Obama 08 Power to the People or Power to Government

In case no one is aware of it, POWER TO THE PEOPLE is a Black Activist slogan dating back to the '60's. That has nothing to do with giving power to the people from government and has everything to do with giving the power to the Black Community, which ties in really well with the message that Rev. Wright and the Black Muslim Activist groups represent. I believe the term is now Afro-Centric or some variation of that. There are reasons that foreigners should stay out of American politics, because they don't know our history and they don't understand it, us, or what the issues are.

It's just a load of crap like everything else politicians say. People think that if a law they want gets passed, then the politician who proposed it is giving power to the people. The people are irrelevant, it's the special interest groups that paid off the politician to propose and back it. More government control will always mean less power to the people. The government bans smoking in restaurants, that means people no longer have the power to smoke where they want. People who hate smoking, feel they now have more power even though it's all in the government's hands. It's all a matter of perspective.

To see how big government works look at Social Security. Sold to us as a way to fund your retirement. Pay into the system and when you retire the money will be there. The politicans saw this pot of new money coming in and wrote out IOU for it and spent the money. Now they need money to fund the program and the answer is to rais the tax you working people pay. (no SS tax is paid by trust fund babies or Elected Officals) The highway trust fund is another example. The gas tax was imposed to build highways and maintain them. As the tax money came in and there was more than was needed the answer find more projects - so mass transit is funded and people in large cities get cheep public transportation and the people in the rural areas are paying for it. When the government overtaxed the driving public and used the money to fund other non highway projects no one complained so now the have to raise the gas tax to maintain the roads. This is what big government leads to. The question is who should decide how you spend your money? You or the Government?

Obama is all about Power to the People... he just wants final say on who those people are.

I'm the one who put it up because, to be honest, I found it visually appealing. However, as to the phrase on it, it's not to be taken too literally. Of course, it's not saying "give [governmental] power to the people." It's more of a way to say that we the people, as a whole, are the most important and should try sharing our ideas. At least, that's how I interpreted it.

I'm not sure that it can be defended. Especially after reading your post. You make your points most ellequently, logically, and I believe, correctly. It goes back to the old ontological question of the needs of the many vs. the needs of the few, or the one. You are absolutely correct. But Obama isn't the only candidate advocating for bigger governmental roles; Clinton and McCain are as well. The ONLY Candidate that I know of that isn't is Ron Paul, but then he's still basically a Libertarian at heart too.