Traitor!

[CapnAwesome]

Bribery has always been "a thing." Now it is merely more obvious.

In America, corruption is so interwoven into the democratic process that it's not even hidden and anyone who doesn't play along is going to get buried by it. Representatives are bought and sold on the open market though bribes that are called "campaign contributions". Money officially counts more than popularity, as America is officially no longer a democracy but an oligarchy.

In America, political ethics and campaign finance laws (the latter of which are being rapidly stripped away by a corporate controlled Supreme Court) try to make a distinction between good corruption and bad corruption. It's no secret that moneyed interests have a lock on the political process. It's all done out in the open, right before our eyes.

The only solution to this problem is to ban all form of paid political advertisement, replacing them with frequent debates conducted under oath, where lying to the American people is punishable by perjury charges.

Hyperbole much?

[Creed of Heresy]

Bought and paid for politician is bought and paid for.

Big surprise.

Just who did you think his master was? The people?

They're supposed to be, dammit!

I'm less shocked and surprised as much as I am just simply pissed off. This shit is becoming insultingly blatant and people still prefer to spend more time watching football or reality TV shows rather than the politics that affect their lives on a daily basis.

I want to sit back and wait for this country to finally go under but then I realize that if/when it does, I'm still going to be stuck on the damn ship, and even if I get off the ship, it's so massive that the underpull is going to suck the rest of the fleet surrounding it down with it in the whirlpool.

My hope, my foolish, idealistic hope, is that Bernie Sanders or Elizabeth Warren runs for office in '16 and s/he wins. They both have a track record of getting shit done and being unflinchingly dismissive of lobbying attempts. He was the first independent voted into the house in 40 years, he's won basically every election since by landslides, and he even won during the "Republican Revolution" with 50% of the votes in his favor. He is in favor of everything that could and would alleviate a great deal of this country's major issues, including overturning Citizens United, and during his bid for the senate, he was endorsed over ACTUAL party democrats despite his unaffiliation.

Not to mention that he went into the most expensive campaign in Vermont's history against a businessman who saturated radio and TV stations with attack ads...and he won by a 2-1 margin.

Read up on him if you don't know about him.

Oh yeah did I mention he's a democratic-socialist?

And he IS contemplating running in 2016...and he's the third most popular senator according to surveys and polls...

I'm just going to say this much: I am going to laugh my balls off if a socialist ends up as president after the tea party and GOP spent so much time and effort (not to mention money) trying to gain control of D.C....

But he's an effective leader, he's popular, he gets shit done, he knows what's wrong with the country and has been working to correct it since day one, he utilizes grassroots campaign financing instead of corporate lobbying rather successfully, and he basically performs the equivalent of the Hitchslap against republican attempts at sound bites and smokescreening like a boss.

So...maybe there's still hope, huh?

[DeistPaladin]

Hyperbole much?

I don't think so.