The State of Things

I often get a bit of inspiration while responding to some bit of rigamarole, falderol, shenanigans or tomfoolery on any among a number of news or opinion sites in the gol' durned eternally beloved interwebs. Sometimes, my responses are concise enough to stand on their own without extraction contexts or any other lead-in explaination. Here's one:

Thirty years of Reagan policies, subsequently amplified by Bush/Clinton/Bush to the current cocophany of nonsense, are exactly the problem and must be reversed.

1)Regulation protecting the population and the economy from financial fraud would break up, as it used to be before Reganomics and rampant deregulation toward the current near nehilistic, "wild west" free market, the too-big-to-fail investment banks from insurance carriers and charter banks (Glass-Stiegle Act).
2) Campaign finance reform that would at least make contributions tracable or, better yet, all campaign contributions placed into an independent super fund from which all candidates and issues organizations (SuperPACs) receive funds equally according to contest and constituency, and inclusion of lobbyist spending, pointed at any legislator with rights of refusal to entertain their entreaties, as campaign contributions, again reflecting complete transparency and mandatory public disclosure from a single, one stop resource.
3) National infrastructure maintenance, abandoned beginning with Nixon, put into overdrive by Reagan and ignored by Bush/Clinton/Bush to upgrade the country's backbone of public safety, create jobs and stimulate the economy in a permanent manner,
4) Universal healthcare option, coinciding with private insurance plans (for whomever believes paying more for less is a good idea), to eliminate the currently locked in private insurance inefficiencies/greed/run away costs/bureaucratic "death panel" control over therapy qualification and delivery.
5) Tiered tax system where those better able to pay for the nation's physical (infrastructure) and philosophical (that which creates and sustains actual American exceptionalism) upkeep contribute a reasonable, proportional share to sustain the systems, the advantages upon which the rich and better off were able to build their wealth, (safe roads, safe air travel, safe communities, safe air and water, universal education) that everybody, including future generations, depend on.
6) Reinstatement of the Fairness Doctrine to fairly balance the unrestricted, irresponsible radical right rhetoric that passes for news in some quarters without answering to anybody or anything over blatant lies, distortion and information fraud upon the public.

These actions would remedy and, in time, reverse the effects of the last forty years of regressive, "conservative" class warfare at the expense of the middle (and impoverished) class(es).

Melissa Harris-Perry writes (http://www.thenation.com/article/163544/black-president-double-standard-why-white-liberals-are-abandoning-obama#comments) that Obama is losing white liberal support more quickly, in spite of rather positively comparable records and circumstances, more quickly that did President Clinton because of vestigial, latent racism. The umbarge in response was striking. Methinks she doth protest too much. Besides:

Ms. Harris-Parry's analysis hits and misses the mark to varying degrees according to the variations among the individuals who make up the electorate. Not everybody's the same, and not everybody is as cuplable within her harrative as the worst among us. But, it strikes home at least a little among all of us. Sure, I'm angry and resent the shortfalls between actual policy and what we'd been promised for our vote. Whom among the most vociferous above took the time and energy to relate their concerns, in a contemporaneous manner, to the President? Once, twice, or each and every time? Nothing short of at least a majority of the time, considering the contentious nature of governance these days, and the unremitting pressure from a relentlessly irrational opposition, excuses any of us of being part of the problem or for grousing after the fact. Without pressure that includes workable alternatives, it's no more than embittered crying in one's beer. Are the complainers on this page really saying they'll vote for the Republican alternative, or render punitive, passive agressive retribution, withhold their vote altogether, and allow Republicans any more power than they now enjoy by default? If what you see isn't good enough, do something CONSTRUCTIVE about it. Whigning doesn't count. Cutting your nose to spite your face is as ugly as you can get, and fits in perfectly with MH-P's premise here, whether you like it or not, whether you agree or not.

Write the President daily. Put his feet to the fire. Counter the pressure he's getting from all other quarters with pressure of your own. Election day was only the barest of beginnings. There's no room to complain if you fail do to your part.