As they say, everybody has a price.  Therefore, corporations could now ‘buyout’ your congressman and use him or her as their personal pawn to pass regulation favorable to the corporation’s agenda.  But, remember, this cronyism isn’t limited to just Congress.  Every elected office is in danger of this.

To explain this further, please watch the following excerpt from MSNBC’s ‘Countdown with Keith Olbermann’ where host, Keith Olbermann, explains the ramifications of this decision.

Part 1:

Part 2:

I figured it’d be interesting to show our visitors a humorous comic relating to our mission for today. Enjoy!

“A group of rich Germans has launched a petition calling for the government to make wealthy people pay higher taxes. The group say they have more money than they need, and the extra revenue could fund economic and social programmes to aid Germany’s economic recovery. Germany could raise 100bn euros (£91bn) if the richest people paid a 5% wealth tax for two years, they say.”

It’s an interesting concept if I’ve ever seen one. Not saying I agree nor disagree to this plan, however it’s amazing to see people of the upper class wanting to take action in pure interest to better status quo of the government and its citizens. Here at Real Change In America, we’re all for that.

I want to show you a video of a man that came to the 9/12 protest and held a sign expressing his view on health care.

This man was spat on and pushed around for expressing his view at a protest. Granted the protest was for the opposite reason of his view, he is entitled to his own opinion. He has as much right to be there as the rest of everyone else. This shows the ultimate sign of disrespect and a skewed perception of our entitled rights. If it’s one thing I wish you take from this website, even if it’s not our main goal, is that an open mind is required for America to work the way it was intended. This country was founded on the idea of freedom of expression. Just because you have a different vision of how this country should be ran, it does NOT give you the right to disrespect another human being (Yes that is correct, a HUMAN BEING. A fellow flesh and blood man, just the same as you and I. A person who is entitled to his own opinion). He was not infringing on their pursuit of happiness, and in fact, continued to act with respect even though his actions were not met with the same courtesy. This I applaud, as it makes him the bigger man in this situation.

This is not an attack on people who are against the current administration’s health care plans. This is just a wake up call to those who are too hard headed to understand anybody but themselves or similar people. We are all guilty of it at one point in time or another, but what separates those who are blind and those who are able to see, are those willing to see. If you do not want to respect a fellow man’s idea (and I emphasize respect, not agreement), then you are the so called buzz word “commie” (in which the true definition is skewed beyond all recognition by now). You are undermining the very system that was created by our forefathers and made this country what it is today.

EDIT: I wish to clarify that the boos are just, but the physical actions are uncalled for.
EDIT 2: Thanks for a visitor pointing out the derogatory named title of the YouTube video. We’d like to note that this not our views of this protest, but that of a the user who posted this on the Internet. This video is just for additional media purposes to assist in clearly understanding the subject of this article.

We’re glad to see the effort put forth by Free And Equal Elections to get these third-parties set up with CSPAN. Seeing this video, however, is a depressing sight. These are legit candidates running for President of the United States of America, yet they are over shadowed by the national debates of Republicans and Democrats. We’re a nonpartisan view here at Real Change in America, but this just proves how two-party biased the American political system is.

We’ve had a blog visitor ask us to provide more information on the topic we are presenting. I’m more than happy to lay out a tentative plan on what we wish to achieve with Real Change In America.

Overall Mission Explained In More Depth

As for one example, numerous people we’ve come in contact with always refer to voting as picking the lesser of two evils. Politics have earned a bad reputation and we feel this SHOULD NOT be the case. We’re not looking to make an entire overhaul of the political system as it’s not built for such a sudden shift in how things are handled. We’re looking to work with what the current system can sustain to give the public more than the “lesser of two evils” choice. We’ve thought of a few possible solutions that would allow us to obtain this goal, and after our brainstorming sessions we concluded the best way would be national debates. Debates have a lower overhead than running some sort of full on campaign to give third-parties more exposure, they are completely unbiased, and allow for all candidates to share with the people how they feel about their agenda. Also, providing these debates on national television stations reach a large amount of voters that some sort of Internet movement could not.

Sponsoring a national televised debate is very costly and a large goal to shoot for, but it is our main objective. However, we are not going to bind ourselves to failure if we do not reach that primary goal. We have a number of secondary goals that we would like to accomplish as well and even those can get the ball moving in the proper direction. These secondary goals currently involve getting enough movement to convince the CPD to sponsor a debate, sponsoring a debate that may not reach national television but will be provided for free on the Internet (through media channels such as our website, YouTube, etc.), and just getting the public to look more into third-parties in general and help them get on the ballot in their states to give them a fairer chance.

