But what makes you think that a 3-party or 4-, 5-, 6-, or 7-party system would be any better than a 2-party system? Political parties are just like any other corporations. Their primary concern is their bottom link and market share. All parties want to be as profitable as possible and control as much of the market (the electorate) as they possibly can. By their very nature, they cannot represent us because they have to represent themselves. They are for sale to the highest bidder. I believe that we need a direct or participatory democracy rather than a representative form of government. When this country was founded it had a relatively small citizenry and elected members of Congress were able to remain in touch with and represent their constituents. Nowadays it would be impossible, because each representative has a constituency much larger than they can ever meet with, no less spend time listening to. Once we have honest, open elections, a participatory democracy is possible. Everyone would vote on everything at the local level, and elections that involved all registered voters would be no more difficult than choosing an American Idol. We wouldn't have to put up with representatives who vote on legislation they haven't had time to read. In the meantime, the only way we can show our displeasure with the entrenched party system and our incompetent disgrace of a government is to vote for third-party or independent candidates who represent our values. If we want peace, we have to vote for candidates who also want peace. If we want to impeach Bush/Cheney and gang, we have to vote for candidates who want to do the same. We have to stop voting party tickets and start voting for individuals who have the courage of their convictions and whose convictions agree with our own. The people who voted to establish our Constitution weren't elected. They were just people. They had just fought a revolution against tyranny and corporatism (the Boston Tea Party was about the same kind of taxation without representation we are beset with today), and they got together and voted to establish our Constitution. Nobody gave them the right to vote, it was an inalienable right they had fought to defend. We do not need to fight another revolution. We simply need to get rid of the political parties that do not and cannot represent us, insist on honest, open elections, and vote to install a more direct form of government. We the People are the only ones with the right to delegate authority to a government, and we have the concurrent responsibility to revoke that authority whenever a government does not function as a government of, by, and for the people. Our government has no power except for what we give it, and when they abuse it, it is our responsibility to take it away from them. The reason there is no mention of political parties in the Constitution is that they didn't exist when it was written. Individual representatives were supposed to be elected by citizens who knew and respected them, not selected by party leaders, promoted by multi-million-dollar TV campaigns, and "elected" by rigged voting machines. Throw da bums out!

by Mark E. Smith (21 articles, 30 quicklinks, 100 diaries, 1325 comments) on Thursday, Oct 5, 2006 at 5:22:08 PM

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We must not let our negative views of the current two major parties remove all optimism about better political parties that are not subservient to corporate and other special interests, but rather are solidly working on behalf of the public interest. I totally agree that our current representative democracy is unbalanced and that's why I advocate a number of changes that would add strong participatory and direct democracy elements to what we have now. We need to get down to a host of specific changes and corrections; I present these in detail in my book Delusional Democracy. Periodic constitutional conventions, for example, at the state level could involve large numbers of citizens. How many states do you think require these? What group do you think controls televised presidential debates and keeps out third party candidates? How many states allow citizen-driven ballot initiatives and measures to make laws? I was a professional policy analyst for many years, and what disturbs me about all the angry, passionate people bitching on Internet sites is both a lack of emphasis on positive solutions and a lack of interest in details for government and policy reforms.

by Joel S. Hirschhorn (141 articles, 50 quicklinks, 65 diaries, 546 comments [2 recommended, 0 rejected]) on Thursday, Oct 5, 2006 at 5:43:18 PM

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Come to the Rescue, Except Its Citizens I agree with you that we all need a plan of action and just as importantly, a means of organizing. However, I think what many of us are feeling is this complete and URGENT *terror* with respect to what our selected misrepresentatives are doing. For me it's that I could easily wake up in a Halliburton detention center tomorrow morning, that the lies and lawbreaking and deceit and dictatorial powers have so completely wound themselves like nooses around our necks, that we need to grind things to a halt IMMEDIATELY. Clearly the system needs a complete overhaul, but this regime needs to go before we all get renditioned by our own, or blown to bits by a world that hates us, not only as an amorphous whole as they have for decades, but now individually as we fail to act and continue to allow the swaggering simian to espouse spreading democracy while creating a dictatorship at home. So, for the purely personal reasons of having a strong aversion to incarceration and torture, I see a two pronged process - one of getting rid of the lawbreaking liars currently in office, and then fixing this heartbreakingly broken American experiment. Personally, I would like to welcome everyone on board that posts a dissenting piece, and organize them to get together and generate a plan. In fact, I will volunteer to compile contact information for all willing Insurgents For Democracy in order to begin this process of ORGANIZING, PLANNING, AND ACTING.

