Closing arguments

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Posted 10/24/16

Well, that was certainly fun while it lasted, wasn’t it? I mean that whole “democracy” thing—you know, that illusion that we nurtured for so long, that notion that “We …

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Closing arguments

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Well, that was certainly fun while it lasted, wasn’t it?
I mean that whole “democracy” thing—you know, that illusion that we nurtured for so long, that notion that “We the People” actually had the power to select our own leaders, that they would listen to our voices, and that they cared about our needs.
This election has, like none other in our history, exposed the extent to which our attitudes, desires and choices have been carefully, calculatedly managed and manipulated.
From the blatant and systematic squelching, both politically and in the media, of the Bernie Sanders insurgency by the Democrats, and the cynical construction of Donald Trump’s so-called “revolt” by the Republicans, to the near-absolute exclusion of alternative and third-party voices from debates and public discussion, our real rulers—call them our handlers, if you will—have finally and unambiguously tipped their hand.  
In 2016, the art and science of “attitude management,” that dark and eldritch craft brought into the modern age by Edward Bernays, has truly reached its apotheosis.
So what should we do, now that Toto has opened the curtain, and we can see the wizards working their bells and levers? 
That, I can’t tell you. It’s up to you. Many of you will choose to follow your own Preferred Narratives, and either vote against the Predatory Psychopathic Narcissist by supporting the Dedicated Public Servant, or support the Iconoclastic Entrepreneurial Outsider by voting against the Corrupt Murderous Harpy, depending on which propaganda you have chosen to pay attention to.
Many of you may be thinking of sitting the whole thing out. I can’t blame you—but I have a suggestion you may wish to consider.
At the moment I am writing, a few days ago in your past, Clinton seems pretty secure in her leads in New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania. There is no telling, of course, what surprises may yet be in store for us, but at this point I feel safe in saying that in the Presidential contest voting for third-party, independent, or write-in candidacies (see voteotherproject.wordpress.com) is unlikely to make a difference in the overall result.
The main message that has to come out of the Presidential election returns is this: 
The present system sucks, and we the American people deserve better.
We deserve more choices, and better ones. We deserve an honest exchange of viewpoints on the issues that affect our everyday lives, not shouting matches between competing teams of scandal-mongers. We deserve to have our divergent views heard and taken seriously, and our common values celebrated, without the dehumanization and ridicule of those who dare to be different.
Sitting out this election, even if you’re doing it as a protest, doesn’t send the right message. The system likes it when we don’t participate; it just figures we’re apathetic or lazy, and it can keep right on doing what it’s been doing.
So please, disaffected voters, come out and vote—but Vote Other. Send a message to our handlers that we reject their clumsy groping, their forcing choices down our throats, their cynical disregard for our real needs.
Or else we make Lincoln a liar, and let “government of the people, by the people, and for the people,” truly perish from the face of the Earth.

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