Write your
members of Congress/state legislatures, join/support advocacy groups and don’t
forget to vote . . . and the issues of wealth inequality, private sector job
creation and a strong U.S. economy that works for “the people”
will be solved, right?
Wrong! The
political class and the mega-rich who own them would love for America to buy into, or continue buying,
the idea that the three steps above will bring about a revolution and actually
change the reality in Washington, D.C. and in state legislatures. For many Americans,
perhaps even most, even the three simple steps above would be far more than
they have ever done in their lifetimes to “participate in the democratic
process.” Yet they wonder why this “democracy thing” isn’t working, why all the
wealth has been accumulated at the top, why there are no jobs and why average
American citizens continue to get screwed by the mega-rich and our political
class.
While the
steps above are now an absolute must for economic survival, the reasons why
they are not going to be enough are so numerous that it’s almost impossible to
enumerate, but let’s try anyway. First and foremost, the above steps don’t work
and won’t work — if those are the only efforts put forth by the American people
— because we’re currently given no choices but to vote in the rich and members
of the leisure class [who have the time and resources to participate in politics].
In other words, the political system is rigged, fixed and it is currently a
foregone conclusion that only a member of one of the two parties can get
elected. As long as the two dominate political parties can keep it a 50/50
proposition — only backed by the mega-rich — “we the people” will continue to
lose financially. As the political system is currently set-up, almost no one
can get into Congress or state legislatures without first selling their soul to
the devil a.k.a. the mega-rich . . . simply because the costs of campaigning are
too extravagant. Because the mega-rich own the media, no one but their hand
chosen candidates get any face and air time to be exposed to the voting public.
Essentially, the mega-rich allow us to either pick someone from Party A or
Party B and those are the only choices allowed. The two parties, in every
state, have fixed the system to keep independents and third parties out of the
game, but that can be overcome and changed.
Tied to
that reality is the fact that most Americans still see incumbency as good for
their district and incumbents almost always have the financial advantage. Here
is the biggest problem in a nutshell: as of June 2011 the approval rating of
Congress was 18 percent and their approval has been in the pits for years and
years, however, when asked about their respective members of Congress, most
Americans approve. The result is that election cycle after election cycle we
get the same crooks with longstanding ties to the mega-rich because almost no one
in America will vote anti-incumbent or replace
their party incumbent with someone new. We go with the status quo over and over
and then we wonder why our economy is horrible and why we have been sold out?
We, as a
nation, are so economically uneducated, so misinformed, pliable and so easily
manipulated by media — whoever runs the most commercials usually wins. Virtually
no one in America goes to a website such as
opensecrets.org and looks up the campaign financing of their candidates . . .
then when the candidate does exactly what they are paid to do via campaign
contributors — we act surprised and wonder why democracy doesn’t work? We’re a
nation whose brains have been cooked by political marketing and massive media
manipulation.
As your
guide for this book, I stated early on that a vast background in marketing and
advertising made me uniquely qualified to write a book of this type . . . you
undoubtedly questioned that assertion. Well America, if you haven’t figured it out by
now, you’ll never get it . . . the truth is that to date, for more than 3
decades, all political maneuvering is nothing whatsoever but a marketing,
advertising and propaganda fire hose directed by our greedy aristocracy. That’s
it, nothing else, total and complete BS!!! Decade after decade of nothing but
spin via marketing blitzes and PR campaigns masquerading as “the political
process” and “democracy” and we have all been total suckers! It’s an economic
carnival game where an average citizen is allowed to win every once in awhile
so more suckers will line up to play. As long as someone like Mark Zukerberg of
Facebook walks away with a big stuffed bear every once in awhile . . . we fail
to see who is behind our economic carnival game and continue lining up to play
a game that is fixed for Ivy Leaguers such as Zukerberg.
Here is the
truth America. If you have enough money, enough
spin masters and can control what people see, hear and talk about . . . you can
sell anyone anything and there is no limit whatsoever as to what can be sold to
include “ice to Eskimos” or anything else. It is just a fact of marketing and
advertising and that is all politics is . . . pure unmitigated marketing spin.
