30 Years From Today

bear with me for a moment. The next two or three paragraphs are slightly...hmm - "creative." The eventual point pays off, I hope.

Have you ever read the Foundation books by Isaac Asimov? Within the world of science fiction, Asimov tells the story of a small group of conspiritors that encourage a bloated, decaying, megalithic superpower into its own inevitable demise, whilst laying the foundations for the organization that would fill the vacuum of power - over a several hundred year period.

The books are more than merely interesting bits of science fiction. Strip off the trappings of the genre for which they were written and you are left with a slew of interesting questions, such as - Do social and political structures behave in statistically predicatable patterns? If so, can these patterns be easily influenced? Again, if so, it would seem to be more effective to fight negative power structures head on, hoping to force change upon them. But if not, if social and political structres cannot be so easily swayed or influenced, then insurgent forces of change must learn to plan long term, and not short term.

And here's my true question - Is it honestly possible for us, and those like us, to change America's social and political horizons quickly enough to make a difference in the next sets of congressional and presidential elections, 2-4 years from now? Without a revolution?

The quick answer is "Yes!" because we love to be enthusiastic. Enthusiasm is energetic. Enthusiasm is contagious. Enthusiasm is vitaly impportant to our success. Ultimately, and sadly, enthusiasm won't be enough to carry the day on it's own. We need something more.

Perhaps its time we developed a 20 or 30, or even a 50 year plan. A plan that lays the foundation for the death-by-replacement of the multinational corporation. A plane that creates a populist controled media. A plan that brings America into the modern age of civil liberties. In other words, beyond enthusiasm, we need discipline.

Can we change America in 4 years? I just don't think its possible. We can't change something so large in so little time. It's taken the neocons a generation to get where they are today. They succeeded by planning longterm and by cheating, when convenient. But even thjeir cheating wasn't an overnight success story. The cheating was enabled by slowly taking over local politics and the national media.

We need to become teachers, to protect and guide our children and to preserve historic truths. We need to become journalists, to dominate the media and to be governmental watchdogs. We need to run for local political offices, so that WE control the recount processes.

We need to build a foundation for a renewed America. If it takes us 30 years to get there, then we better start now.

Where will you be 30 years from today? Where do you want to be?

you really should take a look at the Peak Oil Forum posts. Do a little research on the topic and then decide on a plan for the future.

forget about everything else...

My god. If Oil production peaked in 2000, and we're on the downward slope of the production bell curve, can you think of a better reason to plan to get rid of the current matrix of social and political leadership?

Civilation is changing, not dying. Who do you want in charge 25 years from now? Former Oil Company executives?

Unless you believe we need a revolution, or know of a non-violent means of inacting immediate political change, then you had better start planning 20-30 years ahead.

The end might be within four years.

Do you really believe this?

If so, then we better drop the facade of peaceful civil disobediance.

Forget GOTV, and screw BBV.

Hit the streets, massive riots. We're talking about saving the planet from total destruction. Arm yourself. Shoot to kill.

But if you don't believe that--and I don't--then we had better come up with a different set of plans. Saying that "Bush will destroy the planet" is either a call to battle or an excuse for sitting on our asses.

Neoconservatives have been at this game at least since the 1960s when the FCC changed the rules that spurred the rise of tele-evangelists.

Tell me, if the evangelists had not moved into television dominance 45 years ago, would Bush have been able to use them as a voting block, and same-sex marriage as a wedge issue today?

If Reagan had not vetoed the Fairness Doctrine 17 years ago, would we have Rush, Hannity, and O'Reilly today?

We KNOW this, but we keep fighting four year battles, focusing on elections, and the neocons keep consolidating thier power.

We here a lot about moving the Democratic party to the right to match America, but that has got to be the most ridiculous plan of all, because it falls directly in line with the neoconservative agenda to move the country to the right.

Instead of moving the party to the right, can we focus on moving America back to the left?

IMO, that should be our strategy. Long term. Slow and steady. Beginning now.

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

We can have the world's best plans, get the message out, get the popular vote, and it means not one twit, if we don't get an honest election count.

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

Just add to that and do what is required for tomorrow.

Here's an example:

Continue pushing for an end to black box voting today, educationg the public, pressuring the media, etc... but simultaneoulsy propose legislation to hit all 50 states that requires paper trails. Send letters to the editors of newspapers and news programs that ask why the USA, the leading technological center of the world, cant put a printer in a voting machine.

Get our journalists to write stories about India's democracy (the world's LARGEST democracy), and how they pull off popular elections with low tech voting machines.

Get our candidates voted into those lower level offices that control the county by county collection of votes.

It may take three elections cycles, but if we operate at the stealth level (as the neocons did for a generation before grabbing power) then we'll be in a position to DO something about the problems we face today.

keep fighting for today, keep fighting for to save Social Security,
stop a war, help the unemployed or poor, and get Timmy his medical care.

But who is planning for the future? Who has a plan to turn around the media? Who has a plan to counter tele-evangelism? Who has a plan to balance the influence of multinational corporations? Who is planning to secure our liberties tomorrow, because you can bet your ass that the Republicans are planning ways to secure THEIR neofascist agenda.

And what if we CANT save Social Security? What if it is too late? How can we save Socuial Security today? From what base of power do we operate?

We may have to be satisfied bringing that program back after it dies. A Democratic president created that program from whole cloth. How much easier would it be to revive an existing program that the Repukes have tried to kill?

There is more than one way to skin a cat, and it doesn't have to be the quick way or the highway.

"And what if we CANT save Social Security? What if it is too late? How can we save Social Security today? From what base of power do we operate?"


The problem is the Repugs control everything. The only solution I can think of is, Repugs having to answer to their voter base. Perhaps they could be swayed from voting for SS change, by massive letter, faxes, e mail and phone calls.

In my state, we had a bill, that the Governor was sure to sign. His fax, email and phone number was put on line.

I called the number, gave my name, and stated I was a life long Democrat, that strongly disagreed with the Governor signing that terrible bill. I also stated that "If he did sign it, I would never vote for him again ,and would have to reevaluate my belonging to the Democratic Party".

He didn't sign the bill.

This could work for SS also.