I have come to debase the coinage.
-- Diogenes, 412-323 B.C. --
Are the American people smart? Or are they stupid?
I don´t know how many times I have been asked that question. Decades ago, when I started conducting public opinion polls, I too asked it.
In the course of more than 20 years in the business, I found the answer:
The American people are not stupid. However, they can be tricked.
That is exactly what the 2016 presidential election is doing.
* * *
Oligarch I or Oligarch II? Which will be the next president?
Such is the "freedom of choice" the oligarchy is presenting to the American people.
The presidential election is the latest installment of the oligarchy´s favorite ga-game. Heads we win; tails you lose.
"Let the coin flipping begin" -- that is the mega-wealthy´s signature song. They play it everywhere they go, at the drop of a hat.
First flip: what´s mine is mine. What´s yours is mine too.
At this moment, it appears the Democrat nominee will be the 31.3 million-dollar woman, Hillary Clinton. As for the possible Republican nominee, the 4.5 billion-dollar man Donald Trump may or may not obtain 50% of the delegates in the primary elections to secure the nomination.
If he does not garner enough delegates, a brokered convention will take place. In that case, The Donald´s main opponent will not be Ted Cruz.
The 250 million-dollar man Mitt Romney wants another shot at the White House. He set himself up as the convention pick when he publicly denounced Trump on March 3. If you watch the speech, turn off the sound. Observe Romney´s eyes; he is literally eyeing something.
He is hoping to be elected by surprise.
Trump or Romney -- or somebody else: call it what you will, it still remains the same.
Regular readers of this blog know our fundamental position. Academia and the mainstream media never have and never will publish it.
Here is the taboo:
"The First American Revolution, 1776-1789, transformed the political system from a monarchy not into a democracy but a ´политей´ or polity, i.e., a middle class-moderated, oligarchy-democracy hybrid inclined toward democracy.
The Second American Revolution, 2008-2009, changed the polity into an oligarchy with democratic residues, accessories. That change was normal, predictable; Aristotle analyzed it 2000 years ago.
The Third American Revolution will resurrect the polity but with greater power for democracy, less for the oligarchy." (The Big Movida: The Third American Revolution)."
Whoever they are, the 2016 Republican and Democrat presidential candidates will represent -- re-present, viz., to present over again, once more -- the very people who are running and ruining America.
If two candidates are in truth no different, not only can the choice of one over the other only be irrational, it is also irrational to spend time and money on them, e.g., listening to speeches, going to the polls, standing in line, buying gas for the car.
You disagree? You see meaningful differences between the candidates?
Fine. Rather than cancel your studied, thoughtful vote with a thoughtless one -- mine would only be blindly dictated by a coin flip -- I will step aside and let you, dear reader, determine which oligarch will be the next president.
For me, then, no coin toss will occur in 2016. I will not participate in the ga-game.
Sidebar: it gives me immense personal satisfaction to know, dear reader, that I will not irrationally cancel your carefully deliberated, rational decision.
P.S. You´re welcome.
Contrary to everything you are being told, we the people can do something in the 2016 election about the mega-rich who are running and ruining the United States.
That something is ... nothing.
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What America needs is "The 29% Movement."
By that I mean this:
If you add up
(i) all the people who are legally eligible to vote but who are not registered to vote;
(ii) all the people who (like me) are registered to vote but do not vote; and
(iii) all the people who voted for opponents of whoever was elected president,
you will discover a basic truth about the United States political system:
Your president was elected by a paltry 30% of the eligible voter population.** Yes, he is legally president. What he wants but does not have is the one thing the American oligarchy wants but does not have.
It is also the one -- and only -- thing we the people have the power to grant or deny:
Legitimacy.
However, we need to use that power. Power must be exercised in order to exist.
By not voting, I and millions like me will create the following situation:
Whoever he/she is, the next president will be elected by roughly 30% of the people legally eligible to vote. Any claim by him/her to have been "democratically elected," i.e., to be the choice of the majority of Americans, will be demonstrably false.
We nonvoters in November will not create a single thing. We will only make manifest what is latent. The United States no longer has a ´политей´ or polity, much less a democracy. It has an oligarchy. Only by admitting that fact can desperately needed changes begin.
The average U.S. citizen senses something is terribly wrong with the country, but is unable to identify it. Outside of readers of this blog, probably not 1,000 Americans are conscious of the 70% illegitimacy crisis. Nonetheless, that crisis creates a feeling tone that is sweeping the nation: the American government floats on top of the people.
The goal of The 29% Movement is twofold:
(i) Stop the 30% vote for president from rising.
(ii) Lower the 30% to 29%.
The November election could very well show record numbers of votes cast. As the mainstream media and politicians bray and crow about them, I hope you will keep this in mind: they are lying with statistics. The ultimate truth about turnout is not in the number of raw votes cast but in the number of votes cast as a percentage of the number of people who are legally eligible to vote.
Count me as a charter member of The 29% Movement. That turnout figure in November would be a solid victory for America. It would be a small but giant step toward public recognition that the United States now has an oligarchic political system, as well as toward the authentic, fundamental change that can ensue once that recognition is made.
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*For an excellent source of graphs of American voter statistics, click here.
**The numbers for Obama:
In 2012, 219,296,589 people were legally eligible to vote. No point quibbling about if "legally qualified" means they were registered to vote. The fact is, all 219 million could have registered and voted had they wanted to.
With 65,899,583 votes, Barack Obama was elected president by only 30% -- 66 divided by 219 -- of the people legally eligible to vote.
Additional notes:
(i) 129,058,169 people voted in the 2012 presidential election. That is 58% of the legally eligible voter population. See the graph at the top of this post.
(ii) Thus, 90,238,420 legally eligible voters did not vote. I was one of them. That number greatly exceeds the 66 million voters who picked Obama.
Obama supporters, you are faced with one of the worst things life has to offer: a bad fact. We non-voters outnumber you -- vastly so.
(iii) To the nonvoter group must be added over 60 million voters who did not pick Obama. Instead, they voted for Romney/third party candidates.
Foreign leaders, take note. Obama represents only 30% of the American people. Presidents Bush and Clinton, incidentally, were no better.
American people, take note. Legal but illegitimate American presidents are the only thing they can be: semi-sovereign sovereigns.
There is a way to change that status:
Get a new coin.