Reply #83: Mayberry Machiavelli, in answer to your question...

[Peace Patriot]

"How much chance do you think Hilary Clinton, or ANY Dem nominee, has of winning the next Presidential election under the current circumstances?"

I don't think it's up to us. It's up to our corporate election system rulers, the news monopolies and the war profiteers, who right now have guaranteed election for whomever they chose. They might choose Hillary, if she toes the line sufficiently on military spending and corporate rule--which she seems to be doing. In order to keep the military budget viable, they will HAVE TO rescind some of the tax breaks for the rich. They might prefer to have a Democrat do that, so they can whomp them in the next election, and put Jeb in. They may also have to do a Draft--much better to have a Democrat do it.

You see what I'm getting at--it might be to their advantage to lay some of the worst necessities of the next term on the Democrats (trillion dollar budget deficit--ye gods!). Who knows? The Dems might even get things under control and develop a small surplus that they can come in and loot in 2012.

The Corporate Rulers have made so much money and gained so much power under the Bush Cartel, they can afford to sit back a little, for a couple of years--just to see the Democrats twisting slowly in the wind--and/or to prevent bloody revolution.

But, bear this in mind. There is REASON why we are the most propagandized people in the world, and a REASON why they took away our right to vote. These are U.S.-based global corporate predators. We have the RIGHT to dismantle these corporations, and send their CEO's packing. They are chartered HERE, by the states. Whatever power they have--including their control of the airwaves--derives from US, the people. We have tremendous power to curtail their global piracy and their wars, if we can only get the mechanism of power--our vote--back into the public venue.

Where we need to fight them is on the ground of state/local election reform--by demanding transparency.

We have overcome their news monopoly propaganda by people to people communication. Look at those stats I mentioned above, on the Iraq war, on torture, and every other issue. Their propaganda has NOT succeeded. (And those are news monopoly polls! Can you imagine what truly honest polling would tell us? Probably 80% for peace and justice.)

The only way their propaganda HAS succeeded is in convincing a lot of us that we--the peace lovers and the justice lovers--are the minority. It is NOT true. Their own polls show that it is not true. Yet people get upset and depressed--and give up--because they think OTHER Americans are stupid or crazy, and that the stupid and the crazy are somehow ascendant. The rightwingers have just been given a Big Trumpet is all--the Big Trumpet of the news monopoly airwaves--to yammer on with their unpopular, minority views, creating the ILLUSION that that is the "mainstream."

We really MUST realize what it means that FIVE MEGA-CORPORATIONS--all run by rightwingers and war profiteers--CONTROL the news. THAT'S what it means--creating an ILLUSION of what the "mainstream" is.

If Americans' votes were counted properly, we would have a populist president and no war in Iraq.

I guarantee it. But as long as the election system is in THEIR hands, we are going to get THEIR choice (a pro-war, corporate-rule Democrat or a pro-war, corporate-rule Fascist). The election SYSTEM is the key--not who's running.

They may even put Hillary in, to make us THINK that the election system is working! There is quite a rebellion afoot against non-transparent corporate voting systems, which I'm sure they are out to stop--because non-transparent elections are fundamental to their continued control. Beware of that! Until we can achieve transparent, verifiable elections, we do not HAVE democracy, even if a Democrat is "elected."