Phase 1

The first phase of Real Change In America is to gain initial support for our ideas. We plan on this taking the bulk of our initial time and expect it to last into early 2010. We hope to achieve this by our social networking sites and our supporters. Word of mouth has been proven to be very powerful over the Internet.

Phase 2

Once the initial public support base in there (our foundation) we will start to get the message to the proper channels. Petitions to the CPD, possible donations if we decide to sponsor an internet feed debate (the donations would go only to paying the fees for bandwidth, debate space, filming costs, etc.). Phase two is expected to be completed by the end of 2010 or early 2011 at the latest.

The petition to the CPD would be within reason. We don’t expect them [CPD] to allow a third-party candidate to just be in a debate if they are only on the ballot in 1 or 2 states. We’re not exactly sure at this time what the entire criteria for a debate ready candidate would be, but we would flesh out or initial plans as we constantly remain in contact with out supporters, asking for opinions, thoughts, and ideas.

Phase 3

Depending on the responses from the CPD we will either let them run with the idea and work along side or start the physical work of our own sponsored debate. We would be hiring volunteers to help us collect debate questions, contacting campaign headquarters for all running candidates, finding the right location with our budget, and more. Some concepts of Phase 1 and Phase 2 will still continue in full swing as Phase 3 continues through 2011.

Phase 4

The fourth and final phase of our mission is to provide the debate to the public. This is a simple objective and we hope to have it completed in mid-2012 to allow time for the American people to watch and become informed of all the candidates. This may even give enough last minute support to get third-party candidates on more state ballots, allowing voters more of a choice come election day.

In the United States, the fourth day of July is a special day.  Gone is the monotony of the daily workflow and, in its place, many Americans participate in a countrywide celebration.  These people celebrate with family and friends by getting together for delicious barbecues during the day and watching the spectacular displays of fireworks at night.  And, once the clock strikes midnight and the fifth of July begins, the celebration stops and life returns to normal.  What is this day all about?  Most Americans know the basic idea, but many never delve into what exactly made this day historic.  The fourth’s annual traditions of gluttony and pyromania are important to many people, but these traditions should be expanded to make July 4th a day of reflection for all American citizens.  Now I’m not asking anyone to spend the day reading United States history from your grandmother’s encyclopedia.  Just take the time to read (skim, if you must) the document that makes July 4th an less than usual day: the Declaration of Independence.  Two hundred and thirty three years ago. this document was ratified and essentially created the United States of America.  Take 10 minutes and look over a document that created a country.  It will be well worth your time.  

Wikisource – The United States Declaration of Independence

…

Well this is the maiden blog post for Real Change In America and I figured I’d start this off right with answering a question that’s been on a lot of early supporters’ minds: “What motivated you to take action?” Honestly, I’ve felt this way since I started following U.S. politics. Rarely do we hear about third-parties when it comes to crunch time (there are a few exceptions to this obviously, such as Ross Perot). I have no problems with the Republican and Democratic parties, however, I feel that two parties do not accurately reflect the diversity of America. There are other political parties that exist to fill the gaps a two party system creates. I’m in no way looking to get these parties a complete free ride to the ballots of all 50 states, but I am looking for better coverage for these candidates. Funding has always been a deciding factor in this and I honestly feel that’s a bit of handicap. So I asked myself, what would be a fair and balanced way to circumvent the funding problem but still allow Americans to hear their voices? The answer: Nationally Televised Debates. Debates would allow all participating parties to communicate their ideas and visions to the people, and if feedback is positive, may increase support in states that they are not on the ballot yet. This obviously gives third-parties a better opportunity to be represented in a state’s ballot come election time.

This is the goal of Real Change In America, we believe politics should be more open than a two party system. This will give a better selection of candidates to the American people, allowing them to pick a candidate more tailored to their opinions rather that an “If-not-one-than-the-other” situation the two party system creates.

Centre-right parties have done well in elections to the European Parliament at the expense of the left. Far-right and anti-immigration parties also made gains, as turnout figures plunged to 43% – the lowest since direct elections began 30 years ago. The UK Labour Party, Germany’s Social Democrats and France’s Socialist Party were heading for historic defeats…

The European Union has a multiple party system, and allows for a wider range of views and options. This is from a newspost via BBC.co.uk