I dare not mention the candidate’s name. To do so in public brings derision from conservatives and causes those who call themselves liberals to blanch with a combination of fear and loathing. Yet the fact that his message to America is swept aside with the same callousness as is his distinctly non-Hollywood style is a perfect indictment of the miserable state of affairs in which we find ourselves today.

In early April the candidate came to Philadelphia’s Constitution Center in a gesture symbolic of this country’s democratic ideals to give an electrifying speech rife with brutal truths. In doing so I was reminded why this candidate’s message cannot be heard. Not only does he consistently refuse to suck up to this country’s power elite, he deliberately goes out of his way to methodically outline their betrayal of the public welfare and democracy itself.

Among the candidate’s unforgivable sins over the years has been pointing out the domination of American government by “a two-party duopoly which excludes competition” and “turns our government over to giant corporations.” Anyone familiar with the mechanisms of modern “trade” deals knows the awful truth of this statement. By way of explaining why things are the way they are, the mystery candidate asks an instructional question. “Who’s saying ‘no’ to what Americans want?”
We get more upset at getting ripped off by a cab driver, points out the applicant, than we do with the fact 90% of the seats in the House of Representatives go uncontested due to gerrymandering of districts by either party, as the other lends tacit approval.

The candidate’s platform includes planks that are strictly taboo to the party that claims to stand for the common people. These points are indeed radical by virtue of the first definition of the term – “arising from or going to a root or source”:

• Adopt single payer national health insurance
• Cut back the military budget
• Repeal the anti-worker Taft-Hartley Act
• Crack down on corporate crime and corporate welfare
• Adopt a carbon pollution tax
• Deny government guarantees for nuclear power development
• Reverse Middle East policy
• Impeach Bush and Cheney
• Adopt a Wall Street securities speculation tax
• End “legal” ballot access obstructionism
• End corporate personhood

For most of the 81 percent of Americans who told an April CBS News-New York Times poll the country is on the wrong track, voting has been a case of realpolitik, of being practical. “I’m not going to waste my vote . . . When a third party candidate can actually win, I’ll vote for one . . . I can’t vote for someone so radical until things get really bad.”

Well, I’ve got news from beyond the Never-Never-Land of corporate-owned media, whose sole purpose is to ensure people continue to go shopping. Things ARE that bad. One can hardly turn around in America today without hearing the phrase “perfect storm,” applied to conditions on our planet as the harvest of centuries of colonial class rule comes forth in the form of declining terrestrial, marine, and atmospheric ecosystems, starving millions, and the threat of cataclysmic war - all exacerbated by a collapsing energy supply. Today’s crises, already severe, are certain to combine into full blown catastrophe if not addressed with radical actions.

The United States once appeared the best hope for world progress, but the good intentions of her people were preempted by a system of government tailored by and for the few. With the gradual elevation of money over people came a mass neurosis that dictates no solution may be considered unless and until the interests of established powers are protected. We have lived to see the strangulation of electoral democracy, until the only choice left is the truly pathetic one between “least worst” on one hand and wasting one’s vote on the other.

So join in the stoning of this candidate if you must. And when you are done, find a way to carry forward the ideals he is struggling to restore. Failure to do so will confirm helpless obedience to the ruling class. You will be ensuring things remain the same. Only worse.

Contact Dave Wheelock at davewheelock (all one word, lower case) at yahoo.com for help identifying the subject of this column. Mr. Wheelock lives, works, and home studies in Socorro, New Mexico. His views do not necessarily reflect those of Socorro News, but frequently do.

Copyright 2008, Dave Wheelock; all rights reserved.