Trump tried to buy the election by giving everyone two grand.

She is 1/10 of the way to billionaire status. American Oligarchy, are we there yet?

@Flowerwall Millionaires are still not the problem. Did you not see the math? A tenth of the way is a long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long way from being a billionaire. The rich will almost always run things. It is the how not the who.

@Sticks48 "It is the how not the who." Well if you want a true summary of the current how, we can say people who are using particular viewpoints or causes that will not further the viewpoints and causes they claim to stand for. So in that case we definitely DO need to look at the WHO. And in this exact case, being 1/10th a billionaire may very well qualify as American Oligarchy. The rich oligarchs misdirect the common man in order to further the oligarchic agenda. True or false? Why else would Americans allow such a direct violation of constitutionally guaranteed rights as referenced in the above meme? It must be the work of the oligarchic master class, is all I can reason. Besides just how many middle and working class Americans can relate to Nancy Pelosi's financial predicament of only being 1/10th of the way there to billionaire status? She does represent THEM, right?

@Sticks48 "Who should be running the country, you or your neighbor?" Hopefully, that was not said in disdain. What's wrong with everyday, ordinary people having an opinion on the wealth of the ruling elites? The elected officials all must have some good sides to them in some ways, sure, but that doesn't mean we should not question the massive accumulation of wealth. 1/10 of a billion is 1/10 of a billion anyway you slice it and it's a lot of wealth. As to the question of who should be running, I personally liked Bernie Sanders because he had the appeal of being a real person, not an elite. But sometimes even that option is not a perfect solution. His policy ideas are too extreme and even in the realm of money in politics I don't know that his solution is a good one. I go back and forth on the issue. It is ideal to not have money have such influence, but it's also not realistic to say you want to remove it. Nothing anyone has come up with is a very good solution so far that i have seen.

@Flowerwall the average American is an idiot. Have you not been paying attention? The Tea Party, now known as the Freedom Caucus, proved the guy next door will just make it worse Up until the Supreme Court ruling about corporate political donations it was some what under control. Now it is a free for all. There will always bee wealthy people, even in Communist countries. If it bothers you so much go become a millionaire.

@Sticks48 Well, I think the most idiotic thing we can do in this country is keep doing more of what we contest as being problematic in the first place. I don't know enough about campaign finance to express an new direction I think it could possibly take. This is just a direction different from the other ideas you hear being discussed in the Dem party. I am not knowledgeable enough in the matter, but it is a problem at current and I am quite sure there are solutions. What do you think the ideal solution is with regard to campaign finance? Also, I shouldn't have to become a millionaire to buy some influence in order to see a good idea implemented, not myself or anyone else. A good idea is a good idea and it stands on its own. If average Americans come up with viable solutions, it should happen, we shouldn't all have to become millionaires first. Or maybe you agree with the whole money should equal power and control mindset?

@Flowerwall Being aa politician is a ski set. There are good ones and there are bad ones. The Freedom Cuacus has proved that all the amatures do is fuck it up. John Boehner guit because of those people. He could get nothing through the House. The problem is the average American is a dumb ass who votes against their own self-interest all to often. Health care is a perfect example of this. 49% of the people have double digit IQs. Why do the people of Ky keep sending McConnell back to office. He does nothing for them and continually votes against their interests or refuses to bring things to the floor that would benifit tbem.This is why l don't want most average Americans to be in the House and the Senate. The House has quite a few of those and it is a cluster fuck. Term limits and no corporate political donations would help. Limiting the donations of individuals to a maximum of $1000. Those jobs were not supposed to be careers. Making a law that if one side of the Congress passes a bill the other side of the Congress must bring it to the floor and vote on it. McConnell was sitting on over 400 bills sent over from the House because he did not want the Senate to vote on them. We have a system set up for corruption and humans being the pieces of shit too many of them are within take advantage of that. No one ever brings up the fact that of the over 160 democracies on this planet not one of them has copied our system of government. There is probably no perfec system government, but ours certainly sucks and l believe is doomed for failure.

@Sticks48 "There is probably no perfec system government, but ours certainly sucks and l believe is doomed for failure." Is there ANYTHING even REMOTELY GOOD in this nation in your mind?

@Flowerwall l can't think of a thing at this point. I was hopeful in the 70s, but Reagan killed that and started the deconstruction of the Republican Party and here we are. I could be wrong, but l think social media will make it nearly impossible to turn this around.

@Sticks48 "l think social media will make it nearly impossible to turn this around." Why is that? It should be having the opposite effect.

@Flowerwall We have always had a lot of stulid and ignorant people in this country. In my over 20 years travelling the country playing music l saw they were everywhere. Before social media they had no way to be in contact with each other. With social media they can reach out to each other and organize. Lacking the ability for critical thought these people have a real problem figuring out the truth in things so they search for those ideas which support what they already believe or want to believe. Dan Rather once said at one time we all got our news from the same sources, so no matter your political affiliation you had to discuss and dissect the same news. Now it comes from many sources and one has to have the ability to figure out what makes sense. The stupid always want to find something or someone to blame for their lot in life and the Republican Party has successfully played on this. Even blaming the government even though the Republicans are around 50% of the government and sometimes more. They blame the Chinese for taking their jobs when in fact it is the corporations sending those jobs overseas. They blame immigrants for taking jobs they would do anyway. If they had the ability for critical thought they would see this. Anyway that is how l see it.