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American Democracy and how to vote – run for your life!

Sunday, November 2, 2008
Posted in Commentary Editorial | Tagged Commentary, Editorial, US Election 2008

It has not been very often recently that I blog on my own website preferring simply to report the news as other people see it, but with the elections happening in America in the next few days it is too good an opportunity not to pass up the opportunity to comment on it. It is an historic election because it brings into clear relief the dream of Martin Luther King that a man should not be judged by the colour of his skin, but by the content of his character. In terms of this analysis the “content of their character” will be judged by the policies and actions of the two presidential candidates in recent times.
War on Truth

It is clear beyond all reasonable doubt that the events of 9/11 were not carried out by some ragtag group of terrorists based in caves in Afghanistan, but were most likely carried out by people from within the American/Israeli military industrial complex. The twin towers were brought down with explosive devices of some kind (probably mini-hydrogen bombs), Flight 93 did not crash in a field, the pentagon was not hit by a civilian airliner and building 7 of the World Trade Centre was taken out in a controlled demolition. Anyone with eyes can see these facts speak for themselves and yet both candidates refuse to acknowledge these facts and continue to perpetuate the lies of this day. Both candidates’ characters fail in the most material way. One wants to pursue the war in Iraq and into Iran the other wants to leave Iraq to expand the war in Afghanistan and into Pakistan (and probably Iran as well). Both candidates are war candidates and want to keep on expanding the American empire through more war and the relentless murder and torture of innocent people who had nothing at all to do with the murder of American civilians on 9/11.

War on Freedom

The Patriot Act and subsequent expansion of the police surveillance state and the powers of the President into not just a dictator, but a global emperor where anyone can be designated an enemy of the American state, kidnapped, tortured and killed at the whim of one man has turned the earth into what has been referred to by an American commentator (Alex Jones) as a “prison planet”. Neither candidate plans to renounce these powers or the Patriot Act and the other organs of a planet police state (e.g. Dept. of Homeland Security), therefore, it will be business as usual for the American empire, its war machine and its new emperor after the election.

The much vaunted US constitution has been torn to shreds during the Bush years aided and abetted by a compliant Congress with support from both Democrats and Republicans. The only candidates to consistently oppose this have been Dennis Kucinich (D) and Ron Paul (R) and the fact that they could not get the traction they needed to become their party’s candidates through the primary election season shows how morally and intellectually bankrupt the majority of American electors are.

War on the Environment

The Bush years have seen a concerted attack on the environment and protections built up over the years. The Sierra Club is convinced that Obama would be better for the environment than McCain and they are probably right when it comes to issues of the environmental protection of habitat and species. However, when it comes to the big issues both candidates present no coherent or rational plan to deal with global warming and in particular the massive over-consumption by American consumers and the massive amount of pollution and energy this takes. With Americans being 5% of the world’s population consuming over 25% of its resources this can only be maintained through war and empire building.

The whole economic model of continuous exponential economic growth consuming ever more of finite resources is intellectually, morally and ecologically bankrupt. The financial collapse is just a taste of the ecological collapse we face as a species if we keep pursuing an economic model that is fossil fuel based and reliant on consuming ever more dwindling resources. Only the US Green party presidential candidate Nader presents any sort of rational approach to dealing with changing the US economic system to fit within its ecological limits. We need to remember small is beautiful and a steady state economic system.

Not to mention that the recent financial crisis was deliberately created to benefit a small elite in a financial coup de tat which is outlined in The Housing Bubble & Its Crash were Engineered by the US Government, the Fed & Wall Street. McCain and Obama support this theft of tax payer’s money to prop up a few people in their quest for ever greater personal wealth and empire at the expense of every American tax payer.

War on Health

Both Obama and McCain support the continuing expansion of the American empires obsession with genetically engineered food and the economic strangle hold this gives American corporations over the worlds food supply. This giant experiment with the health of people and the environment must be stopped and as such both candidates can be adjudged as being criminally compliant with the spread of genetically engineered food via the American empire.

As a New Zealander looking in on America the single most stupid social policy would have to be the American private insurance health care system. In New Zealand we have a public health care system where everyone has a right to health care according to their needs not their economic circumstances. Sure there are waiting lists and there will never be enough money to treat every ailment, but in comparison to the American system for a small amount of tax we get a brilliant health care system for everybody. Apparently the American government can be trusted to invade other countries, read your correspondence and track every part of your life 24/7, kidnap, torture and carry out mass murder by drone aircraft, but it cannot be trusted to run a public health care system for the sole benefit of its own people. Obama wants to tinker with health insurance so a few more people get a bit more.

War on Democracy

The ultimate failure of the American democratic system is that it is no longer a democracy. America has effectively been turned into a one party state with competing cliques of the same political and financial elites pulling the strings behind the scenes. This failure of democracy comes from the First Past the Post voting system where the candidate with the most votes wins even if they only get a minority of the total overall vote. This is compounded by Electoral College system used for the presidential election whereby the candidate with the most votes can still lose e.g. Al Gore in 2000. Add to this vote rigging through electronic voting machines and purging of voters from the electoral rolls and these elections will be anything but free and fair. Indeed, Greg Palast and Robert F. Kennedy Jr. contend that the US election has already been stolen.

There needs to be a new American revolution for democracy that throws out the old order and brings in proportional representation for the two houses of congress and a preferential voting system for the President. Proportional representation would mean a party would get the per-centage of seats according to the proportion of votes that it would get, for example, a 20% vote would lead to 20% of seats being allocated to it in the Senate. This would mean multiple parties representing diverse constituencies would have representation only in proportion to the number of votes they get. A preferential voting system is where electors get to list their candidates in order of preference. In this way their vote would always count and would open up the race to third party candidates. Assuming of course a voting system could be brought in across all states that could not be corrupted.

What to do?

I believe that neither Obama nor McCain represent a change for the better, but simply a different version of an ever expanding war mongering America that will sooner or later collapse as surely as every other empire before it whether by environmental or economic reasons. The content of their characters are at best corrupt and deficient if not downright evil in the system they want to represent and perpetuate. Obama does not represent the triumph of Martin Luther King’s dream, but the failure of America in its relationship with ordinary people, the environment and the rest of the world. Nothing material will change from this election except the faces. In 2000 there was a real choice between Bush and Gore and because of that the election was stolen in a judicial coup de tat by the Supreme Court. Now the elite are so entrenched behind a police state apparatus with a dictatorial Presidency and houses of Congress that are so corrupt it is hard to see how there could ever be any change for the better.

To be honest unless you as an American are prepared to campaign for the rest of your life against the status quo in American politics for a better system the only honest advice I could give is what I have heard from Americans who have emigrated to New Zealand. Vote with your feet - get out and run.

Editor: Adam Smith