Who said this ??

"Behind the ostensible government sits enthroned an invisible government owing no allegiance and acknowledging no responsibility to the people. To destroy this invisible government, to befoul the unholy alliance between corrupt business and corrupt politics, is the first task of the statesmanship of the day."

no googling please !!!

vote early and often ...

and, while you're at it, who said this:

"There is an evil which ought to be guarded against ... The power of all corporations ought to be limited ... The growing wealth acquired by them never fails to be a source of abuses."

hi AZ ...

but the words aren't his ...

?


At any rate, these certainly express their view.

Franklin or Teddy, that is the question.

for the first quote (Theodore Roosevelt)? Sounds like him.

The second one, maybe FDR?

think about this ... the "corporations are dangerous" message has come to be labelled as "left wing" ... the idea that corporations can readily corrupt our democracy has come to be viewed as "radical" ...

i see this this as the central issue of our times ... we're so busy arguing about social security or gay rights or the war in Iraq that we have failed to recognize that we have lost our democracy ... our great institutions have been poisoned by corporate greed and corporate power ...

this is the central "story" that the Democratic Party needs to start telling ... the Party needs to start making "democracy" the central issue ... all the other battles we fight become meaningless because we have no voice in our own government ... any victory we win today can be taken away at any time because the upper echelons of government are nothing but corporate puppets ... it's not that the individual issue battles we're fighting are unimportant ... but without a central theme that ties them together, we lack a "unity of thought", a "story", that puts the many battles we fight in context for the voters to understand ...

anyway, here's the answer to the first quote since a couple of you DU smarties guessed it correctly ... the first quote came from none other than the wild-eyed lefty himself, Teddy Roosevelt ...

No one has gotten the second quote yet ...

X-files stuff...

or Teddy Roosevelt. :)

n/t

One or the other of them, said so that he could grab power, leaving the people thinking that he was acting in their behalf. (Just a guess).

hi housewolf ...

interesting theory though ... i just started reading "Regime Change Begins at Home ... Freeing America from Corporate Rule" ... the quotes were used on pages 5 and 6 of the book ...

the second quote came from a very well known American ...

Was that fascism is better labeled as corporatism because it is the complete merging of corporate and government power.

as long as we continue to accept the notion that this is a radical, leftist agenda, we've already lost the battle ...

the question i have is: "why hasn't the Democratic Party made this their main issue?" ... the answers could be:

1. they're totally in bed with the corporations or
2. they're afraid of challenging the power structure or
3. they really don't get it

what other possibilities could one even logically identify ??

anyway you look at it, the answers are not very comforting, are they ??

sounds exactly like Thomas Jefferson to me.

best guess yet ... not right though ...

btw, my folks live in Boynton Beach ... i've been to Delray a couple of times ...

Reagan?

the great corporate takeover of our government, at least the most recent one, really took off under Reagan's laissez-faire capitalism ... the quote warns against the abuses of corporations ...

nope ... it wasn't Reagan ...

the answer to the first quote can be found in post #9 ...

yeah ... sorry about that ... got a phone call before i could post the answer ...

Thom Hartmann told me who it is. I won't tell, though.

do you know him ???

i think i've heard him on the radio a few times and read a few of his articles ... i was very impressed ...

Naw... "Thom Hartmann told me" is code language for "I googled part of the phrase and TH's site was one of the top ones to come up so that's where I looked"....

Darn... busted! x(


Oh well, guess I deserved it for trying to pull a fast one!! :dunce:



This was a good thread, WT2 - was interesting, fun and educational... great way to share some of what you are reading and learning. Thanks!

:toast:

i'm working my way through this publishing house called Berrett-Koehler ... they are just great ... here's a link to their website: http://www.bkconnection.com/

i just finished reading John Perkin's "Confessions of an Economic Hit Man" ... it gave a first-hand account of the abuses i knew existed but rarely could prove ... we have not been very good global citizens, we Americans ... and now "Regime Change Begins at Home .. Freeing America from Corporate Rule" promises more of the same and even provides a "how to win back our country" later in the book ... i'm looking forward to that prescription ...

stay tuned ... i think i'll keep posting little snippets of the book as i read more ...

tomorrow night i have my town's Democratic Committee meeting ... i'm just about ready to break out of my introverted little shell and start calling for a new American revolution ... that should be interesting ... i don't expect support from more than one or two people but what the heck ... you have to start somewhere ...

:shrug:

I sure wish we could get back to the "power-sharing" concept that Wilson embraced. It seems to work so much better for stabilizing the world.

the second quote came from that radical left-winger, James Madison, author of the U.S. Constitution ...

if you haven't read post #9 in this thread, please do so ...

what once was a common sense defense of our democracy and good old fashioned American values seems today to have become some kind of left-wing, Marxist conspiracy theory ... the Democratic Party needs to put the battle for our democracy against the corporate state on the front burner ...

we either have power as citizens or we do not ...

absent a voice, ALL the other issues we fight for are just pretend ... left and right battling back and forth while our government sells us down the river to the highest bidder ... the entire paradigm we're trapped in is a massive distraction from aiming our guns at our corporate overlords ... again, it's not that the issues we fight for are unimportant; it's that in the context of having no real voice, both winning and losing are nothing but illusions ...

It's a big problem, no question. :(

,...despots using predatory tactics to tyrannize this country. They are driven by power for themselves,...not some noble commitment to strengthening this nation.

We really must be more willing to expose these power-mongering frauds for what they are: neo-fascists. It's so hard for us to set aside our common sense of dignity and decency because we really are committed to being noble and serving the best interests of our people and our nation.

Time to get real, face the facts about our opposition, and just beat the shit out them.

the Democratic Party is such a total mess right now ... look at the idiotic arguing that goes on right here on DU ... the "lefties" are so out of touch and impractical that we couldn't possibly listen to their Marxist ramblings ... it really is crazy ... i don't know about the other "lefties", but my simple message is we need to fight like hell to restore our democracy ...

what we call the "left" are a bunch of people who believe in democracy ... they believe our government no longer represents the best interests of the people ... we all should follow the issues and stake out our positions on the current issues of the day ... but every issue, every single issue, is subsumed by the loss of our democracy ...

until Democrats recognize this central truth and make it their battle cry, we are not a progressive party ... we are not the party of reform ... we are not the party of the people ... this is where the battle lies ... it does not lie with this politician or that one ... it lies in the central truth that our country which once embodied such high ideals, has lost its way ... it is time for the Democratic Party to call for a new American revolution ... a revolution that seizes power away from the greedy and the corrupt and restores power to its rightful owners, the American people ...

It's true. "Democracy" must be our battle cry!!! No more corporatocracy or oligarchy or patriarchy or anything short of democracy.

We have GOT TO GET THE BULLIES AGAINST DEMOCRACY out of our system.

Moreover, we have GOT to find more impactful speakers who inspire and empower our people. God, how I wish I could do that: inspire and empower.

the author promises to give his "how to win" at the end of the book ... he's already hinted that there's a market to merge "real" conservatives with progressives on this issue ... i'll post more when i've read more ...

wouldn't that be interesting ... the Party moderates have pushed so hard to bring moderate republicans on board by moving the Party to the right ... but what if the way to attract "real" conservatives is to ask them to join us in a new American revolution to restore our democracy to the one envisioned in the Constitution ...

there is nothing "conservative" about the corporatocracy's radical agenda for global domination ... it's time for real American patriots, of both parties, to step forward and say ENOUGH !!! The Democratic Party is the natural home for this movement ... they will not reclaim a majority status until they embrace it ...

n/t

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