Since leaving America August 2006, I have traveled to sixteen countries. A great deal has happened. This site is to share my thoughts, photos, music, writings, travel experiences, and developing political/social commentary with you. I hope you find it interesting and informative.
If
you can handle my tinny, nasally mid-Western voice, the above video
offers a detailed explanation on how candidate contracts take the
guesswork out of voting and set a whole, new standard for electoral
integrity in our country. Or you can just read the entire text of the
presentation, which follows here:
The candidate contract idea is simple and straightforward.
The candidate contract takes the guesswork out of voting.
It
sets a new standard for deciding where a candidate stands on crucial
issues, how serious that candidate is about solving problems which are
important to us voters, how serious that candidate is about representing
his or her constituents. In fact, it sets down in writing what exactly
that candidate will be doing when they arrive in Washington DC, right
from Day One.
Every
candidate says the right things. They always say what they think the
voters want to hear, the things that will get them elected. Everyone
understands this.
But
talk is cheap. And after they get elected, when these folks arrive in
our nation’s capital and get inside that DC bubble, amnesia sets in.
How do I know?
That’s simple. It’s so obvious anyone can see it. You just have to look.
Just consider a few of these items.
63% of Americans want a federal minimum wage of $15.00 per hour. That
means more than 6 out of every 10 citizens want the minimum wage hiked
to $15 per hour. Mind you the minimum livable wage in urban areas like
New York, San Francisco, Boston is over $22 per hour. But $15 per hour
would be a good start in the right direction. What is it now? It’s
equivalent in today’s dollars to what it was in 1950! It’s a paltry
$7.25 an hour. It hasn’t increased since July of 2009. That’s eight
years ago!
75%
of voters want fair trade agreements protecting jobs, workers, the
environment. 75%! That’s a huge majority opposed to the trade bills
which now give corporations enormous advantages, are responsible for
exporting our jobs, destroying our unions, replacing good permanent
employment with low wage temporary jobs. Is Congress listening? It
doesn’t matter which party is in the Oval Office or even on Capitol
Hill. We still get NAFTA, CAFTA, TTIP, WTO. Last year our pay-for-play
legislators in the deep pockets of the multinational corporations
fast-tracked TPP, the worst trade bill in history. These neoliberal
lapdogs won’t quit until we’re all back to being hunter-gatherers! 76%
of voters want a cut back on military spending. So what do we get next
year? Trump proposes an increase of $56 billion in the official
defense budget with members of Congress from both parties cheering him
on like a bunch of snarling pit bulls.
76%
of voters want the U.S. completely out of Afghanistan. We’ve been
fighting that miserable pointless war for 16 years, folks! They
promised to get U.S. troops out of the country by 2014. Now it’s 2017
and they’re putting more troops back in. We’re going to be there
forever! For what? To waste another $600 billion dollars and have more
of our best and brightest come back in body bags? 79%
of voters want no reductions in Social Security. 70% support expanding
it. 79% of voters want no reductions in Medicare. Here we have two of
the most successful programs in our history, loved and supported by the
people. Yet every new session of Congress, there’s talk about cutting
benefits, raising eligibility age -- slash slash slash. Or they talk
about “privatizing” it, which is doublespeak for turning it over to Wall
Street so they can gamble with the money we’ve put away all our lives.
It’s truly a crime!
There are many more. So far I’ve just scratched the surface.
But
there’s one last one I’ll mention that truly tells the story, that
shows what a sad state of affairs our faltering democracy is in. Get
this: 93% of Americans want GMO labeling. Mind you, they’re not saying
GMOs must be banned. They’re just saying that the labels for our
processed food should say whether the product contains GMO ingredients
or not, so that a shopper can make an informed judgment about whether
they want to buy it — a mother who wants to be prudent in planning the
diet for her kids, a person who may have severe food allergies which
requires them to pay attention to the ingredients on a label. 93%!
That crosses all party lines, ideologies, religions, liberal,
conservative, all ethnicities, visitors from outer space. 93%! And
Congress won’t pass a bill requiring GMO labeling. That really says it
all, doesn’t it?
Okay, we’ve got a range of different issues on the candidate contract we’ve prepared.
