I’m addressing this article to the “professional left” and to the typically white middle-class point-and-click political activists who are at the insular core of today’s peace movement. They do keep trying — we give them all the much-deserved credit for that — yet keep doing the same things over and over — wash, rinse, repeat — never pausing to look objectively at how ineffective they’re being.
[ Insert Einstein’s definition of insanity here. ]
Despite a slight surge of street protests since Trump ascended the throne — largely not specific to peace — the peace movement is essentially going backwards. Missives vital for the survival of the human race are not being heard because the folks currently advocating peace: 1) are drowned out by a militarized war-hungry media; 2) are mumbling worn out messages, rehashing stale slogans, pushing boring clichés, reciting sound bites that should have been retired when disco stopped being the rage; and 3) are lacking necessary focus, mojo and momentum.
It’s a veritable cacophonous roar out there these days. If what’s being trumpeted is not pitch perfect and outrageously spectacular, it’s just more white noise in the din.
To get people to pay attention, you need to get their attention. That means fresh, exciting new ideas; galvanizing calls to action; relevant, achievable payoffs. The peace movement can’t survive anymore on high fives, or peace sign t-shirts and bumper stickers. People just aren’t buying the old tropes.
Mind you, when I talk about ‘people’, I’m talking about tens of millions of people. I am talking about creating a true ‘people’s movement’ of ‘people power’, not just a marginal slice of the population which happens to have a lot of time on its hands. This unified bloc can change everything, especially if it is fashioned into a voting bloc.
I’m talking about the ‘people power’ of the bottom 160 million Americans who are hurting much more than you and I, much more than anyone who has the time and luxury of participating in marches and bake sales for peace, sit-ins, teach-ins, or online petitions. These folks are struggling and are those whose lives are most devastated by our war economy and pursuit of empire.
THESE FOLKS ARE FRUSTRATED, ANGRY, BEGGING FOR A COHERENT SOLUTION TO THEIR MISERY. They live paycheck-to-paycheck, day-to-day, just trying to survive. Am I imagining all of this? I direct you to the orange imbecile sitting in the Oval Office. The folks I’m talking about put him there. You don’t think they can make a difference in the political direction of the country? You don’t think they can be mobilized? You better guess again.
This is the principal reason why my Peace Dividend initiative targets Trump voters, the very same folks who are becoming increasingly disillusioned with the orange demagogue, as he blithely now jettisons the campaign promises he made to get their votes. With the unfolding Mad Hatter military confrontations in the Middle East and North Korea, the risky intimidation of Russia and China, the increasing likelihood of WWIII, and growing potential for nuclear annihilation, the urgency is obvious: We need EVERYONE on board!
The Trump supporters are, as they say, low hanging fruit. And there’s a lot of fruit.
By design the Peace Dividend strategy is about reaching HUGE NUMBERS of politically marginalized, dispossessed, previously ignored — until Trump came along — voters. The Peace Dividend talks their language, their needs, addresses their immediate concerns and growing rage with the system. And it does it honestly! Everything in my proposal is based on available data, most of it directly from government sources and speeches by our elected officials. I’ve taken the official data and the promises, just reconfigured it, reinterpreted it, refashioned it, turned it into a weapon to take apart the military machine. It’s completely legal, it’s in the best traditions of our alleged democracy, it’s completely consistent with the Constitution, in fact, it even reinforces much of what our leadership has stated in the past — Google ‘peace dividend 1992’ — at a time they found that particular version of reality politically expedient.
Most of the folks in the bottom half of the economy are not going to have PhDs in Political Science. We will confront some big differences of opinion, demeanor, vocabulary, basic courtesy, open-mindedness, instincts, mutual respect. It’s a rough crowd. Many will be racist, homophobic, superstitious, ultra-religious, misinformed, and just plain ignorant.
