Buy politicians
We have been tolled
Ferry tales
From bank to bank
Holding no water
Liquidating assets
Left and right
Sow gully able
As they desperately wanton
US to believe
The chosen few, the elect
As top down
Driving in convertible submarines
Celling down the river
As whatever
Thou dust
Having already
Drunk
The KoolAid™
In effacing endless boos
As given the owed college try
And in curable desperation
Quipped to say
Bottom up
As no need to take any ship
From any won
Upright
Nor bail
For yawl
Here is an election day themed poem for Ohio’s presidential primary elections today. While it’s easy to be cynical about politics, the adage, follow the money, is a powerful tool for understanding politics and power. The political class, overpopulated by the aristocracy, has well developed strategies and tactics to appeal to the notion that they are on your side. Inevitably, moneyed folks have a way of perpetuating their economic interests over less economically endowed folks. These strategies and tactics are built into our everyday life — appealing to crass celebrity as distraction and chasing money (and its attendant addictive cycles of debt and over-consumption) as the unquestioned path to the good life — but during campaign season the high rhetoric typically pushes the limits of hypocrisy. Unfortunately, the United States electorate is the most uniformed electorate among so-called advanced industrial democracies. Plus, with brazen gerrymandering, corrupt party politics, lack of universal voter registration, and a whole host of practices degrading voter participation rather than enhancing it, our democracy has been bought and sold. Our so-called democracy would be more aptly described as an oligarchy, plutocracy, or even kleptocracy. Voter turnout in the U.S. is the lowest among so-called developed countries. While increased voter turnout could offer modestly better results, a poorly informed electorate does not have the essential immunization against propaganda and manipulation that would make for a functioning democracy. I strongly suspect the the bulk of effort needed to revitalize our democracy must occur outside of electoral politics, with social movements that force changes in our political system alongside cultivating positive changes toward a more just culture that respects human rights and dignity for all. Voting matters, but if we rely primarily on voting, whatever is left of our democracy will matter little. Vote with your feet and hit the streets; organize; and be the change you want to see in the world.
