It astounds me how wimpy and servile voters are. Dude, we're Americans! We're supposed to be independent, tough, ruggedly individualistic, exceptional!
No one pushes us around! Unless they want their asses kicked!
Right.
So why is it when the election cycle rolls around and as voters we have to start listening to the professional windbags courting our approval, we let the candidates tell us what they're going to do when they get elected?
Excuse me! Shouldn't we be telling them what they'll be doing if they get elected?
Voters seem to have forgotten how much power they collectively hold in their hands. The simple fact is, if we don't like what we see, we don't have to vote for someone. And if we don't vote for them, they are out of a job.
Let me talk directly to you progressives out there — since the odds that a conservative or even centrist is visiting my web site are pretty nil — and discuss a perfect example of the kind of surrender that has perpetuated the powerlessness we all complain about, i.e. not getting our elected officials to listen to us and begin serving us instead of the 1%.
Understandably, we lefties are encouraged by the rise in popularity of Bernie Sanders.
His campaign is certainly a much-welcome breath of fresh air next to both the belligerent bombast of the certifiably insane Republican presidential candidates, and the slippery shape-shifting rhetoric of Hillary the Terminator, the Democrat's heavy puncher in the neocon-driven cage fight to decide who has the most expedient blue print for incinerating the planet and destroying all living things in the nuclear holocaust of WWIII.
Why is Sanders gaining traction?
Because unlike everyone else, he's addressing bread-and-butter issues, the challenges which affect the daily lives of most Americans. He's talking about better jobs, increasing income, reducing wealth inequality, rebuilding our industrial base, bringing factories and jobs back to America, improving health care, education, making college affordable, etc.
Unfortunately . . . Sanders is NOT TALKING ABOUT ending unnecessary wars, reducing the defense budget, reversing the self-destructive pursuit of American empire, ending the monopoly control of foreign policy and promotion of military adventurism by the military-industrial complex, halting the unconstitutional citizen surveillance by the NSA, CIA, FBI and other security agencies, or ending the fraudulent War on Terror.
The simple truth is, all of his noble aspirations about improving the day-to-day lives of the majority of Americans will come to naught unless the militarization of American society and the imperialist agenda of world domination is reversed. As long as the current military mindset of Washington DC prevails, there will never be any money to address the needs of American citizens, nor will it ever be a priority. There will always be another bogeyman, terrorist group, rogue nation, another war, another "humanitarian intervention" to pursue. You and I, the everyday Americans who fund all of these illegal, immoral misadventures and self-destructive policies, will always be last on the list. Not even in the kitchen, much less on the back burner.
Whether Mr. Sanders is willfully ignorant of this reality, or whether he's just confused, it's up to us to set him straight.
Here's what we say . . .
"Mr. Sanders, your intentions are good. You want to help the majority of American citizens enjoy a decent life. That's very nice. But you're delusional if you think that's going to happen with an out-of-control military and a foreign policy built around confrontation and conquest. You want to be president and we want you to be president. But here's the deal. Unless you change your positions on defense and foreign policy, you are not getting our vote. It's your choice. You come around and stop all of this insanity, we'll back you 100%. If you don't, you can say 'Hi' to Hillary when she walks by you at the Democratic convention on her way to the podium to make her acceptance speech."
Yes, this is playing hardball.
But you know what? If we don't use our right to vote to our advantage, then there's not much point in having it. We're just puppets pretending we live in a democracy.
Now you might ask . . .
Is there a way to get this message to Mr. Sanders?
Glad you asked.
I have a clear, completely bulletproof, step-by-step strategy for doing exactly that.
It's contained in my two books, Candidate Contracts: Taking Back Our Democracy and the abridged version of the same set of plans, Fighting for the Democracy We Deserve.
Am I trying to sell you a book?
Yes . . . but no.
If you are too cheap to buy either, or you simply can't afford it, give me your email address and I'll send you a free PDF copy.
Does it get easier than that?
Take a few minutes here and save your country from the tyranny of the rich and powerful.
Your children will thank you.
"Candidate Contracts: Taking Back Our Democracy" is available from all the usual suspects . . .
Amazon (Kindle) . . . amzn.to/1QJRiNZ
Apple (iBook) . . . apple.co/1BXnPcy
Amazon (Paperback) . . . amzn.to/1Cuq0du
Barnes & Noble . . . bit.ly/1GpTTLq
Smashwords . . . bit.ly/1B4DQCp
Direct from printer . . . bit.ly/1MGjDnN
"Fighting for the Democracy We Deserve" was published just a couple weeks ago. But it is available both as a Kindle ebook and in print from Amazon . . .
Amazon US (Kindle) . . . amzn.to/1VMf2Ft
Amazon CA (Kindle) . . . amzn.to/1in513n
Amazon UK (Kindle) . . . amzn.to/1KfjtQO
Amazon JP (Kindle) . . . amzn.to/1OMslBG
Amazon (Paperback) . . . amzn.to/1L9SdIC
[ This originated at the author's personal web site . . . http://jdrachel.com ]
