The American people briefly realize their power, or why I don't vote

So, the bailout. ZOMG, the House rejected it soundly--before they didn't. A lot was made of that brief blip, calls that at last the government was being held accountable by the American people, etc., but of course it wasn't to last, of course all they had to do was make a few superficial changes, wait until everyone was properly pleased that they had succeeded in stopping a 700 billion dollar check to a bunch of unrepentant morons, then send the check anyway.

But those guys who called this a major development weren't wrong, or at least as wrong as they look now. Because the first rejection of the bailout was entirely against the corporate politics (whatever the fuck that word even means) that control the American government, and entirely because the American people for one very brief moment said No. Yes, it was a hop and a skip of political maneuvering to get over that hurdle, but if things had been going as they should be for the corporatists/elites/special interests/whatever, that hurdle shouldn't have existed at all. Hoi polloi are sheep to be slaughtered, not a voice to be dealt with.

It's interesting to compare this oh-so-brief moment of popular action with the sustained grass-roots support of Obama and other mainstream candidates before him. The difference being, of course, nobody cares about Obama. Why? Because the people behind him--that frothing mass of do-gooding young idealists, absolutely convinced that they are changing the fucking world for the fucking better at long last after all those fuckers before them continually screwed it up--are doing nothing. They are putting all their energy towards getting more people to check a ballot box, which is exactly what hoi polloi are supposed to do, and nothing more.

One of the greatest myths of American government and politics is the absolute glorification of voting. If you don't vote, you don't deserve a voice in the government; voting is how things are changed; anyone and everyone can make a difference by voting. I don't vote because this is absolute bullshit, and dangerous bullshit at that, because all those Obamamaniacs are putting all their beautiful fervor, which aimed towards other goals, like actually changing the government, would scare the fuck out of those in power, towards getting more people to check a ballot box, which is exactly nothing of a threat to those in power.

People don't like it when I say this of course--in fact, a number of people have gotten near-violently angry with me for saying this. Because what I'm saying is that all your beautiful idealism and fervor and effort is not just doing nothing, but in fact actively working against what people with those things actually want to accomplish. And you know what? That's exactly true. And I hope they realize it once Obama wins and executes exactly none of his grand promises (he's already warned that the looming depression will force him to delay many of his proposed programs, lucky bastard)--but most of them won't, because a lot of people can't face how they've done exactly what they didn't want to do. But c'est la vie.

I have two ways of explaining this. The first is my own line of reasoning, the idealistic one, which doesn't work for most people but which I'll explain first because I think it's the "better" one: the point of a representative democracy (as opposed to a republic, which is about elected tyranny) is that the elected officials do not have a voice themselves; they are merely mouthpieces for the will of the people. That is, elected officials are supposed to execute the will of the people no matter their personal views. The mechanism for ensuring elected officials execute the will of the people is supposedly voting: if they don't do what we want, they don't get back in office. But think of a perfect government, in which elected officials always execute the will of the people: then it doesn't matter who's in office, who's elected, who you vote for, because all will do the same thing--whatever the people want.

The reason for this is that voting is actually a smokescreen. The people ensure elected officials execute the will of the people not by voting--which is a pointless act, because it simply determines the figurehead who will do what the people want--but by demonstrating their will, through organizations, protests, letters campaigns, whatever. The people enforce their will by communicating their will--for which voting is a very, very poor mechanism--and by toppling those who do not enforce it--not by voting, but through political activism, public vilification, popular revolution if necessary.

People have been convinced that they are voicing their opinions by voting. But obviously they aren't--they're simply throwing their support behind someone else's opinion and completely invalidating their own. That's the point of a republic, which is what we really have, because there's no such thing as a representative democracy: elected tyranny, in which the people feel like they're doing something by checking a ballot box while the people in power--who are neither the elected officials nor hoi polloi--get back to the business of actual governance.

The other method of explanation is simpler and I suspect more convincing to more people: who has the most power in the American government right now? You, as a member of the American people, or corporations, special interests, lobbyists, etc.? Now consider: what do all those other groups besides the American people have in common? They have more power than you, for one, and two, they don't vote. They ensure their will is enforced, not by voting for a candidate that supports their views, but by organizing, demonstrating, protesting, writing letter campaigns--and giving lots of money, yes, but that's just another method of influence.

These are the groups that got the bailout passed the second-time around, after the brief blip of the American people standing up and enforcing their will. They stopped after a moment, after the politicians managed to placate them, but still: the ability is there. The potential is there. And I hope it's scaring the fuck out of everyone in power, and I hope someday we'll all wake up and start to seize the power that we already have but refuse to use. I think in the coming years, as American hegemony collapses, the class divide gets even worse, and American society accelerates into post-imperial decadence, we'll see something of this occur; but whether it will be a semi-peaceful assumption of control by the American public or a bloody popular revolution, I don't know and fear to guess.