But I feel exactly the same way. I feel exasperated that no one in my area seems to notice what this country is turning into.

welcome to DU

Complete Campaign Finance Reform (CCFR)! This is the core of where we gain our Government back so they will fight like hell! They write the laws, pick who runs for office, and they do it on the County level on up. We need a Charismatic leader who will not be bought off to keep it focused. We need to organize rally's and keep doing so until we get big enough to make the change. The politicians will not do it without enough protest in THEIR district before they could be forced to do the right thing. It is not enough to say we will elect "good" people to office. We have been doing that since the beginning. They go there and are made to realize they can do little on their own and if they don't play ball they will be out after only 1 term. The perks are extremely nice and they do not wish to lose them. They are made wealthy through land sales and purchases. Do you think that Rick Perry, who has worked in government his whole life got rich on the side b/c he was smart? It's called, "I buy a million dollar property for $5,000 from corporation A, sell it later to corporation B for much more.... CCFR PEOPLE!!!

Feel free to rant like that any time you want.

was about the same time network news divisions became beholden to advertisers. The first rule of broadcasting is please your sponsors. The second rule is do not displease your sponsors.

It was downhill from there.

Welcome to DU.

When I first watched TV in the '50's, news was an FCC mandated public service networks provided in exchange for their licenses to broadcast. Many people watched the news because it was one of the best sources of immediate information. Radio had no pictures and newspapers were slow.

Networks soon caught on that even though news was considered a cost of doing business, viewers tended to leave the same channel on after the news through prime time. Competition for viewers began in earnest. Originally, credibility and insight with such notables as Edward R Morrow was used to gain viewers. Slowly, though, sensationalism and celebrity hype crept in. As cable started to compete for viewers, the sacrifice of dignity for more hype was made.

After Reagan refused to sign the bill codifying the FCC Fairness Doctrine, outright lies and slander became legal on the airwaves. News could be twisted and pumped up not only to get more viewers, but also to manipulate them. FOX Spews and Rush Limberger are not welcome in Canada, because our Northern neighbors still have a policy similar to our long dead Fairness Doctrine. Isn't it too bad we still don't have it here? Perhaps the hate and fear mongers on talk radio and cable would at least be a little inhibited in tearing apart our nation.

The subject that effects ALL others. Totally agree with you well put rant of truth. RANT AWAY MR. RIBS

apologies simply has not earned my ear when it comes to sussing out political choices. Ronnie was elected in 1980, but you voted Republican 1976-1984 or 85.....

Perhaps your wisdoms kicked in late. You say you were fooled by 'Ronald Regan' smooth talking style, and persuasively smooth B.S' but I remember Reagan differently.
What Reagan said prior to his election to the presidency:

"If there has to be a bloodbath, then let's get it over with."
--Ronald Reagan (Governor of California), cited in the San Francisco Chronicle, early morning edition, May 15, 1969. (Reagan reveals how he intends to quell student protests in the city of Berkeley, California. Protesters were teargassed and fired upon with buckshot, killing one, blinding another, and wounding 128. Reagan would later declare a state of emergency in the city and send in 2,700 National Guard troops.)

"Fascism was really the basis for the New Deal."
--Ronald Reagan, cited in Time, May 17, 1976

"All the waste in a year from a nuclear power plant can be stored under a desk."
--Ronald Reagan (Republican candidate for president), cited in the Burlington (Vermont) Free Press, February 15, 1980. (In reality, the average nuclear reactor generates 30 tons of radioactive waste per year.)

You found that to be 'smooth and persuasive? I remember Ronnie as a vicious governor and candidate. He was not 'smooth and persuasive' he spouted right wing stupidity, for years and years he was a known entity. You knew who and what you were voting for. They all did.

Reagan dems. That was a start of the turning to the right, of the Democratic party. When Reagan poked fun at the word liberal, dem politicians backed away from the word & soon after, the policies, as well. They saw the corporate gravy train & they wanted on the ride. The parties now play good copy/bad cop, only it's morphed into bad cop/insane cop.

I agree with the above poster about getting money out of our electoral process, but I don't know how you get a group of self serving assholes, to pass legislation, that will curtail the very thing that they greatly benefit from. I no longer believe that change will come via the voting booth.

It's the Love of money that's the root of all evil.

At the time I depended on MSM to keep me informed. See where that led me. 1976- Carter, 80- Anderson, 84- Regan, I will always regret this. But voting then as now is an exercise in fultility.

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We can take political power from the Special Interests and return it to the citizenry by greatly reducing our congressional district sizes. Over-sized districts subvert representative democracy!

This non-partisan and constitutional solution is explained in "Taking Back Our Republic", a pamphlet that can be downloaded from this page: http://www.thirty-thousand.org/pages/TBOR.htm