The Machinery Of An Anxious Democracy

Well, didn`t the US send Jimmy Carter to Venezuela to monitor their election? The USA is the beacon of corporate fascism. And democracy doesn`t mean you`re free.

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Dave Ruston

Corporate fascism is a very apt term to describe the nominal democracy that has probably existed in the US since its revolution. It really doesn't matter which party has their man elected president as the same monied people are controlling the strings in either case. Since the late 1940s to early 1950s until the present this has mainly been organized through the Bilderbergers and Trilateral Commission. There are reports that in the election between Bush I and Clinton both were handpicked by these groups. I imagine they have their hands equally in the congress and senate. A true democracy can't exist if elected representatives belong to organisations that hold secretive meetings the minutes of which are not available to the public to scrutinize. (Steven Harper and Jean Chretien have attending meetings; I don't know about Paul Martin).

It doesn't even matter if someone honest like Ralph Nader were to get elected president because these people control the house and the senate and all three of these levels of government have to work together for anything to be done in the US system and these people would gladly sacrifice four to eight years of economic well-being for common Americans (their own money of course being protected). Many Canadians know this only too well from the economic ruination visited upon us by the insane interest rate policies of the Bank of Canada from the early 1980s to the mid 1990s that was mainly designed to saddle us with crippling debt and deficit as a means of attacking our social programs. The only explanation for the Bank to continue along that course is outside influence.

Jimmy Carter may very well be the best President that the US have ever had. It does not serve Canadian sovereignty well to attack this man.

I did not attack Jimmy Carter. I attacked the US government. And although he was easier to digest than Nixon, Reagan, Clinton, and the Bushes, I`m not sure you could call him the best. One thing about Carter- instead of the usual arrogance and meanness directed toward Canada, he actually called up Trudeau on many occasions for advice! He respected Canadian sovereignty, and I give him his points for that. Besides, defending Canadian sovereignty is much more than attacking any one president to me. Oh, I don`t know, maybe you`re right about Carter.

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Dave Ruston

The U.S. a beacon of democracy ? Please let me laugh. Democracy died in 2000 when the Supreme Court installed its first Resident in the White House.

The U.S is now a deMOCKracy. It sounds the same but the substance is gone. Americans now have a two-party system whose leaders cater to the same corporatist and warmongering ideals. Even if Nader won in November, he would be unable to govern as both the Senate and the House of Representatives are represented by one single entity. ("Democrats" have voted in favor of all un-democratic assaults proposed by the Republicans under the Bush administratio; the Patriot Act, the invasion of Iraq, tax cuts for the rich etc...)
American citizens are basically represented by a two party system where both toe the same line. If this is what passes as Democracy for Americans, I'll continue calling it deMOCKracy.

Michou: I disagree with your intervention. You are undermining the effort in getting rid of Bush by working on the dark side. Kucinich has sent out this morning the message to close ranks! I will stand by him.

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It's Time to Close Ranks
September 25, 2004
Video Transcript:

Good morning! Welcome to breakfast in my back yard. I want to thank you for the help that you gave me over the last few years, and now with 40 days to go before the general election I want to talk to you this morning about how urgent it is that we close ranks and help John Kerry get elected the next President of the United States.

Oh, there's a lot of people throwing up their hands right now and saying, "Well the campaign isn't strong enough...the candidate this...the candidate that..." Know what? The time's over for those discussions. We have to close ranks. We have to get out there -- knock on doors, put up signs, and make phone calls, and rally people because there is a profound difference between John Kerry and George Bush.

John Kerry has an exemplary record of 19 years in the United States Senate. He served this country honorably in every way. He's someone who has integrity. He's someone who cares about people. We need to close ranks behind him. Do we have differences of opinion? Yes. But the time is over to continue talking about those. We need to focus on what we need to do in the next few weeks to make it certain that John Kerry will be elected.

Now, can he win? You bet he can. This election has been volatile right from the beginning. The bottom line is that George Bush took us into a war we didn't need to be in, he's going to keep us in it, and we'll never have an opportunity for a domestic agenda. Any hopes that we have for changing health care in America, improving education, protecting workers' rights, protecting social security are going to be lost if this President gets re-elected.

We have to recognize that we have a good candidate. He's not perfect, but look, none of us are. And so we have to realize - this is the time to close ranks and after we get John Kerry elected, then we have plenty of time to get to work to try to move him in the direction that we want to create progress in this country.

But now's the time we need to close ranks.

Now's the time we need to come together. This isn't even a close question. This is not the time for temporizing about, you know, "What should we do?", "What can we do?", "Can we win?" Of course we can win!

Let me give you an example. In Ohio, four years ago, I was contacted by the Presidential campaign of our candidate then who told me they were pulling out of Ohio because they had a poll that showed them 14 points down. Said they couldn't win. You know what? We said, "We have to stay in this anyway because of what we believe in. We're gonna keep pushing." And we persisted. And you know what happened? A 14 point gap closed to within three points in Ohio. We could've won Ohio if only we'd had a campaign that would've stayed with us. John Kerry's staying with us in Ohio, and we're staying with him. And we're going to help him win Ohio, and you can help him win not only Ohio, but every state that's represented right now.

So, it's not just a matter of "hanging together", but it's a matter of unifying, so that we create a new force in American politics to take an upward path. John Kerry's the beginning of that, and we're the continuation of it.

So thank you. Thank you for a moment of your time to consider what I'm saying. This is a moment when we're called upon to stand up for everything we believe in. It's not about just John Kerry, it's about us, it's about our future, it's about our children's future. It's about what we hope for in America, and it's what we hope to have a chance to continue.

So please join with me. Join with me in taking a strong stand for a good candidate, for a decent man, for someone who'll make a good president with our help.

Thank you very much. Let's close ranks and let's elect John Kerry the next President of the United States.
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Getting Bush out and Kerry in will not change the fact that democracy and a representation of its citizens is DEAD in America. How can anyone say that a 2 party system in which both basically have the same national and foreign policies be representative of all its citizens ? Canada with 30 million people has 4 viable parties sitting in parliament and you'd want me to believe that with more than 10 times the population, all Americans are well represented by the Republicats and Democlans ? Either there is only one American ideal or I live in la-la land.

I am very glad to hear some kind words on Canada. I also hear very well what you and many others have said about the state of the Democracy in the US. There is however no But... others than it is time to close ranks and get rid of Bush. Sometimes in a Democracy you have got to keep things *really* simple. That is the time now.