Perhaps a Romney win on Tuesday is the best thing that could happen to change the destructive course the American Empire is on. A Romney win will mean more inaction on climate change, more drill-baby-drill, more war, more imperialism, more drones, more loss of civil liberties, more inequality, and more Wall Street criminal activity. Of course, this will all go on with four more years of Obama as well. So why would a Romney win be good for America?
Over the past four years, a large segment of the population (Democrats and Liberals) has been absent. Absent from their criticism of the current administration’s policies. Do you support fracking? Do you support drilling in the Arctic? Do you support the drone-bombing of civilians? Do you support imperial wars, like Libya? Do you support the ongoing occupation of Afghanistan? Do you support the persecution of whistleblowers? Do you support expanded imperial executive powers? Do you support Wall Street shenanigans? I hope not. Would you have protested if these things were done by McCain/Palin? Yes? So where have you been while Obama has been doing them? You were not in the streets with the Occupy Movement. The anti-war movement has taken a vow of silence over the past four years. The climate crisis is spiraling out of control with nary a peep from those who support the party in power.
The Republicans will stab you in the chest, while the Democrats will stab you in the back; but, if you see it coming, you may fight back. That is why a Romney win may be a blessing in disguise. What this country needs to pull itself out of the abyss is a mass movement of people in the streets, a general strike, mass boycotts, and mass resistance. This will not happen with Obama as President, and in another four years many will still be arguing that we need to vote for the lesser of two evils as we go deeper into the abyss.
If Romney wins, I will be in the streets. Come join me. I have missed you over the past four years.
“Dissent is the highest form of patriotism.” – Howard Zinn
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Rick Lucke
Kate Flannery
Harrison Price
SeventhSister
Arthur Louis
Holly Robinson
Salon.com
Comments
I'll be voting Green, but the two parties certainly do a lot to make the alternatives also-rans/marginal. And my point with the above comments is Romney's done pretty well scaring a lot of folks, even at the same time that the hard right doesn't really trust him.
Real liberals and progressives certainly think he's a pretty wicked/beastly scoundrel.
Don't know if you've seen this video, AP:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Skw-0jv9kts
They just can't 'get it' that when the old line parties can get you to vote for them for that reason, they have effectively subverted the value of all votes and voters. The whole idea of voting is for people to chose the best candidate for the job. NOT to vote AGAINST someone but to vote FOR someone.
Sure it will take time to develop any other party to the point where it can challenge the big two. So what? Anything worth having takes time and work to get. But "Spoiled Brat Americans" are "afraid" of what "them evil others" will do if they get in office and they insist on taking the easy road of "lesser of two evils."
The founding fathers of your country would puke in disgust at such a notion. The history of America will be titled, "From Courageous Pioneers To Pusillanimous Pecker -heads In Six generations."
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Sean - Great video. The amount of ignorance in this country is staggering, but this is how those in power want it. The system has been built to deceive the masses. Wearechange.org does great work. They have a great interview with Debbie Wasserman Schultz. She thought the interviewer was joking about Obama's kill list.
Sky - I couldn't agree more. Perhaps a parliamentary system where multiple parties build coalitions would be an improvement. Until we get the obscene amount of money out of elections, it is unlikely a 3rd party will be able to break the firewall of propaganda that has shut them out.
Jmac - I won't blame you. I'm voting Green as well.
Abrawang - You may be right.
Libby - Obama has moved the country farther to the right than any Republican could have. The addiction metaphor is a good one. Perhaps we need to hit rock bottom before we can rise up and recover.
an organized 'no' vote will work, and lead ultimately to democracy, except for one serious weakness: americans are not citizens, they're just consumers. they require reform to be packaged, accessible on a credit card, painless in use, over-night delivery. events in the middle east should suggest it ain't that easy.
I personally think that there is a MUCH better way than elections to select society's managers. But that's "my" hobby-horse - I won't inflict it on your blog.
You folks might do well to look into Proportional Representation instead of your "first past the post" set-up though. It would help to wean your population off that terrible "winners and losers" attitude y'all seem to be so enamoured of.
As things stand now, if you're for the Republicans then you have to be fully for the republicans; all the way. You've got to swallow the whole line. You've also got to believe that the Democrats are wrong about EVERYTHING. Period. Same goes for the democrats; it's all or nothing.
It's time for American citizens to look past party politics and start looking at policies, programs and co-operative efforts to make them viable and vigorous. You chilluns ahs gotta grow up some....
;-)
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When we were in the streets, the cops who faced us had tear-gas, rifles, and hand guns. We never won a pitched battle with them though we were 40 or even as much as 100 times as many as them.
The cops now are being armed with tanks and drones. Ten of them can sit calmly in a control room and wipe out a hundred thousand protesters-in-the-street, in an hour. Then the tanks go in for mop-up duties.
I'm very much afraid, my dear friend, that the days of tackling the establishment by street protests are gone or going rapidly. Do you not realize that, far from a "show of strength" what OCCUPY did was to show them how weak and vulnerable the citizenry has become?
Hell, the 1% types sat on their office balconies sipping cocktails and enjoying the OCCUPY show!
You know that the government has given the military the right to detain without trial or even charges for any length of time. I'm sure you're aware that in any national emergency (as defined by the government) can have the cops named a military unit and fall under military command. What do you suppose they'll do with any OCCUPYers they get their hands on then?
As to a bloody revolution? Forget it. It's be squashed like a bug so fast most people wouldn't know what hit them. The new "revolution" has to be social and economic change. One where we, as a people, just slip out from under "the masters" and leave them there with their "wealth". Most of that wealth is in corporate stocks and shares. How much will those corporations be worth if nobody goes in to work on Monday morning?
When we get smart enough to set up our own alternate economy by way of co-ops, and issue our own scrip, we can leave the wealthy with money that cannot buy labour. Once any form of money cannot buy labour it is useless.
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Donegal - It is up to the people to make change. If they sit home and let their leaders run roughshod over them, it will be bad. My though is that as things continue to get worse, the people will finally wake up and shed their chains. It will be difficult given the propaganda system that is in place. Reagan was Gov. of CA a long time ago when people believed resources were endless. Most now are finally realizing we are on an unsustainable course.
Dr Bramhall - Looks like Prof Unger is coming from the same perspective as I am.
Chris Hedges has written that in order for the protests to work, we will need for the police and military to refuse to fight. We need them to join our side. Given that many are from the ranks of the lower economic class and has family members who are hurting, this may not be impossible.
Occupy scared the 1% shitless. That is why they crushed it. It does show the citizens vulnerability, but it also shows our power. As things get worse, more will join. But it will need to be more comprehensive than just protest. Like you say people need to stop participating in the corrupt system. Strikes, boycotts, community coops, growing your own food, local solutions. Many demonize anarchists, but they are suggesting exactly what you proposed and have put those things into action. They have become the new target of the government with the raiding of homes by the FBI looking for anarchist material precisely because this is what the 1% fear--that we no longer need the 1%.
Many anarchists were big in our local Occupy Movement in AK. Fish not Bombs provided food (either caught or grown by them or from dumpster diving) at the town square where our Occupy camp was. They fed the Occupiers as well as the homeless and street kids (people who were not caught by our social safety net).