Elections: Vote for Obama?

Some Marxists are encouraging people to not vote at all on Election Day. Some progressives, even some socialist groups, have suggested we should vote for the Barack Obama campaign in swing states. Some have suggested we work for the Obama campaign.

This election is a turning point for the US electoral system. Yet it has more to do with state and national congressional elections rather than a focus on the presidential race. So even if Obama gets re-elected, a major change in the overall political system is likely. It amounts to the very rich and the most greedy of the 1 percent taking control of virtually everything.

Several billionaires, including Charles and David Koch, are our pouring $ hundreds of thousands to $ millions in certain campaigns designed to further a Tea Party agenda that will give corporations like theirs absolute control of our government. They will be free from all taxes and regulations. They will crush unions and any rights, or government privileges for poor and working people. They will cater to the religious groups that promote hate against both gays and abortion providers and their supporters. They will have virtually no opposition and they will bully the news outlets to give importance to their dishonest blather, while legitimate opposition to their mantras are ignored, or given little serious discussion.

They are working hard to get their agenda in, state by state. They may garnish more power in the short run by running most states than the federal government, which they want to strip powerless anyway.

Their main weapon is the super-PAC. There are many of them, including ALEC and the Koch Brothers own Americans for Prosperity.

They use new voter ID laws to knock low income, elderly, some blacks and legal immigrants off the voter rolls. They focused on primary elections where voter turnout is low. They are doing everything they can to stack the deck so no candidate can win an election without their corporate backing.

We are in the midst of seeing a major corporate take over of our electoral system. We have had corporate backing of candidates before, but this is different. It is much more bold, open and brazen. They really don’t care if we know what they are doing as long as they get away with it. Opposition voices are simply ignored since these new corporate lackeys will have full control of nearly all branches of government. It is a genuine coup.

All government services will be cut, such as social security and education. I call it the cut and gut approach to government. They want to gut education, entitlements and anything that doesn’t directly help them out. They want to destroy the infrastructure of our country and privatize nearly all public services, except the military. State run medical care programs for the poor, sick and disabled, such as Kansas Medicaid, will be privatized so corporations can profit from their misery.

That brings us to the presidential election. How important is it? It won’t matter at all for foreign policy. Obama is a Republican when it comes to foreign policy and he is just as imperialistic as George W. Bush or Mitt Romney. The only difference between Obama and Romney is that Romney is more likely to play to the new coup of the greedy that are taking over or local, state and national government bodies. He will facilitate them, while Obama will act as a check and hold them in place a few years longer.

It will take some time for any reversal of the present political coup. My suggestion is to spend more time on action within the Occupy Movement or some other revolutionary movement. Voting is OK in swing states where it will make a difference. But in states as Kansas, it will make no difference at all. Kansas is extremely Republican and conservative and because of the Electoral College, it always goes 100 percent for the Republican. 

Spending time or money on the elections is time and money wasted. Those who have a real stake in the system are putting their money in it. We working people and Marxists need to put our money and time into our own organizations and projects. Voting takes little time and effort so it is not a big waste to try and stop Romney from gutting our country’s social structure. But voting is about all we should do. And let’s not expect any big dividends from such votes. I didn’t expect much from Obama the first time, so I avoided disappointment. Let’s not get our hopes up this year either.  -សតិវ អតុ