Separate Corps. and State!

The title of this post might be a good mantra for what's needed to rescue the United States from its current slide into oligarchic Banana Republic-anism.  (The most recent consequence of this slippery slide, "The Great Recession", began when the Glass–Steagall Act was gutted.)

There is considerable evidence that the root cause of America's ills is corruption and crony capitalism that are fed by unrestrained political campaign contributions.  A rational person knows that it's a bad idea to let corporations write the laws that are supposed to regulate and restrain them from bad behavior, but that's what happens.  Now that corporations are "persons", they can contribute vast amounts of money toward buying the politicians who pass those laws.  It doesn't matter whether a politician is a Democrat or a Republican.  They all appreciate and respond to the money that keeps them in office; they don't bite that hand that feeds them.

In this interview, http://www.upworthy.com/, Sen. Bernie Sanders (Independent, Vermont) makes a strong case for two actions:

• A Constitutional amendment to strip corporations of their "free speech right" to make campaign contributions.
• Public financing of political campaigns, as in, e.g., Canada and European countries.

The United States has become a nation whose government is controlled by corporations. 
This is why its citizens and voters need to "Separate Corps. and State!"

Who increased the U.S.A. national debt the most? ...and the War on X

A: See http://www.flickr.com/photos/speakerpelosi/5684032538/sizes/l/in/photostream/
...subject to "fact check", of course, but accurate enough for politics.

The Republican War on Taxes is a War against Government, a war against a balanced budget and vital government services.  The U.S.A. has the lowest taxes of any industrialized country except for Japan.

Repealing the Bush tax break for corporations and the upper echelon would nearly balance the budget, and a War on War (War for Peace?), i.e., avoiding needless war would put the country on the debt reduction road.  (So which wars are needless? A: Most of them.)

Why Democrats Have Trouble Getting Elected -- and What To Do About it.

Here's a fascinating tale of partial blindness and the emperor's new clothes, a story of good intentions but bad behavior.  The analysis is compelling; it's a great talk, and Dems would do well to pay heed.

Prof. Joan C. Williams gets right to the heart of it -- after the intro, at around 02:20:
https://www.commonwealthclub.org/events/archive/podcast/joan-williams-why-are-democrats-embattled-and-how-can-they-win-again-6311