> I really do not want to hear from the "it makes no difference, no lesser
> of two evils crowd."
That's just asking for it.
Neither McCain nor Obama nor Palin nor Bidden will have any more control of America Inc than the Revlon Spokesmodel has over Revlon Inc, or the Playmate of the Month(tm) has over Playboy inc. And neither, despite the popular allusion, have a button to put a finger on, in fact there is no button, but rather a very tightly controlled process in which the President is told what to do.
If the rich and powerful in America want the "button" pushed it will be pushed, if they don't, it wont.
The candidates are competing for the job of representing government policy to the public, not the job of deciding it, the job of deciding it is not an elected position, but rather is a ruthless, cut-throat, back alley, no-holds-barred cage match of raw power. Any candidate who is not already vetted as being willing and able, nay, eager, to serve the powerful never raises above school trustee, if they make it that far.
The candidates are selling themselves to the power elite, what they are selling is an ability to gain compliance from the American people. What they will gain compliance for, exactly, is not up to them, but rather decided by full-contact conflicts among the rivalrous, and internationaly involved, power elite. And whatever campaign platforms they take or promises they make in selling themselves, including policy promises, are not binding, but rather a screen-test of their ability to represent a certain policy, and a market research project to help the elite understand exactly what sort of masses they need compliance from.
The individual candidates and their parties fight just as bitterly for the job as the mothers of juvenile beauty queens fight for their daughter's crown, but that the job is quite important to those that seek it should not lead you to conclude that it makes a difference to anybody not involved in the contest.
"I do not rule Russia," the czar said. 'Ten thousand clerks do.' Personal rule died when Charles I laughed his head off.
Democracy is like going to a restaurant with only one thing on the menu and being given the choice of which waiter serves it to you.
Whether you are willing to know it or not, it makes no difference. It's spectacularly naive to believe it does.
Thank you.
-- Dmytri Kleiner editing text files since 1981
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