David Swanson
[dropcap]I[/dropcap] just did a radio show in South Africa on the topic of Hillary Clinton. Perhaps they won’t air it since I told them it was a non-story about something long since underway being “launched,” but a story the U.S. media likes because it’s substance-free.
Yet in South Africa it seems to be a story. They really didn’t know she was running until now, and they wanted to know if John McCain was her opponent. And yet they had the sense to ask if she would cause more wars and if there was really any difference between Hillary and the Republicans. If even the places that don’t know she’s running know that, perhaps there is hope for public awareness of basic facts after all.
[dropcap]O[/dropcap]f course I pointed out Hillary Clinton’s role in wars in Yugoslavia, Iraq, Libya, Afghanistan, Syria, Iran, Ukraine, etc., her profiteering off Boeing while marketing Boeing weapons as Secretary of State, her transformation of the State Department into a fully owned subsidiary of the military, her foundations taking money from Chevron and Exxon-Mobil while she persuades Eastern European countries not to ban fracking. Hillary backs Israel’s crimes, opposes the UN and international law. The corruption and nastiness in her hidden emails need hardly be seen to be estimated. She was too corrupt for the Watergate Committee, for godsake, trying to keep Nixon in for Ted Kennedy to run against, just as the Democrats of 2007 kept the war on Iraq going in order to run against it again. See http://WarIsACrime.org/Hillary
These two demands are particularly good, especially for those who want to send a message:
- National popular vote with no electoral college.
- Mandatory voting with an option for “none of the above.”
Hillary backs the NSA, wants Edward Snowden in prison, gets $2,777 per minute for speeches at which no questioning is allowed, lets her guards beat up Ray McGovern for turning his back on her, and is a candidate from a presidential dynasty in a year (next year, not this!) in which two of them are in play. See http://NoBushesOrClintons.org
(Credit: DonkeyHotey, via flickr)
And here is our opportunity. It is time for us to dedicate ourselves to fixing a broken system, not working within it. Don’t try to elect someone in a system that is clearly broken. Joke about it, sure:
Ideally Hillary Clinton will run with Jeb Bush as her vice president & Bush will run with Clinton as his so they’ll both win no matter what.
But don’t try to make use of it. Instead, we need to grab this moment in which two corrupt dynasties are vying for royal powers, to use every nonviolent tool available to work at the local, state, and federal levels for:
- No private election spending.
- Free media air time on our airwaves for candidates qualified by signature gathering.
- Public financing, ballot access, and debate access for candidates qualified by signature gathering.
- No gerrymandering.
- Hand-counted paper ballots publicly counted in every polling place.
- Election day holiday.
- Limited campaign season.
- Automatic voter registration.
- National popular vote with no electoral college.
- Mandatory voting with an option for “none of the above.”
We’re not going to elect our way to free, open, verifiable elections. We’re not going to transform Hillary Clinton into a completely different person by sending her little “I’ll vote for you no matter what but I’d love it if . . . ” notes.
Let’s get serious and make change happen now. The planet cannot wait. And just try looking with open eyes at what it is we’d be waiting for. If it doesn’t put a bad taste in your mouth, check your pulse.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
[box] David Swanson is an author, activist, journalist, and radio host. He is director of WorldBeyondWar.org and campaign coordinator for RootsAction.org. Swanson’s books include War Is A Lie. He blogs at DavidSwanson.org and WarIsACrime.org. He hosts Talk Nation Radio. He is a 2015 Nobel Peace Prize Nominee.
Follow him on Twitter: @davidcnswanson and FaceBook.
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