Quote Originally Posted by El Kabong View Post
Quote Originally Posted by miles View Post
And Lyle US party politics is irrelevant to this debate. The only reason that the Republicans have come back is because Obama is a fraud. He has always been a corporate shill whence no public option for health care, huge bail outs for the financial sector, expansion of the war and a watered down financial reform bill. People are dissapointed and their jobs haven't come back, but the only alternative are the Republicans. It will get much worse if they get into power. There is no voting alternative for the American people. You either vote for this party of big business or that one. There is no party looking out for ordinary people.
...is there a party anywhere that is based on "looking out for ordinary people"? If there is I can bet you it isn't successful because #1 ordinary people don't carry enough weight to get make deals and get things done politically and #2 ordinary people don't stay ordinary when they have power over other people (be they richer or poorer)....it's just a fact of life and you not noticing that is shocking, surely you're smart enought o see that.
I think there have historically been parties that have looked out for the interests of ordinary people. For instance, The Labour Party that came to power after WW2 introduced the welfare state meaning protection for ordinary citizens from "the cradle to the grave". University education for many years was free, healthcare was and is free at the point of use, utilities were nationalised etc etc. These were all done in the greater interests of society at large. Of course, much of this has been eradicated as Thatcher attempted to bring US style Friedman economics to the UK, but we do still have the health service.

Governments should exist to protect the interests of their citizens, not to protect themselves and their corporate buddies. In most countries we have found a balance between these two ideals, but in America you have two parties who have fallen way too far to one side. There is no party representing the 'people' whence socialism for the elite. The poor huddled masses have nothing and it amazes me that we haven't seen widespread social unrest.