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I think you're being overly-pessimistic on several fronts: 1) I don't think the public was apathetic on this issue, just unaware. And that's YOUR fault (okay o

I think you're being overly-pessimistic on several fronts: 1) I don't think the public was apathetic on this issue, just unaware. And that's YOUR fault (okay our fault), not the fault of the media or corporate interests. 2) the blackouts were an appeal to the voters, making them aware of the issue and urging them to call their congress-critters; in the end it was effective communication uniting people that killed these bills: democracy won over corporate money. 3) A longer response to "the entire government structure of the United States needs reworking": this is simply false. The system we have is the result of the incentives in place. For all the obvious, bipartisan agreement that corporate money is corrupting politics, there hasn't been a movement formed to unite people behind reform, probably because people don't realize that changing the system and changing the incentives are easy, not hard. You change the incentives and politicians will come around overnight. And it doesn't have to start with a constitutional amendment; there are creative finance reform ideas that can be implemented immediately that would have huge effect: http://republic.lessig.org/ http://republic.lessig.org/

maurits 15y ago
Me personally, I am not so much shocked as I do have an overwhelming feeling of deja vu. Similar stories of greed, power and also corruption are a regular occurrence (everywhere). Actually, I find a bit candid honesty refreshing. And out of the many shocked, only a couple of people seem to have the audacity to point to the root causes of this problem and talk reforming campaign financing and lobby laws, and even less talk about reforming the way the democratic process now works. You hint that changing the system via the incentives in place could be very easy. But this begs the question, why isn't this done yet? Is it not that big an issue actually? Is there a majority with a vested interest in the current system? Surely the thea party has shown that a well organized vocal group can gain influence, so a starting minority doesn't have to be a problem to further political ideas.

maurits 15y ago

Me personally, I am not so much shocked as I do have an overwhelming feeling of deja vu. Similar stories of greed, power and also corruption are a regular occurrence (everywhere). Actually, I find a bit candid honesty refreshing. And out of the many shocked, only a couple of people seem to have the audacity to point to the root causes of this problem and talk reforming campaign financing and lobby laws, and even less talk about reforming the way the democratic process now works. You hint that changing the system via the incentives in place could be very easy. But this begs the question, why isn't this done yet? Is it not that big an issue actually? Is there a majority with a vested interest in the current system? Surely the thea party has shown that a well organized vocal group can gain influence, so a starting minority doesn't have to be a problem to further political ideas.