If you're still having trouble picturing the political landscape, here's an analogy that may make it easier to follow.
Imagine a wagon full of apples rolling downhill on a bumpy road. You're supposed to be the one driving the wagon, but your friends want to drive too. Some of them pull the wheel one way, some pull the other way. They're so busy fighting with each other, they don't watch the road ahead. You can pull the wheel one way or the other, but you have to pull for a while to overcome your friends. Did I mention the road was bumpy? And there are ditches on either side? And no brakes?
Wait, it gets worse. A bandit stowed away on your wagon. He's furiously throwing your cargo of apples off the wagon. He's also promised a share of the apples to some of your friends, but you don't know which ones. The bandit could care less if your wagon crashes.
That's a pretty desperate situation, but unfortunately, that's where our democratic process is.
Obviously our country is the wagon. You are the independent voter who tries to keep our country on the right track by voting for the right people. In the real world, different groups want to use the government for their own ends, so they tug and strain and curse to turn it their way. Ideally, in our republic, the government turns right, and the voters correct the imbalance by turning left; a few years later the reverse occurs; in the long run we avoid trouble by not going too far in either direction. That doesn't happen any more.
For one thing, the mass media and the parties have done their best to alienate the electorate. Typically, 40 to 50 percent of potential voters don't bother. They're not represented in the analogy, except in the inertia of the wagon.
Most of the actual voters have made up their minds before they vote. About 40% vote Democratic no matter what, another 40% Republican. The numbers may be even higher these days. These partisans are the "friends" in the analogy who pull the wheel left or right without understanding the consequences.
That leaves 20% (or even less) to decide the election. Many of them vote based on their personal economic situation, which should keep the country in the center, just by the law of averages.
The bandit represents the wealthy in this country. They're robbing the rest of us blind, and as long as they can keep up the stealing, they don't care if the economy goes into a ditch. Their latest target is Social Security. You've been paying into it your whole working life, but if they get it privatized, Wall Street will have a trillion-dollar lunch off of your money. Do you want to get to the bottom of the hill and find out your cargo is gone? Then keep voting Republican.
Our wagon has been veering to the right for some time, and we've already got two wheels off the road and almost into a ditch. The voters pulled the wheel left, just enough to keep the wheels out of the ditch. The danger is not over, but the wagon is still veering to the right. It's just a matter of time before we run off the road. Another good bump like 9/11 could take the choice out of your hands.
What ya gonna do? You don't want the wagon to run off the right side of the road. You don't want to overcorrect and run off the left side, either. The first job is to center the wagon, by keeping the Republicans from getting more control. It's not just about putting people in Congress, you see, it's about the judges they appoint, the projects they fund or don't fund, the laws they pass or don't pass. Fixing the Great Recession will take more than two years.
After the election, the next step is campaign financing. The Citizens United case was the equivalent of giving megaphones to each of the wheel pullers and putting a blindfold on you; it will be impossible to make rational decisions about the future of our country when you can't hear yourself think and can't see the road ahead.
We have to save our country before it's too late. Democracy may not work very well, it may seem like the worst system on earth, but as Churchill pointed out, all the others are worse.
Sunday, October 31, 2010
Sunday, October 24, 2010
Vote Money
Still not sure who to vote for this time? Take the guesswork out of elections. Vote for the Money Party!
You don't have to choose between Democrat and Republican. You don't even have to go to the trouble of voting! You're still voting for money.
The Money Party platform is simple: rich people deserve to get and keep every dime they can, however they can. That's it! No complicated issues to think about, no campaign promises to break, no opposition party to slow things down.
Are you too busy making a living to follow politics, make an informed decision, and vote? Congratulations, you've been distracted! The Money Party counts on you staying away from the ballot box.
Are you fed up with negative campaign ads, or the sheer number of ads? Or do you just not pay attention and wait for *American Idol* and *Desperate Housewives* to come back on? Congratulations, you've been distracted! The Money Party counts on you staying hypnotized.
Are you following the election like it was some kind of reality show or popularity contest? Do you care about polls, about who's ahead, about the horse race aspect of it all? Congratulations, you've been distracted! The Money Party counts on you ignoring the issues.
Are you listening to the DC pundits, who explain everything in terms of political advantage? Are you listening to the other pundits, who paint the other side as buffoons or criminals? Congratulations, you've been distracted! The Money Party counts on you making partisan and emotional decisions.
Are you fed up with big government? Congratulations, you've been distracted! The Money Party counts on you looking the other way while they let our roads and water lines crumble.
Are you a disciple of laissez-faire capitalism? Congratulations, you've been distracted! The Money Party counts on you allowing them to get away with murder.
