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Edited on Fri Oct-05-07 06:30 PM by tblue37
The Founding Fathers were absolutely correct about the fact that the crowd is easily stampeded. Government by plebiscite is exactly what keeps happening in California with all those voter initiatives. The US “people” are ignorant and distracted and can easily be persuaded by propaganda campaigns that are funded by the deep pockets what Teddy Roosevelt called “malefactors of great wealth.”
The attempt by the Republicans to change the way the electoral votes are allotted in California, funded by the director of Rudy Giuliani’s campaign manager, is an example of the risk of letting the people make laws. That initiative failed, thank goodness, but the Republicans were able to force the recall of Democratic governor Gray Davis, because the people were angry that he couldn’t solve the energy problems deliberately created by Republican cronies Enron.
Gravel makes a lot of sense in many areas, but this business about letting “the people” make the laws ignores the fact that “the people” are the same sort of mindless mob that votes for people like George Bush and gives them high poll numbers, until things are so disastrous that they finally feel it directly themselves—but by then the damage is so great that it is impossible or almost impossible to begin to fix it. Sure, Bush’s numbers are bad now, but that’s fairly recent. By ginning up an illegal war, those malefactors of great wealth were able to get “the people” so excited that they practically deified Bush! The people” can all too easily get stampeded into supporting other demagogues’ evil schemes, as well.
I really like that he is in the race, though, because he helps pull the conversation toward the progressive side. For too long, all forces have been pulling our poilitical discourse to the right of Atilla the Hun. Maybe his presence will force reconsideration of the media annointed "top-tier" candidates, in terms of how close they come to the progressive ideas he has articlated. He might even force reconsideration of Kucinich, who has suffered a media shut-out almost as extreme as the one Grvel has experienced.
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