If marketing and advertising can convince a fat middle-age man that he will
find hot young love if he buys a BMW and Viagra
. . . why, for even a moment, would you not believe that advertising,
marketing and control of the media could not put anyone in the White House or
in any seat in Congress? If that is possible, then manipulating Americans to
work directly against their own economic self interests is a piece of cake with
the advertising and marketing expertise at the fingertips of the mega-rich who
have unlimited funding and budgets. We are a nation that loves to be lied to
and we’ve been lied to over and over for more than 30+ years by a political
class that will promise anything to get elected into office . . . just so they can sell us all out while
laughing all the way to the bank.
In all
advertising and marketing if you simply tell people what they want to hear and
if you do it enough times — they will buy. It is marketing 101: buy enough
exposures and the suckers will line up at your door. In politics it’s a simple
message of requiring no pain, no sacrifice, no reality checks and promising to
return America to the land of milk and honey. Add in a good speech writer, some
compelling video, patriotic music, wave the flag and voila you’re elected or
re-elected. Since no network or news vehicle is allowed to cover any candidate that
is not a member of either Party A or Party B . . . it’s a locked in 50/50
proposition for the mega-rich puppet masters [since most Americans delve no
further than TV or obvious newspaper and Internet outlets].
Once a
candidate has overcome the 50/50 game of chance, they’re almost set for life
unless they really screw up big time. If they make it to the Senate they are
set for 6 years no matter what and even with a two year term in the House, most
will get elected to at least another term or two. Since there is no congressional
recall button for American voters and only the possibility of expulsion by
their fellow band of thieves — via laughable ethics committees — there is no
heat in the kitchen until the next election season. As long as a member of
Congress has a little common sense, cover their tracks and isn’t too outlandish
— the chances for a Justice Department or FBI investigation into their
activities are minimal . . . most especially since most political corruption is
presently categorized as “ethical” as opposed to “criminal.” After all,
criminal prosecution is for us commoners . . . not the aristocracy.
Now, with
such a cushy position inside the Washington, D.C. beltway secured [for at least
a couple of years at a time], consider that thousands and thousands of e-mails,
letters, petitions, etc. arrive into Congress every single day — to the tune of
at least a couple hundred of thousand per year — if not more. All from lowly
constituents or slightly elevated slugs such as “citizen advocacy groups” who
have, by comparison, paid little or no money for attention from the political
class via campaign contributions and cronyism.
On average,
a member of Congress has around 14 staff members. Typically a couple of interns
or kids just out of college handle all the phone calls e-mails, petitions, etc.
that arrive from lowly constituents. It’s the job of the interns and the kids
just out of college to simply pat citizens on the head like children and make
them go away. In order to accomplish this lowly mission, they are fully
equipped with form letters and canned responses to any and all issues and
pieces of legislation that may be on the “citizen agenda.” In most cases, the
citizen gets a letter or a canned e-mail and they go away with pride, no matter
the response, because a letter arrived on congressional letterhead or a mass
e-mail was sent to make it look individualized. Even for the rare citizen that
is still impressed for a time with congressional letterhead, etc., after awhile
frustration with the same old games of corruption and cronyism mount and the
citizen just goes away.
While a
responsive member of Congress and true concern over any citizen issue is rare,
simply because it is special interest and lobbyists that get attention in Washington, D.C. — a new phenomenon has emerged to
make it even worse. In the beltway it’s called “clicktivism” and most Americans
who are even a little engaged politically have participated. It’s the e-mail
from some advocacy group that provides a “click here” to send an e-mail or to
sign a petition, etc. Behind all the clicking are well intentioned companies
selling software and database management tools to make all the “click here”
political activism happen with ease. The problem is two fold: A) to much
clicking on far too many issues a.k.a. a lack of focus on a strong U.S. economy, private sector job
creation and wealth disparity and B) the assumption by the American people that
clicktivism is actually an effective lobbying tool.
