May 4, 2007
by Paul Kemp

There are two threats that make this 2008 election the most important of our lives.  There is no way a mainstream candidate funded by special interests and big corporations is going to make the right decisions for the American people.  They've been leading us into trouble for years - why should they change now?

Fortunately, American voters have the Internet to promote some authentically good candidates who can't afford the multi-million dollar media campaigns.  That is our secret weapon to take back control of the U.S. government - IF enough Americans still care.

Unfortunately, our political system contains a trap for the unsuspecting: both parties produce more or less the same results.  So, when we're fed up with the Republicans' warmongering, deficit financing, and corruption, most Americans will automatically vote for the Democrats, who give us more or less the same thing but with a new image.

Instead of a War on Iraq, we'll spend money we don't have on a War on Global Warming.  The War on Terror will continue, though, because the world's largest army will always find things to do.

What I fear most is that America will elect Hillary Clinton to get us out of Iraq and then go back to watching American Idol, thinking everything is under control.  Wrong!  Hillary is already buddying up to the Pentagon's generals, assuring them they'll get the funding they want for a major expansion of troop strength so we can go on being the world's police force.  How can we afford it - even if it were the right thing to do, which it isn't?

The threats we face are 1) a financial crash caused by reckless spending of both parties in power for the past 70+ years; and 2) the eventuality that al-Qaeda will get their hands on nuclear weapons, use them on us, and America will quickly be placed under martial law.  That will be the end of our experiment in freedom.

The American people have the power to stop both these things from happening. The key, though, is to form a coalition of all those voters who believe it's time for a change.

There is a unique opportunity here for all those who see what is wrong with both Republican and Democratic platforms to unite in support of a stable of candidates who have what this country needs.  Splitting that vote between Libertarian, Green, Constitution Parties and whoever else over fairly minor differences will produce the result it usually produces - little or no electoral success.

If Americans want lasting peace, freedom, and security, they need to place their support on the best horse and let it ride.

Using the 'Net, we need to alert Americans to the awful consequences of conceding this election to the "politics as usual" crowd - and that there is a better alternative.

Using the 'Net, we can be working out our differences and learning about the candidates from the comfort of our homes and offices.

I don't know about you, but I know it would give me great pleasure to be part of a groundswell grassroots movement that shocked all the corrupt Washington elite by throwing a bunch of them out of office for doing such a spectacularly bad job of running this country.  Wouldn't that be fun?

Now THAT would send a message!

A lot of Americans don't like what's going on, but they have given up on any opportunity for real change - so they don't even vote.  They may think "All politicians are the same" because all Republican and Democrats ARE essentially the same.  So they give up on voting.

That's just what the "powers that be" want - no organized Opposition to hold them accountable for their wild and self-serving spending.  No sane voices to question the full-blown control over our foreign policy by the Military-Industrial Complex.

The policies of both mainstream parties have brought us to this dangerous impasse and therefore neither can be trusted to guide us anymore.

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What policies am I talking about?  The way Social Security has been handled is an excellent reason to throw most incumbent Congressmen out for corruption.  For 40 years, the oversize Baby Boom generation has been working and paying their Social Security taxes.  The trillions of dollars needed to pay this obligation could have been saved to help pay for this commitment Congress made in accepting the Boomers' taxes.  It's been clear all along to Congress that the following generations aren't large enough to support all these Boomers in retirement, which begins next January.

This year alone there was a $177 Billion surplus that could have been put aside and invested in something secure that would grow over the years to pay the Boomers' Social Security/Medicare benefits.   Our Treasury should have been investing that money like any legitimate insurance company would do.  They've had at least twenty years that they've known that Generation X and Y weren't going to be big enough to support the Boomers - unless we doubled their taxes or cut benefits.

But noooo!  Congress has taken that money every year, rolled it into their  budget to make the deficit looks smaller...and congratulated themselves for reducing the deficit!  And then they spent all the Social Security surplus.  And more.

Now that the total federal debt is admitted to be over $51 Trillion(when the ammounts owed to Social Security, Medicare, and other entitlements) and there's no way we can pay what Congress has promised - and a lot of people are depending upon - UNLESS we either double the taxes on the Gen X, Y, and Z workers to pay for retiring Boomers, cut benefits, OR Congress could just quietly print a few extra trillion per year and cause our economy to go haywire with massive inflation.