They are the things millions and millions of Americans want done — huge
majorities of U.S. citizens. As different as these items individually
are, what do they all have in common? You've got it! NONE OF THIS GETS
THROUGH OUR DEADBEAT CONGRESS! Well, I shouldn’t say they’re deadbeat,
because they’re not. They are actually working hard to make sure none
of these things gets passed, working hard not for you and I, but for
their rich patrons, their deep-pocketed Wall Street donors, their Koch
brothers and defense contractors, investment bankers and hedge fund
buddies.
Like I said, candidates always say the right things. Take minimum wage: “I
believe everyone deserves the right to make a decent living. This is
the richest nation on earth. Every person deserves a good life.”
Sound familiar? What’s he going to say? I think some folks should
starve to death on slave wages? Of course not. But he used a lot of
words to say nothing. The candidate contract makes it a simple but
powerful yes or no question: Will you commit in writing to raising the
minimum wage to $15 per hour or not? Yes or no.
So
. . . all we’re saying to a candidate is this: "We love your TV ads,
you’ve got a lovely family, your t-shirts and bumper stickers look
great! But running this country is serious business. So from now on,
we want it in writing, in black-and-white, in a legally-binding contract
what you will be doing to serve us, the folks who are sending you to
your cushy job in Washington DC. No ambiguity. No compromise. No
equivocation. We want it spelled out as an 'employment contract' and we
are asking you to sign it. We’re not forcing you. It’s your choice.
It’s a straightforward deal here. You sign the contract, you’ve got our
vote. You don’t sign the contract, we’re looking for a candidate who
has the integrity, courage, and responsibility to sign it. We’ll be
voting for that person. Understand this: There’s no room for
negotiation. This is final! That’s the way it works now."
You
see, professional politicians have gotten spoiled. They get so much
attention, so much money, so many favors lavished on them once they get
in office, they forget the most important single aspect of their job
description: THEY WORK FOR US! We’re not casting votes for them to
talk to lobbyists and rich campaign donors. We’re casting our votes to
have them go to DC and work on behalf of us, the people, the everyday
Americans that make up 99% of the population.
Please. Just read the contract.
Everything in it is what at minimum 62% of us regular folks want done.
On many items, it’s even greater. 75%. 78%. 80% and above. Right
now those things aren’t getting done. Year after year, our elected
officials ignore the will of the people, the very citizens who vote them
into office. The candidate contract will make sure they start paying
attention.
Here’s the simple truth. Here’s what’s happening on the ground in real time right now in America. Voters are tired of slick campaign rhetoric and empty campaign promises. They’re fed up with a system that’s rigged.
They’re fed up with being left behind, forgotten by their elected officials.
They’re tired of everything getting done for Wall Street, the big banks, the corporations, the wealthy.
They’re fed up with nothing getting done for the PEOPLE — honest, hard-working everyday citizens. Folks! We need to DRAW A LINE IN THE SAND!
No negotiation. No excuses. No mercy. No fear.
That’s exactly what the candidate contract does. It lets us know exactly who’s on our side and who isn’t.
Okay, one last point: People sometimes ask me, “What kind of candidate would sign such a contract?”
The
answer to that is very simple: A candidate who wants to win the coming
election. The contract spells out what the voters want by huge
majorities. Voters are sick and tired of compromises. They want the job
done and want it done right. Therefore, voters need to stand united
and stand strong. Vote only for candidates who are on their side, who will work for them!
And that being the case, the reason why a candidate should be running
full speed with pen in hand to sign the contract is because they want to
get elected and be sent to Washington DC to serve those who elected
them honestly, faithfully, transparently.
Let me add some beautifully twisted logic to illustrate further why a candidate would want to sign this contract.
We
all know there are some good people in politics, decent human beings
who truly want to do the right thing. But politics is often more about
power, money, twisting arms, bullying, than about doing what’s good for
the people. So let’s say our candidate — who has signed the contract —
arrives in Washington and right off the bat, there’s some lobbyist at
his door. The lobbyist gives his pitch, the typical
let’s-see-what-we-can-do-here, the usual
I’ll-scratch-your-back-if-you’ll-scratch-my-back blah blah blah. He’s
got some mega transnational corporation paying him big bucks to wax the
slide with Congress and get some favorable legislation passed. Well,
here’s the beauty of the contract: Our guy, the one who got elected
because he signed on the dotted line with you the voters, can say:
“Hey, I sure appreciate your coming in and talking to me about this.