Bad news America, it’s going to take a lot more
effort to bring about change and a revolution than sitting at your computer and
clicking your mouse. In an average year, more than $3.5 B is spent in
Washington, D.C. alone on lobbyists, not to mention the billions spent in state
capitols.1 So America has to understand that clicktivism is great and
far better than doing nothing, but far more has to be done before a member of
Congress will throw a lobbyist under the bus and do the right thing for the
American people. Even if we were operating in a “democracy,” which of course
we’re not, a lack of focus would hurt and merely clicking would have little
effect, but this book is about facing up to actual reality and changing that reality
. . . not about making readers feel good via lies and unrealistic expectations.
Understand
that there are thousands of advocacy groups all focused on a thousand different
agendas attacking in an uncoordinated fashion. That’s just simply not going to
work! Secondly, while this book documents that many groups are focused on the
economy, jobs and wealth disparity — there are far too few advocacy groups
focused strictly upon the economic issues in America that truly matter. The
reason for that is America has had it too good and too easy
economically and we’ve never had to fight previously. There was plenty of
wealth to go around and “the economy” was just left up to the political class
and the Harvard economists. Advocate efforts could be vague and non-specific
and the American people didn’t have to educate themselves on issues such as
trade agreements and trade imbalances. Well America those days are gone!!!
Even though
your voice will absolutely achieve far more volume via one or more advocacy
groups, the individual groups can’t be allowed to take your money and waste
your time with splintered advocacy efforts that oftentimes distract or even
compete with one another. If all or even most groups came together to push for
campaign finance reform or repeal of the NAFTA agreement for instance . . . how
long do you think it would be before we had movement in Congress? We could repeal
NAFTA in less than 60 days.
Instead of
only pushing members of Congress, the time has come for citizens to push the
thousands of advocacy groups to come together upon more common economic and
political reform agendas. It’s time these diverse groups were forced to grow up
and focus on overcoming the bread and butter issues facing America — instead of working toward utopia
or their own individual niche issues. How do you get their attention? Easy, you
put them on notice that you will be withholding your contributions and support
until you see an effective coordinated strategy, working with other advocacy
groups on common priorities to bring about change, instead of only talking 24/7
about change. Someone once said that “the road to hell is paved with good intentions”
and economically hell is the road we’re now on. Therefore, now is the time for
some tough love and realistic expectations for advocacy results! Good
intentions don’t pay the bills . . .
Simply tell
all the advocacy groups not focused on a strong U.S. economy, private sector job
creation and wealth disparity that you’ll have to get back to them at another
day and time. America now has far bigger issues to
confront and overcome. As for the groups that are focused on the issues that
count, ask them what happens to the clicktivism letters and petitions that
supposedly travel through cyberspace to Congress? Who receives them, who do
they go to, how high are their contacts within each congressional member’s
staff and most importantly — ask if all the letters, petitions and e-mails are
physically hand delivered in duplicate to their cyberspace outreach? All
advocacy groups are not created equal and it’s yet another reason why they must
be forced to come together to work on common economic and political reform
objectives. Millions of dollars per year go to advocacy groups and the time has
come for those dollars to start paying huge economic dividends for the American
people! Advocate groups need to feel the heat to deliver just like members of
Congress. Since clicktivism obviously isn’t working for the American people,
the day and time has come to shut down Congress for a few days, via activist
groups coming together to amass millions to takeover the capitol until they
listen. A great issue to begin with would be campaign finance reform, the most
important issue in America today by far! Clicking your mouse
is simply not going to be enough to create the required revolution and the
sooner America realizes this reality the better.
Although it
is cliché to say that “all politics are local,” it is true that far too much
emphasis is placed on national advocacy efforts. At the end of the day, either
your individual member(s) of Congress is tuned in with your overall economic
and political reform agenda [most especially when it comes to sponsorship of
specific legislation], or they are not. The problem is that getting a
politician to take a position on anything is like trying to nail Jello to tree.
