Just Say No! . . . To Duopoly

 

Two of my recent postings have created a storm of controversy. I've been
subjected to extremes of hyperbolic praise and acidic vituperation.

With a few welcome exceptions, The 'H' Word and When Hope Becomes Hype
have largely been judged as vicious attacks on President Obama, as in
personal condemnation of the man. His administration is certainly
fingered, because the specific lessons to be taken away are definitely
germane and unquestionable timely. While there's value in never
repeating the mistakes of history, what's the point of looking at
Eisenhower or Coolidge when there are hard lessons to be learned right
now? And how irresponsible it would be to not single out and identify
those directly responsible for the destructive policies and evident
treachery unfolding before our eyes in real time?

Let me candid about something: Fairly recently I concluded the President never
intended to deliver on his promises. However, during his first campaign
and the first few months of his presidency, I very much believed in Mr.
Obama and took the man at his word, whereas many others, including Glen
Ford of the Black Agenda Report, said he was not at all what he appeared to be. 
This was before the 2008 election.

While I've come to this same conclusion belatedly __ and that and that alone
is the thrust of my two controversial postings __ I am not interested
so much in berating Mr. Obama, as preventing the same mistake from
happening again.

The same mistake would be Hillary Clinton. Or Jeb Bush. Or Rand Paul. Or any
of the other duopoly pretenders to the throne who are already in the
limelight in anticipation of the 2016 election.

What's the difference between butterscotch and butter rum candy ? Sometimes I 
can tell. Usually they taste pretty much the same. Frankly it's such a close
call, it's not worth any hand-wringing or long, involved debate about it.

That's the choice we are faced with in our current political system. The truth is,
Democrat and Republican are in the long view pretty much the same flavor.

They are two sides of the same 1% oligarchic corporate-owned coin.

Heads or tails?

It's still a quarter. And it won't buy you a cup of coffee.

It won't even pay the bus fair to your second job or the unemployment office.

So what in my view is the lesson we take from travesty of the last few elections?
What can we learn from the play-for-pay politics of big money,
epitomized by Obama's currying the favor of corporations at the expense
of 99% of the American public? What can we do about the stranglehold of 
Citizens United and McCutcheon? What is the alternative to the the Democrat vs. 
Republican dog-and-pony show which has made meaningful voting a fatuous 
exercise in futility? How can you and I as citizens of our democracy-in-exile 
make our voice heard above the din of cronyism and Beltway banditry? 
It's really quite simple . . .

Just say 'no' to this sham. Just say 'no' to the fraud of Tweedledee-Tweedledum voting.

Just say 'no' to the duopoly which has as much relevance to real democracy as Monopoly 
has to the real economy.

Just say 'no' to the "lesser-of-two-evils" non-choice choice.

Vote your conscience, vote your principles. Do the right thing. Not the
brought-to-you-by Monsanto or Morgan Chase or big pharma or big fossil
fuel or media monopoly thing.

Here's one really great thing that Obama has repeated over and over:

Yes, we can!

I agree!

Yes, we can . . . say 'no' to the duopoly and start having real choice.

Support Bernie Sanders.

Support Jill Stein.

Support any "non-partisan" candidate.

Support those individuals who answer to you on election day . . .

Not Wall Street.

Not too-big-to-jail banks.

Not transnational corporations.

Not play-for-pay lobbyists and SuperPACS.

Not the Koch brothers and other sociopathic oligarchs.

Certainly not the corporate owned Democratic and Republican puppet parties.

Make your vote actually count for something.

Just say 'no' to duopoly.



[ This originated at the author's personal web site . . . http://jdrachel.com ]

Extreme? Radical? Or just realistic?

 

We are constantly being lied to. We are being sold wars  we don't want. 
We are having our best social programs cut. Our jobs and tax dollars are
being shipped overseas.  Our treasury is being looted by Wall Street
banks and corporate oligarchs. Our education system at all levels is
being systematically destroyed. Our privacy and personal freedoms are
being whittled away. We are being asked to work harder for less money.
Our minimum wage is so minimum, no one can possibly live on it. We are
told we have to tighten our belts while the rich are carting away
billions from the public till as tax breaks and corporate subsidies.
7-11 clerks and fast food cooks pay higher tax rates than corporate CEOs
and rich Wall Street bankers.

How long does this have to go on before the American people have finally 
had enough?

The typical American citizen is being shafted on so many levels, what
totally astounds me is that there are not outraged mobs in the streets
demanding the heads of the politicians and the cold calculating country
club elites they serve.

Okay . . . okay . . . mass insurrection is not going to happen. At least not for now.