For the Money Party, money isn't everything, it's the only thing. Government works when they tell it to work and does what they tell it to do. Tax cuts? Deregulation? Tax breaks for moving jobs overseas? Forcing everyone to buy overpriced health insurance? Bailouts for investment banks? It's all gravy.
Ask not what the Money Party can do for you. They don't care about you.
What ya gonna do? Obviously, most people don't engage in the political process, so let's cut them out of it. People who don't even bother to vote, people who don't know anything about the issues, people who vote with their emotions, none of them deserve a voice. People who do care about voting should show that they're serious and committed to the political process. Let's charge a fee to register, how about, oh, a nice round number, one million dollars? We can stop pretending that your vote matters. You don't have to sit through those ads any more. The real voters can stop making all those bribes and tell their representatives how to vote. Better yet, cut out the middleman, let the real voters write the legislation. They're already doing it, why not make it official?
So vote Money! ... while you can still vote.
But seriously, folks, don't take my word for it. The vast right-wing conspiracy (especially these guys) is doing better than ever. You didn't notice? Congratulations, you've been distracted!
You don't have to choose between Democrat and Republican. You don't even have to go to the trouble of voting! You're still voting for money.
The Money Party platform is simple: rich people deserve to get and keep every dime they can, however they can. That's it! No complicated issues to think about, no campaign promises to break, no opposition party to slow things down.
Are you too busy making a living to follow politics, make an informed decision, and vote? Congratulations, you've been distracted! The Money Party counts on you staying away from the ballot box.
Are you fed up with negative campaign ads, or the sheer number of ads? Or do you just not pay attention and wait for *American Idol* and *Desperate Housewives* to come back on? Congratulations, you've been distracted! The Money Party counts on you staying hypnotized.
Are you following the election like it was some kind of reality show or popularity contest? Do you care about polls, about who's ahead, about the horse race aspect of it all? Congratulations, you've been distracted! The Money Party counts on you ignoring the issues.
Are you listening to the DC pundits, who explain everything in terms of political advantage? Are you listening to the other pundits, who paint the other side as buffoons or criminals? Congratulations, you've been distracted! The Money Party counts on you making partisan and emotional decisions.
Are you fed up with big government? Congratulations, you've been distracted! The Money Party counts on you looking the other way while they let our roads and water lines crumble.
Are you a disciple of laissez-faire capitalism? Congratulations, you've been distracted! The Money Party counts on you allowing them to get away with murder.
For the Money Party, money isn't everything, it's the only thing. Government works when they tell it to work and does what they tell it to do. Tax cuts? Deregulation? Tax breaks for moving jobs overseas? Forcing everyone to buy overpriced health insurance? Bailouts for investment banks? It's all gravy.
Ask not what the Money Party can do for you. They don't care about you.
What ya gonna do? Obviously, most people don't engage in the political process, so let's cut them out of it. People who don't even bother to vote, people who don't know anything about the issues, people who vote with their emotions, none of them deserve a voice. People who do care about voting should show that they're serious and committed to the political process. Let's charge a fee to register, how about, oh, a nice round number, one million dollars? We can stop pretending that your vote matters. You don't have to sit through those ads any more. The real voters can stop making all those bribes and tell their representatives how to vote. Better yet, cut out the middleman, let the real voters write the legislation. They're already doing it, why not make it official?
So vote Money! ... while you can still vote.
But seriously, folks, don't take my word for it. The vast right-wing conspiracy (especially these guys) is doing better than ever. You didn't notice? Congratulations, you've been distracted!
Saturday, October 9, 2010
Treason
You want to be a good citizen. You pay attention to politics. You listen to the candidates. You make your choices. You go to the polls. When you go to all the trouble of voting, you want your vote to matter. These days, though, it's entirely possible that your vote is irrelevant, that you wouldn't know about it, and that you have no way of finding out.
It doesn't matter which party you belong to. A bad election hurts everybody. If your side doesn't get hurt this time, it will next time. That's human nature.
We'd like to live in a democracy, where we can vote on every issue, but that's not practical. Instead we vote for representatives, and they vote on the issues. The brilliant idea behind a republic is that we have a controlled revolution every two years. We agree on the rules ahead of time, we put limits on the possible changes, and we abide by the results. If enough people play by the rules, it works--crudely, but it works.
What we have now is a loose confederation of people who routinely break the rules. We don't publicize them enough or punish them enough. They are trying, in a limited way, to overthrow our government by replacing a duly elected official with someone else. That is treason. We hang traitors.
These traitors are computers masquerading as voting machines. More specifically, these traitors are the people who make, sell, and operate the computers, because the computers themselves are pretty stupid. It turns out the people who make the computers are fairly stupid themselves. Smart people who know computers have been saying for years that these machines are vulnerable to manipulation, by the makers, by the users, and by hackers.
