Another Year of Democracy and other Grand Illusions

I'm still saddened and disappointed to see so many Democratic Party faithful. Republican Party faithful depress me even more but I'm going to focus on the first group. The democrats I know tend to be older hippie types who grew up in a time when government was a little more responsive to the demands of the people. I'd say the Civil Rights Movement was a good example of government following the demands of the people. I find this to be the exception and not the rule. Far more often, our government listens to money. Both parties are bought and paid for and neither will go against the interests and wishes of their true masters. St. Jimmy Carter sold us out to the House of Saud. Wild Bill Clinton proceeded to make the world a better place for Neo-liberalism and applied force when deemed necessary.  Plenty of Democrats voted for Bush's invasion of Iraq which has cost 4 trillion and contrary to popular opinion has not ended. In the wake of the financial crisis of 2008, our Democrat in Chief, Obama hired a Wall Street insider Timothy Geithner to protect business as usual. Obama has done their bidding and was rewarded with re-election. We have high unemployment and record corporate profits. Now I ask you, dear reader, just who's interests are being looked out for here? It does not sound like the people's.

I doubt those on the wrong end of a drone strike would consider Obama the lesser of two evils. Can anyone tell me how Obama's foreign policy differs from Bush's? I know we no longer use GWOT and related language but do we not continue to launch drone strikes on whoever and where ever the President orders? There is no check on this power, no review and no appeal. But he's a Democrat so it is cool. 176 children killed in drone strikes and how many of us know a single name of those murdered? Does Obama shed any tears for these little brown kids killed in far off lands? How well does he sleep? Are they any less worthy than those murderedd in Connecticut? I'm sorry if you think this is in bad taste but I think it is a fair question. Answer me. Obama relishes in reminding us of how he got Bin Laden. Allow me to put a different narrative on this event. Let's call it what it is, an extra-judicial state sponsored murder. Now, I'm no closet Al Quaeda supporter and I think OBL was an evil fuck. I also think becoming terrorists ourselves is no way to defeat terrorism. This POS OBL was nothing more than a thug and a murderer and the way we deal with those is through something called the legal system. Catch his ass and try him like any garden variety thug. One guy Democrat or Republican as judge jury and executioner only leads to bad things. But Obama is a Democrat so he gets a pass.  Well, not from me. We have to move beyond the old worn out lesser of two evils argument. 

Find something to vote for. Green Party. or don't vote! Delegitimize the bought and paid for sham elections. 

A review of how much the parties are the same may be helpful. 


Issue                                           Democrat                                   Republican 
More Wars                                     Yes                                              Yes
Bailouts for Banks                          Yes                                              Yes
Continuing Neo-liberalism               Yes                                              Yes
Insurance based health care              Yes                                              Yes
Black energy                                Yes                                              Yes
Demonizing China & Russia  Yes                                               Yes
Hostage to
Citizens United                               Yes                                              Yes
Militarization of police                       Yes                                              Yes
Outsourcing of Government
Functions                                      Yes                                                Yes
Illegal Spying on Citizens             Yes                                                Yes  

Another year of the same or will 2013 be different?

No Change to Real Change

I've pretty much given up on The Democratic Party. Obama's try to please everybody stands have pleased no one really. During the campaign, he seemed to be a breath of fresh air saying all the right things. I was then and still am no fan of Hillary Clinton. We were promised "change" (as we are in every election) but as I see it, little to nothing has really changed. We are still bogged down in Iraq and Afghanistan with no end in sight. There is no talk now about leaving either place, much less what out goals and intentions are. We have spent more than 1 trillion dollars so far and at least one million lives lost. Both places are a complete disaster and utter failure of our foreign policy. We have a joyous new health care reform bill mostly written by lobbyists for insurance and pharmaceutical conglomerations. As long as we have a "for profit" based system, more and more of us will suffer unnecessarily because of no or poor insurance and fall into bankruptcy. Sorry Republicans, I unlike you CANNOT in any way accept someone losing their house and all they own due to illness. It is wrong. Apparently, the Democrats agree with you. We have no real jobs creation bill and unemployment benefits are on again off again based on the whims of congress. Sure unemployment cannot go on forever but tie it to the unemployment rate or something we can understand! The BP disaster in the gulf is another fine example how nothing has changed. Both our political parties take tons of money from oil industry and when something goes wrong, play politics, potty mouth the oil industry and pass some bullshit labeled "reform" which really reforms nothing. The list of what has not changed is almost endless.

We get political theatre and spectacle. Note, "The Tea Party". They claim to be grassroots (whatever that is) but I have my doubts. I'm not going to slam fellow citizens who get out and take a stand for what they believe, but other than a fear of increasing taxes and hardcore conservatism what is the point? They slam so called illegals while completely ignoring the root causes of the problem. Businesses will hire them and with things so shitty in Mexico and points further south people will go where ever they can find work. Who among us would not do the same? Here are a few talking points. Look for yourself. "Gun Ownership Is Sacred" Why? I've been places where this is not the case and it is a hell of a lot safer. "Traditional Family Values Are Encouraged". My family values may be different than yours. "Intrusive Government Stopped." Does this mean I'll no longer have to take my shoes off at the airport? Will there still be "watch" lists? "Bail-out And Stimulus Plans Are Illegal." This may be a good idea. Why are so many in this movement older and white? I don't care for the term progressive so I will not use it. Rather, those on the left, are not much more coherent about what to do than the Tea Party people. They continue to blindly support The Democrats while ignoring their abysmal record for getting anything good done. Some on the left arrogantly dismiss people who do not think like they do as being ill informed or stupid. Conservatives have legitimate concerns and some good ideas on occasion. Personal and fiscal responsibility are good but lacking in both parties. I may be more left leaning but share some Conservative values as well. Most people are a mix of both I believe. Everyday we as a nation live with this false dichotomy of left vs. right while nothing really changes.

So it would be easy to simply tune it all out as many of us do but I'm not ready to give up. I think there may be a chance to save ourselves from some type of American style dictatorship. We MUST develop other viable parties to counter our current one party system. We now have two wings of the same party that are all about keeping the status quo. The game is so heavily rigged against building such parties, it may be too late. Who writes the rules? Those maintaining the status quo. About the only way I see any better development in this direction is some people with a ton of money getting into it and that may just make matters worse. I'm going shopping for a new party to support. The Republicans lost my vote a long tome ago and now so have The Democrats. Some say I throwing my vote away or worse, voting for Sarah Palin. Bullshit. I'm participating in something new, real opposition to what is going on. Think about it long term Democrats. At least have a look...

THE GREEN PARTY

THE COFFEE PARTY

THE MODERN WHIG PARTY

None of these work for you? Go to Google.com and find one that does and stand your ass up!