Values & Elections

I find it fascinating that even the good guys in the Republican Party, the ones like Mike Lee of Utah don’t seem to get that the party they describe when they talk about helping the poor and creating employment or a viable foreign policy really doesn’t exist. This party of Lincoln that the good guys envision is just a mirage, a fantasy, something they can make themselves feel good about even as they are voting in congress against women’s rights, voters rights, helping the poor and getting rid of the only universal health insurance that this country has ever had.

Even many of the good guys in the GOP have sold their souls to political expediency. The latest revelations of Trump’s degeneracy are only the final straw, or maybe not. Maybe there is still more to come, but the fact is, there have, over the past year and a half been more than enough signs for them to read and react to. The fact is they did not. The fact is they allowed political expediency to count over moral, human and intellectual values. They have all chosen the party over the country. They have all chosen the party over the people. They have betrayed their franchise for a good paying job and sold out their constituents for a government pension. They betrayed their office for the perks available from those that seek to pervert the ends of government for their own benefit. The have allowed the military/industrial complex to make their decisions for them. The GOP congress has sold out to big pharma, the fossil fuel industry, Wall Street, banks and dozens of others including the aforementioned military industrial complex, and every citizen of this country is paying the price of their sellout.

If your water is full of lead, you beaches clogged with dead fish and oil sludge, the air you breathe thick with soot and carbon, , the drugs you take overpriced and only available if there are hundreds of thousands of customers for them; if there are too many guns on he streets and if our enemies are too well armed or if your investments have disappeared to short selling thieves or your bank account has been divided by four so some bank can cheat you out of monthly fees, you have been screwed by your elected officials because there is no way any of these thieves and conmen could possibly remain in business without the cooperation of the same bums that you elected to office, just so they could protect you from the sharks that are paying them good money to look the other way.

Yes the Trump fanatics are made up partly of the same voters I have described above but instead of looking for some honest soul to take their seat in congress, instead of doing the work to find a hard working man or woman who had their best interests in mind they have chosen a crook and conman who is worse then any of the cheap crooks in congress and who will lead them down the bloody path to disaster, who will betray them worse then Bush or Cheney ever thought to.

Maybe it’s time the everyday Joe abandons the Republican Party. What, after all, does any party mean to the average voter. Maybe it’s time for all the everyday Joe’s, both Republican and Democrat to look for a candidate that has their best interests at heart, a civilized, intelligent person who is able to make a reasoned case for the things that will elevate the lives of his or her constituents. Maybe Bernie Sanders was that guy or maybe his goals were too narrow for the presidency. Hell, maybe Rand Paul was. Who knows?

But in order for a concept like this to work we have to have an informed public and that is no small goal. We have to have a public that understands what is really important in their own lives, a public that sees things like education, work and social responsibility topping stuff like religious influence, racial differences, and socially irresponsible prejudices. That’s a huge order because many of us have lived with those things as our greatest influences our entire lives.

For this change to happen, for the American public to achieve a greater knowledge of our government and the processes by which it functions, we must look to the media, which has been avoiding its responsibilities in lieu of advertising sales and to our educational systems which have eliminated classes like civics, one of the most important courses taught in our primary and secondary schools in order to teach God knows what.

So I mentioned civics. You surprised? In listening to young people today, one realizes that even those that are politically involved have little or no knowledge of how the system really works; no idea of what the possibilities or probabilities of any action involved in that system really are. Watching the reactions of the Sanders supporters at the Democratic convention I was astounded by their lack of understanding of the system in which they were participating. All one could think of was that these kids need a lesson in civics. They are an unstable mob that thinks it knows what it wants but has no idea what it takes to get it and less what to do to mitigate the results when it doesn’t.

Even more important is that no one, on either side of the aisle seems to understand that the political parties aren’t government but organizations of private individuals that have stepped into a void left by government, to facilitate the election process and by association the actual governing process.

When the Democratic Party nominates Hillary that really doesn’t men anything legally. What it actually means is that a power block made up of money and interested parties, all belonging to the same club, have gotten together and decided that this is the person that they are going to put up for president. That’s it! That’s all! Any other group can do the same thing; the Kiwanis Club, your alumni association, anyone. There is no limitation on how many candidates can run for president. The Republican Party demonstrated that this year by having 17. That means there can also be any number of non- Democratic and non-Republican candidates. All they have to do to get on the ballot is acquire a certain number of signatures to demonstrate that they have some support besides their wives and drug dealers.

The basic need for candidates to subscribe to one party or another is money and organization. It takes a great deal of money and serious organization to run for the presidency. Right now, no one but the two major parties provides these elements in the volume necessary to do it right.

The argument against this problem is taxpayer-financed elections. Under a basic plan, would-be candidates would have to acquire a specific number of signatures in order to qualify for government financing. Outside financing would be barred from the election process and the media would be forced to provide a certain amount of free coverage of all candidates. This is the fairest system, especially in regard to media coverage, which now accounts for a big chunk of the cost of running for office. The media gets free access to the airwaves in this country. That’s like your business getting free rent or your trucks running on toll free roads while getting free gas. The electronic media’s delivery system costs them nothing.

Of course with the advent of government financed elections the two major parties would lose a great deal of their power and knowing that, they will fight such a system tooth and nail even if it is best for the country. The rich lobbying interests, no longer able to buy the votes of congressmen will fight it even harder as will certain members of congress who having secured a comfortable style of living at the cost of the welfare of their constituents want nothing more than to continue their lucrative sellout of those who voted for them.

Actually the easiest way to find out who is selling out their constituents to big money interests is for a member of congress to propose a law dictating the end of the current system and the birth of governmental financed elections. Any congressman who opposes such a law will be announcing that he is on the dole and should be voted out of office at the next election.

The creation of tax financed elections would hurt the two major political parties, it would hurt the money grabbing members of congress and it would hurt the moneyed interests that influence how congress votes. The only ones it would help would be the people.