Full disclosure:
I have been giving money to four candidates: primarily Edwards and Kucinich -- less than $75 each -- and $20 to Obama and Dodd. In 2004, I gave Howard Dean $950 and was an alternate state delegate for Dean, having volunteered about 80 hours for the Dean campaign.
In 2004, I would not have walked across the street to piss on Kerry or Edwards.
I have changed my mind about Edwards. But I don't believe he has any chance, and I'm saving my limited resources this time around.
In 2008, I don't feel I "have a dog in this fight," because I'm leaving the country whatever happens. It's too late, I believe. However, since I'm a sucker for lost causes, here's how I see it:
2008 is the watershed election of the past 100 years. U.S. history appears to me to run in 70 year cycles. This is the "Last Chance Election" to avoid the next 70 years being a Fascist Era in the U.S. (I don't believe that the U.S. could survive such an era, because of nukes. The hyperaggressive, Neocon-controlled U.S. will be confronted by a China-Russian alliance.)
2008 is the Last Chance for the Democrats to choose between being "FDR Democrats" and "Clinton Democrats." Clintonism was largely successful during the 1990s as a giant "Fire Sale" in which the DLC tried to create a hybrid between Reaganism (which is anti-New Deal) and New Deal-Lite. Corporations obviously did not appreciate the gesture, because corporations are rapacious and stupid and bottomless black holes of greed. So it was stupid to expect them to see their own enlightened self-interest.
After the Bush Era, there is nothing left for the Clintons to sell of the Democratic Party Soul. There are no regulations left to "relax" and no interest rates left to cut (and would the Clinton Era ever have been successful without Alan Greenspan and OPEC's cooperation? Perhaps AG and OPEC were the Grand Enablers of such an era, for a strategic positioning in a Grand Chessgame).
Edwards is the final standard-bearer for New Deal politics. If the economic collapse of the U.S. dollar happens in 2008 or 2009, Hillary Clinton will not pursue FDR's policies. Huckabee might produce a mixed-bag of confused reaction. Edwards would likely be another FDR, in policy terms.
Roosevelt was considered a "traitor to his class," and remains hated by the Top 1% all these years later. Hitler was regarded by Wall Street as a model for the union of Capital and State. In the 1930s, Wall Street had a significant pro-fascist streak. The
Business Plot that nearly overthrew FDR and U.S. democracy is not waiting, this time around, for Edwards to get elected. They are in full pre-emptive smear mode now.
As I see it, the problem is that Obama and Edwards are going to split the "Progressive/Left" vote of the Democratic Party. This will produce a Hillary Clinton nomination, although it may be an extremely weak nomination. It's extremely unfortunate (and probably by design) that Obama is attacking Edwards; an Obama/Edwards (or Edwards/Obama) ticket would be a guaranteed lock on the nomination.
Hillary Clinton failed her first attempt at taking the D.C. Bar Exam, according to Carl Bernstein's biography of her. Hillary Clinton (we are told) believed her husband's lie, then as Senator, Hillary Clinton (we are told) believed Bush's WMD lie and voted to authorize his unlimited powers to declare pre-emptive war (a violation of the Constitution in itself). HRC is nowhere near as smart or shrewd a politician or leader as we are led to believe. She has shown zero leadership or courage in the Senate against the 24%-approval-rated Bush.
But I believe that by design, HRC is being programmed into the White House. Any third-party candidacy (Paul/Kucinich or McCain/Lieberman) will split the electoral vote and throw the election into the (Democratically-controlled) House of Representatives, who will choose her as President, which will weaken her Presidency even farther (by design).
As with the aftermath of Iran-Contra, the new President Clinton will not pursue justice or investigations.
With considerable reservations, I would support Edwards or Kucinich, or
anybody besides Clinton or Giuliani. Even a Huckabee would buy time and create wrinkles against the Plutocracy.
But the system is indeed rigged; the media is so tightly controlled that nearly a million people flooded the Senate yesterday (December 18 ) with phone calls and e-mails in support of Dodd's filibuster, and the media has not whispered a peep about it. A total media blackout.
We are in the dark. We are in the era of Pravda, except that instead of one "State Apparatus Media" we are given the illusion of four or five.
Dodd is a strange figure in all of this. Although I've given him money based on his apparent backbone in the Senate on the FISA issue...
...Peter Dale Scott's
Deep Politics and the Death of JFK has a lot to say about Christopher Dodd's father, Thomas, who played a possible role in the deaths of JFK and Oswald.
Thomas Dodd also had numerous ties to Far-Right and very fascist individuals, as well as to organized crime. This makes his son's apparently noble (albeit very belated) actions a mystery and I maintain some skepticism.
There's a lot going on in the U.S. election of 2008. (Where there's smoke, there's fire).
Perhaps that's because the Elite have not yet made their Totalitarian Control 100% airtight.
And although I see no hope -- because, let's not forget, those digital Voting Machines are still in Right-Wing hands, and they could engineer a Hillary Clinton victory in Iowa and the primaries to suit their opaque ultimate purposes -- the truth is, sooner or later,
the American people will have to choose:
The American people can pour into the streets
now like the Bolivians have been doing, and with utter dignity and solemnity, the Americans could demand democracy... Or, a handful of Americans can pour into the street
later, after the military coup against Patsy Caesar Hillary Clinton, and then the Kent State Pt. 2/the American Tianenmen Square Massacre will be the alternate choice for Americans.
Because the Top 1% aren't going to settle for sharing power with you little people. They want it all.
And a lot of people, even on this discussion board (of all places),
still refuse to believe that fascism is fanatic enough (or even exists at all) to want to overthrow democracy and subjugate everyone to a Totalitarian System. And because I see people like this every day, even here on this board, that's why I have no hope that Edwards, Kucinich, Gravel, Huckabee, or anyone who has no political machine, can even get a foot in the door.
Sorry to say, it's almost time for LIGHTS OUT.
