The 2020 election cycle is drawing to a close, ending what some have called an exhausting exercise in the marketing of politicians, and about which Tom Tomorrow declared a week ago, “the longest two weeks in human history”. While my write-in efforts have been active for over a year, I first decided to get more involved in electoral politics 49 years ago and in this, and the eight other elections in which my name was actually on the ballot, remained committed to the proposition of not seeking contributions or endorsements, or pandering to people for their vote. I tell the voters what I think and that I would represent them as best I could within the confines of my conscience. Hence, things like the social contract foretold in the Preamble to the Constitution, those matters concerning “Justice, the common defence, and the general Welfare” are not aspirational and fungible, but commitments and promises that must be kept. You may not know that when you run for office you swear an oath to protect and defend the Constitution in the same manner as you do when sworn in if you are elected. This makes a lot of the questionable comments and behaviors of many candidates all the more strange. If they are not offering the real goods, they are deviant in an injurious way from the outset, and no good can come of their fraudulent contentions. You, as the heirs to our now over 200+ year old system, are the ones ultimately responsible for our destiny and survival as a society.
Therefore, when I say, similar to what President Eisenhower said in 1952 about Korea, “I shall go to Afghanistan,” I mean exactly that. There will be a ceasefire and with that the withdrawal of our troops.
When I pledge to sign immediately a Proclamation for the Equal Rights of Women, as Lincoln did over slavery in his Emancipation Proclamation, I will do it and let the Congress and the Courts decide on its validity and specifics.
My promise to end the United States’ reliance on nuclear terrorism and Executive Branch military operations is sacrosanct as well, and I will demand that Congress repeal authorizations for the use of military force and the authority for Presidential use of nuclear force by a factor well beyond the flexible response proposals of Kennedy in the period before the Vietnam/United States War.
And, as for The Great Society, and all of the many programs to advance economic equality and the well-being of every citizen that began in the Progressive era and started to achieve massive popular support from the period of FDR through Carter, I will work on a daily level, while granted the breath to so, to see to it that we do not abandon those on the battlefield of life who have not had a chance.
So now we can all conclude that there is an alternative to the way that we are currently conducting our public affairs, and that popular government ‘of, by, and for the people’ isn’t a hollow offer, but a reality that we do not yet have the will and courage to claim. There will be pain and challenges unending in our fight to save the planet, the environment, and our government, but with the help of God and in cooperation with one another, We Shall Overcome.
