What kind of " democracy " is preserved by a low voter turnout ?

Ralph Nader reflects on a Donald Trump third party

   I  am tired of reading how Ralph Nader's ego spoiled election night for Al Gore. The undemocratic Electoral College was a big factor in the disastrous victory of George W. Bush.
     Nader-like many obscure socialist parties - has said for years that Corporate America controls both the Democratic and Republican parties.
       I  am registered Democrat . The insane hatred of conservative Republicans for Bill Clinton motivated me to vote for him twice. But Clinton is a neo-Democrat not even an FDR liberal. Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont is really an FDR liberal-not a militant " socialist ".
       It seems that ONLY hard core socialists preserve their ideological integrity. But I have no problem with " pragmatism " on the left-as long as it does not weaken class consciousness.
        Cynics now hope that critical support for Bernie Sanders can be channeled into political support for Hillary Clinton on election 2016. But what a soporific choice : Hillary vs.Jeb Bush !
            I think the most progressive thing Donald Trump can do is destroy the Republican Party.
    A bunch of privileged rich people imagine that THEY represent America.What kind of " democracy " is preserved by a low voter turnout ?
   

No, Uncle Sam isn't Charlie. How about Orwell's Big Brother?

 

I think too many journalists in the so called capitalist democracies have deluded themselves about the ideal of FREE SPEECH in these societies. May I recommend leftist professor Howard Zinn's "People's History of the United States" for a more sober perspective on all civil liberties here?

Wikipedia link to Zinn's book

Was the McCarthy era paranoia all about FREE SPEECH rights even for moderately liberal scholars or political activists? It is well documented how a leftist party with which I was a presidential elector in 1980, The Socialist Workers Party, was harassed, sabotaged, and illegally spied on. The SWP did finally win its lawsuit against the FBI. But the damage was done.

Presently numerous activists who protested Bush's criminal war in Iraq and Afghanistan have their own tales of persecution to tell. And Talk Radio in America is particularly odious for its 24 hour right wing thug view of the world. They always rant about creeping socialism. But they would also silence any intellectually honest-and courageous-militant socialists.

Yes, if they could, the American FBI would love to obliterate my comments here rather than defend to the death my right to say this.

The talk of FREE SPEECH is mostly cant. When the ruling class does not like it they call it HATE SPEECH or just un-American and subversive and unpatriotic.

Even the famous Ralph Nader- now associated with the Green Party–can barely get a fair hearing in the capitalist news media.

And I must point out that too many individuals -even conservative types-have lost their jobs just over something they said.

As Professor Zinn pointed out, free speech is very problematic here. After suggesting that our Memorial Days just might glorify war more than they honor our war dead, he lost his column in a major newspaper. So much for FREE SPEECH in America!

And with the president of Israel coming to America to address the Congress, can anybody here criticize Israel's war crimes against the Palestinians without being branded anti-Semitic?

And so I hear: "Karl Marx was a self-hating Jew!

Forget about democratic DIALOGUE in the United States. Uncle Sam isn't Charlie. He is Orwell's Big Brother!

( published in Le Point ( France ) on Jan. 12, 2015 by Michel Colomes:"Obama Isn't Charlie", WATCHING AMERICA)