IMO, the #1 problem with this country for some time now has been the influence that corporate America has on our political system. It's no secret that large sums of money have been "donated" to many politicians over the years in exchange for favorable legislation, corporate welfare, government contracts, etc. Trump appears to be doubling down on this and appointing corporate executives directly to powerful cabinet positions.
Rex Tillerson, CEO of Exxon Mobil. Andrew Puzder, CEO of CKE Restaurants. Wilbur Ross, head of an investment firm. Linda McMahon, CEO of WWE. Steven Mnuchin, Goldman Sacks. Betsy Devos, Amway billionaire.
On top of the obvious business ties, he is tapping people to head important departments that will be looking to dismantle the very departments that they are appointed to. A climate change denier as the head of the EPA? An anti-public school billionaire to head the department of education? Someone who wants to scrap the minimum wage and automate everything as secretary of labor? The list goes on.
If it's not clear to you now what Trumps motives are, then you simply aren't paying attention. The only question that remains is will congressional democrats have the spine to oppose some of these picks, and will enough republicans join them to make it stick?
i've been wondering too how congress is going to react to these picks. i'd like to hope there will be some strong opposition but I don't have any faith in people who have been there all a long. they're complicit in what's made the country what it's become.
they all have to go. radical reform is needed.
Bernie Sanders could have set off an actual revolution, but he pulled back and played ball. It pains me to say it because at first he was everything I've been hoping for. He was saying and doing all the right things,. I had become so jaded it was shocking to hear what he was saying, the truth, plain and outright. stunning really.
but he backed up and reverted to business as usual. he took a deal. he should have taken the party to task for what they did to him and in speaking to the people, point to that as an example of how "business as usual" must end.
then he should have ran as an independent. he would have garnered a record number of votes by an independent. that would have given him a mandate which he could have used to establish a new and strong political party. which would be now poised to run candidates all across the US and take local power and poised to take national power 2 and 4 years from now.
instead he backed off, took a deal and shut his mouth and only opened it to say "vote for more of the same".
If Hilliary had won, he would have been nicely rewarded for toeing the party line. I'm sure that played into his thinking. he wasn't truly a revolutionary who was sick and tired of the status quo and was sincere in making a radical change.
Instead he started an organization from which the core people who worked on his campaign walked away from, because the head he appointed was someone he had agreed not to appoint as a condition for the core people to come over to the new organization from the campaign. Then he changed how the organization would be registered so it couldn't accept corporate money to a 501 which can.
he stoked a fire that was ready to be stoked, the iron was hot. Instead of striking, he took the conservative, safer choice.
it's too late for band-aids, for piecemeal reform here and there.
We need a revolution of political culture. A mass social movement, civil disobedience, vocal outrage, in a way laying siege to this incoming administration, while organizing politically.
I think the mentality should be the bad guys have already got the stuff and we need to get it back.
It's time for offensive.