Here's a simple and common trick. A computer is pretty stupid; you have to spell out names for its codes, such as X for Smith and Y for Jones, so it will display the names. When you vote for Smith, the computer adds one to column X, and that's the only fact it records about your vote. Here's the trick. When they set up the computer for the election, they switch the codes: Smith becomes Y and Jones becomes X. Now, when you vote for Smith, your vote goes into column Y instead of column X.
Think about that very carefully. If you are a Republican, you may have just voted for a Democrat. There is no way to go back and check the numbers, to recount the ballots. On election night, the computer has a total in column X and a total in column Y, nothing else. If the traitor can switch the codes in the morning and switch them back at night, without being detected, it's the perfect crime.
It doesn't stop there. What if the computer changed every tenth vote from one column to another? What if it simply generated the totals without counting any votes? How would you know? The companies who make these computers won't let you see the code that runs them. Partisan politicians will protect their election officials. These computers aren't monsters like the Terminator, but they're dangerous just the same.
Here's the bottom line: whichever side you're on, it might be your vote that they change. If you didn't vote for them, then it's not really your government, it's someone else's, regardless of who you voted for. You're no longer living in a republic. Your government is no longer accountable to you. To those traitors and their masters, your vote doesn't matter, and you don't matter.
So what ya gonna do? Get an absentee ballot. If you go to vote, ask for a paper ballot. If they won't give you one, ask for a receipt from the machine (you won't get it). Don't make a stink so big that they have you arrested, but make a stink. And remember that the poll workers are volunteers. Don't blame them, blame the people who are buying our elections, and our candidates, and our government, and our souls.
After the election, tell your representatives that you demand they get rid of the computers. Do you have so much faith in computers, in the people who make and use them, that you are willing to give them absolute control over your vote? Do your trust your government that much?
It doesn't matter which party you belong to. A bad election hurts everybody. If your side doesn't get hurt this time, it will next time. That's human nature.
We'd like to live in a democracy, where we can vote on every issue, but that's not practical. Instead we vote for representatives, and they vote on the issues. The brilliant idea behind a republic is that we have a controlled revolution every two years. We agree on the rules ahead of time, we put limits on the possible changes, and we abide by the results. If enough people play by the rules, it works--crudely, but it works.
What we have now is a loose confederation of people who routinely break the rules. We don't publicize them enough or punish them enough. They are trying, in a limited way, to overthrow our government by replacing a duly elected official with someone else. That is treason. We hang traitors.
These traitors are computers masquerading as voting machines. More specifically, these traitors are the people who make, sell, and operate the computers, because the computers themselves are pretty stupid. It turns out the people who make the computers are fairly stupid themselves. Smart people who know computers have been saying for years that these machines are vulnerable to manipulation, by the makers, by the users, and by hackers.
Here's a simple and common trick. A computer is pretty stupid; you have to spell out names for its codes, such as X for Smith and Y for Jones, so it will display the names. When you vote for Smith, the computer adds one to column X, and that's the only fact it records about your vote. Here's the trick. When they set up the computer for the election, they switch the codes: Smith becomes Y and Jones becomes X. Now, when you vote for Smith, your vote goes into column Y instead of column X.
Think about that very carefully. If you are a Republican, you may have just voted for a Democrat. There is no way to go back and check the numbers, to recount the ballots. On election night, the computer has a total in column X and a total in column Y, nothing else. If the traitor can switch the codes in the morning and switch them back at night, without being detected, it's the perfect crime.
It doesn't stop there. What if the computer changed every tenth vote from one column to another? What if it simply generated the totals without counting any votes? How would you know? The companies who make these computers won't let you see the code that runs them. Partisan politicians will protect their election officials. These computers aren't monsters like the Terminator, but they're dangerous just the same.
Here's the bottom line: whichever side you're on, it might be your vote that they change. If you didn't vote for them, then it's not really your government, it's someone else's, regardless of who you voted for. You're no longer living in a republic. Your government is no longer accountable to you. To those traitors and their masters, your vote doesn't matter, and you don't matter.
So what ya gonna do? Get an absentee ballot. If you go to vote, ask for a paper ballot. If they won't give you one, ask for a receipt from the machine (you won't get it). Don't make a stink so big that they have you arrested, but make a stink. And remember that the poll workers are volunteers. Don't blame them, blame the people who are buying our elections, and our candidates, and our government, and our souls.
After the election, tell your representatives that you demand they get rid of the computers. Do you have so much faith in computers, in the people who make and use them, that you are willing to give them absolute control over your vote? Do your trust your government that much?
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