Here is why this "populist uprising" is a thing to be feared.

First, it can have a snowball effect. People start talking among themselves, and it doesn't matter whether or not the media is doing their usual snow job because http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=389&topic_id=5270361&mesg_id=5270361">the people can readily see what is really happening.

Second, people see that it doesn't matter who is in charge, the inequality and injustice will continue. That makes them wonder what they can change themselves.

It doesn't take a genius to see that the first thing many of them think of is their credit cards and other debts.

"The people who got us into this mess are getting golden parachutes and we're still slaving away to pay the interest? Fuck that. I'm going bankrupt, I don't care about the consequences. Why not, everyone else is doing it right now anyway. I'll never be able to buy a house anyway, so screw it. Yeah, I can still make my minimum payments - but I'm not gonna do it anymore. I want the whole monkey off my back right now, I deserve it more than those damn executives deserve their millions."

And we're seeing that happen right now. So of course that just adds fuel to the fire and makes things worse.

But it doesn't end there. Because you see, once people start making radical changes in the way they view the rules that they've lived by, they start wondering:

"What other rules that I've lived by up till now are null and void?"

And that's where the real fun begins.

That's enough for me to know how awful it is.

White supremacists are elitists who try to use populist rhetoric, directed only towards who they regard as "elites" - same goes for other supremacist, exceptionalist, or separatist groups.

Then again, he also believes Jews and African-Americans are subhuman.

I think he went to France once too, so I am never going to France.

Frankly, I'm more afraid of the Predator Class and its WaterCarriers.

Too bad there's not a financial super-predator or something else to reduce their numbers and redistribute their resources.

:shrug:

that helps the individual how?

i think you need to rethink your "populist" ideas...

Lawrence Goodwyn

Power to the people is not a bad thing. If people wake up and realize the whole thing is a sham maybe the should be pissed off.

Return the power to the have nots.

I have already been getting the email about increasing the exemptions on your w-4 to keep the money out of the governments hands.

But when just a few poor deluded fools take the bait, it's not a big deal. But what happens when you get an actual tax revolt made up of a significant portion of the population? It could happen.

challenging authority (especially Socio-economic) is almost never a bad thing.

I said it was to be feared.

What I'm basically saying is, this AIG thing is like the final tug on the ball of yarn that is society. And now things are going to unravel, and how far that unraveling goes is anybody's guess. What kind of consequences will happen is anybody's guess. And so it is a thing to be feared, as all changes are.

Doesn't mean it's bad.

I just think maybe we have different definitions of fear then.

Guess I'm just being a bit fuzzy tonight.

You know, if
one person, just one person does it they may think he's really sick and
they won't take him. And if two people, two people do it, in harmony,
they may think they're both faggots and they won't take either of them.
And three people do it, three, can you imagine, three people walking in
singin a bar of Alice's Restaurant and walking out. They may think it's an
organization. And can you, can you imagine fifty people a day,I said
fifty people a day walking in singin a bar of Alice's Restaurant and
walking out. And friends they may think it's a movement.

'ceptin Alice! :D

Immediately before a massive social upheaval, there is an upsurge in Nativism and Ron Paul style anti-government stuff. It is a symptom, an early indicator.

The more you try to suppress a populist revolt, the more likely it is to be seized by right wingers, and the more you side with the authoritarians and the rulers.

Our role is to steer it, not to stop it.



....

Gold star for you.

I'm not a pacifist. I don't care. Hit that alert button - I don't give a shit.

Our country was founded because our ancestors got tired of injustice. They tried playing by the rules and got screwed. Don't think that corporatism and predatory capitalism is anything new. Back then, it was the British East India Company and tea taxes. It was just as unfair. It wasn't just that American tea businesses got taxed through the nose. It was that the British East India Company was able to get themselves exempted from the taxes, so they could undercut everyone else and drive them out of business.

You wonder why the Sons of Liberty tossed what would today be millions of dollars worth of tea into Boston Harbor? That's why. That outburst wasn't enough - the repression only got worse, so our ancestors picked up their rifles, put British soldiers in their sights, and blew their goddamned heads off. And the world's a better place as a result.



Yeah, I'm damned willing to rabble-rouse to get what we fucking want - a restoration of the middle class and some social justice. If we can do it peacefully, so much the better, but if the peaceful route doesn't pan out, I'm all for other methods. Rip off the credit card companies? Hell, yeah - it's open season on those usurious fuckers. Don't tell me it's wrong - I know it's unethical and just don't give a fuck. You gotta hit 'em where it hurts.

If riots in the streets is what it takes to get some damned justice, I'll throw molotov cocktails. If some armed thug is standing in the way, I'll take my own weapons and blow his fucking head off. If the corporatists want to go there, I'll go there. There are some things worth fighting for. There are some things worth killing for, and it's time we started recognizing that.

My post was not meant to be a calming thing. It was more just a musing on what is about to happen and that the AIG thing may finally be the spark to the powderkeg.

because the populist wing of the Republican party takes over
before it can be enacted....
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=132&topic_id=8266149&mesg_id=8266149

I won't be musing, but I will be mightily pissed,
and right back where I started!

Thank you Bush.

Or will you perhaps be in Canada?

(Hmmm. Your name is FrenchieCat - do you speak any French?)

after working for it for 15 long ass years!

But then the revolt happens? All of the sudden?

After eight fucked up miserable long ass years,
when the only folks who had Populist rage were a small portion of the left,
now suddently, the media gets involved.

Wish a revolt could have happened under Bush, but I guess that's not how it works.
That's when the general public sat there and took it day in day out.

Now that we were going to get ours, the shit gets crazy.
and yes, I speak French, so I could go to Quebec if I wanted to stay near.
I imagine there that the media doesn't just wait till right after an election,
to incite a "populist" revolt. :shrug:

You are buying into the MSM narrative here. Turn the damned thing off, FC, seriously. They are creating a false fight, trying to lure Democrats into a weak position. Read the history from the 1850s, the 1890s, the 1930s. Of course at those times there was a danger of the right wing hijacking populist unrest. You can't stop the unrest. You can't stop what the right wingers are going to do. The antidote is to promote left wing politics, not shallow and brittle partisanship and party loyalty. You are playing right into their hands, and that represents a dire threat to the administration and the party. Your take on this is correct in so far as it goes, but it is weak and vulnerable. You are giving the cable TV commentators far too much power over your thinking.



...

We overcome that by abandoning narrow partisanship and instead developing and promoting a powerful left wing narrative. The partisan game is a game we will lose.

cult-like popularity any day.

Too bad we don't fear the latter more.