It's Time to Talk About the Next System
Cecilia Gingerich, TruthOut, 31 March 2015
EXTRACT
It follows that for a systemic crisis, relief will come only through systemic solutions. This means structural changes to the political and economic systems, and a radical shift in social and cultural norms. Of course, accomplishing this will be no small task and will not look anything like the short-term, financialized growth of the 1990s. The necessary solutions will be distinct from those offered in the past and will require a significant amount of creativity and cooperation. These systemic solutions are the focus of a new project titled the Next System Project.
ROBERT STEELE: This is an inspiring article and I agree with many of its premises. However, I take issue with the persistent blindness of the progressive press to the FACT that there is no difference between the Democratic Party and the Republican Party — as the sub-title title of my recent and very inexpensive book reads: One Bird, Two Wings, Same Crap. These two parties continue to block electoral reform and shut 50% of the voters and their candidates out of the electoral system, with the result being that our so-called representatives are elected (most via gerrymandering and ballot fraud as well as corporate money) by at best 30% of the eligible voters. Until TruthOut gets serious about #ElectoralReform (for the eight point plan that emerged from Occupy in 2011 and was refined by We the People Reform Coalition (http://bigbatusa.org) and is now being presented to Independents and small parties, please see http://tinyurl.com/OpenPower.
I cannot stress this enough: no issue — cliimate change or any other — will get a fair or intelligent hearing from the US Government unless we first achieve #ElectoralReform. That is the ONE THING we can all come together on — Constitution, Green, Libertarian, Other — and it is the ONE THING we can win to achieve a non-violent revolution and restore integrity to our government, economy, and society.
It troubles me that no one in the progressive press seems interested in that proposition.