Dear Mr\/Mme President, Speaker of the House, Vice President.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u00a0I am writing to you today because the country has a problem. I am able (by some enlightened sense) to see the problem with some clarity, and the solutions. Why, or how I am able to do this, I don\u2019t know, but in as much as our government, seems to have had some trouble understanding these issues, I shall share with you my wisdom. You\u2019ll be amazed at how really simple it all is.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
To whit:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The biggest elephant in the room today is literally, the Elephant.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n As you must have noticed, the lumbering pachyderm symbol that has represented the Republican Party since 1860 is no longer content with winning office every few years, depleting the treasury, enriching their donors, and crashing the economy. The beast has grown teeth and horns, and has decided that power is a wonderful thing to have, and, to keep. Forever. Forever power, being so much better for business. Yes\u2026.they want power forever<\/strong>. And they will do everything they can to achieve it, literally cheat, steal, and lie<\/strong> ..unless democracy stops them. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n How did this happen, and do we stop them?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n I\u2019ll boil it down to four main things.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n It\u2019s not \u201clobbying\u201d. Elected officials must spend most of their time fund raising, instead of serving their constituents. You can see how this might get out of hand. There are some politicians who are in office to serve\u2026themselves<\/strong>. Get money out of politics. It\u2019s not lobbying, it\u2019s bribery, graft, corruption<\/strong>. I\u2019m an ordinary, not wealthy US citizen, who\u2019s my lobbyist? Federally fund elections. Outlaw \u201clobbying\u201d<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n 2a. Elections oversight.<\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n We know that there is corruption certain states and the way they conduct elections. Voter purging, reducing the number of voting locations, and other ways of undermining voting in Democratic districts must stop. <\/p>\n\n\n\n It\u2019s not 1799. We are not so many small, autonomous states, but a huge, unified country. If there is not universal fairness in voting, depending on what party is counting the votes, then it\u2019s time to federally regulate elections. Eliminating the Electoral College would solve this problem, which leads to\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n 2b. End the Electoral College. Make federally elections decided by popular vote.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Four Presidents have been elected by Electoral College vote, but losing the popular vote. ALL REPUBLICANS. It\u2019s no surprise<\/strong> they want to preserve that antiquated system.<\/p>\n\n\n\n As we all know, Republicans benefit from low voter turnout, while Democrats benefit from HIGH <\/strong>voter turnout. That is all we need to know about the political makeup of the country.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n A popular vote election would streamline the election process, results would be decided faster, and would make election fraud impossible<\/em><\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n 3. Media<\/strong>. The media (especially broadcast media) is a monopoly (or trust, if you will) run by six corporations, with conservative\/billionaire serving agendas. This is where the lies, misinformation, disinformation, and talking points are spawned, and disseminated. Behold the propaganda cycle:<\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n 1.A \u201dNews\u201d network tells a lie, <\/p>\n\n\n\n 2.The lie becomes chatter on social media, in lunch rooms, and happy hours.<\/p>\n\n\n\n 3.That same \u201cnews\u201d network then, after a day or two, airs a segment on \u201cwhat people are chatting about\u201d.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n 4. When called out on the lie, the \u201cnews\u201d channel makes a retraction, but it doesn\u2019t matter, the original lie is dispersed, and readily consumed by the sycophant audience.<\/p>\n\n\n\n We used to call this propaganda. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The Progressive\/Democratic message must fight a headwind of propaganda and disinformation. For many people the lie will be more exciting than the truth. Indeed, to them it IS the truth. It\u2019s a world turned upside down, they no longer can distinguish truth from lies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Break up the media monopolies. Reinstate the Fairness Doctrine that Reagan removed. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Create a BBC style news channel where trusted, fact based<\/strong> news is broadcast without commentary, and freely on all media platforms.<\/p>\n\n\n\n 4. Education <\/strong>I don\u2019t think it\u2019s an exaggeration to say that public schools are in decline in this country. REPUBLICANS BENEFIT FROM AN UNDER EDUCATED POPULATION. It\u2019s no wonder that while Republicans in Congress may agree with this assessment, their solution (or agenda) Is privatized education<\/strong>. On the surface this sounds fine enough, until you realize that it would precludes a large chunk of our children from an education, if their families cannot afford it. Worse, privately run schools are free to have curriculums that favor a political, or religious ideology. Republicans know what they\u2019re doing when they decry the fails of public education, then offer up private schools as the solution. They are overtly WEAKENING PUBLIC EDUCATION TO FURTHER THEIR RIGHT WING INDOCTRINATION AGENDA.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n Public funding for public, and higher education will strengthen democracy, and insure a free thinking, informed, and more curious population.<\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n There are more, but the likelihood of even having those first four issues addressed, is\u2026not likely.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But Americans have to decide, before it’s too late\u2026.what kind of society are we? Are we going to be a theocracy,\u00a0 neofascist (corporate profit over people), or an equal, and fair democracy?\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n If we can not trust the voting, or if everybody is not allowed to vote, or if our representatives serve billionaires more readily than their constituents, we will not have a democracy today, and for our children.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I\u2019m finished. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Thank you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Rick Illes<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Dear Mr\/Mme President, Speaker of the House, Vice President. \u00a0I am writing to you today because the country has a problem. I am able (by some enlightened sense) to see the problem with some clarity, and the solutions. Why, or how I am able to do this, I don\u2019t know, but in as much as […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-107","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-social-commentary"],"aioseo_notices":[],"yoast_head":"\n\n