ktlight
24th May 2011, 08:51
FYI:
President Obama ran as an antiwar candidate with many democrats in Congress supporting his anti-Iraq war rhetoric yet he proved to be another war president with a democratic-led Congress endorsing all the bills.
Press TV's U.S. Desk on Friday asked Marcy Winograd, Congressional Candidate and co-chair of Progressive Democrats of Los Angeles, the reason behind this as well as the U.S. debt and deficit and military spending.
Winograd said, "One of the main problems that we have with our political system in the United States Is that in many ways, corporations can literally buy seats in our congress. We have the United States' Supreme Court that recently upheld a decision to allow corporations to spend unlimited amounts on independent expenditures."
"What this means is that for the average citizen it's virtually impossible to mount an effective campaign without corporate money. How can one counter the influence, …, the advertising that can be bought with unlimited amounts of money from large corporations that in many ways benefit off policies of continued war, of militarism, benefit the insurance companies that deny health care to Americans. So there is a great impact that the corporations have on our political system."
"We also have to understand that there is a very powerful narrative in America of the American Dream which says that anyone can succeed and that in essence, the playing field of equal. We know that it is not equal and people do not have equal opportunities to succeed in America but it is a seductive narrative which the great Martin Luther King talked about because in many ways, people who have very little sometimes identify with those who have the most, thinking that could be me."
"I know this personally because I am a teacher. I have taught history and I have taught history to students who are struggling, whose families are struggling, and in many ways they were most interested in the Robber barons of our history. Those who stole from America to make their fortune and so that's an obstacle as well."
"We have corporate influence; we have a powerful narrative that anyone can succeed. There are some like myself who are talking about cutting military spending. We have a congressional progressive caucus in Washington. It has about 80 members and they published a document called 'The people's Budget' which outlines how we can eliminate America's debt by the year 2021 through reductions in our military spending, through bringing our troops home, ending these drone attacks, through taxes on the rich and by requiring that corporations pay their fair share."
"There are those in Congress who are very well aware of the facts that like Rome, these military invasions, occupations, the largest military budget we have ever had, are a threat to our national security because they drain us of resources that we need so desperately to address human needs at home."
"In terms of President Obama, I think that unfortunately a lot of people have given the president a pass on militarism. The antiwar base who in many ways elected President Obama or worked for him -I was part of that antiwar base- certainly there was a very strong feeling in the country when he was elected that we had to get out of Iraq and instead now we find ourselves ever entrenched in multiple wars in Libya, dropping bombs on Yemen on Pakistan, destabilizing the Middle East and its really a great threat to world peace and we must, those of us who helped elect President Obama, we must continue to call for peace and to call for an alternate vision of global cooperation because this we know is a doomsday scenario and I encourage anyone who supports the president who works for the president to speak up, to make their voice heard, because we cannot live in a state of denial and to deny that we are on this course is very dangerous."
Winograd concluded that, "President Obama also faces tremendous forces on the right and those of us who want to see a greater America sometimes feel squeezed because the forces on the right are so powerful and so moneyed and have been able to embrace and propagate this. There are populace who represent the little people or the people who have been dispossessed it is fallacious yet seductive as well and so I'm afraid that the president has found himself caught but that is no excuse. We must demand of our president, who we put in power, to end these wars and occupations."
source
http://www.presstv.com/usdetail/180907.html
President Obama ran as an antiwar candidate with many democrats in Congress supporting his anti-Iraq war rhetoric yet he proved to be another war president with a democratic-led Congress endorsing all the bills.
Press TV's U.S. Desk on Friday asked Marcy Winograd, Congressional Candidate and co-chair of Progressive Democrats of Los Angeles, the reason behind this as well as the U.S. debt and deficit and military spending.
Winograd said, "One of the main problems that we have with our political system in the United States Is that in many ways, corporations can literally buy seats in our congress. We have the United States' Supreme Court that recently upheld a decision to allow corporations to spend unlimited amounts on independent expenditures."
"What this means is that for the average citizen it's virtually impossible to mount an effective campaign without corporate money. How can one counter the influence, …, the advertising that can be bought with unlimited amounts of money from large corporations that in many ways benefit off policies of continued war, of militarism, benefit the insurance companies that deny health care to Americans. So there is a great impact that the corporations have on our political system."
"We also have to understand that there is a very powerful narrative in America of the American Dream which says that anyone can succeed and that in essence, the playing field of equal. We know that it is not equal and people do not have equal opportunities to succeed in America but it is a seductive narrative which the great Martin Luther King talked about because in many ways, people who have very little sometimes identify with those who have the most, thinking that could be me."
"I know this personally because I am a teacher. I have taught history and I have taught history to students who are struggling, whose families are struggling, and in many ways they were most interested in the Robber barons of our history. Those who stole from America to make their fortune and so that's an obstacle as well."
"We have corporate influence; we have a powerful narrative that anyone can succeed. There are some like myself who are talking about cutting military spending. We have a congressional progressive caucus in Washington. It has about 80 members and they published a document called 'The people's Budget' which outlines how we can eliminate America's debt by the year 2021 through reductions in our military spending, through bringing our troops home, ending these drone attacks, through taxes on the rich and by requiring that corporations pay their fair share."
"There are those in Congress who are very well aware of the facts that like Rome, these military invasions, occupations, the largest military budget we have ever had, are a threat to our national security because they drain us of resources that we need so desperately to address human needs at home."
"In terms of President Obama, I think that unfortunately a lot of people have given the president a pass on militarism. The antiwar base who in many ways elected President Obama or worked for him -I was part of that antiwar base- certainly there was a very strong feeling in the country when he was elected that we had to get out of Iraq and instead now we find ourselves ever entrenched in multiple wars in Libya, dropping bombs on Yemen on Pakistan, destabilizing the Middle East and its really a great threat to world peace and we must, those of us who helped elect President Obama, we must continue to call for peace and to call for an alternate vision of global cooperation because this we know is a doomsday scenario and I encourage anyone who supports the president who works for the president to speak up, to make their voice heard, because we cannot live in a state of denial and to deny that we are on this course is very dangerous."
Winograd concluded that, "President Obama also faces tremendous forces on the right and those of us who want to see a greater America sometimes feel squeezed because the forces on the right are so powerful and so moneyed and have been able to embrace and propagate this. There are populace who represent the little people or the people who have been dispossessed it is fallacious yet seductive as well and so I'm afraid that the president has found himself caught but that is no excuse. We must demand of our president, who we put in power, to end these wars and occupations."
source
http://www.presstv.com/usdetail/180907.html