Stan Goff: Monkeywrenching the System

Monkeywrenching the System
Ron Paul's Revolution
By STAN GOFF
January 4, 2008
counterpunch.com

For starters, I have become a single-issue voter. The two-front war in
Iraq-Afghanistan continues to drag on; and I am thoroughly convinced
that no viable Democratic nominee will stop these occupations. The
recent analysis by Allan Nairn shows that even the putative anti-war
Edwards (who the press is smothering because of his anti-corporate
declarations) has a backroom full of defense contractors. Clinton is a
ruthless war-monger, period. Obama is employing the sorriest,
pro-Zioinist, neoliberal trash on the market, i.e., Zbigniew
Brzezinski, Richard Clarke, and Dennis Ross, on his core advisory staff.

No one listens to me much, but in some fantasy world where they might,
I would suggest that others follow suit with me here. In open primary
states, cross over to vote in the Republican primaries for Ron Paul.
In closed primary states, switch fast to Republican (like in the next
few days). Vote in the Republican primary; and vote for Ron Paul.

Turnout will bedismally low for Republicans this year, because they
have been demoralized by the Bush loons' performances. Independents
will vote Paul. The other Republicans are engaged in a fratricidal
melee. I already know what I am going to hear from all over the
program-intoxicated, "I won't endorse this-n-that position"
liberal-left. Ron Paul is backward on abortion, passively racist*,
anti-immigrant, and on and on. Sorry, but I said I'd vote a dead
catthat was anti-war before I'd vote a resurrected Eugene Debs if
heshowed up and supported the war. I meant that from my heart.

Cynthia McKinney is running Green, though she hasn't got the
nomination yet. Remember Cynthia McKinney? When she broke with the
DLCdiktat, her own party fronted another Black woman (Denise Majette)
torun against her in an open primary, and Republicans crossed
overmassively to vote in the Democratic primary to unseat her in
aforegone Democratic Congressional district. Two can play that game.

If Cynthia McKinney runs in 2008 for President, I'll write her in if I
have to just to burn a vote for Clinton or Obama. But meanwhile, Ron
Paul is on our primary ballot(North Carolina), because he is running
as a Republican (we have draconian ballot access conditions here for
third-parties, thanks to-- of course -- Democrats).

Ron Paul is running for President. Just what are the capabilities of a
President, and what are his likely courses of action... in the
unlikely event he wins?

Well, he is the Commander-in-Chief, so he can bring the troops home
immediately, as well as order the military-industrial complex
toradically scale back. In case anyone on the left has missed
theimplications of this, this would be a profoundly anti-imperial
development that would take the US boot off the necks of hundreds
ofmillions of people around the world.

He is a libertarian who dislikes corporate subsidies, so he would veto
the mega-billion dollar subisidies for Big Agra, Big Pharma, nuclear
power company insurance policies, Weapons-R-Us, the ADM/Cargill Great
Ethanol Scam, et al. He could veto the federal highway spending that
is promoting sprawl. He has also stated that he opposed so-called free
trade agreements. Hello? Don't argue with libertarians when they are
right. Many of them say that the leviathan-capitalists that dominate
the world's economy could not get as big as they are in an unfettered
and unsubsidized market. Newsflash: that is actually true.

Ron Paul is a Gold Bug. For the uninitiated, that means he believes
dollar-value should be pegged to a gold-standard. The implications of
a return to the gold standard by the Fed are grim... for Wall
Streetand the military, both of which depend on massive foreign loans
convered by runaway printing presses. Putting a stop to this is a Good
Thing. What is the net effect?

Ron Paul may have the most outrageous personal account of race you
might imagine; but what is the most horrific social catastrophe in the
United States for Black and Brown folk? You guessed it: the criminal
(in)justice system. The malignant growth of the American Gulag has
been fueled -- more than by any other cause -- by the
ever-more-punative criminalization of drug use and drug addiction, and
the ability fo the criminal justice system to apply this
criminalization with special force against African America and
Hispano-Latinas. Here's the thing. Paul opposes the criminalization of
drugs. What is the net effect?

When we are at the point in history where we cannot change the
electoral system, then we need to think tactically about what we can
do right now. What will a Paul victory in the primaries do? Not
whether a vote for Paul in the Republican primaries endorses his
decentralizing philosophy on reproductive choice. President Paul will
not be writing legislation. The Executive Branch decides how strongly
to "enforce" legislation... like domestic spying fer-instance.

President Paul would close Guantanamo, halt CIA kidnappings, and gut
the enforcement capacity for the PATRIOT Act. Nominee Paul would give
2008 voters a choice between a real anti-war candidate and a phony
Democratic equivocator. The intensity of anti-war sentiment in the
country already forced ex-war-hawk Edwardsto adopt an
out-in-nine-months position to left flank his Democratic opponents.

Don't ask yourself "what are the ideas?" If your toilet backs up, you
can come up with a thousand ideas while shit-water cascades onto the
floor. The question is not about ideas; it is, "What will be the net
effect?"

Wanna throw a monkey wrench into a fixed electoral system? Here's a
chance.

Stan Goff is the author of "Hideous Dream: A Soldier's Memoir of theUS
Invasion of Haiti" (Soft Skull Press, 2000), "Full Spectrum Disorder"
(Soft Skull Press, 2003) and "Sex & War" which will bereleased
approximately December, 2005. He is retired from the United States
Army. His blog is at www.stangoff.com.

Goff can be reached at: stan @ stangoff.com

*********************************************************************
WORLD VIEW NEWS SERVICE