you wanted it, seems like you got it and don't know what to do with it. We'd kind of prefer you just gave it back to us, but in the meantime...get your act together. This is an embarrassment.

5 replies

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Dear U.S. Billionaires (Original Post) lostnfound Apr 2017 OP

Millions of dollars for TV ads for Gorsuch in Texas. northoftheborder Apr 2017 #1

democracy has no meaning in the US system eniwetok Apr 2017 #2

That's the subtext of my thread. lostnfound Apr 2017 #3

Very well said Calculating Apr 2017 #4

The Constitution let in the People... eniwetok Apr 2017 #5

northoftheborder

(7,572 posts)

1. Millions of dollars for TV ads for Gorsuch in Texas.

Reply to lostnfound (Original post)

Wed Apr 5, 2017, 10:01 PM

Apr 2017

eniwetok

(1,629 posts)

2. democracy has no meaning in the US system

Reply to lostnfound (Original post)

Wed Apr 5, 2017, 10:17 PM

Apr 2017

"We know you more or less own our "democracy" and the main levers of power in the U.S. and much of the world."

You use the term democracy as if it has any meaning in the US federal system.

IT DOESN'T.

We are an antidemocratic republic originally designed to give elites a veto over the People... or as Madison once said the Senate was to protect the minority of the opulent against the majority. And the EC seems to have been designed to magnify the voting power of whites in slave states.

Since our system has no protections against demographic trends making the system more antidemocratic, today states with a mere 18% of the US population get 52% of the seats in the Senate... and the EC has a clear GOP bias. More bizarre... the amendment formula gives states with 4% of the US population the power to veto even the most desired reforms.

Given the above should we EVER wonder why the US can't enact sensible reforms like never having a president that was REJECTED by the People... or Single Payer healthcare reform?

lostnfound

(16,184 posts)

3. That's the subtext of my thread.

Reply to eniwetok (Reply #2)

Wed Apr 5, 2017, 11:18 PM

Apr 2017

I put democracy in quotes for a reason.
But the elites ought to be a little more responsible about it... they ought not risk nuclear winter in their pursuit of money and power.

Calculating

(2,955 posts)

4. Very well said

Reply to eniwetok (Reply #2)

Wed Apr 5, 2017, 11:52 PM

Apr 2017

If it seems like the people don't have a fair say in legislation and aren't represented properly it's because they aren't, and were never intended to by the founders of this nation. (mostly rich slave holders who wanted to ensure their continued power over the majority)

eniwetok

(1,629 posts)

5. The Constitution let in the People...

Reply to Calculating (Reply #4)

Thu Apr 6, 2017, 09:11 AM

Apr 2017

In the Articles Of Confederation only the states were represented. It was weak and all amendments had to be approved unanimously. The Constitution was stronger, let in the People to vote in the House, but the special interests of the time still knew they had a veto somewhere over everything that might be threatening. Part of that system was to magnify the power of whites in slave states while electing the president...

Madison, July 10 1787
The people at large was in his opinion the fittest in itself. It would be as likely as any that could be devised to produce an Executive Magistrate of distinguished Character. The people generally could only know & vote for some Citizen whose merits had rendered him an object of general attention & esteem. There was one difficulty however of a serious nature attending an immediate choice by the people. The right of suffrage was much more diffusive in the Northern than the Southern States; and the latter could have no influence in the election on the score of the Negroes. The substitution of electors obviated this difficulty and seemed on the whole to be liable to fewest objections.
http://avalon.law.yale.edu/18th_century/debates_719.asp

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