So it seems obvious to me that since we're not going to have a revolution in
this country, the very least we can do is replace the elected officials
in our federal government who have been the cheerleaders and
implementers of these onerous policies. The very least! 

I've stated over and over that we need to replace at least 500 of our
legislators, then put someone in the White House who understands and
serves the needs of all Americans, not just the filthy rich. I've even
dug up that old electoral battle cry: "Throw the bums out!"

As a result, I've had people say I'm extreme . . . out-of-touch . . . radical . . .
and even call me an ungrateful, unpatriotic, American-hating whiner. I get it.
Attack the messenger.

Let's be honest here. If our government on practically every critical front is
headed in completely in the wrong direction and I say it's time to clean
house . . .

Am I extreme?

Am I radical?

Or am I just being realistic?

I am proposing here simple, straightforward tests, applied locally within
each community. These are based on the electoral strategy outlined in my
recent book, "An Unlikely Truth." Just ask yourself . . .

• Did my congressman or senator vote against raising the federal minimum wage?
  If he or she did, it means that this elected official is voting against
  the stated will of 72% of the American voting public. Apparently the
  demands of the greedy businessmen who fill his or her election campaign
  coffers are more important than people being able to earn a decent
  living.

• Did my congressman vote for the Ryan budget in the House or did my senator
  vote for continuing tax breaks for the rich in the Senate? That
  vote would go against the 71% of the voting public who think the wealthy
  should bear more of the burden, as they did for most decades of the
  20th Century. Supporting historically low income tax and capital gains
  tax rates means more money into the pockets of the already wealthy, paid
  for by the rest of us who are struggling to make ends meet. It's Robin
  Hood . . . but in reverse.
  

• Did my congressman or senator vote for a defense budget which included the infamous F-35 advanced fighter jet, arguably the biggest boondoggle in the history of the nation?
  A whopping 75% of American voters want serious cuts in the defense
  budget. Voting for any of the bloated defense appropriations budgets
  means throwing away money on worthless defense projects while schools,
  streets, bridges are crumbling. It's putting bombs and bullets above
  quality of life.
  

• Did my congressman or senator vote for continuing oil subsidies for the oil industry? Alright, profits were a little off last year. So the Big 5 __ BP, Exxon Mobil, Chevron, ConocoPhillips, and Shell __ only made $177,000 per minute.  Cry me a river! That
  added up to $93 billion in total profits. 74% of Americans want the
  government to stop throwing money at the these behemoth corporations and
  insist they start paying their fair share in taxes.
  

• Did my congressman or senator vote for funding attacks on Libya, Syria, Iran,
  the Ukraine or extending the waste of American tax dollars in
  Afghanistan, which 69% of Americans now oppose? Americans are sick of war.
  Fed up! Every dollar spent on these misadventures is one less dollar
  for critical needs here at home. Estimates for the wars in Afghanistan
  and Iraq are in the upwards of $6 trillion __ that's trillion with a 't'. That adds up to 12,000,000 good paying jobs here in America. Think about it!
  

• Did my congressman or senator vote for any legislation which cut benefits,
  raised the eligibility age, or tampered with the rate of increase of
  Social Security payments, for example, the "chained CPI" skullduggery?
  Such a vote, or even thinking about such a vote, is in direct
  opposition to the clear voice of the American people, 79% of which want
  no changes to the most popular and successful federal program in
  history. Putting the squeeze on our elderly, who have worked hard all
  their lives and can barely survive on the pittance that the program now
  provides, may be the most heartless, sinister, pathological proposal to come down the long pike of heartless, sinister,
  pathological proposals. The money to pay benefits would be there if the
  Social Security trust fund had not been raided to pay for unfunded wars
  and tax breaks for the rich, and having everyone's savings replaced by a
  bunch of government security IOUs. More to the point, those responsible
  for this theft should not only not be in public office. They should be
  in prison.
  
• Did my congressman or senator vote against labeling foods that contain GMOs? If he or she did, then this elected official is at odds with 93% of the voting public. Yes . . . I said 93%!
  And keeping people ignorant of what they're eating and exposing them
  to potential health hazards as dictated by the giant food and
  agrochemical conglomerates like Monsanto is the choice your legislator
  is consciously and unconscionably making.

As far as I'm concerned, a 'yes' on any single one of the above questions is a knock out.

Zero tolerance. Time to look elsewhere. Time to stop voting for the same ol' same ol'.

