Boycott! A strategy for winning...

author: Bruce Wilkinson        e-mail: bruce@mediaisland.org

This year the Democrats are going to lose but dissident voices can win. We have a new and powerful excuse to boycott the elections, fighting corporate power, but it has to be organized and an empowered boycott. This is a call against apathy, against the corporate political parties and for an empowered non-voter.

The first American Revolution, in 1776, threw off the yoke of the king of England. Our fledgling democracy was then limited to white males who were educated landowners with slave owners apportioned an extra 3/5ths of a vote per slave. Now every adult has been given the right to vote, and democracy is part of America's pride. It is that sense of pride in our democracy that calls for an active boycott of this election.

Without a vote in Congress, or a decree from the President, the Supreme Court has reinstated the 3/5ths rule and has taken away all our suffrage. This sweeping change has turned Congress into a king's court for the kings of corporations. The slaves are us, with a proportion of each of our vote being given to these greed determined kings. The cause of this is unlimited corporate spending on elections which effectively ended democracy in America. The solution is to boycott this election and boycott all corporations who have crowned themselves during it.

The same 14th Amendment that gave all people born in this country citizenship and revoked the 3/5ths clause in the Constitution, has been mistakenly used by the Supreme Court to give corporations the rights of people. The Citizens United Supreme Court ruling in late 2009 gave corporations, as formally termed people, the right to spend unlimited money on elections, as protected free speech. This revoked the McCain Feingold law and all election reforms. The spirit of the14th amendment has been revoked, and the slave masters are corporate executives and all of America is their slave.

Historically the wealthy have always maintained a disproportionate amount of power in government. This election marks a new precedent where the one percent who own 83% of the stocks in all corporations now can wield that control to buy elections outright. In terms of control of power and ability to wield it, our nation has never experienced power as concentrated as it currently has become. In the entire history of this country, our democracy has never been this weak. The world has never experienced individuals as powerful as the new kings are becoming.

Corporations are not people. They don't love. If, hypothetically, corporations were people they would be psychopaths. Voting for candidates who have received all their support from psychopaths from the day they were born on the political stage until the moment of Election Day, is not what an informed voter would do. What an informed voter would do is refuse to vote in an election run by psychopaths and vocally oppose the results.

Boycotting elections takes away the validity of the election's results. It is a stand made on a principal that the vast majority of Americans can understand and agree with. It cuts across a broad spectrum of issues and unites diverse people around a common cause. It has potential appeal that can bring progressives and independents equally into a single issue agreement. It rejects the passivity and despondence that is created when people realize that they are playing a rigged game set against their interests. An election boycott is engaging, strident, effective and emboldening to the people who participate in it. Whereas unchallenged corporate controlled elections leaves the results valid and leaves a precedent for all future elections.

A boycott campaign of an election is a reaffirmation of the importance of democracy and is a defense of our democratic system. It is a way to engage in a deeper democracy. Boycott becomes your candidate. Signs, rallies, bumper stickers, advertisements, op-ed, letters to the editor, canvassing, phone calls, debates and actions of many varieties are all needed. On Election Day people can write in boycott or send in blank ballots. The day after Election Day, the boycotters call the election invalid and push forward a campaign for election reform.

Any candidate that refuses corporate funding and is facing a mismatched election should join the boycott and drop out of the race. There is incredible strength in candidates willing to stand up on principal regarding corporate power.

As a campaign like any other, getting out the vote is crucial for the boycott to be effective. Boycotters can be registering people to vote so they do not vote. Boycotters can be advocating a wide variety of issues in the name of democracy. Boycotters can be grilling candidates at public forums. Boycotting is not the same as sitting at home in passivity. It is a vote, a vote of no confidence.

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