|
2 million people slaughtered in Southeast Asia, including over 55,000 U.S. soldiers. A seering lesson in political hypocrisy.
Just wanted to remind folks of my little bit of wisdom on this issue, earned from 40 years as a Democratic Party voter and activist.
Beware of Democrats bearing peace.
This is not to say, vote Republican--by any means. It is just a warning that we must find effective ways to hold our leaders' feet to the fire. A more recent lesson was Bill Clinton's campaign promise in 1992 to include labor and environmental protections in NAFTA--a promise he quickly broke, once in office, to the lasting detriment of our country, and great harm to other peoples.
Our first defense against lying politicians--what must be our priority no. 1 reform: Restore transparent vote counting--vote counting that everyone can see and understand.
The worst betrayal of us, by our Democratic Party leadership, has been their support for the 'counting' of our votes using extremely insecure and insider hackable voting machines run on 'TRADE SECRET,' PROPRIETARY programming code, owned and controlled by rightwing Bushite corporations. We MUST fix this. Without transparent vote counting, we cannot hold our politicians to their promises and cannot hold them responsible for what they do. In 1968, LBJ paid the price for perpetrating an unjust, unnecessary war. It became clear that he could not win a 2nd term, because of the war, and he withdrew from the race. That kind of accountability cannot occur today, because Bush/Cheney's close allies, big contributors and campaign chairs are 'counting' all our votes under a veil of corporate secrecy. How do you think they "won" the 2004 election amidst torture scandals, an unnecessary war raging in Iraq about which they had lied, and a $10 trillion deficit from unnecessary war and multiple tax cuts for the rich? Do you think the American people are that stupid? I know they are not. Non-transparent, privatized vote 'counting'--fast-tracked across the country in the 2002 to 2004 period--had two purposes: a) to keep Bush/Cheney in office to reinforce their fascist policies, and b) to extend Corporate Ruler and War Profiteer control of our election results far into the future.
Second, of course, is our filthy campaign contribution system. But we cannot reform this--or anything else--until we have restored transparent vote counting.
Third are the war profiteering corporate news monopolies. But ditto--nothing we can do about it until we have restored our right to vote.
When I say "Beware of Democrats bearing peace," I mean be prepared for the worst. It will not surprise me in the least to see President H. Clinton, or President Joe Biden, or President Christopher Dodd, institute a military Draft and attack Iran (or manufacture an incident as the excuse). I'm not so sure of Obama's duplicity, but it would not surprise me much. These potential candidates, once in office, will be far, far less accountable to the American people than any president before them, and they will furthermore have the cover of being considered "liberal." It wouldn't surprise me to see them open a second front in the corporate resource wars, in South America, and engage in stealth toppling of the democratic governments there and installation of fascist dictators. And it wouldn't at all surprise me--it is quite expectable--that they will continue all sorts of Bushite policies, both legal and illegal, that further enrich corporations and enhance their power at our expense. These sort of Democrats who voted for the war, and now say they are against the war, are not to be trusted. The only one I tend to believe (besides Kucinich) is Edwards, since he seems to be outside the political establishment these days--and also he is the only one, besides Kucinich, who has spoken out strongly about transparent vote counting.
Dodd in particular is a snake in the grass. He was a major architect--colluding with the biggest crooks in the Anthrax Congress, Tom Delay and Bob Ney--of electronic voting with secret code controlled by rightwing corporations. Hillary and Biden are a bit more seeable--but they are both being hypocrites on the war, well aware of the 70+% of Americans who now oppose the war. But where were they back in Feb. 2003, when a significant majority--56%--opposed this unnecessary war, and they voted for it, and funded it time and again?
Nowhere is where they were. They weren't there for the American people. They betrayed the American people. And now they want us to send them our money and vote for them--whatever our votes may be worth these days. Do we have any say at all? Some, I think. They have to have some base from which to be Diebolded into office. (Dodd has none. Have you noticed?) And they have to have lots and lots and lots of money, in lieu of a large base of passionate, committed supporters.
Just be aware, is all I'm saying. Our political system is very, very sick. It CANNOT provide what we want and need--honest and true representatives of the people, in the White House and running Congress. And we mustn't be discouraged when the inevitable further betrayals occur. We must keep fighting to restore a healthy democracy here. The fate of the planet depends on it. Remedy no. 1 for our sick political system: transparent vote counting. Ask you local registrar about it!
|
Printer-friendly format
Email this thread to a friend
Bookmark this thread
(1000+ posts)
Send PM |
Profile |
Ignore
