If Voting Changed Anything...

How many of you out there think this country is a democracy? Or is it really more of a one-party state masquerading as a two-party state? The Democrats are, on the outside, what the Republicans are on the inside, each having almost identical financial backers to grease all the appropriate orifices and holes. So, maybe it is no surprise that Ron Brown, head of the Democratic National Committee, and a Jesse Jackson protege, has announced a full Democratic party endorsement for Bush's war against Saddam Hussein.

Did you vote for the Pentagon?

Did you vote for Wall Street?

Did you vote for a nuclear arms race?

Did you vote for the CIA?

Ever tried reading the Bill of Rights to a cop?

People didn't vote for Star Wars, people didn't vote for drug wars, no one voted for acid rain, no one voted for being homeless. Hardly anybody in this country votes at all anymore. Meanwhile, people in places like China and South Africa are out there dying just for the right to vote. But, in America, people take it for granted. They just pout and they stay home, figuring their wishes aren't respected anyway. They don't make people like the popular myth of JFK anymore, they don't make people like Martin Luther King anymore. And if they did, the cops would just kill them anyway. So, why bother? It doesn't matter. As the spray paint on the wall so often says, "If voting changed anything they'd make it illegal."

After all, if the will of the majority of the eligible or even the registered voters in this country were really respected, guess who would be president right now? Nobody! Nobody!

No one would be president, no one would be senator, no one would be governor, and no one for DA or mayor either. The White House would be occupied by nobody... except maybe a few homeless people tired of freezing across the street. Capitol Hill would be accountable to nobody; 'cause that's such a radical change.

"None of the above" came in second for senator in the Republican primary in Nevada last June. And it seems to me there's a similar reason why dead people keep winning local elections.

How many of you out there pay taxes? Ha, ha, ha, confess! I pay taxes, I confess. And the only reason I pay taxes is out of fear of getting busted for not paying taxes. But I would gladly pay those taxes and maybe quite a bit more when I could if I knew that money was being used for real needs of real people.

And I went on vote strike for years myself, but I got talked back into it for this reason: local ballot initiatives, state ballot initiatives, like "Yes or no on rent control," "Yes or no on domestic partners," "Yes or no on pollution control." Things we can decide for ourselves because the people we put in power are too chicken to do it on their own. Urban renewal and youth centers instead of drug wars and Nazis with guns and boot camps, and keeping bible-thumping bigots from sneaking onto your local school boards.

And who can deny how delicious it tastes to vote down another sports stadium? And just imagine what could happen if there was a spot for every office on every ballot where you could check off, "none of the above?" And if "none of the above," came in first, they would have to have a special election like they do when a congressman dies or resigns or something and only new candidates could run instead of the bozos who got rejected the first time.

Think of the possibilities. We already vote "Yes" or "No" on judges. Do you think Renquist and his creepy crew would be so sadistic towards our daily lives if we got to vote "Yes" or "No" on them every four years?

In a little-known Gallup poll in the 1988 election, 30% of the people that actually voted said they would have voted "No confidence" on both Bush and Dukakis if there had been a place on the ballot to do that. And guess how many people in a CBS exit poll said they were, "Dissatisfied with existing nominees." 64%! So, this is not such an unpopular idea. The last Soviet Union elections were more democratic than ours.

Instead of picking the lesser of two evils, having to pick between Feinstein and Wilson and then running to the nearest toilet, people voted by crossing off all the candidates they reject. So, you could even vote out people running unopposed and no election was valid if less than half the people voted. The result? Out of 1,500 races for congress and people's deputies, nearly 200 had to be rerun.

But just like over there, getting rid of the crooks and turning things around for real will probably require a revolution. Let's hear it for revolution! The kind of revolution that the people of Romania, Czechoslovakia, and Nicaragua thought was impossible until they actually went out and did it. The kind that will only happen over here when more people realize that overthrowing the rich isn't just in our own best interest, it's a hell of a lot of fun!

In the meantime, it's not a bad idea to pay attention and to react to those local ballot propositions in your own backyard before someone else does it for you. And maybe start getting those petitions together to make, "No Confidence," "None of the Above" a choice on every ballot for every office in the country. Wouldn't take that much time, wouldn't take that much money, and it sure as hell beats staying at home, pouting, turning on the TV, and being greeted with Governor Wilson.