What this Presidential Election is About

In this election we are going to choose between a government by the people—at least as it is now—or a plutocracy run by the wealthiest few men in the country. After decades of poison being fed to us by right-wing corporate media many Americans believe that our democratically elected government is a constant source of problems for the average citizen. Reagan's famous quote that government isn’t the solution, it’s the problem has taken a firm hold in the consciousness of a wide swath of the country’s population.  It’s a bit ironic that American conservatives have almost nothing good to say about government yet refuse to cut even a penny from the defense budget, the one government organization that has proved on countless occasions that it is incapable of solving any or our problems.

Conservatives have convinced even lower-middle class Americans that they pay too much in taxes and that what people hand over to the government is a complete waste of money.  I won’t even go into the completely ridiculous idea of libertarianism but will keep to my main point: that this election will pit the rule of a few wealthy individuals against what we have left of a representative democracy.    

I realize that the Democrats have pretty much been bought and paid for by the finance industry but I still believe that the will of the people holds a little sway in Obama’s policies.  The Republicans don’t even pretend to be about anything other than looking out for the interests of the richest Americans.

Read about the two platforms in the NYT.