“Why do they hate us so!”

[dropcap]I[/dropcap]’m running for US congress, because none of the money candidates are saying what really needs to be said: Our government is run by liars, thieves, and mass murderers. That’s both money parties. I’m sickened by how they are honored as distinguished statesmen, rather than exposed as the mafia thugs that they really are. I’m not particularly eager to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with these monsters, so I don’t really want to win this election. I just want to get more people to see what is going on; that’s the first step to changing it.

The plutocrats keep starting war after war after war, all based on lies, none for good reasons. While claiming to do the opposite, the USA has been overthrowing democracies and supporting dictatorships all over the world, to make a few rich men richer. The so-called “Defense” Department is really about aggression, and the so-called “wars” are really one-sided slaughter, because the countries bombed by the USA are too weak to fight back. And if the attack of 9/11/01 was not

a false-flag inside job by the US military-industrial complex, then it was angry blowback for past crimes by the US military-industrial complex.

So in either case, we need to reduce our military (and we don’t need to wait for a consensus about false flag or blowback). The first step in “Making America Great” would be to end its hideous practice of killing other people to take their stuff.

And over half your taxes go to the war profiteer corporations. We should spend that instead on something useful, like healthcare, education, mass transit, etc.

Our veterans can be thanked for bravely offering their lives in what they believed was the defense of our country, but they should not be honored for having believed lies so readily. The national propaganda fooled them into joining the national mafia. And most political candidates display their complicity as though it were something to be proud of.

But I’m proud that I’m NOT a veteran, proud that my only connection with the military has been to protest against it. I never joined, never wore the uniform, because I saw through it before I was of military age. I can’t take credit for that; I simply had the good fortune to meet some wiser people who questioned the propaganda. Perhaps you can be that wiser person for some of the young people around you. Teach them that it’s best to ask questions, particularly before killing people.

Hearing my complaints, some people suggest that I hate my country, and that I should leave. But they’re wrong. I love my country the way you love your brother when you learn he has been stealing cars and you beg him to stop. I love my country the way you love your mother when you learn she has a fatal illness and you search desperately for a cure. Changing the USA is pivotal for healing the world, and we who are here have the greatest chance of doing that, so why should I leave?

But our government is doing other things wrong too.

Global warming is much worse than people realize, because they haven’t understood feedback loops and tipping points. Crops are dying already. If we’re to have any hope of survival, we must halt the feedback loops before civilization collapses, because its collapse will not halt them. But governments are doing far too little. Indeed, instead of banning fossil fuels when the Arctic started melting, our rulers hurriedly agreed which nations could extract which parts of the newly available fossil fuels. The toothless 2015 Paris Treaty was just an agreement on what to wish for.

But war and warming, as well as poverty, racism, sexism, and all our other problems, can be traced to capitalism. Here’s how:

• Money IS influence. Our rulers won’t solve the world’s problems, because doing so wouldn’t make them richer. We’ll only end rule by the wealthy class when we don’t have a wealthy class. That will require a very different economic system.
• If we don’t share, we trade. That increases inequality, by favoring the trader who was already in the stronger bargaining position. Inequality has become enormous, yielding poverty and plutocracy.
• Power corrupts: Bosses bully workers, guards torture prisoners, police shoot the poor, etc. And so we must end concentrated power. That requires replacing the market with sharing, and replacing so-called “representative” government and other hierarchies with horizontal networking.
• The market is not wise or efficient, for its transactions have enormous externalized costs — that is, side effects such as war, poverty, and ecocide, borne not by buyer or seller, but by unconsulted third parties.
• Property separates and alienates us from each other. Competition kills empathy, making racists, sexists, and other kinds of bullies. The homeless guy holding a sign on the street corner reminds us that no one cares about him, or about anyone else. That’s why some loner shoots up a school every few days.

But people are happier and more productive in community and cooperation, and we don’t shoot our friends. Why can’t we all be friends? The cure for our ills is a culture of caring and sharing that leaves no one behind, so no one wants to hurt others. “Sure, personally I’m in favor of that, but most people will never go along with that” is, ironically, what most people say. The first step toward change is to get more people talking about it.

About my campaign: I’m running for congress, but not in the conventional fashion. I might print up some leaflets, but I probably won’t knock on doors or raise money or a staff. I still might win if my message “goes viral,” but that’s not likely and not my main goal. Still, putting my name on the ballot will get more people to read my message, and that is my main goal. So if you like this essay, please send the link to your friends. If you like it a lot, start a similar campaign of your own in your congressional district!

2018 Sept 11, version 2.20. The leaflet fits on two sides of an 8.5×11 page.