Having been both a Republican and a Democrat, I find myself now an independent. I don't buy the party line of either party, and find myself thinking more for myself. Don't get me wrong, I respect the sincerity and commitment of political partisans. It just looks to me that no matter what we do, we continue to decline as a nation. I don't know if I am more angry, or hurt about our state of affairs.
I read your statements several times, I get the impression that you may have unrealistic expectations of parties, society and the US in general. Sometimes things get worse before they get better. I rather work with what I have than wish for things I do not. Yesterday did not look so good to the generation that immediately preceded it, however we as a nation and society strive for better. Perhaps one day we will realize it.
Welcome.
It is my belief that the less partisan I become, the more open I am to accepting the opinions of others. We have a President whose party controlled both houses of Congress during the Wall Street Bail Out. Taxpayers got shafted and so did Main Street, yet there were no hearings, and no one went to jail. The other party put up a candidate who attacked low income taxpayers as freeloaders.
Neither Obama nor Romney could get my vote today. As others have pointed out in this thread, my opinions are shared by others.
The problem with accountability is that we seek it using retributive justice or jdugment and punishment, which makes people defensive and deny what went wrong.
If we move toward restorative justice, then we can better mediate and resolve conflicts to assess restitution, regardless of placing blame; the focus is on corrections and sharing responsibility for those, not trying to make political statements targeting this or that party.
instead of relying on parties or lawyers to attack or deny, which reaps equal backlash and deadlocks and blocks democratic/due process,
why not hire lawyers and enlist parties to assess and collect debts for damages owed to taxpayers, and invest that into restitution. if we let private investors lend money to govt at a profit on interest t hrough the fed, why not let all citizens buy shares in the debts owed by corporate corruption, and charge the wrongdoers to pay back both the debts and the interest on the loans to fix the problems caused by the bailouts and other govt fraud/abuse.
So I am trying to write up this proposal and need supporters of both parties to pull everyone together under a plan to collect on restitution owed to taxpayers for govt abuses at our expense and use that to finance jobs and rebuilding our country and economy.
Any connections and insights you have into this bipartisan process are surely welcome!
some of my proposals are summarized on different webpages
Earned Amnesty
http://www.isonomy.org
Consent of the Governed
I am also asking usmb members for help to develop websites for
consensusongod
consensusonlaw
and equalparties
on how to set up equal representation and inclusion by party
especially how to set up separate funding of policies/programs where
parties disagree religiously and need to pay for their own choices
similar to different religious groups funding their own programs and leave each other alone