by Susan Guest (3 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 91 comments [1 recommended, 0 rejected]) on Thursday, Oct 5, 2006 at 5:35:38 PM

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Yes!!! We definitely need some way of gathering up all the passion that we dissidents have and channeling it in a positive way. But clearly this is easier said than done. There are so many organizations out there claiming to be doing something to fix our system. Many advocate one single reform, when what we urgently need is a number of reforms that collectively could truly improve our system. No group has yet emerged to do what I believe is now our most powerful strategy: to use our DOLLARS, our discretionary spending as a political weapon - a buycott. I know that 5 to 10 million Americans could use their discretionary spending like a faucet, turning it off until a specific action is obtained, then back on, then off again to obtain another political or economic concession from the power and economic elites that run the plutocracy. Want to get us out of Iraq? Sharply curb spending and I guarantee you that the elites would go nuts, and within 4 to 6 weeks we would see a decision to withdraw from Iraq. Our culture, society and government no longer can be shaped by voting - at least in the short term. For faster action, only our dollars that control 70 percent of the economy can produce fast results....

by Joel S. Hirschhorn (141 articles, 50 quicklinks, 65 diaries, 546 comments [2 recommended, 0 rejected]) on Thursday, Oct 5, 2006 at 6:41:23 PM

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I am in the final stages of leaving the trackable economic system (paying only cash, never using discount cards, paying off and cancelling credit cards, having enough cash on hand for enough money orders to pay bills for a defined period of time, wearing a visor at stores with video cameras (just kidding on the last one!!! so far. etc.) and what do you think happened this week? I received notices from my banks that 'holds' had been placed on my accounts. Some they found, some they didn't, some were supposed to be closed. Everything frozen. As a former banker, I know what I'm doing. But apparently, you can check out, but never leave. This came after three phone calls from the 'US Government' in Virginia with no messages and an untraceble (duh) number. We shall see what comes of that. I expect 3AM awakenings and renditions. Can we all get together soon? Susan

by Susan Guest (3 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 91 comments [1 recommended, 0 rejected]) on Thursday, Oct 5, 2006 at 7:01:03 PM

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how do you expect to be taken seriously?

by ardee D. (6 articles, 4 quicklinks, 1 diaries, 2377 comments) on Friday, Oct 6, 2006 at 7:10:44 AM

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Do you really wanna go there. Are you willing to be the Spelling Nazi for EVERY post here? Because I suspect you only apply that "power" against those you disagree with. Ardee showing bias Me typing while tired Does he want you to choose?

by Vulture (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 150 comments) on Friday, Oct 6, 2006 at 8:38:28 AM

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You are a one person crusade for mediocrity and incompetence. Almost every one of your abysmal diatribes is filled with grammatical error, are you tired all the time? You do share a trait with Georgie, neither of you cares a fig for truth or is capable of admitting error.

by ardee D. (6 articles, 4 quicklinks, 1 diaries, 2377 comments) on Friday, Oct 6, 2006 at 6:25:52 PM

