It isn’t really a quandary at all.
This is written as a response to the upcoming
US-election, but is valid in all countries, a text four years in the making.
Stay with me, I will do it step by step.
The only somewhat valid argument to vote for
Obama and the Democratic Party is if you see them as a lesser of two evils, and
see the Republican Party as a vast evil that must be vanquished, as illustrated
by this quote from Paul Krugman:
«The Democrats may not be the party of your
dreams, but Republicans are certainly the party of your nightmares».
And he has a point. It is a very astute and
not completely wrong reflection of the false quandary that one…
I would say he is basically correct, in a
limited way. The Democrats are bad, true, but they aren’t insane, aren’t a
bunch of intolerant, ignorant assholes and zealots bent on making modern
society even worse, even more horrible than it already is.
But Krugman’s quote, seen in a larger,
necessary context is certainly inherently wrong, based on one of the worst
off-track assumptions alive today: namely that there are no alternatives.
I have followed Obama from he declared his
candidacy over four years ago and to this day. There was a certain freshness to
him at first, or there seemed to be. His focus on change, even radical change
certainly appealed to me, in spite of my grave misgivings about the entire
political process as it is practiced today. When I heard him speak about change
I interpreted that as far more than a mere rejection of the Bush years. Boy,
was I wrong.
His rhetoric was pretty common, the
«greatness of America»
and such shit, and the usual war drums. But I figured he had to speak like that
to not distance himself from mainstream voters. He sounded honest, or at least
like a liberal/progressive that truly meant what he said and wanted to go a
step beyond the usual liberal trappings.
I, a long time non-voter and green anarchist
was at least partly fooled. This guy is slick and thereby twice dangerous to any
true freedom-hungry human being. What he revealed himself to be after he became
president was a typical mainstream neo-liberal, AIPAC-shill and almost moderate
republican. He didn’t close Guantanamo, he keep repeating that he is a friend
of Israel, he and the Democratic Party has voted for, kept, even instigated
even more oppressive laws (NDAA, Patriot Act, and far more), the gap between
rich and poor continues to widen, the US world-wide aggression, military and
otherwise continues unabated. If the few things he has done that is fairly right
is sufficient to satisfy those who are still his supporters, they don’t demand
much. Anyone explaining away his actions or lack or thereof as a result of
lacking support in Congress is closing their eyes to the evidence. Obama has
(like Mitt Romney) ties to Monsanto, to Wall Street and has done little or
nothing with the grave environmental destruction ravaging our world and all
life on the planet. His administration has, in an attempt to silence the Occupy
movement orchestrated an increase in police brutality across the nation to pale
that of any other area. And so on. He isn’t even remotely close to fulfill his
promise of true change, and that was never the intention either. If you believe
that I have a piece of real estate in the desert (without oil) to sell you.
He has, at least temporarily made the word
«change» a fake word, just like he, himself is fake.
And any president or elected leader of a
given country is just a janitor, an administrator without true power taking
orders from those truly in charge anyway.
It is a good thing, a step in the right
direction that there has been a black president (or one with one white and one
black parent). The «critique» (harassment) from the political right is
certainly based on the fact that racism is pretty much enshrined in United States’
society.
But ultimately none of that matters, because
the deeds of the man are what’s wrong and lacking, no matter the color of his
skin.
I don’t need to bore you with the details. They
are obvious and undeniable. In a sane world Mitt Romney wouldn't have been a
contender at all and Obama would have been without changes of winning.
So, we’re back at the start: The Republican
Party is an insane and eager force of support for the forces of tyranny ruling
the United States
and the world, the Democratic Party slightly less so. What to do?
As stated, some people make a case of support
for the lesser evil, for allowing the Democratic Party to exist and keep
fucking up life even more because the Republican Party, if given free reign
will go totally off the bend and ruin even more of what is still good about
this world, and that motion isn't totally without merit.
But ultimately flawed. At best it is passive
voting/«action», acting against something, instead of in favor of something. At
worst it is far worse. One can argue that the Republican Party is so bad that
they must be stopped and marginalized (and they are and they must be), but one
can make that case at every election. And people have, and so effective has
that argument been that it has stopped any true debate of how to proceed, how
to make humanity’s future. It’s a scare tactic, to be blunt, one basically made
and supported by those in charge, by the forces behind both major parties, in order to
quell true resistance and action, to strangle it in its inception.
So, what are the alternatives? Certainly not
Ron Paul and the libertarians. They are capitalists, accepting wealthy people
and the market, and thereby the existence of powerful people exerting their
undue influence over others. There is far more I could say about them, but
again: their flaws are obvious. They don’t truly want to change society in
dramatic ways either, and the changes they do want to make are mostly for the worse.
The Green Party is pointing to itself,
really, for many reasons, most of them obvious. It, by its very nature and
conception is critical to the forces of industry ruining this world. Its
members have a different focus, inevitably. The slogan «people before profit
and property» sits well with them.
Yes, I know, by my study of local state
legislation and election rules that new and small parties have an even slimmer
change of succeeding. Both the Repubs and the Dems have seen to that, in
perfect union. But the struggle has to start at some point and we are all
overdue for that to happen and for it to take off like a rocket. It should have
happened at a distant yesterday.
But as stated: I don’t believe in democracy.
I am convinced it is the slickest tyranny in history because it gives people
the illusion of participation, of being a part of the decision-making.
Selecting new and even presumably good people and groups of people for
government is ultimately useless without also changing the fundamental
structures of society. No matter who wins the election and becomes president
and majority party in the United States in November the empire will prevail,
and before Jill Stein and the Green Party, or anyone is big enough to make the
necessary sweeping changes they, too will be corrupted by the system, like
Obama and countless other idealists and initial agents of change have been. I
have written
in detail about how that can befall even the strongest person, how
he or she slowly becomes as bad as people they decades ago despised.
So, the Green Party and others may work as an
intermediary force towards a more enlightened society, but it isn't very
likely, also when considering other green party’s history in other countries.
If you absolutely feel compelled to vote, vote Green, but don’t be content with
leaving it to them. Take part in the Change, be ready to move beyond them the
moment you catch up with them, and leave the baggage of the past, the horrors
of nationalism, religion, bias, conservatism, the market, ignorance and
intolerance on the garbage heap where it belongs.
United States is shit, like any
other country in the world. If United
States and every other state and power
structure on the face of the Earth vanish like smoke, it is a very good thing.
Many claim that you give your voice away by
not voting, but I say it’s the other way around. Voting is apathy.
Almost everything that has happened and been
«discussed» during this campaign (like during virtually all campaigns) is more
or less totally meaningless and irrelevant compared to humanity’s dire
circumstances.
Obama did fool me, not in the sense that I
ever believed he was the right man, but by softening my resistance to tyranny’s
propaganda, but fortunately even my minor delusion was only temporary. When people make excuses for the current
janitor it reminds me very much of clever bookkeeping.
What should happen is that people form truly
autonomous communities all over the world, where they reject both central and
local government and the market and all power structures anywhere and keep
fighting back no matter how hard the forces ruling the world lean on them. That is the right
way to go, a major first step towards a society with true freedom and equality,
one where people can live and thrive and not be the puppets of anyone, one
where people, by necessity and desire wouldn't destroy the foundation for their
own survival and happiness.
