The Hands Around Democracies Throat
(And Open letter to Congress and the press)
What is progress forward if it isn’t improvement of what needs fixing. If it is not broke, you do not fix it. If it is not broke you don’t break it by believing it needs fixing. Do we have progress forward by taking steps backwards. Does a runner in a marathon ask the organizers to shorten the course so that it gives him the advantage over other runners, so they win. These and other issues are on our nations table where the host decides only certain quality foods are allowed to be consumed by certain guest, while others guest are offered a lessor quality of food or they can leave. Call it what it is, Racism, Discrimination, Suppression of rights, and a shifting of balances in who has more rights, then others. Those who hold wealth and power, or those who have less wealth and no power. Those who are seen as less in the eyes of others by those who see themselves the better of humanity. Those who feel that by the color of their white skin, are the chosen ones to rule those who’s darker color of skin marks them as inferior to the White skinned human. When does progress go forward in changing these attitudes? Is it by fixing what is broke in our society and politics. Is it fixing the inequalities of our laws. Is it taken what isn’t broke and breaking it so that you can recreate it in your own image. In an image that has no forward progress, but stall’s progress, stagnates progress, and reverses progresses without solving the issues to the betterment of all.
We have become a nation of men and women who believe that progress forward does not benefit them.
For it would mean they would have to change their Ideology, Political views, and make major changes in their attitudes. Attitudes that they where weened on since childhood to believe that they are better then others. That they, because of the white color of their skin are the superior human. That they have a right to hold wealth and power over others. That wealth equates to power, and to have power is to have the greater wealth. This is not an overnight phenomenon. It is a culture that has been around since the beginning of civilization. Which only makes the problems harder to fix. Why is that so? Generation after Generation after centuries have been ingrained in their minds that wealth is power, and power is wealth. That wealth and power feeds one’s ego’s to believe they deserve that wealth and power, while those beneath them deserve to be ruled by that wealth and power. That wealth and power can only be earned by having superiority of mind another kind of Wealth. That those in poverty or slavery, do not have a superior mind, therefore they are incapable of earning wealth and power. Nor are they incapable of or deserving an education to gain the element of wealth. Why is that so? When you educate a person, you open doors and windows. You put them on the same level of your wealth and power. It is an exclusive club. Education teaches you to know which doors to open and which windows to jump through. By keeping you in chains of poverty and ignorance you will not know about those doors or windows you can open. They believe that kept in ignorance you will not rise above them and take away their wealth and power.
It is a fact that not all people with wealth, new wealth or old wealth are power hungry. Wealth isn’t a mandated unavoidable genetic link to power. There is a third element here. That element is Ideologies created by groups of people who want you to believe that wealth can relate to power and to have that power you must follow our party ideologies, our parties platform, our parties way of thinking and doing things. What if that party ideology, their platform and way of thinking and doing things isn’t progress forward but an attempt to keep the status quo of wealth and power that exclusive club of masters of the universe. The puppeteer who controls the strings. The politician who sees it their way and ignores your voice. When you voice rises up against him or her. They take that power and wealth to suppress that voice so progress forward stalls, remains stagnated, and keep their flawed ideologies in control of you voice and mind. Remember, if they keep the majority in poverty of mind, keep you from educational opportunities, fair housing, fair wages, ownership of business, and ownership of land. They control you through suppressing those opportunities. Like todays current efforts to suppress voter rights, or method of voting, even admitting opening that today’s voting laws are a disadvantage to having a fair chance of winning elections that are rightfully theirs to win.
Remember that runner asking the marathon organizers to shorten the course so they can have the advantage of winning the race over all others. This runner does not want to run a 26-mile marathon, he wants to run one block beating all others to the finish line. Why is that so? Well, I tell you, they don’t want to spend that physical energy, to have cramped muscles, and sweat in their eyes, or fear they will collapse mid race, to eventually lose an honest race. But they well spend money and energy to prove the race was fixed, a fraud, and want the results invalidated. Does it surprise you that they spend your money to fight these fraudulent claims. Money you sent to their campaign to support that campaign so that they can cry foul play when they lost an honest race. Something has changed in recent election cycles where we have candidates crying foul play when they lose a race, so they now want to suppress the votes that the winner of the race got, so that in the next election cycle they will have the advantage.
These loser cried foul play, the last election was riddle with fraud, that too many people voted. That the voting process was to easy. That mail in votes, drop boxes, and new state laws gave more legal voters the ease to vote and robbed them of votes they should have gotten. Think about it, in this simple math equation. 10,000 legal voters only, two presidential candidates, 6,000 votes went to the winner, 4,000 to the loser. You open up the number of people who can legally vote and the ease of voting. Now the numbers are 100,000 votes, 60,000 votes went to the same winner, 40,000 votes when to the same the loser. The loser still lost the election not by having lessor votes, but by having a flawed political stance, ideology, platform, and a previous term of questionable behavior, impeachment, and a failure to govern this nation within the framework of our nations constitution and laws. Otherwise, he was a lousy president and there is no way 4,000 or any number of millions of votes was going to win him a second term. Now his party wants to suppress votes. I say that in the next cycle of elections coming up in 2022, even if only 10,000 people vote, they will still lose, and they will still cry foul play, while they pocket your money.
