Vote Green to build a party for the 99%, support a strategy serving the greater good
In the last presidential election, 70 million eligible voters — including 20 million registered voters — chose not to participate. There are now almost as many independents as are registered in both parties combined. Together they represent a supermajority of unaffiliated eligible voters.
With status quo backlash at an all-time high, registration in the two-party system at an all-time low, and the Sanders phenomenon still fresh in our hearts, the time to build the infrastructure for a revolutionary movement is now.
Voting to build a third party is courageous and noble. It is a principled stance that says you will stay true to your values: universal health care as a human right, people and the planet before profit, and a committed stand against perpetual warfare. You may even choose to abstain from voting as a statement of no confidence. As a citizen, it belongs to you, and you have the right to express your vote as you see fit.
For those who do not participate at all, it is still a choice, and a reflection of a system that deliberately manipulates the outcome through disenfranchisement and psychological warfare (PsyOps). The systematic propaganda campaigns by corporate mass media outlets are in fact an old school PsyOps warfare tactic — like the one waged against Bernie (HRC “goes nuclear” in N.Y.; “disqualify, defeat, unify later…”), that has shifted now to Dr. Jill Stein (misinformation that pediatrician Stein is anti-vaccine) — that the U.S. still uses to great effect in other countries where puppet governments are installed, after a “bloodless” coup orchestrated by the CIA, to serve the private exploitation of resources. (see: Roosevelt Corollary of the Monroe Doctrine)
But realize this, if you feel like your participation makes no difference, it is because they need you to feel that way. They manipulate you into apathy. Clinton is obstinate in putting forth an agenda that will enshrine neo-liberal privatization — with policies as unpopular among the electorate as the nominee herself — when she could easily win this election by embracing Bernie and his platform. He begged for the party to take his most popular ideas.
“The idea was for free and open elections where the people’s voice would be heard. It was simple: the candidate who best represented your interests earned your vote. Your vote is, therefore, an expression of yourself and your beliefs. A vote is a statement, a vote is personal, a vote is an expression of your citizenship in this country. There has never been a more important time to vote your conscience.”
Adopt and put forth those main tenets in the Sanders platform, and they could have energized the electorate bringing millions of new voters into the system, then they capture the left flank — including those inscrutable millennials — and Clinton wins in a tsunami. Few would notice, and less would care, when she later reneges on half of the platform as POTUS.
This strategy would produce a more sensible legislative body, and a true progressive could even be appointed to the Supreme Court. That’s neither fiction, nor conjecture, rather it is painfully obvious. The repugnant elephant in the room, however, without whom the DNC could never pull off their smoke and mirrors, is the bumbling GOP.
The DNC is defined by the RNC: if the bad cop becomes obsolete, the good cop doesn’t exist. Most insidious, this lays bare the deep cynicism of the neo-liberal Democratic Party. They know they can defeat any candidate that the RNC nominates, especially #dumptrump, simply by embracing Bernie Sanders and his 45% of party delegates. But they don’t, because then the people would have the power.
So they stoke the hysteria and feed off the circus. They launder money through the state parties, and never release the transcripts of grossly overcompensated Wall Street speeches. They orchestrate a false narrative across the public airwaves, controlling what you see and hear — like it’s 1984. They want to stay on the oligarch gravy train — convinced they are in control — and to drink your milkshake too.
Taking money out of politics will put the 1% back in their cages, from whom the entire right wing establishment is fed, and it would catalyze an RNC implosion. Their long strategy of obstruction, dysfunction, and disenfranchise has kept voter apathy high and participation low, which is how they can game the system and remain in power. Bernie Sanders has given the DNC the means to vanquish Paul Ryan, the Tea Party, and even the odious Mitch McConnell, and they know it. They just don’t want you to know they know it.
Third Way neo-liberals — especially Obama — understand that the billionaire class is their meal ticket too. If they were to adopt a truly progressive platform, then they would also cut the throat of the coercive two-party duopoly. They would lose their private sector revolving door, all that SuperPac dark money, and worst of all, they would have to come by votes the old fashioned way. They would have to campaign with honesty and govern with integrity, focusing on the real issues like Bernie Sanders, which means many of them would not be in office for long. Party bosses — and their lapdog lobbyists — could no longer force upon us an unpopular “lesser evil” candidate just because she has the most backroom deals with the most foreign big money entities.
Just as neo-liberal capitalism thrives by creating false scarcities, so does the two-party system create these false electoral crises. They foster the dysfunction — next to the sensationalist corporate media — fomenting the conditions that allow a neo-fascist to rise to power, and that have allowed Congress to remain under the control of the GOP. The naked truth is that by creating these false crises, and pulling the fire alarm; by playing chicken with a neo-fascist — to make themselves look good — and wagering with the nuclear codes; DNC elites are engaging in extortion to get your vote.
