After the 2000 election, I had a neighbor who wouldn't speak to me for several months. He was an ardent Democrat, a supporter of Al Gore, who knew that I voted for Ralph Nader. In his view, people of my ilk had cost Gore the election by frivolously voting our consciences.
Put aside the fact the abundant evidence that in Florida alone there was massive election fraud, the disenfranchisement of over 30,000 voters by a scrubbing of the voting rosters, a huge preponderance of which would have voted Democratic. Ignore the fact that Gore, or at least his legal team, proved to be spineless and just caved to the absurd Supreme Court ruling on the recount. Discount the role played by Kathleen Harris, the Secretary of State in Florida at the time responsible for certifying the results of the election, who was a hard core Republican and made no attempt to hide her bias. Overlook the obvious irregularities in the recount itself.
It was all my fault that King George was installed on the presidential throne.
So here we are again, confronted by a "clear choice" between an enlightened, gentile and beneficent Barack Obama and the crude, barbaric, corporate predator, Mitt Romney.
What to do?
People warn, "Too much is at stake. Don't throw your vote away!"
I agree. This is not the time to throw our vote away. This is not the time to vote for more of the same and none of what the country needs and deserves.
What does this mean?
Simple . . .
Barack Obama has done some good things over the past three years. Hey! So have I. Does that mean you want me as your president? The ugly truth is, if you look at the big picture, Mr. Obama has done as much to push the too-big-to-fail big bank, Wall Street, corporate agenda than his notorious predecessor. Maybe more.
What does this specifically mean for the coming election?
It means we're again forced to make a choice between Tweedle-dee and Tweedle-dum, as Nader colorfully put it back in 2000. The truth is that under a Romney presidency, we will see a merciless, full-steam plundering of America by corporate interests and the turning of the vast majority of Americans into surf-slaves, and a relentless and thorough destruction of the middle class and America as we know it.
Under another term of Obama as president, we'll see the same thing but cloaked in charm and doublespeak platitudes, more of Michelle's fine taste in clothes and her organic plants in the White House garden, and certainly the humor and eloquence that has established Mr. Obama as one of the most charismatic bullshitters in American history.
In this next presidential election, America doesn't find itself between a rock and a hard place. It finds itself under the rubble. The rubble of deception, hypocrisy, manipulation, and the potential final death rattles of American democracy.
This is a historic juncture. It's time to let the "powers" know we've had enough. We won't be fooled again. Time to cast a vote which sends a message.
Who to vote for? Jim Hightower or Bernie Sanders on a write-in come first to mind.
But the important thing is ABROO . . . anyone but Romney or Obama. And let that anyone be a person of integrity who treats the American voting public like adults, respects them and is not afraid to tell the truth, who has the courage to stand up to the corporate imperialist agenda.
Cast your vote. Send a message.
Then take to the streets.
[ This originated at the author's personal web site . . . http://jdrachel.com ]
