November 7, 2012

The Lesser Evil Won, Now Get to Work, Set an Intention and Deal with The Cancer On Democracy We Are Living With

By Rob Kall

Sure, you're happy, thrilled, overjoyed. Of the two evils you felt you had to choose from, the one who was the lesser of the two evils, by whatever parameters you measured, has won. Let's be clear. having chosen the lesser of two evils, we've moved towards more evil. It's not all your fault, having participated in the process. It's a dirty, ugly, broken system.

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Sure, you're happy, thrilled, overjoyed. Of the two evils you felt you had to choose from, the one who was the lesser of the two evils, by whatever parameters you measured, has won. 

Let's be clear. having chosen the lesser of two evils, we've moved towards more evil. 

It's not all your fault, having participated in the process. It's a dirty, ugly, broken system. Now, famous people, like Churchill, have made remarks, like, "it has been said that democracy is the worst form of government except all those other forms that have been tried from time to time."

The problem is, there are all kinds of flavors of democracy. The system in the US is over 200 years old. The US constitution used to be the one other nations imitated. But that's no longer the case. It is archaic and worse, it has been enfeebled, corrupted and diseased-- malignant with corporatist cancer. 

Like an abused spouse, Americans who still love and embrace "democracy" with a little d-- the American version-- are in love with what they thought they were getting, what might have been at one time, maybe a bit during WWII, when Roosevelt was in the White House and the Supreme Court had humans who cared about humans and the middle class, not corpo-whores who serve corporatism. 

To love American democracy today is to love a fantasy, a delusion, a memory of what never really was. 

Clearly, when the American people were faced with rotted food or pure sh*t, they chose the lesser of two evils over misogynist, racist, greedy, extremists who served corporations over people. 

But the choices that we were given were not because we have a wonderful, enlightened democracy. When we watched the debates, the mainstream media-- symptoms of the cancer that is strangling American democracy-- kept legitimate candidates who were on the ballot in a majority of states out of the debate. They protected the two corporatist, lesser of two evils candidates from having to talk about the issues the third party candidates were raising.

We have four more years now to do all we can to treat the cancers on American democracy. Those malignancies will continue to metastasize, feeding on the corporatist and billionaire blood supplies unless we take big, bold, serious, aggressive action. We will not be able to vote our way out of this problem. We must do it extra-electorally. 

That doesn't mean we stop voting. There were a few motes of light in the election last night. There's a second independent in the senate. The first openly gay senator has been elected, and I have hopes that Elizabeth Warren will  prove herself to be a solid advocate for the middle class-- though it's hard to tell how much Harry Reid and the other Democratic corporatists in the senate will leash her in. 

But at the state level, Republican legislatures have successfully gerrymandered voting districts so they've protected the house. That must change. We need to end gerrymandering altogether and create districts that are as even in size, with no odd extensions or 100 mile long peninsulas. That won't be legislated by congress.., ever. So we need to make it happen by our actions-- street actions. 

Sadly, that's not likely. The peace movement, under a Democratic president, has become almost dormant, except for a few groups, like  Debra Sweet's World Can't Wait, Medea Benjamin's and Jodie Evans' Code Pink, Veterans for Peace and David Swanson's War Is A Lie. 

I've been involved with a local peace group and the turnout has almost collapsed. There are a handful of mostly over 65 dedicated activists, but it's been really hard generate interest under this lesser of two evils Democratic president. 

The reality is that Obama has been as bad as the Republicans, maybe worse, when it comes to cozying up with banksters. When the Obama win was looming on election day, the DOW was up, just as it was when Obamacare was passed. 

Neo, dodging bullets, in the Matrix

So.. my point is. You dodged a bullet yesterday, but you're in the path of a very big, truck, bearing down on the middle class. Don't be complacent. Don't think that by pressing on that bullshit e-voting machine button that you've done all you need for your future, for your children's and grandchildren's futures. 

Get up. Stand up. Get involved. Today is a new day. Read Paulo Freire if you haven't yet. It's a must read for any activist. Don't see your self as an activist? Look into your heart. It is not enough to depend upon others. There are so many ways that you can make a difference. 

Don't indulge in activism inertia. Get moving. Do anything more than you did yesterday. It's not that hard to do SOMETHING more. Make a commitment. Set an  intention. You may not make the goal every day, but at least, please set an intention. 

And pass this along. 

Rob Kall is executive editor, publisher and website architect of OpEdNews.com, Host of the Rob Kall Bottom Up Radio Show (WNJC 1360 AM), and publisher of Storycon.org, President of Futurehealth, Inc, and an inventor . He is also published regularly on the Huffingtonpost.com

Listen to over 200 of Rob's Podcast interviews here.

Rob is, with Opednews.com the first media winner of the Pillar Award for supporting Whistleblowers and the first amendment.

With his experience as architect and founder of a technorati top 100 blog, he is also a new media / social media consultant and trainer for corporations, non-profits, entrepreneurs and authors.

Rob is a frequent Speaker on the bottom-up revolution, politics, The art, science and power of story, heroes and the hero's journey and Positive Psychology. He is a campaign consultant specializing in tapping the power of stories for issue positioning, stump speeches and debates, and optimizing tapping the power of new media. Watch me speaking on Bottom up economics at the Occupy G8 Economic Summit, here.

See more Rob Kall articles here and, older ones, here.