My reasoning is this. If your senator or congressman accepted what is
effectively a bribe __ lobbyist favors, campaign donations, expensive lunches or junkets 
or whatever __ on one critical issue where there exists a major consensus among the 
American voting public and in your voting district, it means that at some time in the 
future, if enough pressure is applied by powerful corporations and their cutthroat lobbyists 
 on other critical matters, your same representative will ignore you, his or her constituents, 
and vote lockstep with moneyed interests. If it happened once, it'll happen again. Politicians 
must be put on notice: We're watching and there is no margin for error. Or chicanery. Or excuses.

Of course, they'll him-and-haw, create a tsunami of obfuscation and evasion to
justify that one "compromise" or trade-off. I say we take the higher
ground and leave the guy to drown in his own bullshit. Then suggest to
Mr. Got-Lotsa-Excuses Legislator we've heard enough, point to the
parking lot and tell him, "Don't let the screen door hit you on the way out."

Remember, elected officials want your vote. They will tell you what you want to
hear to get you to check the box. Too often, once they are in office,
they conveniently forget that the promises they made were in effect a contract
with their constituents. A verbal contract. Based on what they said
they would do, we voted for them. There's a bond of trust and
responsibility operating. And if they can't honor any single one of
those commitments, then why should we trust them to honor any of them __
past, present of future __ after they disappear inside the Washington
bubble?

We have to keep focused . . .

It doesn't matter whether your current congressman or senator has a pleasant
smile, looks dashing when going to church on Sundays, has enchanting TV
ads showing him or her at the local Kiwanis Club annual bake-off
fundraiser, is a model family man or woman, and gosh-by-golly is again this year 
the Grand Marshall for the Independence Day parade down main street of your 
home town.

What does matter is whether he or she is listening to you,
or taking marching orders from the deep-pocketed campaign donors who
pay for those TV ads full of patriotic slogans and empty campaign
promises, those slick video bites and photo ops designed to fool you
once again into voting against your own interests and needs.

Is it extreme to expect honest representation?

Is it radical to want a functioning democracy?

Or is it just realistic to expect our system of government to work for all of us, 
not just the privileged and powerful?

______________________________________________________________


I am doing what I can to address the destruction of our democratic system.

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) is now available worldwide in 
 every popular ebook format and as a deluxe edition paperback.

Spitball Politics

 

With my new book An Unlikely Truth coming out, I've had a few interesting days recently.

Among several interviews I did last week, I ended up on a right wing radio
talk show. We only had a few minutes but the host immediately challenged
me with . . . "Well, since money is free speech, how can you get the
money out of politics? And why would you want to?"

For one of the few times in my life, I was speechless.

Of course, you and I know the answer to that question. But it's a VERY LONG ANSWER!

It's an answer that goes to the very core of the values each of us hold about
our country, about our system of government, about what democracy means
and how it should function in a free society.

Then something occurred to me.

This guy threw me a spitball.

He fired a pitch covered in slime, lubricated with the mucous of his warped,
partisan, and corporate view of America, meant to slip and slide off any
attempt by me to give it a good smack at least into the outfield, if
not the stands.

Therefore . . . there was no point in even trying to answer it.

If you think that spitballs are not in the spirit of good sportsmanship, not
aligned with the greater good of baseball and fair play, you don't
attempt to discuss it with a pitcher who has just won his last 15 games
throwing the spitball.

You talk to people with some perspective, people who can look at our national
sport, see it as only being fair, competitive, entertaining, and a contribution to 
our culture, when we all recognize that the integrity of the sport is more 
important than winning a particular game.

As a result, it was long ago decided by fair-minded, concerned members of 
the baseball community:

Spitballs are the unsavory choice of slime balls.

And the guys who insisted on throwing them were given an ultimatum:

Stop throwing spitballs or you can't play the game.

It's the same with politics. We can't expect Congress or any of our national
leaders to do the right thing about Citizens United or the corruption
of our system with truckloads of corporate money, when these are the
very people who are benefiting from this heinous mutilation of American
democracy.

If the current crop of lackluster elected officials don't want to play the game
with honesty, distinction, respect for the American people, and
reverence for representative democracy, they shouldn't be allowed to
play the game.

Spitball politics in the form of legalized bribery by lobbyists, play-for-pay
politicians, and corruption of our political system by deep-pocketed
oligarchs, is destroying America, or at bare minimum turning it into
something we barely recognize.

No more spitball politics, I say.

If our current crop of weak-kneed elected officials don't have the courage and
integrity to adopt sportsmanlike rules by legislatively ending Citizens
United immediately, they don't belong in the game.

If a politician can't embrace and play by sportsmanlike rules, one strike and he's out!

______________________________________________________________

I am doing what I can to address the destruction of our democratic system.

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.



[ This originated at the author's personal blog site . . . http://jdrachel.com ]