The Changing Of The Guard

Last night's Presidential debate focused a spotlight on how very much alike our two main parties actually are. With Mitt Romney agreeing on so many points with the President, he was basically telling us that he would not make any changes in the way we conduct business with the rest of the world, and yet he would of course spend more money on our military. A military that already has a budget bigger than China, Russia, France, the UK and Japan combined! Both men strongly support our use of drone attacks on other countries supposedly to keep America safe, completely disregarding any talks about how many innocent lives are lost to this sadistic program. Although the debate was supposed to be on foreign policy, both candidates seemed bent on bringing almost every question back to the domestic issues. I got the feeling neither candidate wants the citizens of the US focusing too much on foreign affairs. Both men believe that it's the so called "honorable" position of the United States of America to police the rest of the world, to assist in toppling governments and regimes that we don't like or who are not friendly toward our interests!
We have other choices in this changing of the guard, but we have not been allowed access to these. Main stream media has very cleverly kept the majority of the population in this country in a very controlled blackout of the information that would help us to see that we are being manipulated. Only by doing the work individually of looking and digging through other news sources can we pull ourselves up out of the quagmire of the propaganda that we are being fed by the media.
There is still, however, the issue of the way our two party system has such a strong hold on the way our government runs. Yes, we have others who are running for the office of the President of the United States, but our system is designed, unfortunately, to make it virtually impossible for any of the other parties to gain a foothold. Here, I have had to look to the advise of someone's ideas that I respect very much and that is Noam Chomsky who said recently, “The Republican organization today is extremely dangerous, not just to this country, but to the world. It’s worth expending some effort to prevent their rise to power, without sowing illusions about the Democratic alternatives.” Bingo!
As Daniel Ellsberg wrote so eloquently in an article I just posted yesterday, "The reelection of Barack Obama, in itself, is not going to bring serious progressive change, end militarism and empire, or restore the Constitution and the rule of law. That’s for us and the rest of the people to bring about after this election and in the rest of our lives -- through organizing, building movements and agitating." Ellsberg's advise to the voters in the swing states who might be thinking that they cannot vote for either Romney or Obama, is important advise. In other words, in the states that are critical to the election, a vote for a third party is a vote for Romney. After many months of considering what to do myself, I came to the conclusion that it's more important than ever right now to keep our country from falling into the hands of these extreme right wing neo-cons, that Romney has embraced.
The two men running for the highest office in our land are only different in the way they will lead. Romney has time and time again outright lied, changed his approach to the important issues and has offended many leaders in the countries he has visited during his campaign. Many claim that Romney has been misunderstood because of media propaganda. I don't think he is misunderstood at all. I understand him to be a man who has throughout his life always had his own way, I understand he thinks it is his destiny to become the President. I understand he sides with those who believe women should stay silent and submissive. I understand he is out of touch with those who who basically should be running this country, and that is the people!!!
I have no illusions that voting for Obama for a second term will bring us the much needed changes that we all hope for. The economy is in shambles and the actions taken by our government toward countries that should be left to make their own choices bring us frightfully closer to another unwanted war. But keeping this President in office, I think is a very crucial first step toward that change. Voting this time is about voting against, more than its about voting for. Blaming one man for the problems we face is not realistic when you realize that the men and women who make up the rest of the government are the ones who in the end are responsible.
We have a Republican majority run Congress and this is the issue before us right now. This Congress who stated four years ago that their main purpose, their main job was going to be to make sure that Obama was a one term President! So after four years of this kind of focus, we see basically that our representitives were not concerned with fixing the mess this counry has been in. No, they were concerned with personality. They were concerned with their own self interests. They forgot the American people to fight one man.
Now the American people have a decision to either tell this Congress with our votes that we won't tolerate another four years of this kind of lunacy.
We are all given the privilege to cast our votes however we see fit. I hope we all vote very thoughtfully and without prejudice.