Would YOU vote for RON PAUL

A common bumper sticker around where I live is, "Give me my freedom… you can keep the change." I often wondered about just how free we really are:

We aren't free to smoke pot.
We aren't free to yell 'FIRE' in a crowded mall.
We aren't free to violate the laws of the land.

How free is free? If we're not completely free are we really free?

 

We're not even a little bit free. You can't even protest anywhere that secret service is present, does anyone still believe we are free? I feel sorry for them..

 

A discussion on freedom is great but I don’t think it should be here I’ll begin another thread

Does anyone still believe we are free?
http://www.hipforums.com/newforums/showthread.php?p=7272282#post7272282

 

Our system is so broken that the only way to fix it is from the outside. Groups like Occupy and Anonymous I think are the only way to accomplish a fair government that truly has the peoples best interests in mind. To win back what we have lost means the ENTIRE system from school boards all the way to federal levels have to be repaired or retired, lobbyist and corporate influence removed. RP would not remove that corporate influence but rather enhance it by deregulation. Like Balbus said our system is dominated by money and electing RP will not change that but only make it worst by making the rich richer. The way I see it the most important thing we can do is try and preserve the environment, seeing how its the only one we have and its not easily repaired. In the mean time I hope that the people continue to awaken and become a part of the process, develop working groups and make the change we need.

 

You know what the fuck i don't get? Why do these politicians spend LARGE amounts of money to push their campaign essentially spending all that cash just to say "HUR DUR IM GUNNA FIX THE ECONOMY, THE DEFICIT IS ONLY ($15,749,431,100,450) what's a couple 100k gunna do?????"

I could care less about the rich, i am not a socialist. I just get pissed off when the government makes horrible investments.

 

What are these amounts under the names? What do they indicate?

 

Would you care more if they had their creepy, bony, clammy fingers in your pant pockets?

 

You mean like the rich 1% in the government that's already doing this?

 

I agree that yes there are some problems with the top social class having a large percentage of the money BUT what i don't like about my fellow ideologists is that they attack the very corporations that essentially create the jobs. I'm not saying we should all go back to working blue collar jobs in production plants but we shouldn't be attacking the corporations just because we feel entitled to more money since the recession has hit us hardest. The government needs reform along with the military industrial complex. The corporations are a part of it yes but this system needs an overhaul (i'm not saying it will happen overnight) but it does need reform. It's too big to encompass, the society needs to change and so does the culture

 

I can keep the fingers of the rich/Corporations out of my pocket, but the creepy, bony, clammy fingers of government is unavoidable.
Who we do business with is the result of exercising choice. Who we pay taxes to, how much, and what for, government allows us no choice.

 

This is just the kind of utter stupidity that is used as as excuse to limit our freedoms.

Pot hurts no one-it should be a freedom, so long as smoke is kept away from those who don't like it.
Yelling fire or the like harms the freedom of others, and could even cause deaths-it's obviously not part of freedom
The last one is fuckin' obvious. You can't do that in a free country either, where the laws protect your freedom, from those who would do things like your second example.

 

How so? You don't think all that campaign finance cash comes without strings attached do you?

 

So wouldn't you say that taking power away from the government would take power and influence from the Corperations?

 

^ That would be like removing the watch-dog, believing the fox will be nice. It's in the nature of the fox to kill; so it is with capitalists. Capitalists compete. That means playing to win. The goal is personal profit$$$ (to the detriment of everyone else). The problem we're now witnessing is the corporate watch-dog has become a corporate lap-dog through the corrupting influence of corporate ca$h.

The source of corrupting "power and influence" is corporations.

Corporate-persons have rigged the current system to work for themselves to the detriment of the non-corporate person.

Wherever power exists a greater power must exist to keep it in check; taking power away from government would give corporations greater power.

 

I agree with the first part in bold. The second part is tricky. Kind of like the chicken vs egg argument. The corporations might be the source of the corruption but if the government didn't allow it then it wouldn't happen. Most politicians are comfortable as the corporate lap dog, others want to see free range corporations. Maybe what we should focus on is turning the lap dog back into the watch dog. But it's hard to teach an old dog new tricks, and too many people are afraid of change.

 

The phrase 'power and influence' came from your quote. I thought you were saying corporations had 'power and influence' that needed to be taken away.

 

Money is power in politics. To find the source of that power, find the source of the money. Corporations are the source; politicians are the recipients.

 

You thought right

 

Yes. But if the government were set up so that money didn't buy policy, then no matter how much money they have they would have to answer to the same laws as you and I. They would be held accountable for their actions instead of just buying their way out of it.

 

And if the government is supposed to be the corperate watch dog, who is the governments watch dog? We are supposed to be, but how's that working out? Government controls corporations by being controlled by said corporations. Shits all out of whack and Obomney isn't gonna do shit to change that.