But here’s the deal. I’m under contract to my constituents. I have no
room to negotiate, no room to trade or bargain on any of this. If I go
against my constituents on this, I’ll be on the streets without this
job, I’ll have to refund all my campaign contributions — and hey, the
money is spent, how will I begin to do that? — and I’ll probably get my
ass sued for more money than I’ll make in a lifetime. So even if I
wanted to go along with what you’re proposing, I have no choice. I am
legally-bound by contract to answer only to those who voted me into
office. Thanks for stopping by. Don’t let the door hit you on the way
out.”
See
how this works? See why this introduces an unprecedented level of
honesty, transparency, integrity, back into voting? Do you see why at
least in terms of good, decent, honest politicians, we’re actually doing
THEM a favor with this contract.
Okay, I’ve talked your ear off. Let me wrap this up.
Yes,
the candidate contract is a new innovation. But it’s a necessary
innovation. Before there were cars, we didn’t need traffic lights.
Before big money and unprecedented concentration of wealth and power
into the hands of a ruling elite, we didn’t need an enforceable contract
with our elected officials. Times change and we need to change with
it. Candidate contracts are the answer to the dismal state of our
democracy.
Granted,
we have a lot of work to do to repair the mess we’re in. But good work
depends on good dependable workers. Let’s put some real public
servants in office who will serve the public, not just the rich and powerful. Let’s put some representatives in Congress who will represent everyday Americans,
not Wall Street banks, corporate CEOs, not the incomprehensibly rich.
Let’s put some integrity back into our elections by electing only those
with the integrity to sign on the dotted line, guaranteeing they will work for you in creating an America that works again for everyone.
Here is the link to look at the version of the candidate contract for a progressive running for the House of Representatives: Candidate Contract - An American Renewal.
If
you're interested in getting into the real details of an independent
campaign using the candidate contract strategy -- and it is an entire
electoral strategy, not just a slip of paper with some legalese -- I
recommend reading the two books which got me noticed by the progressive
activist groups now adopting the candidate contract for future
campaigns.
"Candidate Contracts: Taking Back Our Democracy" was published in June
of 2015 and is available worldwide from all the usual suspects:
"Fighting
for the Democracy We Deserve" was published September 2015 and also is
available both in every popular ebook format and as a deluxe paperback:
Why is it in terms of progressive reform the country is going backwards?
Last
time I checked, citizens were by very sizable majorities for
practically all of the things progressive activists actively promote.
I've cited these statistics repeatedly but they're worth looking at again:
75% of Americans want a federal minimum wage of $12.50 per hour. 63% of Americans want a federal minimum wage of $15.00 per hour. 75% of voters want fair trade agreements protecting jobs, workers, the environment. 76% of voters want a cut back on military spending. 76% of voters want the U.S. completely out of Afghanistan. 79% of voters want no reductions in Social Security, 70% support expanding it. 79% of voters want no reductions in Medicare. 80% of voters oppose the "Citizens United" U.S. Supreme Court decision. 68% of voters think taxes on the wealthy should be increased. 71% of voters support massive infrastructure renewal. 65% of voters want laws to combat climate change. 62% of voters want tuition free public colleges and universities. 74% of American voters are for ending oil industry subsidies.
We could probably add a few more to the list but this offers us the necessary perspective. A
great deal of energy and time by dedicated activists continues to be
devoted to these and many other worthy causes: protecting a woman's
right to choose; respecting human rights, especially those of immigrants
and vilified minorities like Muslims; protecting the quality of air and
water, stopping the wanton destruction of the environment; reining in
abuses in the workplace; reducing police violence; on and on, all
initiatives reflecting the best values and instincts of people who
believe America is for all Americans, not just a privileged few.
Yet, all of these are constantly under assault.
This
should come as no shock. There has always been a tiny aristocratic
elite in our nation which views itself -- not hard-working everyday
citizens -- as the true engine of our wealth and greatness as a
country. Reacting to both the reforms of the 1930s under FDR, and the
hard-won gains in civil and human rights in the 1960s and 1970s, these
elitists set about reversing these populist measures with a
comprehensive, long-range strategy of taking over the governing
institutions at all levels and in every branch of government, then
subsequently imposing their own selfish, self-serving agenda on the rest
of us.
