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Discussing locally with friends that we would love to join in the protest in DC on the night of the State of the Union address, some points became self evident (so to speak.) The consensus was that Americans are so deeply into "owing my soul to the company store" via going into debt to buy all the toys (from Subaru to Hummers, from MP3's to IPODS, etc) that make their lives bearable, they have lost the financial freedom to take time off from work to go and protest. People who do show up at major protests have to either be unemployed, financially independent, or being supported through some outside source that gives them a measure of freedom of time off from work, guarantee the job will still be there, and financially have the means to travel for protest.
What we need is a good financial protest "block" of wealthy supporters who could help us organize airlifts (or even bus lifts) from cities into D.C. for the protest on the night of the State of the Union address AND to pick up the cost of lost wages ... since many of the most sincere Democrats who WANT and NEED to protest, could find themselves with a lost job, home, etc and even living on the street in the days afterwards.
Americans, by and large, have bought into COMMERCIALISM to such an extent that it has virtually quelled all FREEDOM to protest. It wasn't forced on us ... we just bought into it. True predatory lenders (all those credit cards), HMO's with ever growing premiums, and other insurance & banking institutions are not blameless. And many of us "bought in" to assuage our dispair at the hopeless political situation. Buying material goods ... it is the drug of choice for many. But, it really will cause many, many Americans to sit back in deeper dispair saying ... "what can I do? I can't miss even one day's work and still maintain my lifestyle? And what would happen if I lost THIS job?" Basically we've become like sheep, lined up for the slaughter, and totally crippled in any type of protest.
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