Richard, you wrote: "the Republicans take from the poor to give to the rich whereas the Democrats in comparison would tend to take from the rich to give to the poor."

Not so! But they try to give that impression, of course, harkening way, way back to Roosevelt's New Deal (which really DID make genuine efforts to assist the poor...due to a major economic emergency that was crippling the nation).

BOTH the Democrats and the Republicans are parties of the rich, by the rich, for the rich. Period. The Republicans are slightly worse when in office, I think, but they both work for the rich.

The Democrats pretend to be the friends of Black people, poor people, urban populations, and the "little guy". They pretend to be progressives defending social rights and freedoms. They lie!

The Republicans pretend to be the friends of patriots, military defenders of "freedom", conservative White rural Americans, and Evangelicals, and "the little guy". They pretend to be defenders of liberty and freedom. They lie!

They both work for the largest, most powerful financial interests in America and the rich elite that controls those interests. They both fight unjustified foreign wars and boost military spending. They both allow civil infrastructure to decay so they can build more cruise missiles and smart bombs. They both want power...at any price...and they will both do anything fraudulent to get it. They work for the same masters.

It's a closed shop.

When someone like Dennis Kucinich comes along, they simply shut him out of the national media. People don't vote for someone they barely ever even hear about.

It's a closed circle.

No one moves into the top echelons of that closed circle unless he is willing to do what they want him to do. And if so, he's lost all credibility by the time he gets there.

The only way that can be penetrated is by someone genuinely progressive who hides his true agenda...like a Trojan Horse...and then implements it after he is elected, taking the $ySStem by surprise. If someone did that, I believe they would have him assassinated.

So what can be done? A revolution? A slow unravelling of a fatally corrupt system? A gradual awakening of the public to what is really happening? A financial collapse? A catastrophic defeat in war?

I don't know, but something has to bring this oligarchy crashing down.