A new day

Within hours of the Egyptian people's great victory, in forcing Hosni Mubarak from power, voices in the U.S. were inspired to call for dramatic changes here. Listen to KrisAin at firedoglake:

What if we could rise up, peacefully, and tell the people in power that enough is enough? What if we could shake the foundations of the Too Big To Fail banks? What if we could remind the people on Capitol Hill that we are in charge? What if we could prove to them all that the will of the people will not be denied?

The problem, of course, is we don't have one autocratic ruler who stands as the primary obstacle to change. We have free expression and free votes. But now the massive financial power of the plutocrats has been allowed by the Supreme Court to corrupt our system. Some token opposition to big-money interests remains, but this is rendered nearly powerless. Our nominal leader, President Obama, may propose reforming health care, but he is unable to accomplish more than small steps in the right direction. He essentially allows insurance and pharmaceutical companies to revise his plans to their satisfaction. Even this greatly weakened legislation barely makes it into law. As thanks for his protecting their interests, these companies and their big-money allies spend enormous sums to demonize President Obama and Democrats before the midterm elections.

Now, those of us who voted for President Obama and other Democrats feel disenfranchised. No one pursues a positive agenda on our behalf. At best, our representatives put up feeble resistance to the worst insanity of the extreme right wing. We're supposed to feel grateful that Social Security and Medicare haven't been completely eliminated in favor of installing solid gold statues of the Great Reagan in front of every town hall.

Those of us who criticize the establishment have a moral obligation to try and make it better represent the interests of the people. We need to disrupt the routine thievery of our economic and political elites through symbolic actions. Unions can play a vital role, but so can P.T.A.s and gardening clubs. Apart from some well-armed wackos, most Americans place great value on conducting themselves in a peaceful, respectful manner. Now is a time to go beyond a letter to the editor. As mlee33 said here the other day: "We need a lot more strikes and boycotts."