While some will give you a position, most will hedge while waiting to see what
their party and the mega-rich that own them will allow. So when you receive
their form letter saying how concerned they are about whatever issue it may be,
if it doesn’t give you a firm “yes” in support and more importantly their name
as a sponsor of a specific bill — you can quickly uncover if you should waste
anymore of your time with them. Simple go to opensecrets.org or some other
source and look up their campaign contributors, then look up their party line
on the issue. At that point you pretty much know their position and potential
vote should the legislation come to a vote. Nine times out of ten, they
currently vote how they are paid to vote and in areas where there are not firm
dollars, cronyism and paybacks on the table — they will vote with their party
90 percent of the time. It’s called “democracy” and it has nothing whatsoever to
do with “the people” or the majority of citizen opinions expressed.
Nonetheless,
as you move through your series of issues, if you haven’t obtained their
position via news sources or research, you’ll over time learn if they are a
keeper or it’s time to launch your personal campaign to oust them in the next election
cycle. Via blogs, Facebook and e-mail, start your campaign immediately to move
them out by exposing their campaign money sources and their voting record. If
they voted for NAFTA or they take one single dime from Wall Street they have to
go . . . this is not complex! You simply can’t wait until November of the
election year to make a difference. Bring the heat and bring it NOW! Understand
that your focus can no longer be just about specific economic issues and
legislation, but just as importantly going forward, it must now be about
congressional reforms and the way Washington, D.C. does business. When you combine the
two arenas, you’ll quickly see that most of the incumbents in both political
parties must now go — most especially if they resist congressional reforms!
This nation simply can’t move forward and address the vast number of issues we
now face within the present broken system of massive political corruption now
firmly ruling America. We have a completely broken and
corrupted system of government and the time has come for America to face up to that reality and do
something about it!
Once you
know the positions of your member(s) of Congress, all is not lost within
interim periods between election cycles — even if all your positions and pieces
of legislation are opposed. There is still much work that can be accomplished
at the national level via blogs, advocacy and Facebook groups to garner
attention and votes from other members of Congress for your issues and pieces
of legislation.
Also, don’t
discount the legislative initiatives that can be accomplished at the state, or
even the local level, when movements fail at a national level. A great example are
the initiatives to ban employment credit checks that have stalled in
Washington, D.C. thus far, but have passed in 6 states and are being considered
in at least 20 more. “Where there is a will, there is a way” as the saying goes
and Americans have to learn that apathy and resignation to living under the
boot of the mega-rich will be an uphill fight every step of the way. Over the
course of more than 30+ years, they put the mechanisms, the tools, the media
domination, campaign finance system, cronyism, smokescreens and the games into
play to own us. Each one will have to be overcome and dismantled step by step,
fight by fight until we return control of America to average citizens within a true
democracy. The mega-rich and the political class will only go kicking and
screaming and this war is only for true American patriots with fight and
backbone.
This fight
cannot be fought and won from only your computer or the ballot box, but instead
will require far more if it is to be successful. Civil disobedience, taking to
the streets of Washington, D.C. and state capitols in peaceful protest efforts — must
be part of the game plan. The American people have been lulled to sleep over the
course of generations with media and technology toys, while the mega-rich have
slipped their noose around our necks and plunged their fangs of greed into our
juggler veins. We’ve been taken in by the idea that two political parties are
fighting it out on our behalf, when in fact . . . nothing could be further from
the truth! Lofty speech after lofty speech, as the flag waved in the
background, the American people have been fed lie after lie, election cycle
after election cycle and the only change that occurs is more financial ruin for
average Americans. Promises and good intentions are meaningless and the time
for massive change has arrived! The time is now for an “American-autumn,” much
like what we’re now seeing sweep through the middle-east under the moniker of
an “Arab-spring.”
We are not
facing an economic “bump in the road,” but instead we’re facing a massive
mountain that has been constructed and put into place by a greedy aristocracy
that is sucking the life blood out of every single American and their family.
If we don’t fight now, there will be nothing left for which to fight . . . the
mega-rich will not stop, their greed will not cease and they will not remove
their boot from our necks until we are all marched into a sea of poverty — one
by one, family by family — until all future generations are born into slavery
and servitude under rule of an even stronger, more well entrenched oligarchy.
The table has been tilted as far as it can be tilted and now we must fight in
order to return the American Dream to the people . . . out of respect for past
generations and respect for those that follow. This is our war, we allowed this
downfall to happen to America and this is our day and our time to
fight!
