The Uni-Party vs. Democracy

By Blake Fleetwood, Columnist, The Kennedy Beacon

By Blake Fleetwood, Columnist, The Kennedy Beacon

I just finished reading about how Putin got 88% of the vote in Russia. It’s easy … keep your opponents off the ballot and censor them in the mass media. Then you win big.

We have a democracy here. We don't do that in the US, or do we?

OOPS!

Isn’t this what our Uni-Party of Democrats and Republicans are doing now? Even The New York Times is writing about it, publishing a story titled Democrats Prepare Aggressive Counter to Third Party Threats.

Ironically, in the name of preserving democracy, the Democrats have unleashed a well-funded army of political manipulators seeking to keep all opposition candidates – Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Cornel West, and Jill Stein – off the ballot, using a variety of tactics as previously reported in the Beacon here, here, here, here and here. This army, with its partners in the mainstream media, also works to silence and discredit them.

The Democrats say they are trying to save democracy but they are shutting down democracy.

It's positively Orwellian. In the novel 1984, the Ministry of Peace is actually the Ministry of War.

I suppose we should be thankful that Kennedy, West, and Stein are not locked up in a penal colony in Alaska. Putin should learn that you don’t have to be so heavy-handed to keep control.

Both US parties have concluded that preserving democracy is the biggest issue facing voters. An AP poll found that 54% of independents believe that a second Trump victory would negatively affect democracy, but 56% of independents also said the same about a Biden victory. The Democrats want to narrow this election and make it a binary choice: Trump vs. Biden. They say a vote against Biden is a vote for Trump and against democracy.

It’s a bizarre way to keep our democracy working. 

Ignore the Elephant In the Room

The Democrats want us to ignore high prices, the border crisis, inflation, mass inequality, and the endless foreign wars, which have led to a national debt of $34 trillion. They court the media to spread the lie that under Biden, and only under Biden, all is swell. 

Good luck with that spin. Voters, in increasing numbers, are seeing through it.

The Democrats want to mask the profound gloom that is haunting America. Instead, they want to focus on opposition research and spreading political dirt about Kennedy, whom they see as their greatest threat.

The majority of Americans are not happy with what is going on. (see chart below) For the first time ever, this year, the US did not rank in the top 20 of the world’s happiest countries. Young people in America are the most unhappy. In the US, people under 30 were dramatically more unhappy than those aged 60 and older. Among people under 30, the US ranked at number 62.

This Unhappiness is at Least 20 Years in the Making.

Middle-class income for the majority without a college degree has fallen for 40 years. Living standards have plummeted, and upward mobility has come to a halt. Young adults can’t afford a home, health care, or college education. 

Voters see the coming election as a choice between one old man who will give us more of the same and another aging, erratic former president who will say and do the most bizarre things to get elected. Voters know what Trump will do, and they know what Biden will do, and 70% of Americans don’t want any part of it. 

But they don’t see any way out of this binary Uni-Party choice. 

There is no doubt that voters have wanted real change for some time. This is what the Democrats are scared of. Trump cleverly figured out that Americans want things to change, and he keeps promising, but his promises, like draining the Washington swamp, have turned out to be hollow and voters don’t believe him. He had his chance and he didn’t deliver. 

Americans want someone new to come in and shake things up. A hero who will start a peaceful revolution. Leave the status quo and our dystopian democracy behind. As it is, according to a Democracy Matrix evaluation, the US ranks 36 in the world and is a “deficient democracy” behind Chile, Latvia, and Slovakia.

Disgruntled Americans voted left for change in 2008 (Obama) and then did a 180-degree turn and moved right for change in 2016 (Trump). Then in 2020 they voted for change again by throwing out Trump and bringing in Biden. 

Surprise, nothing changed.

Every time they were bitterly disappointed with the little that they got: more politics and platitudes while inequalities mushroomed. 

Kennedy is a rebel, who represents the greatest threat to the Uni-Party, which is why Democrats have unleashed an army of lawyers and committed tens of millions of dollars to keep him and other third-party candidates off the ballot in fifty states.

Voters are so disgusted with the dysfunctional Uni-Party that most Americans, in a massive shift, now identify as independents compared to 25% as Democrats or 25% as Republicans.

“What are ballot access barriers? They are barriers against free speech,” said Ralph Nader, who made a number of third-party campaigns for the presidency.

Our two founding fathers presciently warned us about this. George Washington predicted that powerful political parties would eventually “subvert the power of the people.” And John Adams, our second president, said, “There is nothing I dread so much as the division of the republic into great parties.”

Blake Fleetwood was a reporter for The New York Times and has written for The New York Times Magazine, New York Magazine, The New York Daily News, the Wall Street Journal, USA Today, the Village Voice, Atlantic, and the Washington Monthly on various issues. He was born in Santiago, Chile. email: jfleetwood@aol.com