It is the nature of their Ideology, the Political platform, and thinking that they must maintain power so that they can maintain wealth. What would happen if they found themselves losing that wealth, it would certainly weaker their power in office. The new issue among many in wealth and power fight against campaign funding changes that would in essence balance the rules of the campaign game. As it is now campaigns are supported by rules that not only ensure that those with wealth and power have an advantage over those who do not have wealth and power to oppose those who. The rules govern who can and how much a campaign can receive by corporations or individuals. A poorer candidate access to corporate funds can be limited by the fact of his poverty, while a smaller group of individuals are his only source of campaign funds. While the seasoned candidate has established a list of corporate supporters, and individuals. Thus, do they remain in power by the imbalance of campaign funding. If there is to be progress forward on this issue, then it needs changing that in-balance, equalize the playing field. That all candidates and their campaigns receive an equal same amount of funding, and that funding should be un-bias public support. What would this accomplish. With an equal financial support, a campaign and its candidate would not have the advantage over another because of wealth, power and wealthy supporters with power. Thus, would a candidate, his or her campaign have an equal footing on ads, etc. Thus, would a candidate have only his platform to support his or her chances of winning an election, not how much money they spent or have personally, or the size of a supporters wallet or the flashiness of his campaign ads.
If that platform loses his or her election then it is not the lack of money but the platform of their party. The issue today in campaign reform is should tax payers pay for campaigns. What is the difference, tax payers support campaigns directly from their pockets, they are still tax payers. Thus, creating that in-balance of campaign funding I mentioned. The tax payer paying into a government campaign fund, a fund that is equally distributed among campaigns regardless of party affiliation. Let’s go back to some simple math. Let’s say the tax payers paid in One million dollars that year into the agency held accountable for those funds. Two presidential candidates would mean 500,000 thousand dollars to run their campaign no less no more, and no corporate or individual funding. Each candidate has the same budget, and the agency that holds that money in trust, pays the bills for accountability. Then and only then, does a candidate rely only on his or her personality, party affiliation and platform. You remove the wealth equation out of it, and you give opportunity for fresh minds and bodies to campaign for office and not based on how much wealth and power they have in the first place.
This reform would open up doors and windows for those who have the right stuff to be in office without the drawback of campaign funding inequities. Tie these reforms to term limits and you remove the power struggles we are facing today in congress and state houses. Each state would have the same reforms and state agency to be held accountable for distribution of these funds. No candidate in local, state, or nationally, will be able to misuse funds, or circumvent funds that don’t meet the new reforms. Otherwise supporting a family member on the side or using funds to bribe votes, or any of that unethical activity that plague elections today, with so many holes in the rules that many circumvent to personally gain. Like an ex-president asking for money from his supporters to support his many lawsuits to fight claims of election fraud, then keeping the money for himself loopholes. All questionable loopholes in campaign funds. It is and should be obvious to many that even when you lose an election you manage to go away richer then you were before you enter into a campaign. Now I might old and naive, but I always thought that campaign funds didn’t personally belong to the candidate’s wallet for his or her to do as they please. Did something change. This has got to stop, for it feeds into the Wealth and Power factor, that as long as, I can convince the voters that I am sincere in my platform goals, I can benefit personally lose or win.
If we could actually have the means and technology of mind reading, mapping ones thoughts and know just what a politician and candidate thinks before he runs for office, enters office, and during office what they really think about why they are there, and about their constituents. I would not be alarmed to find out that we have far too many in local, state office and in congress whose only reason for being in office is to gain wealth and power and have nothing to do with serving the people and this nation. I do not believe we need such technology to know that answer. We only need review the parties Ideologies and how today the GOP wants to suppress voter’s rights, break what isn’t broken, and refuse to fix what is. In their own words, “We are at a disadvantage,” and to change that disadvantage they seek to suppress our rights, so that they will never ever lose another election, even if that means Democracy dies with their hands around it’s throat for all to see. I shall state here that the GOP is not the only villain with their hands around Democracies throat. But have relationship with the GOP and share the same desires. These are the White Supremist group, QAnon, Proud Boys, and conspiracy groups whose only purpose is to divide and conquer our Democracy. You get enough hands around Democracy Throat, and it will die. It would be like a boiling pot of water, put a lid on it and walk away to visit your friends in Cancun, and that pot will boil over. While the cat is away the mice will chew through our constitution.
Wealth can saves lives, Wealth can support charity. Wealth can fix what is broken. When this nations Wealth is based on inclusive freedom, equality, Educational and Job Opportunities, living wage, fair housing, and social reform, it benefits all. When Wealth is in the wrong hands, there is no progress forward when Wealth becomes an exclusive membership club in congress. Wealth can and does create power struggles. When wealth in congress fails to be bipartisan for that is the nature of wealth to be exclusive, stingy, selfish, arrogant, and paranoid. We all know how Midas allowed his wealth to destroy himself. He lost the one thing he loved more then gold and gold destroyed that love. If we ignore that moral tale. If the arrogance and selfishness of Republicans don’t kill us all with their attitudes about Covid-19 partisan politics. Their arrogance, ego, and boys club ideology and political platform with destroy what I love most this democracy. It is all I have ever known, and when it dies, the future will never know what that love is. Love isn’t perfect, nor is our democracy, or the people who were elected to protect that democracy. Wealth and power isn’t a pre-requisite for having a perfect love for this nation, and when you consider the founders of this nation, and the framers of our constitution. It wasn’t wealth and power that build this nation. It was love for Democracy and what Democracy meant to them and how they wanted that democracy they created to endure beyond there own time and well into the future of the next generations. I won’t be quip here and say they are rolling in their graves in disgust. You don’t have to be dead to despise those who are throttling democracy. The dead are free of that suffering, while the living must endure the suffering of fools who have killed so many of our loved ones in the last year because they followed a man who thought he was Midas. A man who was recently made into an image of a gold idol and his follower, supporters and the Republican party worshiped that gold idol. Like Midas, a time will come where he will lose the one thing he loves the most. It is not democracy as he claims he loves, but the love of Gold. This is not a conspiracy theory, a myth or a prophecy, this is a lesson learned from History, and we all know History does and will repeat itself. I just hope our Democracy will survive.
Robert D. Vergeson
