The US Presidential Election

I’m often asked which candidate I support in the American presidential elections, as a European, I feel that is like being asked, which would I prefer, to be raped vaginally or anally. There are candidates I despise less than others but I’m not enthused about any of them. Whoever becomes the 44th President, he or she won’t be democratically elected by the people and will continue to be beholden to the same unrepresentative vested interest groups because America doesn’t have a government of the people, by the people, for the people.

I know many American citizens harbour under the illusion that the US is a democratic nation because they have been raised to believe that, but one look at past US Presidents will prove that’s not true. The first President to be elected after the US civil war was Gen. Ulysses S. Grant in 1869; since Grant, every president has been a Republican or Democrat. It is utterly preposterous to suggest that America is a democracy, when in the last 131 years America has been ruled by two political parties, with as much difference between them, as there is between Coca Cola and Pepsi Cola. Sure, they’re packaged differently but they both pretty much taste the same.

If you can’t imagine Hillary Clinton invading Afghanistan and Iraq, then have a look at her voting record. Bill Clinton managed to, needlessly and without provocation, bomb countries in Europe, Asia and Africa. He even bombed a Chinese embassy. If Monica Lewinsky had a heart, she’d have bitten it off. The differences between Clinton and both Bushes as Presidents, was more a difference in style than substance - ideologically, they’re on the same page. 

And on the 20th of this month, the Bush-Clinton dynasty will enter its 28th year (George H. W. Bush served two terms as Vice President before being elected President). If Hillary Clinton was elected (God forbid) we would have at least another four years of that dynasty. It’s a surprise that Jeb Bush Jnr hasn’t done his duty and married Chelsea Clinton, and sired a heir and spare.

1776 was the year America declared its independence from the United Kingdom; it was also the same year that Phi Beta Kappa was founded in William and Mary College. Since Grant, every President except Harding and Hoover have been members of Greek fraternities, and during the last 131 year reign of the Republicans and Democrats (who have all but two seats in the Senate and every seat in the House of Representatives), over a third of US Presidents attended either Yale or Harvard – before Grant, only John Adams and John Quincy had been to Harvard – none went to Yale.

Why is this significant?

Because it means the selection pool from which US Presidents are drawn is so limited and there is no way that these aristocratic fraternities that select future presidents are democratic or representative. This sort of nepotism and cronyism stifles democracy. That is why there are no dissenting voices in American politics.

During the 2009 election, Americans will be asked to choose between two political candidates: one Democrat and one Republican - there will be little to choose between them in terms of polices or ideology, and neither of them would have been chosen by the people - they will be thrust upon the public just like every President since Grant. This is the reason the Athenians banned political parties because they are thoroughly undemocratic. And if you think none of this matters, look at some of the crooks, liars, philanders, drunks, incompetents, imbeciles, religious fanatics and megalomaniacs, the party system has put in office  - 6 of the last 23 Presidents were members of religious cults: 3 Disciples of Christ, 2 Quakers and 1 Jehovah’s witness.  Most Americans wouldn’t let these degenerates date their daughters, let alone select them to run their country.