The truth is now out just 6 months after the guy in the white house won, we now know what really caused his “victory.”
We didn’t bother to turn out the vote. 45% of Americans sat home and scratched their asses and did nothing and we let them. Ok not all of that 45% sat at home a majority might have been denied voting by the republicans in their well honed voter suppression tactics. Again something we let happen.
But for Democrats to still point blame at our candidates, to dwell on that we cannot change isn’t addressing what we can change. The makeup of every state legislatures in America. We are witness to the oligarch’s unfettered attack on the very democracy founded in the 1770’s as they seek to control the states to eliminate our franchise.
“I don’t want everybody to vote. Elections are not won by a majority of people. They never have been from the beginning of our country, and they are not now. As a matter of fact our leverage in the elections quite candidly goes up as the voting populace goes down.”
Paul Weyrich
At every opportunity we have been pushed into a defensive mode. We who are the majority stand on the precipice of a new form of Apartheid the destruction of the American experiment. We are letting it happen, yes the Democratic Party and we are going without a fight, or are we?
I knew that even though my first choice was Bernie Sanders (thanks to Thom Hartmann for allowing Bernie air time) I knew he was the right man. I also knew that if he didn’t get the nomination I had to work with Hillary.
There wasn’t a choice of the lesser of two evils. That isn’t a realistic argument or decision process. The choice has always been who is better for my family, my country and my job. In the half century I have been voting and involved in politics there is nothing that has said that my choices were a lesser of.
And in that half century the choice has been Democratic.
So now we have the ability to turn America around. There are special elections going on now that the wealthy will spend millions if not billions on. We are seeing their return on investment happening right now and it doesn’t favor you or I.
They want to change healthcare to increase their wealth
They want to kill the Unions with a national RTW law (The real meaning of RTW is Republicans Taking your Wages.)
They want to send your tax money to the wealthy. And spend us into bankruptcy.
They want to give our infrastructure to private ownership so we’ll pay multiple times to use what was once ours to use because we paid for the infrastructure with our tax dollars.
Oh, the list goes on and seems to be endless. And yet the solutions we come up with in almost every case plays into the hands of the wealthy.
The first solution seems to be term limits. Don’t write a comment about how it will help by kicking the bastards out. Term limits is what got us in this mess. Since Bush One, every four years we have had a lame duck president unable to get or keep a vision for this country going. Good or bad our country grows when there is continuity in government.
I have written before about how there would never had been a Bush one or Two. I believe that Regan would have served three terms before leaving for his illness and Clinton would have enjoyed a minimum of six terms. (OK it might be a stretch but Hey it’s my piece.)
Then there is buying into this false hope of the republicans selling their never ending tax cuts, that have never benefited you or I, that are elected over and over. A fact folks, government IS NOT a business. You cannot run it as if it is.
Just the other day the Washington State Legislature had a huge public debate on how unkempt the state capital was. This after the republicans cut funding to maintain the Capital grounds. Originally it was more important to give a tax break to wealthy donors than to keep up appearances. What’s amazing is that they suggested that volunteers might be employed to landscape the grounds. Again with the Republicans’ Taking Wages.
But I digress, my real intent was that we as democrats need to move on from this past election. We need to regain our leverage in the state and federal legislative. We need to wrestle the press back from the oligarchs and we must use all the tools, both ancient and modern, taking lessons from Thomas Payne and Facebook, to inform and educate the people. Most importantly we need to get that 45% of missing voters back.