One of our much-vaunted freedoms is the ability to choose our leaders. It is the `essence' of representative democracy.
Like picking stocks, it would seem we would do just as well if we selected our leaders by drawing random names from a hat for all the good the deeply flawed election process does us.
Just as a rich man will never see the inside of a jail cell, a poor one has an equally slim chance of ever walking the corridors of power.
Only a living legend has the ability to run on their widely known reputation, everyone else has to raise money to get their message out.
Quite naturally in this nothing for nothing society of ours, those that contribute their money `freely' expect something in return.
Anyone can run, just as anyone can start a business but only the deep pocketed will succeed for they have the power to scuttle their competition.
Not only can they afford to buy a positive image for themselves but they can also finance a campaign to hang a negative one on their rivals.
Thus are we guaranteed the best government money can buy.
Yet in these trying times the interests of the investor class run contrary to those of the working class and show no consideration at all to those of the poor.
What's good for business is turning our nation, and much of the world, into an economic desert.
Yet it is the investor class that are the king-makers, funding our leaders from their own carefully cultivated, hand picked stable of candidates.
Not just the ones at the top but all across the nation, those who pass the party sniff test come strictly from the `upper crust' (or are eager to join their ranks, thereby making them `pliable'.)
Thus come election time are we faced with giving an `up or down vote' to people that have nothing in common with us.
We may have a choice between two and sometimes three candidates but in the end there may as well be only one name on the ballot because they're all the same...and the ones that aren't don't have a chance in hell of making a difference.
The point good citizen is the entire process is corrupt to the point of being an illusion. It provides the illusion of participation, the illusion of having a say when in fact your vote gives away any say you may have had.
You don't get to speak, the elect speaks for you whether you voted for them or not.
Think about that for a minute and consider that this is your life. Why should you be forced to give up your right to decide?
Forced because you have no alternative, no recourse, this is the system designed two hundred plus years ago by the (what a coincidence) wealthy merchants of this nation and you're stuck with it.
Add to this the fact those we elect to serve us routinely invoke executive privilege and cloak what they do in secrecy!
Then you have to question the sanity of sitting still while your rights are being trampled into the dust.
Fail to see the system as it really is and you will fail to change it, condemning your children to more of the same.
The only thing your vote does is decides who gets to make decisions in your name. Once elected the candidate is off the hook, free to vote however they like and there isn't a damn thing you can do about it except live with the consequences of their decisions.
Think carefully about this good citizen because those decisions directly affect how you and future generations will live.
Keep in mind you have no hand in picking who gets to run for office. The party does that for you by deciding who they will and will not endorse.
Fail to support the party line and no endorsement. If you decide to run for office you are required to honor the party's platform, not one you make up on your own.
Thus are there many alternative parties out there, they found out this fact the hard way.
Understand what you're up against when you step into the ballot box. Every time you vote the choices have been made for you and the act itself removes your power to decide because you're giving it to someone else.
Critical to your freedom is your right to decide. If that right has been usurped you are not free.
While every vote may not go your way it is a social imperative that you have the same opportunity as everyone else to have your say directly on the issue at hand.
You should also have a say on what is and isn't an issue but you're not getting that. Someone else decides the issues and that's all you get, the short menu.
Thus do a few maintain their control over the rest of us. The whole deal runs not off integrity but money and the interests of money will always win out over the interests of those who produce that money.
Here is a deep social flaw all by itself.
Take a step back and look at the big picture. Two parties claiming to represent the opposing forces of labor and business, both financed by business.
Popular elections do nothing more than place the law in the hands of the employer class. Their bought and paid for legislators pass the laws that favor them and crush the ones that seek to restrict their greed.
Face it good citizen, you can't tell an honest person from a dishonest one by their looks...although the fact that a majority of candidates are lawyers should tell you something in itself.
Stepping further back, looking at the whole picture we find an organism that has very little to do with serving the people. The sixteen million employees of this crony-infested environment have their own agenda.
The corridors of power are lined with agencies we have no control over that suck up huge amounts of money for purposes we can only guess at...because they're secret.
Yes, good citizen, you are supporting a whole lot of people in a lifestyle you'd like to become accustomed to whose usefulness to society is questionable at best.
Responsible government starts with you. You need a real voice and you need to have direct input on the issues facing our society but that's not going to happen by voting for more of the same.
Labor driven society gives you all of these things and more.
The change will do you good.
Thanks for letting me inside your head,
Gegner