You are right to believe that they matter but only because they tap into our deeply held fears and drives. Those who know how to manipulate
and orchestrate our unconscious needs will control the world.

We are susceptible to words that directly speak to our beliefs, hopes, and dreams.
Words are only words if they do not live up to their promise. If the speaker stirs our better angels for his or her own ends,
then we have been betrayed.

It is how the words are used that matter. It is the intention behind the words that matter. And it is the results that the words
bring forth that matters the most.

Denial is a powerful thing. What you say this week is prologue, nothing more or less.
Now the stage is set for the first act coming this fall to a theater near you.

Let the pillaging being. And if you think SS is not on the playbill, you missed the point of
the whole charade.

especially when the hits just keep coming, 2000, 2004, the Iraq War, Katrina, the financial collapse, the bank bailout
and now this. Where do we turn and who are our leaders?

Remember the powerful would like us to be silent and demoralized. That is how they win.

Somehow we have to regroup and rediscover the hope we felt in 2008. That was not Obama's hope; it was ours.
He just stirred it within us at a time when we had felt diminished from the assault of the Bush years.

We can reclaim it as humans always have. Maybe not now. There will be more hits coming.
We must prepare for that. Hold to the vision. Hold to your values. They do matter. We matter.
That is what we must remember as we struggle through this dark passage.

No, you simmer the frog for awhile. First, you cut back on the funding with a payroll tax holiday.
Then you cut the cola, so that over time the program has less and less value.

You increase the age of eligibility for Medicare, so that more are forced to stay in the private insurance
syphon longer. You force more people to pay more out of pocket for their coverage at
while cutting back their SS benefits.

you do all this and say with a straight face that you are saving these programs.

And, by the way, you are a Democratic President who never mentioned that this was part
of your intention when you were elected.

Given this evidence, why would anyone think that Obama would want to destroy these vital programs?

Government is no exception. Chaos rules the day all around us. No one is in control.
The instability stirs the craziest among us and scares the hell out of the rest of us.

keep perspective. Human history is chronicle of similar occurrences. We have been fortunate to have live
through a relatively stable period and now we share the pain of uncertainty through these turbulent times.

All we can do is stabilize our own core; keep to our values; and care for others and ourselves to the best
of our abilities.

I dearly hoped that the country which is desperately in need of post partisan solutions to resolve the critical issues of
our time, would welcome Obama's leadership. But as is clearly evident, the country has become more fractured under
his leadership, not less.

Perhaps he was naive or just got blindsided by the recalcitrance of the Republicans. It does not seem he is able to shift
course enough to resist their onslaught thus appears to often negotiate from weakness. The worse part is how well
they have realized this and use it to their advantage.

are as much creditors of the US government as the Chinese are?

Our money was borrowed without our permission by Congresses and Presidents who wanted to reward their
rich benefactors with easy tax cuts while spending like wild.

Now that the loans are coming due, the current Congress does not want to have to face those same
benefactors for the missing money.

Viola, somehow it has become our fault and our problem, when in fact it is the greatest heist in history.

My first presidential vote was cast in the cycle before yours. So we both have seen a lot of politics in our lifetime! This
last vote has turned out to be the most painful and unproductive of all. Obama's contempt for liberals is amazingly
foolhardy. Perhaps, his overconfidences is do to the quality of the Republican candidates or possibly a personality flaw.
Whatever its origin, it is damaging the fabric of the Democratic party. Your response is a prime example of its impact.

The sad underlying meaning I take away from of all this latest brouhaha, is that our votes do not matter. We go through
the charade of voting each two years and things only continue to get worse. We have both seen the devolution of
our democracy in the course of our lives.

Yet, here we are. And we must continue to believe that the challenges we face will be overcome. We must hold to
the vision that people matter more than money and power, that civil rights and human rights are still our inalienable
rights despite those who would destroy them. and that what hold us together as society, such as caring for the disabled
and the elderly, is far more important than what keeps us separate, selfishness and greed.

We must hold this vision even when we utterly discouraged and sickened with cynicism. This vision is our precious inheritance
and our vital legacy that we will give to our grandchildren's generation.

Again welcome to DU.

He thrives on it. It confirms in his mind that he is correct in choosing the "middle way." I believe that
Obama is quite disdainful of liberals or those who take an passionate stand for anything. He likes to
think of himself as the consummate dispassionate pragmatist (even if likes to campaign as more of an
idealist.) He also deludes himself that he is far wiser than any who care so deeply and thus can
better choose what is best for this country than the rest of us.

This attitude speaks of a dangerous level of elitism that is blind to the interests of his party and his base,
while being cleverly manipulated by his opponents.

as significant amounts to Obama in 07 and 08, I will not be back unless Obama comes back.
When I see him defending with vigor the progressive agenda to protect the poor, working class
and middle class of this country, when I have heard he is standing against the wars, and when
I know that he is working to protect, rather than undermine our rights under our constitution,
I will once again support his 2012 candidacy.

Our democracy has cycled into a dismal state. Powerful elites have gained ascendancy by using
the current understanding of psychology and technology to confuse and mislead just enough people
to gain control. As we study history, we understand that while there is an ebb and flow to democratic
governments, the trend had been toward a great sharing of power with the people.

Yet the tension is always there. The power elites are always looking for ways to reassert their control
over the flow of wealth in order to amass great fortunes for themselves and amass power over others.

We live in such at time. In such a climate, it is easy to despair. Yet our responsibility is to the greater
vision of democracy for all, while knowing we will never see the perfection of this vision in our lifetimes.

As our ancestors held this vision for us, we must treasure it for future generations no matter how dim
the light becomes. This is the vision that will keep us focused, that will inspire us to create a better life
for all.

And it may. Right now everyone is attempting to adjust to a very difficult result. Each of us will do
do that differently as we work through the stages of grief to find acceptance in this strange new world.
Most of us are currently in some level of shock and disbelief.

The only constant is we live in a world of growing uncertainty. Because of the implications of Citizens United,
and the structural changes in our economy, this election is like no other. Corporate power is on the ascendancy
while most seem blind to the ramifications of this takeover of our institutions. It would seem the more
corporations destroy the fabric of our society, the more the people blame our government, the only potentially effective
tool available to balance the power of the corporate state.

Where we go from here is truly an unknown. We are, as they say, in uncharted waters.

is just for show, more or less of a symbolic position. We have seen how little power Obama has to affect change.
Corporations, the Pentagon, and right side of Congress wield more power. Our "leader" just gives us a focus for either
blame or praise. I am just not sure how important this position is anymore.

People around the world hold many different beliefs about the nature of reality. If you are comfortable with yours,
that is great. Now work on accepting that other's belief are different, not better or worse, just different. And then
let it go. Compassion and empathy are what we all want regardless of our beleifs.

"The Empathic Civilization, The Race to Global Consciousness In a World of Crisis." We do need new ways of thinking to move beyond
our current struggles. The old attack and defend model is killing us all. Compassion, itself, is a survival skill of a higher order in this world of chaos.

And actually, Obama has gotten quite a bit done in a very difficult political climate. Not as much as you and I would like perhaps, but quite a bit.


Edit to add: pretty much every thing wrong in our world could be improved with a shift to compassion. That shift has to start with each of us in
our everyday lives and our everyday thinking.