A bi-weekly newspaper here in Santa Fe (The New Mexico Sun News) has taken the bold step of announcing on its front page OBAMA WINS!, accompanied by a full color picture of the candidate. Their reasoning was that the paper would not be published again until after the election and by then it would be old news.
Personally, I'm a little superstitious about such bold statements, being old enough to remember Harry Truman holding up the newspaper announcing that Dewey had won. I'll just keep doing what I can to get out the vote here in the "city different" and hoping against hope that the margins hold and we really do get a chance to put this country right again.
But, just in case we prevail in this election, I'm going to be among the first to say that our job will not be over as citizens of the US. If we want to achieve a true democracy in this country, which has been so massively manipulated by right wing and corporate interests, we must pledge ourselves to ongoing critical thinking and fact checking of everything we hear and see, particularly in the corporate media. It will be all too easy to sit back and relax with a job well done, only to be sold down the river again. We must become informed and let our politicians know that we are informed and have opinions about how we want to be governed.
I'd like to believe that the Democrats will be more honest and trustworthy than the pack of criminals who are currently running things, but I know that power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely. I can anticipate that in future years I'll be writing posts that make it look like I'm a Republican, but I consider it my duty to my country to do whatever I can to keep our politicians honest. Perhaps the best strategy in the long run will be to vote to throw the bastards out every eight years. That might keep the absolute power drug in check to some extent.
Perhaps it is time for the two-party system to finally be broken. Other countries have quite workable governments that must always be stitched together out of coalitions. Ron Paul and Ralph Nader, we may need you in the future! It seems strange, as a life-long registered Democrat to be writing this, but it is how I feel. I would welcome comments from my fellow left-wing liberals and even from my right-wing conservative friends.
I'm not so sure that throwing the bastards out every eight years would help. It's only been eight years since Bush started his ruination of the nation and he did a complete job. He's not through yet. Today I posted some other issues he's sneaking through before he slinks out of Washington. I think we need better coverage of what the politicians are doing all the time; not just at election time. And we need a better educated voter.
ReplyDeleteI'm with you, Darlene. BTW, your piece on Bush's attempts to pardon himself should be read by every thinking blog reader.
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