|
Edited on Fri Jan-06-06 10:12 AM by Peace Patriot
transparent elections, majority rule, help for the poor, medical care, schools, community centers, micro-business grants, encouragement of local music, arts and culture, rejection of corporate monoculture, using the country's resources for the greatest good, and the coming to power, at long last, of South America's vast, poor, brown indigenous population who have for so long been cruelly exploited, and their needs and desires ignored, by vicious dictatorships supported by the U.S.
Democracy is sweeping South America. Virtually the entire map of the subcontinent has gone "blue" over the last several years, with leftist governments in Brazil, Chile, Argentina, Uruguay, Venezuela and now Bolivia. Chavez calls it the Bolivarian Revolution--the peaceful transformation of South American government and society by means of transparent elections and grass roots organization, and South American regional cooperation and unity. But the key to it is transparent elections--overseen by the OAS, EU election groups and the Carter Center.
I first became fully alerted to this transformation a couple of years ago, when Brazil and other traditionally powerless countries banded together to resist the bullying by the rich countries at the World Trade Organization meetings in Cancun. It was such an amazing thing to behold. I also knew the story of the poor in Venezuela stopping the US-backed coup against Chavez by pouring into the streets of Caracas by the tens of thousands and surrounding the presidential palace and just BEING THERE, entirely peacefully. I knew something was up, and began paying closer attention to South American news. It--democracy!--is coming to full flower now. South America is leaving the U.S. in the dust. WE are the oppressed people now--the powerless poor of the U.S.--and they know it. That's why Chavez is reaching out to the poor of the U.S. and offering us assistance.
This is what the Bush junta has done to us--transformed us into the pitied masses of the north, who can't even stop Bushite corporations from controlling our election system with "trade secret," proprietary programming code in their new election theft machines, and who are being jerked around--the tail wagging the dog--by our humongous, offensive, military/corporate war machine, which has given us a trillion dollar deficit while doubling our gas prices, slashing taxes on the rich and deregulating U.S.-based global corporate predators so they can hurt us some more.
Bolivia's answer to this kind of crap was to throw Bechtel out of their country--when Bechtel got control of Bolivia's water supply and started charging peasants for collecting RAINWATER! They fought back. They threw them out! Way to go, Bolivia! They have now elected a Bolivian peasant and former coca leaf grower as president of their country, by a big majority, who recently stated, "I am the United States' worst nightmare."
We now need to do that to Bechtel, Halliburton, Titan, CACI, Chevron and the whole gang of thieves and murderers who have seized our government. It is not going to be easy. It was not easy for the South Americans. But we do have two advantages over the South American poor, one, our visibility on the world stage, and two, the relative ease and simplicity of the solution here: transparent elections! The great majority in the U.S. has opposed Bush's war, and ALL Bush policy, foreign and domestic, ALL ALONG (for instance, 58% opposed the war in Iraq in Feb. '03, before the invasion--and it's up to about 70% today). If we can restore our right to vote, we WILL throw these bastards out and reform this country as never before. It's DOABLE, in the short term--through Russ Holt's HR 550 (an election reform bill in Congress that has 169 co-sponsors), or, more likely, by the slower route of state/local election reform.
It's amazing what you can do with the right to vote!
-------------------------------
Throw Diebold and ES&S election theft machines into 'Boston Harbor' NOW!
|
Printer-friendly format
Email this thread to a friend
Bookmark this thread
(1000+ posts)
Send PM |
Profile |
Ignore
