Is "Politics" a dirty word ?

[kentuck]

We have heard the old story that politics comes from the Latin word, "poli", meaning many, and "tics", meaning blood-sucking insects. However, politics has been a stabilizing force in many societies for centuries. It was made up of people that wanted to do public service and help their communities and country. Our most intelligent and compassionate people became involved in politics to help their fellow citizens.

However, "politics" has been degraded in recent years. Unscrupulous people get into to politics to make money. They are in for their own personal benefit. They join with corporations to pass laws to benefit special interests in return for money to keep themselves in power. Generally speaking, this has become the norm in politics today. Although there are still a few that are in politics for the public service reasons. But, they have become the minority.

How do we change the present system? The health care reform has magnified the problems with our system into sharp contrast. Arguments are not made on their merits - they are made thru deceit and distortions in attempts to discredit the actual argument. This has become common in politics today.

When everything is laid out on the table, it is obvious that the problem is money in politics. Politics is not evil. It is the greed of the people in politics. Until there is campaign finance reform and until Congress no longer can vote themselves annual raises, politics will continue to be degraded. And the people's needs will continue to be ignored.

[Va Lefty]

1. "republican" is a dirty word

not politics

[patrice]

2. Anything involving more than 2 people necessitates politics.

The problem is ignorance and dishonesty that put people at a disadvantage politically, so that politics then acquires disproportionate power relative to things such as wisdom, subject matter expertise, purpose, intelligence, etc. . . .

[LWolf]

3. Yes.

Politics is about power-mongering and propaganda.

How do we change that?

Take the money out, to start with. 100% publicly financed elections, with no donations, gifts, etc. allowed. Equal, and equally neutral, air and other media time. Real debates, with every debater getting equal talk time and answering every question...questions substantive about issues.

Then the people have to actually exercise what power they've got, instead of making excuses and adopting the "lesser evil" strategy.

Want to cut off the powerful tool those in power use to divide people and keep votes coming their way? Turn off the tv and radio news and talk shows. Stop viewing, stop participating, stop repeating all the talking points you've been fed by media talking heads.

Stop voting for the lesser of 2 evils because "they" are always worse than "we" are, even when "we" didn't field a decent candidate.

Stop enabling the 2 party system.

Stop voting for reps that don't represent you, just because they are on your "team."

If enough people did these things, we'd see the system change.