The only way to replace the stranglehold on the two-party system by the Democrats and Republicans is to challenge them with another set of two-parties.

Barry Ritholtz eloquently argues that the real political battle is Corporatism vs. The Individual.

Chris Hedges discusses America’s democracy deficit and what he believes needs to be done about it.

It’s well known that the FCC is having so-called “stakeholder meetings” with the big phone and cable companies about their proposed “third way” to reclassify broadband Internet and codify net neutrality rules, which would allow the FCC to protect the Internet for consumers. These meetings, coming in the wake of the court case that essentially took away the FCC’s authority to protect the Internet and implement the National Broadband Plan, have included all the big phone and cable giants – AT&T, Verizon, Comcast and the like – but have excluded consumer groups who are advocating for protection against these corporate behemoths.

Most observers see these meetings as the prelude to the collapse. The FCC will meet with the big corporations, they’ll come to an agreement behind closed doors, and eventually, the FCC will put forward net neutrality and other regulations that are either so full of loopholes as to be nonfunctional or absent altogether. In other words, most people think these meetings are where deals to sell out the Internet to big companies are made.

It’s certainly possible that these meetings are exactly that, despite denials from the FCC. But what if they’re something different?

I got a call yesterday from a telecommunications lobbyist who had an interesting and very plausible theory: What if Julius Genachowski, chairman of the FCC, is simply running out the clock?

Making both Corporate America and Average America happy has become a very important political skill. And talking to voters in language that appeals to their values while sending coded messages to their corporate masters has become a very refined art form.

We recently had John Avlon on the program and he is a devout “centrist.” That used to mean that you were somewhere on the political spectrum between the left and the right. It now means that you set up false equivalencies between the left and the right and call everything even no matter what.

The late great Bill Hicks understood why presidents, despite whatever campign promises got them elected, invariably sell out to corporate interests.

We can take control of our future and the futures of our children but there are no more Smedley Butlers left to rely on. Instead, we must look to the examples from our south and we must look to the conviction within our own hearts. We will either live up to the charge left to us by our forefathers or we will become known as the generation of Americans who finally allowed democracy to fall. There is no safe way to end this there is no easy path. You cannot vote your way to freedom nor can you count on a candidate of “CHANGE”.

Our Mother stands violated in the name of our constant thirst for ROI. Toxins bleed into the womb from whence we crawled millions of years ago on our way to the canopy, from which we would in turn descend many millions of years later still.

America is being strangled by unchecked corporate power, and it’s leaving a trail of dying cultures, communities and peoples. Seeing that, explaining that, fighting that, and yes, fixing that, is your job, Mr. President.