We Are The Revolution

To salvage the environment and reform our economy we must first break the stranglehold that the money mongers have on our government. The first priority for those of us concerned with any kind of economic or environmental reform must be congressional and election reforms. In order accomplish these things we must infiltrate our Congress with representatives who are not beholden to corporate campaign financiers. Then and only then can we move forward with the electoral reforms which would allow all other changes to begin.

School children in the US are taught that we live in a democracy, but not until we reach adulthood do most of us realize the ugly truth: our representative democracy doesn’t represent very many of us at all. Our election process doesn’t allow us to elect people who represent our values and needs. Instead, we are presented with a handful of carefully vetted candidates willing to maintain the status quo of the corporate oligarchy that controls our government and enables their election. The true will of the people, those of us who work to produce the real wealth of this nation has virtually no representation in our government.

In earlier posts I’ve pointed out how a corporate elite controls our government and I’ve made the case for mandatory public financing of all elections before any real reform can take place. I briefly touched on the idea that a diverse non-partisan coalition, raised outside the official two-party machine may be our best and last hope of ever gaining control of our government without another violent, bloody revolution.
If such a coalition could be held together long enough to penetrate both houses of the Congress, lasting reform could be accomplished even if the sitting president refused to play ball. For any such peaceful revolution to make a lasting difference, its prime directive must be the total, unequivocal reform of our congress, both the way it is elected and its composition. All other issues, though of great importance, are secondary to electoral reform.

Read the rest of this fine essay at Thurman James