How to enact a liberal agenda in the public and private sector.

Hello

Many people complain about the excessive influence that companies exert with legislators on the federal and local level which results in nothing getting done most of the time leaving them unsatisfied with the way

government should help people. The facts to me indicate that each person abdicates their power. Who provides the money to the companies so they can lobby congress, the president or the local legislatures or county

executives and governors?

You do, whenever you buy products. The companies skim off a little bit of your money and give it to Republican officeholders, candidates and the Republican Party. When did you last voluntarily give money to the Republican Party? Well you just did and you don't even realize it.

If enough people organize and stop buying from the major known contributors to the Republican party, they will have just gone on strike and can now demand a liberal agenda of the companies to relay to the congress, the president, their governor, their local legislature and also a private

company that has raised and HMO premium, or raised an electric bill, or some other necessity you depend on.

You can demand that the company and their PACs stop giving money to the Republican Party.

You can demand Universal Healthcare.

You can demand a higher minimum wage.

You can demand that your HMO rescind their outrageous premium increase.

etc.

I suggest you contact the following companies and tell them you will no longer buy from them until they stop giving money to the Republican Party and relay your demands to the Republican Party, the congress, the president, etc. and the demands get met.

Call

AT&T 800 225 5288

Coca Cola 800 438 2653

Pepsi Cola 800 433 COLA

Shell Oil 800 331 3703

Exxon/Mobil 800 800 2510

American Express 800 528 4800

Marriot Hotels 800 228 9290

JC Penney 800 222 6161

WalMart 800 925 6278

Dell Computers 800 472 3355 866 209 3251

and tell them your demands and that you will stop buying their products.

You now have the power.

Go forth and succeed.

While well-intentioned, the above post inadvertantly continues the big lie of consumer sovereignty, the lie that says that consumers rule over the marketplace. The attempt to change the political system on this basis alone is doomed to fail. For one thing, most large companies give to candidates in both parties, as well as giving soft money to both. If you stop patronizing one and shift to another, you have done little more than change the conduit through which your money is siphoned.

But there's something even more basic. So long as there is money to be gained, the parties will continue competing for it, so that companies looking for a better special deal will keep on poping up. It's the SYSTEM, not the individual companies that are making this go.

So, while it's certainly a good idea to spend your money as consciously as possible, it's utterly self-deluding to think this will do the trick. By the same token, *blaming* people for not using this power is utterly perverse, since the power itself is extremely limited. Their is no individual power that can equal the organized collective that is politics. One can use individual intelligence, committment, courage, wisdom, etc., to make that collective power increasingly effective. But you cannot do it alone.