This Is Why…This Is Why…This Is Why I’m Not So Hot for Elections…

The reason is very simple. It’s because nothing will change. Oh yeah, sure, the result of the 2012 Presidential election could be that Obama could be ousted and a whole slew of awful policies will be put in place. Policies that will increase the gross inequality in our economic and social systems to favor the economic and political elite at the expense of everyone else. And don’t get me wrong, this would be terrible and I’ll rail against them if they come to pass.

My larger point though is about the real, substantive change that our country, at the very least, needs so desperately. The kind of change that shifts the status quo, but at the foundational level. Change that brings about real justice for all. Change that requires a different kind of economic system, because capitalism is anything but just. Change that will institute real democracy, because what we have now can’t really be classified as democracy. Change that will recognize that we live on a finite planet, and that the best way for us to sustain ourselves and the planet is to get smaller, not bigger in almost every respect.

Changes like these will not occur through a Presidential election. Yes, things do change when a new President comes into power, but that change is superficial at best. It’s the reason why many leftists who supported Obama in 2008 are dissatisfied with him on a number of different fronts. The change he has instituted while in office is not the kind of change these supporters are clamoring for. For instance, despite all of his supposed reforms and initiatives, our economic system has not changed, in fact, some say it has only gotten worse for the 99% while the 1% live higher on the hog than they ever have before. Health care reform has some positive measures associated with it, but it is a far cry from the calls to decouple health care from the pursuit of profit that many leftists have been fighting for years to achieve. And Obama’s foreign policy has in some cases been more hawkish than former President Bush’s (see the recent controversy surrounding the National Defense Authorization Act to see how). And what’s more, none of this should come as a surprise.

Now, if you are one of those leftists who is legitimately surprised about how dissappointing Obama has been on the issues you care most about, I need only refer you to the late and great George Carlin, who said in his spot-on satire of American society, “elections provide you with the illusion of choice.” Elections are about choosing which person appeals to you more, they are not about choosing between diametrically opposed ideologies. The ideologies of the Democratic and Republican parties are the same in the areas where differences should matter the most. When it comes to the fundamental challenges our society faces, like capitalism, consumerism, militarism, imperialism, etc., the parties are beholden to a very different master than the American people. The economic and political elitist class are their masters, because they are the ones that control their fate within our political system. They are the ones that have all the money, because many of them belong to the corporations that have benefitted so greatly from the massive inequality that they have brought about. And because they have all the money, they wield all of the power because our political system is one that affords wealth a greater voice in our discourse than actual human voices. The truth is that we have a system that nurtures egoism and selfishness, instead of empathy. And because we have this kind of political and economic system at the foundation of our society, and because elections are a product of this system, it therefore naturally follows that elections will not change the system in which it is a product of. The system will fight to preserve itself, and the way in which it will strive to do so is to validate its existence in the minds of the public. What better way to validate its own existence by giving people supposed “power” within that system, even though it was essentially rigged from the outset.

In order to illustrate how people have been brainwashed to believe in the power of elections, let me describe a conversation I had with my family during this past Thanksgiving. I had been visiting my girlfriends’ family and friends during the day and had an early Thanksgiving dinner. Some of my extended family only lived about 15 minutes away from her family’s so we decided to head over there for our second Thanksgiving dinner of the day. After all of the delicious food was inhaled and we took a second to exhale, the conversations started up, and with my family, it was only a matter of time until it turned political. I’ll spare you from most of the conversation, except to say that it eventually boiled down to this fundamental difference of opinion. I was saying that elections won’t matter because what the problem is is the system that everyone works on top of. However, my one uncle was saying that he feels we just need to elect new and better people into office to change things. This argument is not new, and I’ve heard both leftists and rightists and people in the middle of the political spectrum all say it. And I especially heard it in 2008. And I am especially hearing it from Republicans and Tea Partiers this election cycle.

Now, with it being 2012 and the Presidential election only 10 months away, what do you wanna bet that you’re gonna hear this argument be made over and over and over again? I’d bet quite a lot!

What do you also wanna bet that after all is said and done, and 2016 rolls around, the same damn argument is going to be spouted again and again? I’d bet everything I own, and even the value of the most expensive things on my Christmas wish list that year, and then say, “I told you so…now here we go again.”