What
we see now is their spectacular success. The Republicans -- who most
thoroughly and with ideological purity represent the interests of this
ruling elite, though over the past two-and-a-half decades or more, the
Democrats have been scrambling to align themselves with the ruling
class, abandoning their traditional base of union workers and other
citizens of the lower and middle classes -- now have the White House,
both houses of Congress, a majority of the state legislatures. Even the
majority of state governors are Republicans.
They have kicked our progressive asses good!
The
reaction by our end of the political spectrum to this highly organized
assault on the system of government, which we progressives and the
majority of everyday people believe is supposed to serve the interests
of all citizens, has been short-sighted and fragmented.
The end product of decades of what we failed to properly assess and address is what I call Whack A Mole activism.
Just
like the amusement center Whack A Mole game -- though we hardly find it
amusing -- we are constantly challenged to whack at one crisis, while
others are poised to quickly follow. There's always another crisis
popping up somewhere else.
We
haven't even finished fighting in Afghanistan or Iraq, but now we have
to fight another war in Syria. While we're fueling the crisis in Syria,
we start another one in the Ukraine. As if these weren't enough, we're
getting ready to fight Russia, China, North Korea.
We
stop the Keystone XL, but five more pipelines get backroom approval.
We get ready to challenge them, the Arctic gets opened up again for more
drilling. More offshore rigs start popping up everywhere. Leases are
being handed out like Halloween candy to explore for gas in our National
Parks. Our heads are spinning.
We see school lunch
programs cut. Funding for the arts. Then women's health centers get
put on the chopping block. Before the paint on our protest signs dries
for those, the police kill a bunch of unarmed black folks because . . .
well, they're black. What other reason do the police need these days?
Even
a crisis that we think we whacked, gets new life and pops up again a
short time later. Think about Net Neutrality. Think about the modest,
completely inadequate and symbolic victories on behalf of fighting
climate change with the timid and compromised gestures of the Obama
administration, wiped out with the swipe of a pen by Trump. Look at
banking and Wall Street regulations. Consumer protections. One step
forward, four steps back.
The crises keep coming faster and faster and just keep piling up.
Let's
get real here. There's no way we can win. Just like the slot machines
in Las Vegas, this game is rigged. The house will always win. Who
owns the house? They do!
They
keep us scrambling. They keep us divided. They keep us distracted, in
a constant state of panic, disoriented and exhausted by the sheer
number of crises being created, we're never able to mount a unified,
comprehensive, coherent counterattack.
Whether
you credit the ruling elite with the ingenuity to have intentionally
crafted this constant state of frenzy and chaos, or whether it has just
been a convenient and effective but purely chance by-product of their
original program, the upshot is the same. We are being systematically
crippled in our attempt to stop the juggernaut of regressive change.
What's
pathetic about all of this, beyond our continuing failure to make much
difference and the clear prospects that we will only lose more of these
battles as time goes on, is that there apparently is still this naive,
completely clueless belief that by just appealing to those now in power,
by just pointing out the virtues of our reasonable demands, by
highlighting the goodness and justice and fairness and decency of our
causes -- yes by golly -- they will actually listen to our heart-felt pleas, come around, and do the right thing!
Maybe we watched too many Disney movies growing up, eh?
Let's
not kid ourselves any longer. There is a class of ultra-wealthy
people, a tiny elite minority who despise us, disdain democracy, believe
themselves extraordinary, superior, and above the rules and
considerations which apply to the rest of us slobbering inferiors. You
can look at this psychologically, anthropologically, historically,
sociologically, however you choose to analyze this phenomenon. The
reality is that it has been a factor in recorded history as long as
there has been recorded history.
