Post Election Bowel Movements
US Citizens Still Missing the Point of Modern Democracy

by mattro
Raptorial

 

Republicans. Democrats. Republicrats. Or, as Michael Moore puts it, 'Vote for Billy Bob Dolton'. I'm fairly certain the majority of Americans are now aware that the two party puppet show is proving harmful to our progress as a nation. This is why 51% of eligible voters in the USA did not bother to participate in Election '96. This is why 8% of those who DID vote, voted for Ross Perot and an additional 2-5% (depending on who you talk to) voted for Ralph Nader, the Libertarian candidate, the Natural Law party, or any other 'third party' candidate you can name. In the 2000 election, watch for 'third party' numbers to double.
If you've ever heard yourself mutter the phrase "Both sides of the story," please consider this... you are limiting yourself to just two viewpoints. There are ideas and political approaches out there that neither the Democrats nor the Republicans have ever mentioned (nor even thought of, as far as I can tell). These two parties do NOT represent the full spectrum of ideas and social analysis. They merely represent the liberal and the conservative visions of Big Business, USA.
Members of these two parties who are lucky enough to get elected have the distinct pleasure of joining a new religion: Economy Worship. In this new religion, Wall Street serves as the Vatican, the richest CEOs take turns being the Pope, corporate lobbyists descend upon Washington much like missionaries, and the Dow is the Tao. Monday thru Friday at precisely 4pm EST, all Economy worshippers bow toward Wall Street as the bell rings and the day's final numbers are announced.
It's time for a separation of Church and State.

Why do the Europeans Have It Better Than the Americans?

In Europe, people relax a great deal more than we Americans do. As a result they have fewer health problems and enjoy life more than us. Even if they were to become ill, Europeans have universal healthcare, so a trip to the doctor is never more stressful than the illness itself and the traffic on the way to his office. Their healthcare is GUARANTEED. If someone tried to take it away from them, that person would probably get punched right in the nose.

Many European Union nations have mandated that no one works over 37 hours a week! That is so cool! Meanwhile in the US, people are so wound up from working 60 hours a week at one or more jobs (just to maintain the same standard of living as people have in Europe) that they don't know what to do with the one or two days they have off every other week.
Sure, Europeans work hard and raise families like we do, but for some reason they've demanded from their government regulations that make their lives easier. We know this is true because in Europe the voters participate in binding national referendums. This means the Europeans vote on the issues, working as the official steering committee of their elected officials. Sounds pretty democratic doesn't it? Why doesn't the USA, the self-absorbed "greatest nation on earth" have binding national referendums?

Maybe THAT is the only question we should be asking!

Dr. Helen Caldicott

So, I'm listening to the radio one day and this funny woman is on the air with the local NPR affiliated news personalities of KUOW (Seattle, WA 94.9 FM). The woman was Dr. Helen Caldicott, an internationally respected professor, writer and environmentalist from Australia. She's written several books on subjects such as the state of the earth (If You Love This Planet), the dangers of keeping nuclear missiles around (Missle Envy) and a wide assortment of other topics. This time she was in town promoting her newest book. She is fascinating to listen to.

Years ago, when I first heard Helen Caldicott speak, she was laying heavily into NASA and its continuous launching of space shuttles into orbit. She contended that the fuel used in such launches was burning huge gaping holes in the earth's Ozone Layer. Anyone who knows anything about Ozone Depletion is aware that without the Ozone Layer to protect our planet, plants and animals would succumb to the harmful solar radiation that constantly bombards our precious orb. The Ozone Layer is our shield. Real scientists ... those who aren't paid for specific results by corporations (or Rush Limbaugh) but let the actual facts paint the pictures... know that as the earth spins, the climates within our atmosphere push the atmosphere around. Ozone moves around too. As a result, Ozone holes (actually Ozone-thin pockets) tend to collect in certain places, particularly the Antarctic.

The Antarctic Ozone hole is continuously spreading northward. It now touches Australia during certain parts of the year. Already there are reports of increased skin cancer in humans, livestock born dead, crop failures, and animals going blind. All this is common knowledge. If you haven't already heard about this, your news sources are failing you.
Taking the above into account, you can understand the sense of urgency with which Dr. Caldicott speaks when she tours the United States. She realizes many people may be hearing the kinds of things she says for the very first time.
What? Space shuttle missions causing Ozone Depletion? That's preposterous! No. It's reality. Certain ingredients in the Shuttle fuel is Ozone Depleting. NASA has failed to address the issue.

New Electoral Methods that Could Save America

But I was talking about Dr. Caldicott's latest message on KUOW....

It was great to hear this energetic Australian-accented voice telling Americans the things they needed to hear. Here's what she said (Now I'm paraphrasing, for I was driving in my car while listening to this and I can't afford those outrageous NPR transcript costs just for verification): "There's no way around it. You Americans need to have yourself a revolution. Your leaders are corrupt and taking your nation in directions the rest of the planet can't afford to have you go," she said.

"I'm not advocating violence, I believe strongly in pacifism, but you need to find a way to [overthrow] your current system of governing. You need another great inspirational leader like Martin Luther King. Anyone can do it. Someone just has to step up and start telling the truth to your public, because you aren't getting the truth from your corporate media."

Upon hearing that, I laughed and applauded because... she's absolutely right! There is no way to solve the problems of the US with our current political structure. It won't happen. It's time to cut and paste a better system together. Take the good ideas from our system and combine them with those of other political systems:

1.) Binding National Referendums- Increase participatory democracy to include binding public votes on national issues (so Congress knows what to do when they are on Capitol Hill and don't have to waste so much time talking themselves into bad ideas);

2.) Proportional Representation- Elect congressional bodies proportional to the population's whims (i.e.: if in the last election the Green Party, or Perot's Reform Party received 20% of the vote, give them 20% of the seats in the legislature. Let the parties pick the representatives.. let the citizens pick the parties and have quick recall power). This allows for NEW IDEAS to make it into the halls of Congress;

3.) Preferential Voting- Allow voters to pick Presidents in order of preference (using the 1996 election as an example: 1. Nader, 2. Clinton, 3. Perot, etc.). If no candidate has a majority after everyone's first choice has been counted... drop the candidates who received less than 15% of the vote, nullify the first choice on those particular ballots and move on to the SECOND choice. Do this until one candidate has over 50% of the vote and make THAT person president;

4.) Non-Voter's Tax- After making sure the voting process is easier for the voter than scratching his/her own ass... impose a $50 tax upon individuals who don't vote. They do this in Australia and, guess what! They have voter turnout in the 80-90 percentile.

5.) STOP Shooting Down New Ideas!!- "Oh that'll never work here." This short phrase is destroying the United States. Nothing new is being attempted at all because no one, politician OR voter, has the guts to get behind new ideas or candidates and rally them into laws or into office. Be daring. Be bold. The simplest solutions sometimes sound preposterous at first but really aren't.

Actually, these are NOT new ideas in the global sense. These voting mechanisms are in place in many European and Pacific nations as we speak. The consensus in the nations using one or more of the above is that their political system is much more fair to the people and harder to corrupt. The winner-take-all system in effect in the United States is, by comparison, VERY easy to corrupt. Winner-take-all may have seemed like a good idea in the past, but its time has come and gone. Time to face the reality of our surroundings and modify our 220 year old concept of what the word democracy means.