At a recent party I heard a familiar lament: both parties are corrupt and I don’t vote for either because they both suck. It is true that both the democrats and republicans are part of the corporate sponsored oligarchy, but indifference and lack of participation only empower the worst elements of both.
A very long time ago in my early days of coming into my political age, I voted for a third party candidate named Ross Perot, who ran under the banner of a third party he was trying to create, the Reform Party. I don’t agree with all of the things Perot was for, but two causes he highlighted were relevant then and even more so now: the corrupting influence of corporate lobbyist “the ones wearing the alligator shoes” and their big money contributions through campaign donations and the revolving door of cushy jobs for politicians post their time in office, and the dangers of so-called free trade, such as NAFTA at the time.
When Al Gore ran for president and beat governor George W. Bush in both the popular vote – as well as the unofficial Florida recount that was conducted after the Supreme Court stopped the official count and installed W. Dipshit as the worst president in modern history – I supported Ralph Nader running under the third party banner of the Green Party. Democrats, Al Gore, the press and some liberals blamed people like me for “helping” Bush to win, even though in reality he didn’t win. I agreed with Mr. Nader that votes should be earned, and don’t automatically belong to either of the two corporate sponsored candidates; I also agreed with his assertion that if you keep voting for the lesser of two evils, all you end up with is less. Certainly his warning about the declining of the candidates has proven as true as Mr. Perot’s warning that passing of NAFTA would lead to a “giant sucking sound going south” that was the sound of American manufacturing job losses.
There is another very important lesson that Ross Perot’s surprisingly strong showing in the general election taught us and the corporate powers that rig our elections: the value of the sophisticated propaganda system that the super rich control through their ownership of the mass media, and the threat that third party candidates cause this power system. Ross Perot, despite having dropped out of the presidential race in the beginning under suspicious reasons, and then reentering the same race after taking a beating in the polls and by the media, managed to get nearly 20 percent of the popular vote. The nationally televised presidential debates are largely credited with allowing Perot to regain support. His 30 minute political ads, striking for their attention to detail of policy proposal in age of 30 second sound bites, probably helped as well.
No third party candidate has been allowed in the presidential debates since then.
Ralph Nader sued unsuccessfully to be allowed in the presidential debates. Apparently the threat to the propaganda system of the rich and powerful was so severe after Perot’s performance 8 years earlier, that not only were future non democrat and republican candidates banned from the arena, but in the case of Ralph Nader, banned from even being anywhere near the debates, even as a spectator. Ralph Nader was a ticket holder to the presidential debate that was held on the campus of the University of Massachusetts, but was escorted away by State Troopers from this public event of democracy, on a public college campus. This was a shocking moment of abuse of power by the corporate elite that sponsor these events, a subversion of our democracy, and was largely unreported. I recommend further details of this event that can be found in this online college publication : http://www.dailytargum.com/police-escort-nader-from-first-presidential-debate/article_9cd3213f-a474-5164-bf97-1ad21f288155.html.
I also attended a political rally for Ralph Nader at Madison Square in New York City the year Nader ran against Gore and W. Dipshit. The rally was filled with around 10,000 other supporters, many of which donated money to his campaign in the form of volunteer contributions to the tickets to the event. Celebrities such as Susan Sarandon, Michael Moore, and Eddie Vedder spoke or performed at this event. It barely got any press coverage by the mainstream media, who was too busy highlighting small gathering political events by Gore and Bush. The propaganda managers of the top 1 percent were busy on many fronts making sure that the general public wasn’t aware of alternatives to the democrats or republicans. The narrative sold was that a vote for any candidate other than corporate puppet choice number 1 or 2 was a wasted voted. Nader can’t win, Pat Buchannan couldn’t win, Ross Perot didn’t win, don’t waste your vote. The maddening thing is that all it would have taken were enough votes for a third party candidate to win, and polls showed then and now that people want an independent voice or a third party, yet most people simply won’t “waste” their vote.
I supported President Obama during both of his elections. I would rather have had Ralph Nader or someone else, but by the time his election came around and President George W. Bush had shown the country how disastrous the more evil of the two evils could be if they won the presidency, I voted for the lesser of two evils and went with the democratic candidate. Not because I thought my vote would be wasted if I didn’t, but because by now I have come to the sad realization that since the majority of the public believe there are only two real choices and will either vote for one of the two, or not vote at all. I have now surrendered some of my own ideology for practicality. And predictably, Obama has been less than I hoped for, but to his credit, better than most in conventional, oligarchy owned politicians.
The result of all of this is a broken democracy in which the will of the people, no matter how strong the polls show support among a majority of Americans in any given policy, is subverted and subjected to the watering down or outright refusal by the real powers that currently own OUR government. Examples of this abound, from the overwhelming, super majority of voters who support criminal background checks on all gun purchases – denied by congress, to a single payer healthcare system – watered down into Obama Care. More money for domestic issues at home instead of more military spending for aggressive military action and war abroad – not happening, despite the Drone Ranger winning the Nobel Peace prize for lofty rhetoric that bares little resemblance to reality. Tax increases on the rich as opposed to spending cuts on the rest of us? Largely denied. Extending emergency federal unemployment benefits during this period of bare minimum economic growth? The minority of republican politicians in the Senate just fillibustered that, so the majority of what voters want of course is denied. More draconian cuts to food stamps, despite public opposition? Done deal, suck up on crumbs, poor and hungry Americans, the republicans don’t want to spoil you and Bill O’Rielly has assured us that Jesus isn’t down for food stamps either.
All of this sounds like a very logical and preponderance of evidence based reason to not vote at all. And to a large extent, it is.
But, are we to give up completely on the right of Americans to vote? Despite as bad as things are right now, I believe that not voting will only make things worse. We still do own the vote, and billions of dollars are now flooded into the presidential elections by corporate fat cats who realize that we can still change things, if enough Americans wake up or see through the smoke and mirrors. Our vote is still a threat to the oil companies, the insurance companies, the pharmaceutical companies, the trans-national corporations, and the financial industry that brought us the Great Recession. That is why they spend so much money to shape public opinion. As long as they can get us to vote against our own best interests, they will continue to funnel the majority of the wealth created in the world into their very small number of hands.
As a progressive, as a liberal, as a person with common sense, and as a person who’s so called liberal ideas are now in the majority of public opinion on the majority of issues, as noted above, I still implore you to vote, and vote for democrats when the choice is between them and the republicans. The democratic party, traditionally the party of the working class and the poor (you know, the majority of us) are still the only reasonable choice to vote for our own best interests, when compared to republicans. Both parties are sponsored by corporations and uber private wealth, and the democrats are increasingly weak and ineffective as a result of this, but at least they are in favor of giving us a few crumbs as opposed to letting us die in the gutter from starvation and lack of healthcare while the rich ride by in their gold plated limos, lamenting on the value of the “free market” and “capitalism.” And maybe, just maybe, call me an optimists (which I am rarely called), but I also believe that if we stay engaged, vote, and pay attention to what the politicians are doing with the issues, we can embolden enough weak kneed democrats to stand up for the people again. And, if enough people really pay attention to the issues, maybe even a third party, independent of corporate and concentrated wealth, can emerge. I doubt it, but its a start and I will not lay down quietly.