"That," as my grandfather was fond of saying, "would make a preacher cuss." As a brief aside to those who have a rather shallow view of our profession, let me say this: If you ever meet a preacher who can't, when the situation warrants, string together a chain of profanities that would make the saltiest drunken sailor hang his head in crimson-faced shame---find another church. Come Sunday morning, only the swearing preachers have anything meaningful to say regarding the political and economic shit storm swirling around us.
In that intentionally irreverent spirit I will go my polling place tomorrow. I go for two reasons. One, voting gives me the right to bitch and generally raise hell about the hijacking of what used to be our democratic process. Two, this is a local, state house, election. What may be the last bastion of something remotely resembling democracy, although that too is disappearing.
My hope for local, state house elections is that they may not be quite as infected with corporate money. I remain idealist enough to still believe that there is, on the local level, at least a chance that a citizen can run for office on a very small budget and still have a chance to win. Rare. But it remains within the boundaries of possibility.
On the national level that is not the case. Here democracy is a thin veneer covering a completely corrupted system. Where is the democracy when both sides are bought and paid for by their corporate pimps? Citizens United, the Supreme Court decision that allows companies like Bank of American and United Health Group and the Koch brothers to purchase candidates with massive amounts of cash. No matter who you vote for, you've already been sold out.
The result is a system made up of two subspecies: whores and whore mongers. The whores need the cash to get elected, but have to sell their votes in the process. The whore mongers are more than happy to provide the cash in exchange for the privilege of screwing the middle class and the poor with impunity. The game is rigged. Which side gets elected is making less and less difference.
Solution? A constitutional amendment overturning the Citizens decision that would ban all corporate money from all elections. No more shadow Koch brother front organizations. Complete transparency and financial accountability. Limit the size of contributions from individuals. Something not likely to happen since the whore mongers will pay their whores ever larger amounts of cash to prevent.
Unless there is a massive public movement against the sham system. The current Occupy Movement has the potential to put together the popular non-violent uprising that's desperately needed. Whether it can evolve into this kind of movement remains to be seen.
The hope lies in the fact that more and more people are realizing voting is not enough in a broken, rigged, system. People need to be in the streets for the whores and whore mongers to fear, and pay attention. The Movement has to grow in size and influence until a tipping point is reached; the point where the whores fear us more than their corporate pimps.
Occupy. Vote. Raise some Hell. Take your hard earned cash elsewhere. Petition. Bring the pressure. Bring the outrage. Demand to be heard, and heeded. There is strength in numbers. And there are more of us than there are of them.
The Jawbone.
