I received an email from a friend yesterday morning discussing the two political conventions and touting the brilliance of Bill Clinton’s speech and how amazing he is.  Well, I have a few things to say about Bill Clinton and the two political parties and their Hollywood spectacles err I mean conventions.

But first, let’s give credit where credit’s due.  Clinton has massive amounts of charisma otherwise he couldn’t have achieved the political things he did.  Clinton is a masterful politician and for more insights into his character and how he uses his gifts I recommend watching “Primary Colors.”  But let’s be fair, no matter what’s said about him he did balance the budget, no small feat, and left us with a surplus.  I acknowledge and commend him for that. 

However, he also managed to:

Deregulated Wall Street by getting rid of the Glass Steagall Act (Banking Act of 1933), which was put into place after the stock market crash of ’29 to prevent that kind of catastrophe from ever occurring again and once those regulations were removed allowed the recent global meltdown to occur.

He also signed NAFTA into law and swore up and down on a stack of Bibles NAFTA would be great for creating jobs and we believed him and yes, it created millions of slave labor jobs overseas.  This so called “free trade” agreement sent millions of our jobs to China, India, Vietnam, etc. never to return home again and left our factories to rot, collapse and decay and now millions of Americans find themselves without a job and with no hopes of ever getting another one unless they want to work some menial service sector job–McDonalds comes to mind.

What else?  Oh yeah, he gutted welfare all the while feigning his “I feel your pain” rhetoric.  This guy’s good.  He’s a topnotch politician and brilliant at his craft.  He knows how to manipulate the public to protect his corporate sponsors. 

Something else I found disturbing in Clinton’s speech at the DNC was when he said, “focus on the future, with business and government working together to promote growth and broadly shared prosperity.” 

Hmmm.  This sounds suspiciously like what Benito Mussolini, leader of the National Fascist Party of Italy said, “Fascism should more properly be called corporatism because it is the merger of state and corporate power.”

But as bad and deceitful as Clinton may be he pales in comparison to the blood lust of the Republicans.  They can’t wait to sink their fangs into us.  The Republicans are corporately owned and operated and proud of it.  They stand proudly for the 1%, Wall Street and corporations while managing to hate women, immigrants, blacks, Latinos, gays, the elderly and anyone with half a brain or a moral conscience. 

These Republicans or white male supremacists have become the American Fascist Party.  All hate.  All fear mongering.  All the time.  No ideas, no ideals—just right wing/Ayn Rand ideology.  I got mine so screw you and if you don’t like it–screw you.

The Democrats are also corporately owned and operated but struggle somewhat with this dilemma.  They, under the leadership (if you can call it that, more like spinelessness) of Obama, have moved so far to the right as to be unrecognizable.  They sold out.  They’ve become what the Republican Party used to be.

Yes, with the passage of Citizens United by our right wing Supreme Court, corporations are now people and can pour untold billions into our political elections to buy up candidates at will.   Like Elizabeth Warren said at the convention, “The system is rigged,” and both parties take their marching orders from Wall Street, the big banks, corporations and the 1%. Running for office is big business and has nothing to do with “we the people” or running our country.”  Voting for either party at this point is tantamount to voting for our own demise. 

I for one won’t be fooled again.  But what to do?  We have no choice you cry.  But you see we do.

There is another choice.  We have other political parties, which haven’t sold their souls to the corporate, blood-sucking Vampires, at least not yet.  Ask yourself what’s the reason third party candidates aren’t allowed in the debates or on the ballots.  Why?  Because we don’t live in a democracy that’s why.  We live in an Oligarchy where the 40 richest families in the US own 40% of the wealth and control the government. 

Also if Americans actually saw there’s a real choice out there they might just wake up and vote these thieving, deceiving, lying, conniving, no account, treacherous bastards out of office.  And believe me both political parties suck at the government tit with their Cadillac healthcare and huge pension packages and hold their greedy little hands out to receive graft from the corporate trough all the while calling the rest of us lazy welfare or unemployment whores for not being able to find a job that doesn’t exist or pay for corrupt, bloated healthcare we can’t afford.

So it’s time to awaken from our slumber, turn off the TV, put our thinking caps back on and get our boots on the ground.  Gandhi did not defeat the British Empire by posting on Facebook or signing petitions.  Although I still do that too.  He put his body in front of the machine.

There’s a better way.  Watch Bill Moyers interview with Bernie Sanders, Jill Stein & Cheri Honkala. 

Together we can do this.  We have the power.  

But remember, this power of the people on top depends on the people below. When people stop obeying, they have no power.

– Howard Zinn

What matters most is not who is sitting in the White House, but “who is sitting in” — and who is marching outside the White House, pushing for change.” 

― Howard Zinn

Count me in.