Granted, it would be nice to try to work out our differences in world view, our political philosophies, our sense of where the nation should be headed. But with the crisis we face right now, we don’t have that luxury. We must act immediately to stop the military madness, the march to war, the complete takeover of the country and its political and economic institutions by the menacing and deranged neocon/neoliberal junta. The Peace Dividend is a battle cry, it is a call to action to 200 million Americans to DO SOMETHING, TO ACT NOW, before it’s too late — if it isn’t already. It gives concerned citizens something specific they can do, starting today.
Moreover, as facts on the ground now alarmingly demonstrate, there is no longer much room for conversation. Effective, unbiased reporting has been abolished, public dissent increasingly is being squashed. More devastatingly, talk has become so cheapened, most of the people we need to reach, don’t want any more talk. THEY WANT ACTION!
It’s easy to blame Trump for the deterioration of the national conversation, relegating it to empty nonsensical utterances and abrupt Tweets. But let’s be honest. This degradation has been in the works for a long time and had a good head start long before he took office.
That’s neither here nor there. Here’s what we need to keep in focus.
As Trump’s neoliberal/neocon assault troops continue to wreak havoc — picture coming military conflicts and the inevitable crash of the economy this year or next — the masses will be singularly outraged, hungry for REAL ACTION. They will be crying both for heads to roll and for something to be done. All of the necessary incentives will be there to get them on board with constructive activism.
The Peace Dividend offers a simple, direct, decisive plan of action. It’s as simple as voting.
You’ve seen how it forces a total transformation of the federal budget.
You’ve seen how it can engineer a complete changing of the guard.
This is our chance for a non-violent coup d’état. We need to be prepared. We can’t squander this opportunity by being safe or boring. We must be bold and decisive, yet affable and receptive, sensitive and sensible. We need to listen, then talk to others in their language, on their terms. We must play down differences, seek understanding, unite in a common purpose. Most of all, we need to welcome everyone who shows the slightest interest. We need everyone on board to defeat a determined and ruthless enemy . . .
A bloodthirsty military and their ruling class puppet masters.
Warren Buffett or Jimmy Buffett?
Here’s an URGENT APPEAL I received the other day on Facebook:
This is an idea that should be passed around. The BUFFETT Rule! Let’s see if these idiots understand what people pressure is all about.
Congressional Reform Act of 2017
1. No Tenure / No Pension. A Congressman / woman collects a salary while in office and receives no pay when they’re out of office.
2. Congress (past, present, & future) participates in Social Security. All funds in the Congressional retirement fund move to the Social Security system immediately. All future funds flow into the Social Security system, and Congress participates with the American people. It may not be used for any other purpose.
3. Congress can purchase their own retirement plan, just as all Americans do.
4. Congress will no longer vote themselves a pay raise. Congressional pay will rise by the lower of CPI or 3%.
5. Congress loses their current health care system and participates in the same health care system as the American people.
6. Congress must equally abide by all laws they impose on the American people.
7. All contracts with past and present Congressmen/women are void effective 3/1/17.
The American people did not make this contract with Congressmen/women. Congress made all these contracts for themselves. Serving in Congress is an honor, not a career. The Founding Fathers envisioned citizen legislators, so ours should serve their term(s), then go home and go back to work.
If each person contacts a minimum of twenty people, then it will only take three days for most people in the U.S. to receive the message.
It’s time! THIS IS HOW YOU FIX CONGRESS! If you agree, pass it on.
There’s a lot of confusion about this initiative.
Moreover, he is not in any way responsible for the “Congressional Reform Act of 2017,” which is just the latest version of the dubious and rather flawed “Congressional Reform Act of 2011”.
Regardless, it absolutely astounds me that no one seems to see the ONE MAJOR DEFECT in this noble attempt to reform Congress. This fatal error happens to apply to most of the ideas I’ve recently encountered, intended to fix America and get our country back on track.
This proposed act has to be passed by Congress.
Which begs the obvious question . . .
Why would they pass it?
