How do you get a whale's attention with a needle?

My old boot. I suppose you could say I'm putting my foot down, here.


If the United States was a store I was visiting, with our elected officials as the staff, I would leave the store and never return.

Have you ever written Congress? They write back with all the sincerity and interest of a Walmart "associate." Action? Don't expect it. You don't set their agenda, any more than you set Walmart's.

Why are we so apathetic about politics? Because America is Walmart: crappy products and crappier customer service. The thing is just too damn big. How can you expect to get a whale's attention with a needle?


If anything, the Bush administration has only worsened this situation. Their unilateral bullying of congress and other nations, as advised by CEOs of all the American institutions that matter, tells the rest of us -implicitly-- that we simply don't count (this is literally true, too, as they often don't even count our ballots).

Why was there no outrage when we invaded Iraq? Well in fact, there was. Scores of millions of people took to the streets in early March of 2003 (I was there, I saw thousands in Lawrence KS alone), but America TM didn't listen. Hundreds of millions of letters opposing the occupation have by now been sent to Congress, and been ignored. Thousands of phone calls have been made for the same reasons, and have been similarly ignored. Try it yourself: their manners are impeccable, and you might even feel better for a minute, but ultimately you'll be ignored too. Because America TM is not about you, or even us; it's about business.

It's as if the rules have been changed on us, without us having been told. One day, we lived in a democratic republic. Now, we live in a Walmart.