Real Estate Broker/Owner with Buyers' Choice Realty
Today voters will cast ballots in the first election since the Supreme Court ruled that corporations, unions and other interest groups have a First Amendment right to spend freely in political campaigns (Citizens United).Following the January ruling, campaign expenditures in the mid-term elections have hit record highs, with total campaign spending projected to hit $4 billion, making the 2010 election the most expensive non-presidential contest in US history.
We already have a Corporate Government with Corporations putting their executives in high positions of power within our Government in every agency designed to regulate: the EPA, the FDA, FCC, etc.With Corporations financing and owning our legislators, there is no regard for public interest.Even minor consumer protection measures have been stalled.
“When Government is controlled by private economic power, that’s fascism.” Frank Delano Roosevelt, 1938
“Now, more than ever, we have a Corporate Government in Washington DC, corporate occupied territory, that is destructive of any semblance of democratic process. “ Ralph Nader
In this video, Ralph Nader explains the current situation of the American people, and proposes some measures we can take to change directions and take our Government back.I hope you’ll watch!
"These are not good times for labor. The minimum wage is $2.75 lower than it was in 1968, adjusted for inflation. It would be now $10 an hour; it's $7.25. You've got one third of the entire American workforce full time working for Wal-Mart wages. You can't support a family on that!" Ralph Nader
Eric: Thank you! I appreciate it! It pains me to see my country like this; my family and I immigrated here from Eastern Europe when I was in my teens. I've seen such major changes in the last 25 years! With this year's Supreme Court decision of Citizens United, things are just going to get worse.
I like Nader's proposal of organizing in bands of 100, forming "little republics" to discuss and work toward taking back our Government. I've always respected Nader. He is organic and not supported by big money.
Maybe we should make our own Active Rain Republic.
Lane Realty Eatonton, GA Lake Sinclair, Milledgeville, 706-485-9668 - Eatonton, GA
Broker GA Lake Sinclair/Eatonton/Milledgeville
Mirela- I respectfully have to disagree. I sussessfully supported my daughter as a single parent on minimum wages for years. I was careful how I spent my money, I bought what we needed, not what we might have wanted. I didn't have a television, cable or a cell phone for the first three years we lived in our own home after a divorce, but I managed to save money. She just graduated from college with no student loans because I paid for her education with the money I saved and invested those years.
And as the owner of a small business which is in fact a C-Corporation I feel entitled to contribute to the candidate I support. After all, it's my money to contribute.
I think we have to get the politians out of Washington and send the CEOs who actuallyl know how to budget and successfully save and smartly spend to fix things. Just my thoughts on the matter.
Tammy: Citizens United has nothing to do with contributors like you and I, but pertains to huge contributions effected by mega corporations intent on having their ways. Here is another explanation of this new rule:
Owner of Ward Co Notary Services retired RE Broker
Mirela,
I also have to respectfully disagree. Money only corrupts the corruptible. Here in ND as the votes are being counted it is apparent that the incubinant who was backed with tons of special interest money, including the banks he helped bail out, has lost his seat. I also have to throw in that he lost to a Realtor that NAR did NOT back. That also makes me wonder, are you apposed to the NAR trying to "Buy" politicians?
Bob
Bob: We have 84,000 chemicals on the market today. Of these chemicals, only 200 of them have been studied for safety and only 5 of them have been regulated in the past 34 years. Senator Lautenberg tried to change that this year, by introducing a bill that would have mandated safety testing for these chemicals and some regulation put in place to protect the public.
EPA's Lisa Jackson herself said: "A child born in America today will grow up exposed to more chemicals than any other generation in our history." In 1985 one out of 5,000 American children suffered from autism. Today, one out of 91 American kids suffers from autism. One out of two of us will develop some form of cancer during our lifetime. Autoimmune disease rates are through the roof. We currently don't even have marginal protections in place against these 84,000 chemicals.
As much sense as this bill made, it didn't pass. This is but one example of how much the public suffers when Big Business is in charge of our Government. Even marginal protection of the public has a hard time being implemented.
The above is a mere example of what can happen when the public interest is not being represented. There are many more examples. Just look at the money spent by our Government lately. Bush spent more money than any other president in our country's history. He spent more money than we've ever spent on all the wars combined: WWI, WWII, the Korean War, the Vietnam War and the Iraq invasion. Obama has already outspent Bush.
Big Business run Government enacts legislation and regulation to protect the interests of Big Business, not regular folks like you and I...
Tammy; I liked and respect your response, but I have to disagree. I, too, raised 4 kids as a single parent for many years. My employment in Common Pleas Court (Ohio) and in billing in Ob/gyn offices for 23 years had to be supplemented with evening and weekend jobs. Prices were also MUCH lower then, and things seemed a little easier to balance. Maybe, I'm wrong, but I didn't feel like the "big bad government was out to get us." It seems like in the last 2 or 3 years the United States of the Corporation has descended upon us, now especially thanks to the SCOTUS decision that corporations are citizens. Elections have been secretly funded by right wing groups posing as "friends of the Tea Party. Lies have become facts and smears have become "honorable." This country has taken a wrong turn and the corporations/CEOS have had a hand in it. The average citizens no longer count: $$$$$ does.
Judi: Thank you! I think a lot of good, hard working Americans still don't understand how much political traction they've lost when the Supreme Court passed their decision on Citizens United.
Justice Stevens, in dissent, was compelled to state the obvious:
. . . . corporations have no consciences, no beliefs, no feelings, no thoughts, no desires. Corporations help structure and facilitate the activities of human beings, to be sure, and their “personhood” often serves as a useful legal fiction. But they are not themselves members of “We the People” by whom and for whom our Constitution was established.
Mirela ... I don't agree with Ralph Nader and others who would have you believe that small bands of 100 people can have any meaningful influence on public policy.
The U.S. Supreme Court decision in Citizens United will allow non-profit associations, like our California Association of Realtors and National Association of Realtors, to raise and use money while participating in the political process with some hoped for results.
Prior to the Citizens United decision, our trade associations and associations of Realtors were essentially prevented from participating in the U.S. election political process.
It's time that we move forward and speak with a strong voice for real estate and private business in Sacramento and Washington D.C.
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