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We have a strategy, which Joel outlined clearly. We have a goal--getting at least 5 million people to sign on. Susan has volunteered to compile the mailing list. My email is mymark@gmail.com Since I don't open mail unless I know who it is from, we need to decide on the name. How about AID/AID: Americans Insurgents for Democracy/Action In Dollars. Actually, I'm not sure about "insurgents." That might turn people off. How about Americans Improving Democracy? (Improvising might be more apt!) A "welcome aboard" letter to go out to everyone joining, would lay out the strategy in Joel's comment and state that everyone will be notified of each action. We should not begin any actions until we have enough people signed up to ensure that we make an impact. We should announce the formation of the group to all the political and activist groups that we can think of, and ask everyone to pass on the information. Insist that we have no paid staff and will ask for no donations. Since everything will be done by email, if you know somebody who does not have email access, sign them up under your name and undertake to notify them in phone or in person when actions occur. So in signing up, each person should state how many members are signing up under their email address. That makes me two people, as I have a friend who would definitely be interested but does not have access to email. We need a little intro that we can post here and to other blogs and websites and email to friends and groups. Now comes the hard part. If we fail, there's no problem. But if we succeed, how do we maintain an email list of 5 to 10 million members without it costing a fortune? I think gmail has huge amounts of storage and they're free, but we might have to divide up the list into segments so that nobody overflows their storage space. Cross that bridge if and when we come to it. AID/AID will not incorporate, will own no property, and control no assets. We can have a free weblog for information and discussions. The three of us can start out as co-admins and add others as trustworthy people volunteer. Once we get rolling, we can post a weekly update right here on opednews as a diary. Have I missed anything or are we all set to go?

by Mark E. Smith (21 articles, 30 quicklinks, 100 diaries, 1325 comments) on Thursday, Oct 5, 2006 at 8:11:03 PM

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American Action In Dollars? Is there any problem with copyright infringement? There is a huge organization called AID. If so, we need a totally different name. Buying Back Our Government? CPR -- the Change Purse Rebellion? Can we brainstorm this a little?

by Mark E. Smith (21 articles, 30 quicklinks, 100 diaries, 1325 comments) on Thursday, Oct 5, 2006 at 8:18:07 PM

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Obviously we have to be nonpartisan and nonhierarchical. We need to demonstrate the direct democracy we want, so we'll need some sort of modified concensus process. For example, if our first action will be to end the war, we'd need to send out an email and ask anyone who disagreed to state their objections. If say, less than 5% disagree, we go ahead. If more than 5% disagree we try to address their concerns until we reach concensus. If we can't reach concensus, we alter the aim until we can. Next problem. How do we stop the government from using their computers to create thousands of false email addresses they can use to block concensus? We need people who can trace IPs and we need to ban those that come from web services which provide untraceable IPs. We need multiple copies of the mailing list so that the government can't seize them. People do have to know that they can be traced by the government, but they probably already are if they belong to any groups that agree with us. The last thing that the government is going to do is come right out and tell us that they will control how we do or don't spend our money. So what else am I missing?

by Mark E. Smith (21 articles, 30 quicklinks, 100 diaries, 1325 comments) on Thursday, Oct 5, 2006 at 8:36:35 PM

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I just read your injunction to begin a 2d American Revolution, and I agree with your analysis, and agree about the direction the country needs to move in. But where does that leave me? As an individual with limited resources, with some time, some ability, some connections, what can I do to advance our agenda? This is a question I have thought a great deal about. I am committed to nonviolence, and that defines some boundaries. I think we need guerilla tactics to get media attention. I think that judicious use of the connections I do have in Congress and in the press will be crucial. But I'm sure you agree these are no ordinary times, and we will not achieve our goals by 1) getting out the vote 2) writing to our congressmen, or 3) marching in the streets I am interested to hear what you are doing to get us from here to there. For my part, my political energies are occupied in organizing an independent exit poll and data collection project, to either validate the integrity of the coming election (in one congressional district where we will focus) or else to garner multi-faceted, bulletproof evidence of election theft. -Josh Mitteldorf http://electionintegrity.org

by Josh Mitteldorf (27 articles, 82 quicklinks, 5 diaries, 73 comments [39 recommended, 0 rejected]) on Thursday, Oct 5, 2006 at 9:35:58 PM

