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However, the more we thought about this phenomenon, the more we realized that EVERY politician...with the notable exception of our departing governor Jesse Ventura...tends to engage in talking out of both sides of his/her mouth. Even the LP, the supposed champion of us freedom lovers, can not resist the temptation to spin all political pronouncements in favor of the party. After every election...and 2002 was no exception...the LP touts the election of a handful of dogcatchers and unopposed candidates as some sort of signal that it is a rising force in American politics, which it clearly is NOT!
We came to the conclusion that democracy...at least the type of democracy practiced in the U.S....almost DEMANDS this practice. Taking clear and unambiguous stands on contentious issues...like racial prejudice in the South or the peace movement in the North...is a recipe for certain defeat unless an overwhelming majority of those people who might vote for you favors that stand. Doing otherwise on one or more issues will alienate an ever larger proportion of your potential voters until you have no chance at all. The LP's consistent practice of endorsing a large collection of minority positions virtually guarantees that it will never, ever garner more than a few percentage points in any election, despite the fact that polls show that a very large majority of Americans favors at least some of their stances! After all, a country that touts freedom as one of its basic principles is bound to like some of the LP's stands.
If democracy is so flawed as to promote a form of lying...for what is doubletalk but a guaranteed lie, since one can not really hold two mutually exclusive opinions simultaneously...then why are we such avid promoters? Wouldn't we really be better off to simply allow an aristocracy to make all our decisions for us, removing any necessity of trying to decide which of the many political lies we can believe?
But wait, isn't that precisely what has happened to the American experiment? Since incumbent members of congress are routinely returned to office...the advantages, both financial and psychological of incumbency being enormous...and since the cost of running modern media campaigns requires massive infusions of cash from the somewhere, our system has gradually devolved from a free-thinking, free-wheeling republic...our form of democracy...into a bullshit-ocracy of the power elite. The fusion of powerful moneyed interests with aristocratic politicians is nearly complete.
So what is to be done? The example...actually a counterexample...of the Jesse Ventura phenomenon is instructive. The fact that he was able to enlist a large enough plurality of Minnesota voters to be elected despite his bizarre persona clearly demonstrates the POTENTIAL power of straight talk. When people were asked why they voted for him, "honesty" was the runaway winner. He was elected almost entirely on this virtue and to the best that can be determined, he continued this practice from beginning to end of his single term.
Unfortunately, what he did and said in his honesty was less than sterling. While all politicians are basically self-serving jackals, Jesse's honest pursuit of self-aggrandizement appalled even his most fervent supporters. During his term as governor, he made a lot of headlines, but advanced what there was of his somewhat libertarian political agenda hardly at all and almost destroyed...by inattention...the future of his party and perhaps the third party movement in Minnesota as well.
Can this trend be ameliorated or even reversed? Our answer is a resounding "YES!"
The problems of American democracy can best be solved by...MORE DEMOCRACY! While we were able to elect Jesse, once he was in office we had precious little influence over what he subsequently said or did. Had we been in possession of the recall...a democratic tool used to un-elect politicians before the expiration of their statutory terms...we could have pressured him to think more about us, less about himself. Had we also possessed the initiative...the ability of ordinary citizens to pass laws...we could have at least started the process of enacting those changes that we THOUGHT that Jesse stood for. Indeed, the main "victory" of the LP in the last election was the VERY close (45%-55%) initiative in Massachusetts to repeal the income tax. This shows that what we, the people, need is MORE CONTROL over these professional liars, not more government promises and programs.
On the other hand, the problem of political doubletalk is solving itself. Both Wellstone and Lott had frequently voiced the very sentiments that caught them up in the recent election cycle. They both had always gotten off without a scratch in the past. What happened this time? The answer, whether you realize it or not, is our old friend the Internet. The immediacy and growing ubiquity of this medium started the ball rolling. As is happening with ever increasing frequency, the (currently) dominant print and broadcast media were FORCED to address Lott's duplicity by prior disclosure on the Net. We have no doubt that had he survived and been re-elected, Wellstone would have met his political demise in a similar fashion as the peace movement continued its inevitable...if the Earth is to survive...world wide growth.
So all those of you who are providing...via email or Web postings...citizen deconstruction of our so-called leaders, keep on keepin' on. We, the people, will eventually win.
Talk to you later...
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