We are constantly being lied to. We are being sold wars we don’t want. We are having our best social programs cut. Our jobs and tax dollars are being shipped overseas. Our treasury is being looted by Wall Street banks and corporate oligarchs. Our education system at all levels is being systematically destroyed. Our privacy and personal freedoms are being whittled away. We are being asked to work harder for less money. Our minimum wage is so minimum, no one can possibly live on it. We are told we have to tighten our belts while the rich are carting away billions from the public till as tax breaks and corporate subsidies. 7-11 clerks and fast food cooks pay higher tax rates than corporate CEOs and rich Wall Street bankers.
How long does this have to go on before the American people have finally had enough?
The typical American citizen is being shafted on so many levels, what totally astounds me is that there are not outraged mobs in the streets demanding the heads of the politicians and the cold calculating country club elites they serve.
Okay . . . okay . . . mass insurrection is not going to happen. At least not for now.
So it seems obvious to me that since we’re not going to have a revolution in this country, the very least we can do is replace the elected officials in our federal government who have been the cheerleaders and implementers of these onerous policies. The very least!
I’ve stated over and over that we need to replace at least 500 of our legislators, then put someone in the White House who understands and serves the needs of all Americans, not just the filthy rich. I’ve even dug up that old electoral battle cry: “Throw the bums out!”
As a result, I’ve had people say I’m extreme . . . out-of-touch . . . radical . . . and even call me an ungrateful, unpatriotic, American-hating whiner. I get it. Attack the messenger.
Let’s be honest here. If our government on practically every critical front is headed in completely in the wrong direction and I say it’s time to clean house . . .
Am I extreme?
Am I radical?
Or am I just being realistic?
I am proposing here simple, straightforward tests, applied locally within each community. These are based on the electoral strategy outlined in my recent book, “An Unlikely Truth.” Just ask yourself . . .
- Did my congressman or senator vote against raising the federal minimum wage? If he or she did, it means that this elected official is voting against the stated will of 72% of the American voting public. Apparently the demands of the greedy businessmen who fill his or her election campaign coffers are more important than people being able to earn a decent living.
- Did my congressman vote for the Ryan budget in the House or did my senator vote for continuing tax breaks for the rich in the Senate? That vote would go against the 71% of the voting public who think the wealthy should bear more of the burden, as they did for most decades of the 20th Century. Supporting historically low income tax and capital gains tax rates means more money into the pockets of the already wealthy, paid for by the rest of us who are struggling to make ends meet. It’s Robin Hood . . . but in reverse.
- Did my congressman or senator vote for a defense budget which included the infamous F-35 advanced fighter jet, arguably the biggest boondoggle in the history of the nation? A whopping 75% of American voters want serious cuts in the defense budget. Voting for any of the bloated defense appropriations budgets means throwing away money on worthless defense projects while schools, streets, bridges are crumbling. It’s putting bombs and bullets above quality of life.
- Did my congressman or senator vote for continuing oil subsidies for the oil industry? Alright, profits were a little off last year. So the Big 5 __ BP, Exxon Mobil, Chevron, ConocoPhillips, and Shell __ only made $177,000 per minute. Cry me a river! That added up to $93 billion in total profits. 74% of Americans want the government to stop throwing money at the these behemoth corporations and insist they start paying their fair share in taxes.
- Did my congressman or senator vote for funding attacks on Libya, Syria, Iran, the Ukraine or extending the waste of American tax dollars in Afghanistan, which 69% of Americans now oppose? Americans are sick of war. Fed up! Every dollar spent on these misadventures is one less dollar for critical needs here at home. Estimates for the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq are in the upwards of $6 trillion __ that’s trillion with a ‘t’. That adds up to 12,000,000 good paying jobs here in America. Think about it!
- Did my congressman or senator vote for any legislation which cut benefits, raised the eligibility age, or tampered with the rate of increase of Social Security payments, for example, the “chained CPI” skullduggery? Such a vote, or even thinking about such a vote, is in direct opposition to the clear voice of the American people, 79% of which want no changes to the most popular and successful federal program in history. Putting the squeeze on our elderly, who have worked hard all their lives and can barely survive on the pittance that the program now provides, may be the most heartless, sinister, pathological proposal to come down the long pike of heartless, sinister, pathological proposals. The money to pay benefits would be there if the Social Security trust fund had not been raided to pay for unfunded wars and tax breaks for the rich, and having everyone’s savings replaced by a bunch of government security IOUs. More to the point, those responsible for this theft should not only not be in public office. They should be in prison.
- Did my congressman or senator vote against labeling foods that contain GMOs? If he or she did, then this elected official is at odds with 93% of the voting public. Yes . . . I said 93%! And keeping people ignorant of what they’re eating and exposing them to potential health hazards as dictated by the giant food and agrochemical conglomerates like Monsanto is the choice your legislator is consciously and unconscionably making.
As far as I’m concerned, a ‘yes’ on any single one of the above questions is a knock out.
Zero tolerance. Time to look elsewhere. Time to stop voting for the same ol’ same ol’.
My reasoning is this. If your senator or congressman accepted what is effectively a bribe __ lobbyist favors, campaign donations, expensive lunches or junkets or whatever __ on one critical issue where there exists a major consensus among the American voting public and in your voting district, it means that at some time in the future, if enough pressure is applied by powerful corporations and their cutthroat lobbyists on other critical matters, your same representative will ignore you, his or her constituents, and vote lockstep with moneyed interests. If it happened once, it’ll happen again. Politicians must be put on notice: We’re watching and there is no margin for error. Or chicanery. Or excuses.
Of course, they’ll him-and-haw, create a tsunami of obfuscation and evasion to justify that one “compromise” or trade-off. I say we take the higher ground and leave the guy to drown in his own bullshit. Then suggest to Mr. Got-Lotsa-Excuses Legislator we’ve heard enough, point to the parking lot and tell him, “Don’t let the screen door hit you on the way out.”
Remember, elected officials want your vote. They will tell you what you want to hear to get you to check the box. Too often, once they are in office, they conveniently forget that the promises they made were in effect a contract with their constituents. A verbal contract. Based on what they said they would do, we voted for them. There’s a bond of trust and responsibility operating. And if they can’t honor any single one of those commitments, then why should we trust them to honor any of them __ past, present of future __ after they disappear inside the Washington bubble?
We have to keep focused . . .
It doesn’t matter whether your current congressman or senator has a pleasant smile, looks dashing when going to church on Sundays, has enchanting TV ads showing him or her at the local Kiwanis Club annual bake-off fundraiser, is a model family man or woman, and gosh-by-golly is again this year the Grand Marshall for the Independence Day parade down main street of your home town.
What does matter is whether he or she is listening to you, or taking marching orders from the deep-pocketed campaign donors who pay for those TV ads full of patriotic slogans and empty campaign promises, those slick video bites and photo ops designed to fool you once again into voting against your own interests and needs.
Is it extreme to expect honest representation?
Is it radical to want a functioning democracy?
Or is it just realistic to expect our system of government to work for all of us, not just the privileged and powerful?
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I am doing what I can to address the destruction of our democratic system.
Without taking back our government, nothing will change.
In my new book, An Unlikely Truth, I offer an electoral strategy which I believe can effectively remove the crooks and liars from office, and begin to restore representative democracy to America.
An Unlikely Truth (Literary Vagabond Books) is now available worldwide in every popular ebook format and as a deluxe edition paperback.
