The primaries are a nice place to shake things up, but November would be even better!
Nearly every elected official in Washington needs to understand what happened to Lieberman is going to happen to them, bottom line. The longer they have served in office, the greater is the need for them to go, big G and big O. No more lip service, past and present behavior is the best predictor of future performance and nearly every one of them needs to run for cover.
Voters Revolt! - Election Day 06 - we need to deliver huge percentage point spreads between the winners and losers, much wider then what was delivered in the Lieberman - Lamont primary race.
Now that would be some "shock and awe"!
Every elected official regardless of party affiliation gets into office via the same lobbyist-military-corporate- election "bribery" process. It's a system we’ve allowed to exist far too long and it is time to kill it. Both parties essentially want the same things as each are in collusion and in servitude to the same multinational corporations. The only distinguishing factor that separates them is their methodology. Most politicians follow the 80-20 rule of business; they coddle 95 percent to the needs of those who fund them the most. We can perhaps count on one hand those politicians with any integrity left to uphold the principles as laid out in our Constitution.
With all due respect to those who serve, most politicians are causalities of a faulty campaign system. It takes one hell of a strong constitution not to surrender ones principles especially with the temptations our current election system subjects them to. So let's remove the temptation. No gradual weaning off either, just a quick conversion to public funded campaigns. And while we're at it, let's clean out Washington in the process.
At a recent "Veterans for Peace National Convention", Ehren Watada put it so eloquently; "The Constitution is no mere document - neither is it old, out-dated, or irrelevant. It is the embodiment of all that Americans hold dear: truth, justice, and equality for all. It is the formula for a government of the people and by the people. It is a government that is transparent and accountable to whom they serve. It dictates a system of checks and balances and separation of powers to prevent the evil that is tyranny. As strong as the Constitution is, it is not foolproof. It does not fully take into account the frailty of human nature. Profit, greed, and hunger for power can corrupt individuals as much as they can corrupt institutions. The founders of the Constitution could not have imagined how money would infect our political system”.
(
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/081406A.shtml)
I would like to place emphasis on a key point he makes: "It is the formula for a government of the people and by the people. It is a government that is transparent and accountable to whom they serve."
It is time we the people seize our power back from the lobbyist-military-corporate-owned politician complex.
The way to accomplish this was summarized in a recent interview with Robert F. Kennedy Jr. when he was asked what we should do to fix the mess we find ourselves in today:
(
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/072006A.shtml , 7/18/2006 via BradBlog)
RFK JR.: Well the first thing we need to do is to restore American Democracy.
1) Fix the campaign finance system to get corporate money out of the electoral process. Corporations are a great thing for our country. They drive our economy but they should NOT be running our government because they don't want the same thing for America that Americans want. Corporations don't want democracy, they want free markets, they want profits, and oftentimes the easiest path to profits is to use the campaign finance system to get their hooks into a public official and to use that public official to dismantle the marketplace to give them monopoly control and a competitive edge and to privatize the commons-to steal our air, our water, or our public treasury, and liquidate it for private profits.
2) We have to fix the press: restore journalistic ethics in this country, and that is by bringing back the fairness doctrine and strengthening the FCC. The Fairness Doctrine was abolished by Ronald Reagan in 1988, and it recognized that the airwaves belong to the public; that the broadcasters can be licensed to use them to make a profit, but they use them with the proviso that their primary obligation is to advance democracy and promote the public interest. They have to inform the public because a democracy cannot survive an uninformed public. As Thomas Jefferson said, "An uninformed public will trade a hundred years of hard-fought civil rights for a half an hour of welfare." And they will follow the first demagogue or religious fanatic that comes along and offers them a $300 tax break.
3) We have to fix our electoral system so that every vote is counted. Those are the first three things that any President should do Republican or Democrat, to restore American Democracy.
It really can't get any more focused than that. All our running around signing this petition or lobbying for that amendment or launching another "Senate" investigation is all a complete waste of time and energy until these three things are resolved.
Step # 1 should be our first priority all the others would follow suit.
Therefore, we the people need to put into office politicians who will make these three things their top priority.
Think of it folks, there is no greater "shock and awe" we could deliver to the world then this. A revolt without equal in history, an uprising without a gun, a change of course in one single election and the Cindy Sheenans of the world could go home, be with their families, and partake of nourishment again.
It could happen, if we want it to...and if we dedicated ourselves to accomplishing it.
http://www.just6dollars.org/http://www.publicampaign.org/http://www.votersforpeace.us/index.jsphttp://www.votersunite.org/http://www.votetrustusa.org/
Printer-friendly format
Email this thread to a friend
Bookmark this thread
(131 posts)
Send PM |
Profile |
Ignore