The most politically feasible alternative is the printing press.  That way Congress won't have to admit they squandered our money they accepted in trust.  Perhaps someone will still believe them if they blame the resulting inflation on greedy businesses and institute price controls, as Nixon did years ago.

Does that make you mad?  Both parties have taken part in this con game for the past 70 years.  If you ran a private corporation like that, they'd put you in jail for many years.  It's called a "Ponzi Scheme."  Not our Congress!  They have a "Get out of jail free" pass.  They write the laws.

But we have one thing they desperately need - our Votes!  We can vote them out of office and I think we should, don't you?

It's a matter of self-defense.  Those who are reading this and educating themselves as to what our true predicament is, instead of watching some hypnotic mindless programming on TV, need to wake enough others and get them fired up and righteously angry at what has been done to us.

This one screw-up will affect all Americans, not just the Boomers and the young workers who will be taxed more to pay for Congress' perfidy.  We're talking about massive inflation, not the usual few percent admitted to in the CPI figures.

Read Lawrence Kotlikoff's book, "The Coming Generational Storm", which explains the whole history of how this fiscal fiasco has developed.  If you want another reference, look at David Walker's presentation about the serious trouble we are ALL in for within the next few years.  Read the International Monetary Fund's warning to America on this very subject.  (Some count the Social Security liability, etc., as part of the national debt and some don't.  Kotlikoff makes the case that it should be counted because this is a more accurate picture of the true debt.)

People need to connect how this is going to affect them.  Here it is: Either your taxes will be doubled or benefits will be trimmed somewhat or the Treasury will print up trillions of dollars and pay what they owe...in inflated money.  Essentially counterfeit money.

It could be a combination of all three - higher taxes, a cut in benefits, and high inflation, which robs you of the value of the money you have.

How long are we going to wait for these well-paid crooks to do the right thing by us?  They've had 70 years to start running a balanced budget, but they can't bring themselves to stop spending OUR money on pointless wars, space exploration, foreign aid giveaways, and corporate welfare, etc..

(Actually, the wars aren't pointless at all, they're about transfering trillions of our tax monies to Bush & Cheney's cronies and enriching the Prez and VP - but that's a subject I cover in my Web site: Defending-your-Retirement.com/)

The question is: What are we going to do about it?  Are we sheep, going placidly to our own slaughter?  Or are we free individuals?

The only way we're going to replace the bums with a group of courageous citizen representatives, like we had in our revolutionary war days, is to unite and vote as one block for agreed-upon candidates who will do what we need done.

Not every party in the coalition will get what they want, but you have to realize that voting seperately for banning abortion, protecting the environment, etc. - and not getting anyone into office to implement your issues is less appealing than forgoing those smaller points to successfully vote in some candidates who will vote to resolve the terrorism situation and resolve the budget crisis.

Put another way, would you rather vote for a candidate who would ban abortion(or whatever issue distinguishes your preferred party) - and lose for lack of votes - and then get financially devastated by hyperinflation, OR might it be wiser to vote in a coalition and win so we can avoid the  inflation due to Social Security's implosion?  And all the other problems these slick charlatans create for us.

To quote the Rolling Stones, "You can't always get what you want - but if you try sometime, you just might find, you'll get what you need!"

If those of us who see the fiscal danger of the huge debt and the physical danger we're in due to these endless wars in the Middle East want to save our skins and that of our loved ones, we can't go into this 2008 election voting for five different minor parties.

Take a look at the Libertarians if you aren't already familiar with them.  They are usually the third largest vote-getters in U.S. elections.  I am convinced they are the best all-around, well-developed party organization and platform to save America from devastating inflation and more terrorism attacks here that will eventually turn our beautiful country into a wasteland.

If I can help facilitate this national conversation, I will be happy to.  I won't argue with anyone, but if you see the dangers in America's current direction and want to help, you can reach me through my new Web site: www.defending-your-retirement.com/. 

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Paul Kemp awoke to the realities of American politics as a Conscientious Objector and war resister during the Vietnam era.  He is an entrepreneur and writer who lives in the Pacific Northwest. To email him, please go to www.whitelist.sitesell.com/ and enter his address of info@defending-your-retirement.com/