A
fundamental principle in an egalitarian democracy is that such
inevitable aristocratic forces be kept in check. Look around. We have
failed. Those aristocratic, authoritarian, elitist instincts which are
always part of the DNA of a certain class of such patricians, are
completely out of control in contemporary America. The commons is being
plundered or acquired and hoarded, the "general welfare" is being
ignored -- even mocked -- the notion of the American Dream has become a
punch line for a comedy routine that's played out on the stage of a
country in a suicidal tailspin, a nation unraveling and apparently
determined to now promote everything it once stood against: grotesque
wealth inequality, plutocratic pillage, grotesque and anti-democratic
militarism, foreign entanglements and imperial conquest, perpetual war,
destruction of citizen privacy and constitutional protection.
Of
course, if we point any of this out, or especially if we gather the
courage to fight "them" and their self-serving agenda, we'll be accused
of being troublemakers, insurrectionists, anarchists, communists,
traitors.
But never ever forget . . .
Regular
folks like you and I did not and are not starting a class war. The
simple truth is, we're the victims of an ongoing class war started a
long long time ago, a class war which just becomes more fierce and
destructive with each passing day and each passed piece of legislation
by our corrupt Congress. Make no mistake about it. We are in a war!
It's a battle for survival. The ruling class do not care if we live or
die. Unpleasant as this may sound, these are the facts on the ground. Sometimes
I'm accused of being extreme. Excuse me? The rich and powerful have
stolen our country, destroyed our democracy, are now putting the
finishing touches on a new incarnation of feudalism, and I should be
deferential and gracious, warm and amicable?
I should give a pass to the Koch brothers? Sure, they have families and friends, probably go to church every Sunday and sing All Hail the Power of Jesus's Name, or another lovely hymn
praising the God that so blessed them with gold bumpers on their new
Rolls Royce. So what? Their psychopathic level of greed and diabolical
destruction of the environment is incompatible with democracy, with
common decency, with the values of our nation, and with the survival of
the human race. THEY ARE THE ENEMY! Period!
As
the enemy, they are not to be respected, trusted, certainly not hailed
as exemplars of our way of life. They're just like demented children
beating an anthill with a baseball bat. We are the ants.
If as I say it's true that we're being played by the ruling class . . .
How then do we stop playing the Whack A Mole activism game?
There's only one solution: We unplug it, take it out back, then take a sledgehammer to it. We destroy the machine!
How
does this translate to the struggle of everyday citizens to take back
control of their country from an abusive and ruthless ruling class?
There's a lot of room for interpretation here and history is replete with examples.
The obvious and most decisive way of "destroying the machine" is a bloody revolution.
Perhaps
I am naive but I'm hoping we can avoid that. Considering both the
enormous fire power of the federal authorities and the mind-numbing
number of privately-owned guns, a revolution in the U.S. would be an
unprecedented bloodbath.
Destroying
the machine in my view is destroying the mechanism by which the ruling
class now exclusively impose their will on our republic. That mechanism
is "owning" those who we allegedly democratically elect as our
legislators. The Achilles heel of that ownership are those owned. We stopped the ownership of our governing officials by replacing the owned with the unowned.
Almost
everyone now sitting in Congress is directly responsible for or
complicit with the control of our legislative bodies by the ruling
class. They benefit from it. They go along with it. They are not
going to change it.
Therefore
we must change them. Either we change their behavior -- a dubious
prospect at this stage from what we've seen -- or we "change" the them
who hold those positions. We "unelect" those now in office and elect
honest, accountable, responsive representatives to replace them.
That
is why I'm calling for regime change in Congress in 2018. This to me
is the positive, non-violent path to cutting deep into the system and
excising the poison of corruption.
We must look at replacing at
least 400 of the current sitting members in the House of
Representatives, and the 33 senators up for election in 2018. This is
certainly a drastic proposal. But sometimes you need to completely
clean house and start from scratch.
Should we take them out back and take sledgehammers to them?
There
are probably many in this country who are so frustrated and angry -- or
will be when they finally realize the level of corruption of our
current elected officials -- they might opt for such violent reprisals.
I
myself say the most important thing is to get these criminals out of
office before they do any more damage to the country. If you press me
for how we should handle long histories of such political
criminality, of abuse of public trust and the mockery they've made of
our system of government, I will say that I can see a special tribunal
being set up -- along the lines of the Nuremberg war crimes trials --
and our current congressmen being indicted. We could call it the
American Crimes Against Democracy Court of Reconciliation.
Maybe there would be a new arcade game along those lines to help fund the proceedings.
