Democracy Gone Astray

Democracy, being a human construct, needs to be thought of as directionality rather than an object. As such, to understand it requires not so much a description of existing structures and/or other related phenomena but a declaration of intentionality.
This blog aims at creating labeled lists of published infringements of such intentionality, of points in time where democracy strays from its intended directionality. In addition to outright infringements, this blog also collects important contemporary information and/or discussions that impact our socio-political landscape.

All the posts here were published in the electronic media – main-stream as well as fringe, and maintain links to the original texts.

[NOTE: Due to changes I haven't caught on time in the blogging software, all of the 'Original Article' links were nullified between September 11, 2012 and December 11, 2012. My apologies.]

Monday, February 23, 2015

So That Happened: Elizabeth Warren Secretly Met People All Over Washington

So, that happened. This week, the fight over President Barack Obama's immigration policy returns to the halls of Congress, with opponents of the president's executive actions threatening to cease funding for the Department of Homeland Security. Is this a smart idea? Of course not. But we'll talk about it as if it might make sense to someone.


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Some highlights from this week:

"Ultimately the borders aren't going to be open if DHS shuts down. People are not going to be getting on planes without being checked. Immigration is not going to stop deporting people." -- Elise Foley

Meanwhile, potential Republican presidential candidate Jeb Bush went through the ancient campaign ritual of giving a foreign policy philosophy speech, to prove that he cares about foreign policy, and ancient rituals. Did you notice that Jeb Bush has the same last name as another president with a foreign policy? Because this was the week that every political reporter finally noticed that.

"It's weird because we come to this point and then we start talking about 'Oh, it's the so-and-so doctrine.' I was looking for signs of a 'Jeb Doctrine' and not a 'Bush Doctrine,' and I didn't see much distinctions." -- Jason Linkins

Finally, Sen. Elizabeth Warren has been having what we are told are world-historical chitchats with people like former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and current Fed Chairwoman Janet Yellen. What do these meetings augur? Well, none of us were present at the meetings, so we'll do what media experts call "guessing."

"I think that sometimes Clinton's people will say, 'Look, they aren't that far away on most policy issues,' and to some extent that's true, but actually the rhetoric kind of does matter in a political campaign. ... Hillary Clinton is just not that good at talking populist." -- Zach Carter

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Original Article
Source: huffingtonpost.com/
Author: Jason Linkins, Zach Carter, Elise Foley

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