The goofballs are out in force, pretending to have an election and acting as if it mattered. Yippity yip yap zippity zap! Which gang of criminals gets to wreck the country, next four years?

“The difference between a democracy and a dictatorship is that in a democracy you vote first and take orders later; in a dictatorship you don't have to waste your time voting.”
--Charles Bukowski

1968: The Youth International Party carried the hippies’ love and peace nonsense into federal politics, nominating a live pig for president (“Pigasus the Immortal”) down the street from the Democratic National Convention. Soon cops were conkin’ hippie noggins and baptizing them in tear gas. I was ten and it was on TV. So much for the right to peaceably assemble. Dan Rather and Mike Wallace were roughed up, as was Hunter Thompson:

“What I learned, in Chicago, was that the police arm of the United States government was capable of hiring vengeful thugs to break the very rules we all thought we were operating under.”
from Kingdom of Fear p. 82

Knowing that even a mild threat to the established order will be met with state-approved violence leaves us with this “voting” charade.

“If voting could change the system, it wouldn’t be legal”
—bumper sticker on my old old truck.

I vote anyhow, to protest however feebly. First time, 1976, I wrote-in Frank Zappa. After that always “third party,” Angela Davis on the Commie ticket in 1980 and ‘84, a hero.

At a Rainbow Family gathering, I shook the hand of a presidential candidate named Love 22 at a “pot-luck” dinner. Tried to vote for him in Indiana, where no write-in votes were allowed. Dictatorship: vote for whomever you want as long as they’re on the ballot. (He's running again this year! The only clown candidate who doesn’t pretend otherwise.)

I quit voting for a few rounds, it was so obviously pointless. Later, Ralph Nader whenever he ran. Most recently, 2008, Cynthia McKinney, Green Party, still a protest vote. As a Georgia Representative she had openly opposed war in Iraq and was destroyed politically since no dissent is allowed. But she refuses to sit down and shut up. Another hero. Great recent interview here.

So, 2012?

“We’re dealing with a real sick, decaying Democratic Party that can’t defend the country against the cruelest, most ignorant, most anti-worker, most war-mongering, most Wall Street–indentured Republican Party in its history, since the 1850s.” --Ralph Nader, last month.

My wife insists that by voting for a third party, I am wasting my vote on a guaranteed loser. But the lesser of two evils is still a vote for evil, also wasted. My vote says “I reject your lying script.” A vote for the big two parties is a goofy “Maybe this time’ll be different.”

My son insists my “protest” vote is mocked by the Owners: “Ha-ha, look how many dumb hippies are still around,” or something. His tactic is to not vote, since nothing will change, and I can’t argue. The U.S. has stumbled mostly downhill all my life no matter who was elected. Real political issues are complex; most humanity is too busy, apathetic, lazy, and/or stupid. Politicians scarcely bother to pretend they aren’t whores for the rich anymore.

“One has to be a lowbrow, a bit of a murderer, to be a politician, ready and willing to see people sacrificed, slaughtered, for the sake of an idea, whether a good one or bad one.” --Henry Miller

Business has always ruled hand in hand with government. Now we have the Interzone, with undeniable updated details of their non-theoretical conspiring. They fixed that by fooling the pre-Google crowd (who vote), and merging into the best government money can buy.

The new electronic voting machines are easily hacked and manipulated (see “How to Rig an Election” by Victoria Collier in the November Harper’s.) Now it no longer matters whether we know, care, or vote, they’ll do as they damn well please.

Third parties are the only real option, I say. We may not win, but at some point, if enough of us defect, the Owners will have to pay attention. Or at least increase their propaganda budget.

My protest vote this season: Stein/Honkala 2012

Also, always on the ballot, plenty of local stuff that might matter if you take the time to figure out who’s lying least.

%$#@!

Some Cheap Ass-Toot Political Yammering:

Difference between the two ruling parties:

Republicans honestly say they plan to kick poor people in the teeth and lick the boots of the rich.

Democrats pretend to want to help poor people, to get elected. Then start kickin’ and lickin’.

Our two-party system is like two horses pulling the carriage of the Owners. Sometimes veering a little left, sometimes right, never leaving the highway to hell. Every child left behind but their own, “devil take the hindmost.”

[Regarding the following: hate is too strong a word. No one is important enough to bother hating, it’s too much like work. Besides, the Prez is mostly just a figurehead for the Owners. So I mean “hate” in the rhetorical, cheap inflammatory TV sound-bite way. And in love, agape not eros, right?]:

If you hated Bush and hate Obama, I understand. Tools of the Owners.

If you hated Bush and love Obama, you are probably admiring the person, his stated principles, and what he represents, not his policies.

If you loved Bush and hate Obama, you probably still have a racist nugget in you somewhere.

If you loved Bush and love Obama, you probably work for a bank, insurance company, or defense contractor.

%$#@!

The only good news is that the fate of the world is always in our hands anyhow. It’s easy: Stop driving, quit wasting, don’t buy any dumb stuff, grow your own food, blah blah blah. Non-violent non-participation in anything. Be kind and generous to everyone, that really "freaks people out" and "blows their minds." Also, the actual democracy of the Interzone makes the Owners very nervous.