What are these folks thinking? Do they actually think that the current crop of corporate pay-for-play lapdogs who sit in their comfy jobs in Washington DC are going to do anything to jeopardize their free ride with the rich and powerful of this country?
I just love it, for example, when people propose progressive constitutional amendments. According to the Article V: “The Constitution provides that an amendment may be proposed either by the Congress with a two-thirds majority vote in both the House of Representatives and the Senate or by a constitutional convention called for by two-thirds of the State legislatures.” Apparently, these wild-eyed dreamers haven’t read the newspaper lately. The Republicans own the White House, both chambers of Congress, most governorships, and the majority of state legislatures. Even more shocking, we often see Democrats siding with the extreme right-wing legislative ideologues on a host of key issues — increasing defense spending, perpetuating war, advocating more tax breaks to corporations and the wealthy.
Consider this . . .
It’s impossible to get GMO labeling on food product legislated, something supported by 93% of all Americans, regardless of party affiliation. Do progressive strategists actually believe they can get anything through Congress which genuinely serves the majority of Americans, with the current cutthroat mercenary puppets installed in the seats of power? Here we have something 93% of Americans want and it gets killed by corporate greed and legislators who couldn’t spell ‘representation’ if a gun was pointed at their heads.
I’ve said this over and over. But it bears repeating until folks get it.
There is ONLY ONE SOLUTION!
We have to have a CLEAN SWEEP OF CONGRESS. Regime change in Washington DC!
Let’s stop kidding ourselves.
The people now in positions of power will not do anything for everyday U.S. citizens. NOTHING! They will do the bidding of their deep-pocketed financiers, their mega-rich and powerful masters . . . and that’s it. End of story. So let’s start doing some real work! Let’s begin the daunting but absolutely necessary task of swapping out 33 senators and at least 400 of the traitors who are currently in the House of Representatives in 2018.
I have a method for accomplishing this. It’s summarized in two of my books — Candidate Contracts: Taking Back our Democracy and Fighting For The Democracy We Deserve — and dozens of articles published here and all over the web.
In each congressional district, good decent citizens must choose four or five issues which are critical to them, things which are totally non-negotiable, things they are absolute and unswerving about. For example:
1. Make no changes in Social Security and Medicare.
2. Raise the federal minimum wage to $12.50 per hour.
3. Eliminate corporate welfare and increase taxes on the rich.
4. Reverse by law the Citizens United decision.
5. Cut back on military spending.
The good news is that nationally there is already enormous support for these.
75% of Americans want a federal minimum wage of $12.50 per hour.
76% of voters want a cut back on military spending.
79% of voters want no reductions in Social Security, 70% support expanding it.
79% of voters want no reductions in Medicare.
80% of voters oppose the “Citizens United” U.S. Supreme Court decision.
68% of voters think taxes on the wealthy should be increased.
Next step is to draw up a contract or set of contracts on those issues. Such a contract will look and read like this, one I drew up for raising the minimum wage to $15.00 per hour.
Then we simply put it to the candidates. It’s up to them. Will they sign the contract(s) and guarantee that they will go to Washington DC and hit the ground running, doing exactly what we want them to do? Or not?
If they sign, we vote for them.
If they don’t, we vote for someone who will.
It’s that simple! And it’s that clear. Either they will decisively and unequivocally, with no excuses or double-talk, do the job we vote them in office to do . . .
Or we don’t vote for them!
In the event there is no major party candidate willing to sign the contract — and recognize that is a very distinct possibility — then we turn to a minor party candidate, or put one on the ballot ourselves.
THAT’S how you take back our democracy!
THAT’S how we take the guesswork out of voting!
THAT’S how you make sure the voice of the voice of the people is heard!
THAT’S how you put “people” back in the equation . . . government of the people, by the people, for the people.
It’s either that . . . or drink a lot of tequila and watch our country steadily descend into the sewer of economic medievalism and kleptocratic tyranny.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z3HBcgxOWAQ
I like a good time as much as the next guy.
But maybe we should wait until we have good reason to celebrate.