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I too am involved with election integrity work. An economic revolution doesn't consist of a few wealthy people. It consists of millions of people who aren't wealthy. I have a diary somewhere on opednews called Turning War Bucks Into Peace Pennies. No matter how limited your resources are, you can take part in a boycott. If you have a limited amount of money to spend on food, for example, and you know that a general boycott is planned for the following week, you can purchase your groceries ahead of time. The amount you buy will still be the same, but if millions of people don't buy anything during the boycott, our purchasing power becomes evident. Can you help us brainstorm this? I think we have a huge advantage in that we will probably be the only organization in the country that doesn't ask people for money or ask them to buy anything. Joel is correct. We control 70% of the economy. If millions of us decide to make most of our necessary purchases before and after but not during a boycott, and not to do any discretionary spending whatsoever during the boycott, the consumer confidence index will be the biggest vote of "no confidence" this government has ever seen. How do you understand this strategy? Can you write it up in a way that would appeal to people across the political spectrum who are fed up with government by incompetence? Can you spot any flaws or obstacles? How about helping brainstorm a name? I think we're all agreed that we need free and fair elections. But the chances of getting them are slim until and unless we replace this government with one in which we the people have more of a voice. And actions, particularly economic actions, speak louder than words. Our mission is to take back this country and restore power to the people by using the only real power we have, our purchasing power. In addition to agreeing to participate in mass boycotts, each individual is more than welcome to contribute whatever skills they have. Since nobody gets paid, it has to be a labor of love. We have: A workable strategy. Someone willing to handle the mailing list, at least until it gets too large for one person to handle. We need: To decide on a name. To write some explanatory introductory material like a mission statement. A lot of folks who think this is a good idea and are willing and able to tell other folks about it. And lots of brilliant minds to iron out all the details. Congratulations! You are now the fourth founding member of of the 2nd American Revolution, and your mission, should you choose to accept it, is whatever you decide it is. Ain't freedom grand?

by Mark E. Smith (21 articles, 30 quicklinks, 100 diaries, 1325 comments) on Thursday, Oct 5, 2006 at 11:54:11 PM

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According to a recent poll commissioned by election integrity attorney Paul Lehto, an extraordinary 92% of Americans believe we have a right to observe vote counting and obtain information about it. click here I don't think this large a percentage of Americans has ever agree on anything before, so I think this should be the basis for our first action. It should be right after the election, when anger is greatest. Because we do not have the right that 92% of us think we have. We are not allowed to observe the vote count and to obtain information about it. Unfortunately only 61% of us are aware of election integrity issues. This percentage should increase with the November election. I think that third parties would be happy to publicize an action like this, but the duopoly and the MSM would not. So we have to rely on election integrity activists and their contacts to spread the word. The blogosphere and the alternative media would help. But five to ten million people still seems like a daunting figure to me. Susan has to have a very simple email address that so that people can just remember it without writing it down. AID (at) gmail.com or CPR (at) gmail.com or whatever. Nothing more than subject line: Sign me up! gets you added to the mailing list. Just opening emails to add the sender to a group list five million times sounds impossible to me. So we'd have to find a way to split up the list. While I'm sure that all the election integrity activists would be on board, I doubt if the peace groups would. There's no money in it for them. But who knows? They might actually have some people who really care about peace and could shame them into it. The Progressive Democrats would be on board and are sometimes successful in shaming the national Democrats to do the right thing. If Democrats win a lot of Congressional seats, a lot of Republicans will probably be screaming that the elections were stolen also. Which they will be, of course, but there's no telling what the powers that be want to do, whether they want the Republicans to stay in charge, or they want to get the heat off the Republicans and put some Democratic shills up front. So we have to decide on a name, get some easy-to-remember email addresses, put out a mission statement as a "press release" to the blogosphere and the alternative media, plus all the groups that are not just in it for the money, and set the dates for a general boycott action. I think that one day isn't enough to have an impact and a week would be a hardship for many, so perhaps three days might be both practical and effective. We have to keep in mind that we're not asking anyone for anything. We're telling our public servants and our representatives what they must do. We're in charge, we give the orders, and they either obey or we repeat the action until they do. After 9/11 the first concern Bush had was the consumer confidence index. He told us that what we should do is go shopping. So if we stop shopping, we become the deciders, not him. We should do this on the honor system, I guess. All we should ask of anyone is their email address so that we can keep them up to date and ask their concensus on future actions. But we still need to be able to distinguish between real addys and fakes so we don't get fooled by a scheme that sneaks in a million addys that all belong to the government or to the duopoly and could block concensus. 92% may think we have the right to open, honest elections, but only 61% are aware of the problems, and probably fewer than that understand that we do not have open, honest elections. That still gives us 5 or 10 million easy, if we can reach them. I'm low income, so I only spend about $10 a day. If most people were like me, that wouldn't be much of an impact, just $150 million over three days. But I suspect that most people spend a lot more than I do. We should figure out what the minimum is that we need to be effective.

