In progressive circles, the Wisconsin recall effort was said to be the firewall or Democracy in America. Last night, the first and last line of defense against corporate takeover and control of this great country --the voters of Wisconsin--were unable to overcome voting irregularities in Waukesha County (yeah, "that" place - AGAIN), and the recall effort, which polls showed heavily favoring the Democratic Party, failed.
The Wisconsin State Senate stays under Corporate Control, and Democracy's firewall has fallen. The virus that is the corporate domination of our social, economic, and political systems has attacked and infected the heart of our country, and as it stands, no vote can change a thing. We tried that. We failed.
So do we just give up? Not a chance, too much is at risk.
Do we try the same tactics again, regardless of outcome? No, doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results is insanity.
So what the hell
can we do?
There are still two options open by which Americans can still challenge our fate. Two ways to inoculate against the Corporate State, so to speak. The first doesn't have my confidence, but it is the proper and correct path, so I list it. The second, in my opinion, is the only option that will work, but it will be dangerous at worst, and difficult at best.
1. Petition the Justice Department to investigate WaukeshaElections in Waukesha seem to show a tendency toward last minute, highly questionable vote surges, which leave the GOP in power. The Justice Department must investigate this anomaly. Immediately.
But past experience has left me with no illusions that the so called "Justice" Department will lift a damn finger on this issue (that is, unless someone can show that the Republicans in Waukesha were involved in the true unforgivable crime--distribution of medical marijuana...), and since reports this morning are that Dems in Wisconsin are backing away from last evening's claims that the vote totals were tampered with, I can't see option #1 being worth a warm bucket of spit. Still, an attempt must quickly be made, and just as quickly set aside, if required. Which leaves us with Option #2:
2. Take to the streetsWhat does a country do when the people can't trust their employers to pay them an honest wage, can't trust the media to report facts over propaganda, can't trust their elected officials to work in the interests of the average citizen, can't trust the Supreme Court to safeguard rights enumerated in the Constitution, and can't trust that our voting process--the very blood that feeds the heart of our American experiment in self-government--has not been compromised?
We follow the path laid out in the Declaration of Independence.
When in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness
I no longer believe that the Government of the United States derives its just powers from the consent of the governed.
Can a child consent to a binding contract? No, they can not, because the child is not held to have the capacity to make such decisions on their own. So how can a people, endlessly overwhelmed by propaganda, be held to have the capacity to make an informed decision regarding our Government?
They can not.
But even were they able to educate themselves-strike that...even were WE able to educate OURSELVES...to somehow crawl out from beneath the weight of a non-stop barrage of corporate media influence, how can our consent be honestly measured, when the process by which our votes are tabulated is so imminently corruptible?
It cannot be measured with any confidence, and so we are left with one option.
I am not advocating that we replace our Government. I am simply stating that the Government cannot defend its claim that it continues to represent the people. If we take to the streets in protest, we have to address that basic fact, and flaw. We must walkout on this relationship we have with our elected officials until the fairness doctrine is restored, until votes are tabulated in a human process that provides a clear paper trail, and until the Supreme Court decision granting person-hood to Corporations is overturned.
We've got to take to the streets, and we've got to put our lives on the line for what we know to be correct, for all the truths we once held self-evident, and for the benefit of ourselves and our posterity.
The firewall has fallen. Protect yourself now.
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