Wednesday, June 14, 2006
Disaffiliate? Huh? Why?
Before the 2004 election, a campaign worker came by to make sure we were planning on voting. I told him, yeah, it was too important an election to note vote. He asked me who I planned on voting for, for president. After we exchanged looks of sad amusement, he said, “Gonna hold your nose and vote for Kerry, huh?”
And before that, I held my nose and voted for Gore and Leiberman, god help me. What could we do? What can we ever do in presidential elections? I’ve held my nose so many times while voting it’s amazing it still works. What a system: vote for the best man, we’re told. It’s really about voting for the least awful man. Once we get past the primaries, we vote of two choices. It’s called “free elections.” It’s a racket, when you get right down to it: the Democrats and Republicans have a monopoly on who gets elected, no other candidates really need apply.
Here I am: in less than I week I’m going to be 68 years old. I’ve voted, if my memory banks work right, in every primary and presidential election since 1963. That seems awfully good for someone like me. The primaries were one thing, but the presidential elections were almost uniformly smelly. Seems like lately they’ve become rank.
The evidence of the purged Florida voter rolls, back in 2000 seemed smellier than usual; the god-awful mess in Ohio in 2004 was even worse. What makes the stench even worse is the way it’s been ignored, particularly in Congress. The reason for this is obvious, of course: the votes are always rigged. Either by party game-playing or technical means.
It’s like “campaign reform.” Nobody really wants it because all of those congressional bozos are owned outright by their big corporate contributors. There’s nothing new in that.
The history of western states includes roll-calls of candidates hand-picked by major contributors—railroads, mining companies, ranching interests, and timber barons. Southern Pacific, Union Pacific, Anaconda, Weyerhauser... Policy isn’t made by the public; it’s made by corporate presidents and board-rooms. This hasn’t changed—now the big contributors are oil companies, Energy Conglomerates, and the defense industries. In other words...
It’s a scam.
And, oh look: here come Al Gore and Newt Gingrich again. Gee, I wonder who’ll back their campaigns...
If you'll excuse me, I think it's time to disaffiliate from this system.
And before that, I held my nose and voted for Gore and Leiberman, god help me. What could we do? What can we ever do in presidential elections? I’ve held my nose so many times while voting it’s amazing it still works. What a system: vote for the best man, we’re told. It’s really about voting for the least awful man. Once we get past the primaries, we vote of two choices. It’s called “free elections.” It’s a racket, when you get right down to it: the Democrats and Republicans have a monopoly on who gets elected, no other candidates really need apply.
Here I am: in less than I week I’m going to be 68 years old. I’ve voted, if my memory banks work right, in every primary and presidential election since 1963. That seems awfully good for someone like me. The primaries were one thing, but the presidential elections were almost uniformly smelly. Seems like lately they’ve become rank.
The evidence of the purged Florida voter rolls, back in 2000 seemed smellier than usual; the god-awful mess in Ohio in 2004 was even worse. What makes the stench even worse is the way it’s been ignored, particularly in Congress. The reason for this is obvious, of course: the votes are always rigged. Either by party game-playing or technical means.
It’s like “campaign reform.” Nobody really wants it because all of those congressional bozos are owned outright by their big corporate contributors. There’s nothing new in that.
The history of western states includes roll-calls of candidates hand-picked by major contributors—railroads, mining companies, ranching interests, and timber barons. Southern Pacific, Union Pacific, Anaconda, Weyerhauser... Policy isn’t made by the public; it’s made by corporate presidents and board-rooms. This hasn’t changed—now the big contributors are oil companies, Energy Conglomerates, and the defense industries. In other words...
It’s a scam.
And, oh look: here come Al Gore and Newt Gingrich again. Gee, I wonder who’ll back their campaigns...
If you'll excuse me, I think it's time to disaffiliate from this system.