by Mark E. Smith (21 articles, 30 quicklinks, 100 diaries, 1325 comments) on Friday, Oct 6, 2006 at 6:00:13 AM

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When Bill Kristol went on national TV and said that he believed that there would be a Democratic sweep in November and that he thought it would be the best thing that could happen for the Republicans, I took it to mean that if the Republicans rigged the elections to let the Democrats win, it would restore enough voter confidence to let the Republicans take back Congress along with the Presidency in '08. So it is likely that the Democrats will "win" and will do everything in their power to squelch any talk of rigged elections. Better off starting with the war, because even with a huge Democratic majority, they're not going to end the war. I think most people are against the war right now, and while the Republicans are pro-war, they are losing popularity, while the Democrats can't come right out and admit that they're pro-war. They have to waffle a lot and say that they're against the war, but not right now, kiddies, talk to me about it later. Could the peace groups find a way to oppose us without admitting that they're pro-war? Maybe they could spread a rumor that the boycott was AIPAC inspired? I know they won't help, because if the war ends, they're out of business and won't make any more money. Or impeaching Bush/Cheney, since the Democraps won't do that either. About the only thing you can count on them to do is sexually harass somewhat fewer male and somewhat more female pages than the Republicrooks do. What a messed up world.....

by Mark E. Smith (21 articles, 30 quicklinks, 100 diaries, 1325 comments) on Friday, Oct 6, 2006 at 6:22:05 AM

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The most revolutionary minded of all the founding fathers was the radical writer, Tom Paine. With flaming hopes, a vision of a new world and compelled by the spirit and determination of its people to resist British occupation, Paine devoted himself to the American cause. He began with a forty page pamphlet, "Common Sense" which emboldened the settlers to become compatriots and rise up in rebellion. His words formed a nation where democracy is still being defined. "Soon after I had published the pamphlet "Common Sense" [on Feb. 14, 1776] in America, I saw the exceeding probability that a revolution in the system of government would be followed by a revolution in the system of religion... The world is my country, all mankind are my brethren, and to do good is my religion."-Tom Paine DISSENT is what keeps democracies healthy FEAR is used by totalitarian regimes to control the people Unless we WAKE UP and ALL of us DO SOMETHING: Such as actually run for office ourself or Monitor closely and call/hound our Representatives we are just a part of the problem, and NOT the solution. "We have seen the enemy and he is US."-Pogo We have the Internet to connect us and our consciences to guide us. In Solidarity, "We have it in our power to begin the world again."-Tom Paine e http://www.wearewideawake.org

by Eileen Fleming (172 articles, 101 quicklinks, 274 diaries, 650 comments [16 recommended, 0 rejected]) on Friday, Oct 6, 2006 at 7:59:14 AM