The Whack A Politico activist game!
In
my next two articles, I will get into the specifics of implementing my
candidate contract strategy toward dramatic regime change in Congress
via the 2018 election.
We can continue playing a pointless game toward a fruitless ending.
Or we can unite and change the game itself.
That's the choice in 2018.
[ This originated at the author's personal website . . . http://jdrachel.com ]
We have been fed over the past few years entirely contradictory views of Russia.
Lately, of course, we've seen a preponderance of "scare bear" propaganda and commentary.
Could this have something to do with it being appropriations time,
the annual fight over who gets what in next years federal budget?
Considering the U.S. can't pile up debt fast enough to suit its
enlightened leaders, this also means lubricating the public mind for
increasing the already humongous pile of money which goes into military
spending, that being the major component of discretionary spending.
Of
course, military spending, besides being intrinsically good regardless
of how much it distorts our national values and bankrupts our economy,
is about making American safe from the entire panoply of threats. It
seems everyone is at our throats, ready to chop off our benevolent
heads. Besides terrorists, rogue nations explicitly dedicated to
destroying us like Venezuela and Cuba, and major nations like China -- which lent us over a trillion dollars to buy military hardware to prevent them from attacking us -- there is always the little discussed potential for aninvasion from outer space.
Having said that, it's Russia that seems to get all the headlines. We have former VP Joe Biden concurring with current FBI Director James Comey that, without a doubt, even without any corroborating evidence, Russia is out to get us!
So what is the truth? Is Russia a wild and woolly beast? Or an affable and tame dancing bear?
Maybe we need some veterinarian advice to sort all of this out. Can bears get rabies?
Because
while over the past several years Russia has consistently been getting
folks from all across the globe to the peace tables, trying to resolve
diplomatically the crises created by the West in Ukraine, Syria, the Middle East in general,
we are now told that under the spell of their crazed leader Vladimir
Putin, the country is foaming at the mouth, haunted and possessed with
diabolical visions of world conquest. Did Russia get bitten by a rabid ground squirrel?
To
add to the confusion is this recently announcement, a highly
thought-provoking one at that, which should -- but won't -- result in
some serious soul-searching in the U.S.: Russia has just recently
announced it is dramatically cutting its defense budget for 2017! As thisexcellent piece of analysispoints out, you are very hard pressed to find mention of it any where in the Western media.
The
U.S. breathlessly peddles itself as the purveyor of peace, the spreader
of democracy, the guardian of justice and a harmonious world, yet it
has about 800 bases in at least 63 countries in the world -- depending on your definition of 'base', some put this figure at over 160 -- AND is increasing its military expenditures by almost 10% in 2018.
Let me play Devil's advocate now. Let me be brutally insensitive and self-serving.
Since apparently we as a people don't truly care if others in the world suffer and starve to death, let's say for argument's sake we shouldn't care. Hey! Life has winners and losers. Some people have it good. Others starve to death. It is what it is.
Having
said that, having declared our own welfare to be eminently more
important than that of anyone else on the planet, let me explain why
we're incredibly stupid -- make that completely insane -- if we don't take the money out of the defense budget, halt the famine, and end world hunger immediately.
Actually, let Lee Camp -- a truly enlightened activist and my all-time favorite comedian -- tell you why. As Lee says it so perfectly:
"We
as a country could do that easily and have more national security than
ever, because no one's attacking the country that ended world hunger. . .
. They attack the country that bombs the shit out of the Middle East
and bans refugees, and says stupid crap like: 'We're #1!' . . . . If we
ended world hunger we'd be safe again."
Does it really take a stand-up comic to get our national priorities right?
Or maybe we're trying a different approach to getting laughs: A comedy of errors.
[ This originated at the author's personal website . . . http://jdrachel.com ]
I am doing what I can to address the destruction of democracy in America._Without taking back our government, nothing will change.
In my new book, An Unlikely Truth,
I offer an electoral strategy which I believe can effectively remove
the crooks and liars from office, and begin to restore representative
democracy to America.
An Unlikely Truth
(Literary Vagabond Books) will be released worldwide on March 24th.
But by special arrangement with Amazon, early-release copies are
immediately available. Get a copy of An Unlikely Truth . . .