Let’s examine the reality. Bernie Sanders demonstrated that the vast majority of voters are against big money corporate politics, and that they will vigorously support — financially and electorally — a candidate who stands up and denounces the legalized bribery and normalized corruption. This debunks the classic neo-liberal justification of taking corporate SuperPac dark money so they can compete with the evil right wing.
It is way past time to break the co-dependent duopoly relationship because — make no mistake — you are enabling this chaos if you are in that vast majority but you are voting for a corporate candidate anyway. It’s the same old story, every cycle they create the constant drama, and you go right along. It’s the same old song and dance, where none of it works if you don’t buy in to their manufactured scenario. But there is too much at stake to get out of line this time. It is prudent — and strategic — you say to yourself, to wait until next time. Except it never gets better; next time will always have more at stake.
It is page one in the DNC playbook to suppress and manipulate the vote, just like the neo-cons in the RNC. If they had not put their thumb on the scale from day 1, Clinton might not even be the nominee. We need to realize as independents and peaceful revolutionaries, that a system cannot fail those who it was never meant to protect. Yes, our political system is rigged; designed such that the meritocracy of elitist neo-liberals and the faux-Randian neo-cons, both of whom serve the plutocrat class, can manipulate their way into keeping power along with the riches they get from their backroom deals — all by being really bad at their jobs. It’s social engineering akin to The Matrix — dysfunctional by design, where you are a glorified battery for their machines — and boom here you are again, back on the hook, voting against the one you hate, instead of for the one you believe in, with the faintest (false) notion that you ever had a choice.
Well, you do have a choice. Step outside the box and let the dystopian red-blue constructs dissolve back into the ephemera. Soon you’ll notice that you can hear yourself think without all the hysterical shouting in the duopoly echo chamber. Soon you’ll realize that voting with your heart is your prerogative, that you do not have to learn the Machiavellian maneuvers of modern politics to participate and be effective. There has never been an education requirement to vote, nor should there ever be, you just have to care enough to get involved.
Not that there is anything inherently wrong with strategic voting. Spock-like 3D chess analysis is also your prerogative. It defies logic, however, when applied to the contrived premise constantly put forth by this corrupted system. And voting out of fear is always a bad idea. It is inherently irrational because fear invokes your lizard brain, your fight-or-flight response. Fear only breeds panic and flawed judgment; the only time decisions should be based on fear is when there is no other option.
Combine “strategic” voting in an attempt to affect a corrupted system, with fear based “logic” whose central premise is a manufactured crisis, and you have captured the depth of their machinations. And it is upon this foundation that they claim we are naive. The current “vote shaming” narrative against third party supporters needs to be recognized as just another tactic of simple misdirection. Keep this false debate alive, stoking fear and inciting old fashion bullying, and the voters they cow into compliance will then spend their time spreading the shame narrative.
“She can never win, you’re so naive,” they scream. If that is true, then it is because the two-party status quo obstructs third parties, and there has never been a level playing field. Fair and free elections are supposed to exemplify the principles of this nation, when in reality it is manipulation by the elites, including a duopoly on ballot access, that prevents fair elections. Yes, the electoral system is rigged to suppress popular movements, and adding insult to injury, the “super” delegates tell us it is for our own good. This fact alone is enough reason for #DemExit: a mass exodus from an archaic system.
“If you don’t vote against the neo-fascist, by supporting the neo-liberal, then you are to blame,” they cry. And, “You obviously don’t care about all the people who will suffer under the neo-fascist rule, it must be nice to be so privileged” they snark and snort.
Setting aside the condescending assumptions, it gets lost that voting for the Green Party supports a long term vision to build a third party infrastructure, that does serve the greater good, that seeks to bring the body politic back to a place where it empowers open discourse and dissent, while protecting voting rights and the spirit of “one person, one vote.”
Using this PsyOps shame narrative, they discourage cohesive organizing against their agenda of greed. We bicker with their DNC fear zombies — wasting time on their hypothetical short-term electoral disaster porn — while they enshrine their crony capitalism governance model, their austerity and privatization wet dream.
As Senator Sanders has said so many times, it is the job of the candidate to attract voters, to energize those who are registered, and to demonstrate a vision that gives an incentive to vote for those who choose not to participate at all. All candidates, at all levels, need to earn your vote. Voting was always meant to be with your heart and mind, it is your voice in the process.
But the duopoly itself, blue-red it makes no difference, will never implement policies that go against the 1%, who are obviously pulling the strings, calling the shots, and getting very fat on no-bid private military contracts. And so here you are again, getting reeled in on the same hook, believing that next time will be different.
Enough is enough: I will never vote for a corporate candidate again — national, state, or local — and neither should you.