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doesn't seem to work very well. For one thing we have rigged elections, for another the lower house doesn't have much power in the scheme of things and newbies to it have even less. And you have to have a fortune to run for the House of Lords (Senate). Plus the Republicrooks have a lock on Congress. Good legislation doesn't get out of committee or is never allowed to come to a vote, while bad legislation gets pushed through quickly. And, of course, the big money, though lobbyists and campaign donations, controls and often writes the legislation. So we have to do something more effective, like a general boycott. It has to be a boycott, because people can't afford to leave school and work all the time to protest. And even when they do, in the millions, as with immigrant rights, it doesn't accomplish anything. Joel is right. We control 70% of the economy. We just have to be able to organize general boycotts involving at least 5 to 10 million people. We all stop buying stuff for three days, the multinational corporations tell BushCo to do whatever the hell we want to get that money flowing again. They need us. We've been ineffective in opposing the war because at the same time we're opposing it, we're continuing to pay for it. We've been ineffective in opposing hackable voting machines because our "representatives" took our tax money and paid for them. But they never asked us first. What we have to do if we want change is simply refuse to pay for what we don't want. I'm not advocating a tax revolt because it isn't necessary. I'm not sure how effective we can be, but I think there is probably more we can do than we have considered. If 5 to 10 million of us don't shop at supermarkets for 3 days, they'll know it. I think most people with cars can fill up and go for three days without gas. Some things are impossible. We pay for a lot of things like cable, phone, and electric, by the month, which makes a 3-day boycott impossible. Well, maybe not electric, but they wouldn't know about it until the next month. I still think it is doable, but if the duopoly lets the Democrats "win" in November, they're going to be too excited to notice that they don't control the voting machines and that they can only win when the duopoly wants them to. They'll think that they can start hearings and investigations and impeachment proceedings, and by the time they find out that they can't, it will be 2008 and the duopoly will be rigging the next election. It is election integrity activists who are fully aware that because we don't have free, fair, open, honest elections, we have no real voice in government at all. Everybody else either knows that the game is rigged and doesn't bother with it at all, or is running for office or begging "their" representatives to do something, in the misguided belief that the system is still somewhat functional. One time I had a low level government job where I was a thorn in management's side. So you know what they tried to do? They tried to make me management. I think it is called co-opting the opposition. Think about it. How much of a majority would the Democrats need in order to override a Presidential veto? Remember, not a single Republican signed on to the Emergency Paper Ballots Act. So even with a Democrap majority, the Republicrooks would still be in control. The system is broken. If it wasn't broken, we wouldn't need to fix it. But it is and we do. And if we don't get rid of the crooked voting machines and the political parties, what we'll get in '08 is a Democrap President whose first order of business will be to issue blanket pardons to the previous administration. After all, as they said last time it happened, they "have to preserve the precedent." If you ask me, the only way that precedent should be preserved is in formaldehyde.

by Mark E. Smith (21 articles, 30 quicklinks, 100 diaries, 1325 comments) on Friday, Oct 6, 2006 at 11:49:04 PM

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We've got maybe five people now and each of us knows a lot of other people who might be interested. We each have mailing lists and forums and groups we belong to. So we pick a date, tell everybody we know what we're doing and see if they want to join in, and just do it. Five people ain't five million, but it is better than none. Mighty oaks from little acorns, etc. Buy Nothing Day is November 24th. That's the Friday after Thanksgiving when most people are eating leftovers anyway and too stuffed to go shopping. But they'll hit the Thanksgiving sales on the weekend, or they're travelling and visiting family. So let's go for December. That's the biggest shopping month in the year. The economy is bad so sales have already been dropping. An organized effort could really have an impact. Three days in December sound good to anyone? Which three days? Could we do it early in December and make it a "Troops Home for Christmas" boycott? Can you picture the amount of pressure Wal-Mart would put on Bush to bring the troops home for Christmas if they had miserable sales for three days in a row during the biggest shopping season of the year? We need some superstars. Rock stars, sports stars, people so big that they can bust through to the mainstream media. A Mohammad Ali and a John Lennon for the times. I can't imagine anyone NOT wanting to bring the troops home for Christmas -- it's an American tradition.

by Mark E. Smith (21 articles, 30 quicklinks, 100 diaries, 1325 comments) on Saturday, Oct 7, 2006 at 12:08:35 AM

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Strategy has been laid out and is being implemented by The Longhouse Coalition, a fast-growing coalition of candidates (around 35 right now) for Congress who subscribe to our platform- starting with impeach Bush and Cheney. We are non-partisan, and include independents, Greens, Democrats and even a Republican (Dennis Morrisseau of Vermont). We are not "splitting the left" as we have reserved seats for progressive Democrats. Just as Solidarity did in Poland, we intend to sweep out the current craven bunch of Congresspeople who play ball with Bush and work for the corporations, and replace them with independent, clearthinking men and women who will represent the people, and work for a good future for America and the world. You can learn more about us at groups.yahoo.com/group/Longhouse_Coalition_info. Email us at LonghouseCoalition@yahoo.com. Carol Wolman, MD Nonpartisan write-in candidate for Congress] California District 1

by Carol Wolman (230 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 113 comments [17 recommended, 0 rejected]) on Saturday, Oct 7, 2006 at 5:50:06 PM

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