By the time you read this article, the election of 2006 will be over. I wanted to write it anyway in anticipation of the change I hope and pray will take place in Congress.
I am trusting that we will kick those good-for-nothing perpetrators (or is it just "traitors"?) out of office and finally let the world know that the American people are not as stupid as we appear to be, having selected and supposedly elected a dunce for our president and a Congress that rubber stamps everything he proposes — even if it's illegal.
I was taught in my early years in school that the three branches of government were instituted to assure a system of checks and balances. In our current administration, the only checks are those being handed to Halliburton and Kellogg, Brown and Root and all the other war profiteers, such as Exxon oil who receive tax incentives despite profiting to the tune of $10 billion per quarter.
Billions of dollars in checks are being passed among the corporate insiders that Bush has brought in to perform jobs for which they have no experience. In Iraq, where they are building the largest U.S. Embassy in the world, at least $9 billion is still unaccounted for, and Congress is not checking on it.
Checks and balances? I think not. What have we gotten from this corrupt government we live under is a direct contradiction of the principles upon which the United States was founded. Read the Declaration of Independence's list of complaints against King George and you will find an eerie similarity to our complaints about our "King" George. This administration is all about the money and power, and it will do anything to get it and keep it.
Heaven only knows what awaits us after the election, depending upon which way it goes. I know change in the make-up and control of Congress is not a done deal yet; Deibold will work hard to maintain status quo with its corrupt and corruptible voting machines. So, don't be surprised if your vote does not count. Don't be surprised if the exit polls say one thing and the results say the opposite. And don't be surprised if those candidates who were behind by double digits win their contests. Computers can work wonders, you know.
The way to check this gang of thieves is to kick them out of office — if we can figure out how to get fair elections — especially in 2008. I don't know if that is possible, but I am not giving up on those of us who want to bring back the original system of checks and balances. I pray we will follow through, because right now the only checks we have are those flowing through world banks, and the only balances that count are found in those huge bank accounts of corrupt politicians and corporations.
That said, I trust we are angry enough to turn out in droves and change this system. We talk a good game, but will we follow it up with the necessary action? By the time you read this, we will all know — that is unless marshal law is declared or something else drastic takes place. One never knows with the gang we have in charge now. Power corrupts absolutely, right?
Tricky Dick Cheney and his wife are ranting and raving about how great things are, and actually lying about things she has written. The level of their temerity is mind-boggling. Condi is who knows where, suddenly quiet and out of the picture as the election draws near. "Rum-filled" is still interviewing himself, asking and answering his own questions before an embarrassing press corps that cannot get a word in edgewise.
And then we have the "Decider" and his henchmen. These guys and their minions around the country — some of whom have already been convicted and sentenced for corruption, some of whom are awaiting sentencing, some of whom are perverts of the highest order, and some of whom are wealthier beyond their wildest dreams because Bush is president — have given us the worst corruption in history. (Is Ken Lay still dead? Did he really die?)
I trust we have the will to change this government before it's too late. Too many lies have been told, too many lives have been lost and too much money is missing. I trust our votes will reflect those realities.
Let's get back to real checks and balances. And may we never again get ourselves into a situation like the one we are in now. We must have a Congress that really does check the president when he or she is out of order; we can only have that kind of system through a balanced approach to how we vote and for whom we vote. All the negative advertisements we saw were a stark indication of how low some of these candidates would stoop to get elected. They also illustrated how stupid they think we are. Doesn't that just make you sick?
James E. Clingman, an adjunct professor at the University of Cincinnati's African American Studies department, is former editor of the Cincinnati Herald newspaper and founder of the Greater Cincinnati African American Chamber of Commerce.
