My perspective: Time to look at ourselves

The Liberals GOP Twin wrote: Right... our politicians are certainly not a total failure. Our politicians on both sides of the aisle are a complete success. They have successfully robbed us blind, ingratiated themselves with power and money and have established a political class that is in no way working for any of us. The real 1% are the politicians, all politicians, federal, state and local and their special interest and corporate cronies. The real 99% are the rest of us. The Occupy Movement should shut down the silly camps all over the country and converge on Washington. That's what should be occupied... Washington DC. Go to the source.

But that won't happen because we are divided and we shall waste our time and chase partisan phantoms as we work as deflectors for the political class, taking focus off the real problems.

You've been fooled into believing that voting the "right people" into office will solve the problems. My opinion... anyone running for office, local, state or federal will eventually be of use to the Political Class. For the few that don't already have ulterior motives, or for those that get into office and don't "play the game," those will not be of any real effect in their particular position.

We are not the government any longer. We are given the illusion that we can make a difference... but there is no difference. "Read my lips... no new taxes" to "hope and change" have not accomplished anything. We slip deeper and deeper into a debt based society, under the thumb of politicians, special interest and big money... otherwise know as the Political Class. There is a 99%, but they are not only the poor or middle class. The 99% are all the citizens who are not directly part of the Political Class... it doesn't matter if you are rich or poor, hard working or lazy... there should be no divide between the 99%... the 1% are not Wall Street, they are not the rich... they are the plutocrats and kleptocrats and their crony sidekicks.

Voting right or left is not the answer, it's broke and we need a "clean sweep," wash the whole thing out and disinfect. Rinse and repeat when necessary.

No, the politicians are only part of the 1%. George Carlin put it perfectly in the video that CV posted here and the Occupy movement is doing it right - they have focused on the root problem - greed - and how it has corrupted our politics. See this article for a recount of the history of what's happened to get us to where we are today. OWS protestors aren't just focusing on Wall St, but the politicians too, and you'd see that if you read what they've actually wrote, rather than media regurgitations and biased representations of them. Are there idiotic, fringe lunatic, and/or criminals who a part of it? Yes, the same rough percentage as any other grouping of people. Are there clueless morons who can't connect that they are there protesting to make their country better at the same time that they are disrespecting the very symbol of that country? Yes. But the corruption is widespread, and widespread the movement must be - it's not just Washington, it's everywhere. Chickaree is right - we are the government (see my sig line) and this movement is the attempt to take it back; to stop being so apathetic. If you want our downfall to stop, then I'd recommend joining them, rather than dissing them, for at least they are trying to make a change.

BearMtnHIB wrote: Sorry I have to pick on a posters sig line here - but the above quote is just dead wrong. Government has indeed become our enemy and it no longer serves the citizen- it has become corrupted and the choices it makes are no longer our choices. We can not find common ground. It has become our caretaker with ever expanding laws, rules, regulations and taxes.

We can not get back to prosperity by voting for Pelosi, or Reid, or Romney. Government has to match it's size with the money it gets now- or with even less money than it gets now and that's the only way. It has to give up the notion that it is our caretaker- we are capable of taking responsibility for ourselves and can take care of ourselves.

Our ideology does matter- the people we vote for does matter. If we elect the proper leaders - the problem of massive government can be addressed. We can not allow the "government is the answer" ideology to prevail or nothing will ever change- in fact it will get worse. If you like the direction that the economy and the country are heading- keep it up- keep voting for the same corrupt ideology, but if you want things to get better, we all better accept the fact that we must abandon this path to a socialist welfare state.

We do need to look at ourselves and do what is best for America- not what we think we are entitled to FROM government.

The line at the end "We've got to retrieve our citizenship" is exactly how I interpret it to mean exactly what you just said above BearMtn. Ideology isn't going to change the corruption because it's pervasive on both sides of the aisle. Retrieving our citizenship means getting more actively involved, becoming more informed, less apathetic, and taking more responsibility for ourselves and for our government.

Do we need more personal responsibility? Absolutely. Fiscal responsibility? Definitely. But we also need more fairness in legislation and taxation, and accountability in our representatives as well, to make the complete change required to get us back on top.

Rockdoc, I'm glad you clarified that you don't think that the 99% are necessarily lazy, just feel entitled. Yes, there certainly is a pervasive consciousness that the government should provide X, Y, and Z for us - some of this came about at the request of the people, some by special interests who have slowly maneuvered us into believing that must be the case when it shouldn't necessarily be so, but that's something that I see people waking up to and changing their habits on (yes, some are still stubbornly refusing to see that we will all have to make sacrifices, and cuts to even our favorite programs will be required, but I see that attitude shifting). Our economy is still in the tank b/c Americans aren't spending...why? They're paying off debt, or losing their jobs and going bankrupt. The consciousness that we can load up on debt for material possessions is shifting - I noticed the other day that I rarely see temp tags in vehicles these days, when last year at this time I couldn't throw a rock out my car window at a stop light and not hit one, they were everywhere. The biggest problem, and what the Occupy Movement is mainly protesting, is the inequality - that no matter how hard the average middle-class or poor American works these days, that it still doesn't make a difference because the deck is stacked against us. As put in this video , higher GDP does not equate to more wealth for the 99%.

Are the people who signed the toxic interest-only loans responsible/at fault for making such a dumb choice? Sure are, they should've known better or asked more questions. But why were loans like pushed at people who were more likely to default and get us all into this mess? And why are those people still not held accountable for their actions? Those who signed, and lost their homes as a result, have paid their price - now what about the people sitting on the other side of that table? Just like Lindsay Lohan, the privileged have been held to no accountability. Profits for some corporations are still up, and CEOs are getting fat bonuses at the same time that they are laying off workers, or moving more jobs overseas - that doesn't help the economy, only those few at the top. That is what must change.