AMERICA HAS BEEN BOUGHT AND SOLD BY CORPORATE THUGS

Rochester, N.Y-- Through the misty stench that defines the GOP nominating process, some things have actually become more clear as we enter the 2012 presidential election cycle. By no means do these following concepts apply to just the POTUS race, but to every local election from your Congress representative right down to your village dog catcher.

When will voters support candidates who will tax the rich in a meaningful amount? A 1 percent tax increase on billionaires is both cowardly and tokenism at its worst. Corporations and the super-rich should be made to return the money they stole from the American people a few years ago. If the only candidates on the ticket continue to force poor and working people to pay for the "deficit" created by the rich and the Pentagon, throw the bums out. Placating the rich is unacceptable regardless of which party sells us out.

It's also time to end the store-bought elections that the Supreme Court sanctioned in the Citizens United case. Democracy cannot exist if elected offices go to the highest bidder. Support only candidates who oppose these rigged, undemocratic charades we now call elections.

Americans should vote only for candidates who want to shut down our impossibly over-crowded prisons, and to replace repression with educational opportunities and jobs. If all of the potential candidates are afraid to oppose the police-state mentality that currently dominates our domestic society, then raise your voice a little louder this election cycle. As Martin Luther King, Jr. once pointed out, "Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter." 

The American people have been disenfranchised from the electoral process, and from any semblance of democratic decision-making. We have been bought and sold by corporate hooligans. The only way out of this is to fight back against these thugs. Continuing to support the "lesser of two evils" is suicidal when the only choices we are given consist of "candidates" chosen by our enemies.

Wake up America. Multi-national corporations pull all the strings and are creating a new America right under our noses-- one for the haves and one for the have-nots.

-This commentary does not reflect the views of CSEA as an organization.