The Hidden Cure To Truly Fix Our Democracy
The travesty that happened in Nevada crystallized that a counteraction that needs to be taken in order to save our broken democracy. The Wild West that is Nevada politics dove deep into the election madness of 2016. The perpetrators of injustice were the not so noble folks that run the Nevada election boards. Their illegal and immoral actions were of course inspired by the Mad Queen herself HRC. It does appear that her unquenchable lust for power may have unhinged her from reality. We offer for your edification Exhibit A. There is a rumor that she will continue her run for president even if she is indicted by the FBI. It is highly likely the Democratic nominee will be the last line of defense against the the disaster that would be Trump as president. It is some major cray-cray to believe they will offer up a candidate to take on Trump that is under an FBI indictment. The possible trading of favors by HRC as Secretary of State to countries that gave money to the Clinton Foundation could have this matter drag on for many months. This ax hanging over Hillary’s head could linger beyond election day in November.
It is reprehensible acts like pay to play with the powers of Secretary of State and rigging elections that demand a specific counteraction be included if US citizens are ever to have a true democracy once again. The key to ordinary citizens taking back their democracy is for jail time to be handed out to politicians and powerful business people who have truly earned it. This is the right time for jail time for the criminals in the power elite. Hillary has been stealing votes and victories in every primary and caucus that has taken place. Combine this with Goldman Sachs paying out 5 billion dollars as the only penalty for their extreme malfeasance which led to the near collapse of our economy. The sensitive souls at the DOJ included a clause which enables them to save 1 billion off their penalty through a combination of government incentives and tax credits. Extraordinary crimes get committed against all citizens and the government plays the role of enabler by not meting out the kind of punishment that could stop future crimes of a similar nature. These outrageous atrocities against ordinary American citizens scream for real justice. That means jail time. Money can be replaced but time in jail is precious time lost forever.
The drama in Nevada was a crescendo of Team HRC getting away primary after primary caucus after caucus with breaking of rules, breaking the law, election tampering and voter suppression. Each time they got away with these tactics, it made them bolder so that in the next state election they raised the bar of their transgressions higher and higher. This extraordinary manipulation culminated in Nevada where they made up new rules to help Hillary get undeserving delegates and told Bernie supporters to shut up and eat it. This ripped apart existing procedures that were in place to insure a fair process to elect Nevada delegates. It does not feel like an exaggeration to describe this as a rape of democracy. The will of the HRC delegates was brutally forced upon the unwilling Bernie delegates. No matter how many delegates were at stake this was an immoral and unlawful act by Team HRC. The DNC is the obvious enabler in this matter because they have not only allowed but encouraged Team HRC to do whatever it takes for Hillary to win the nomination. As anyone who has attempted to discipline a child let alone a criminal knows, strict boundaries are needed or it encourages continued and bigger attempts to go beyond vital proper limits.
This is also exactly what happened when the big banks caused an economic meltdown because they all lied about the value of subprime mortgages. The SEC provided absolutely no oversight to Wall Street. This resulted in its own crescendo of crime that nearly brought down the world economy. Wall Street is notorious for finding obscure ways to rig their system to cheat common investors. It is still quite possible because of negligent oversight by the toothless SEC that the danger of another economic meltdown is a distinct possibility. Whether it is cheating to win elections or cheating investors out of millions of dollars unless some powerful people go to jail for these serious crimes, these perpetrators will commit bolder and bolder transgressions until they get some serious blowback.
Everyone knows that big money has corrupted our politics and economic system and this must be changed. However, controlling the money flow is not enough. These criminals that are corrupting elections and rigging the economy also need to spend some serious time in jail. A penalty of 5 billion dollars is just a matter of a money exchange to Lloyd Blankenpuss of Goldman Sachs. Will this stop him and his bankster cronies from trying to cheat again? No way. Will righteous demands by Bernie supporters that they were robbed by Hillary’s cheating ways do anything to slow her cheating down. Not at all. Jail time for big time criminals in politics and business is vital to stopping the continued destruction of our democracy and a fair economy. It would be great if someone came up with a clever saying that rolls of the lips. Something that could be easily chanted by thousands upon thousands in DC and New York. Perhaps something like this “Jail time for Criminals in Congress, Jail time for the Wolves of Wall Street.” It is becoming clearer that the only way to change the rigged system, is to demand real justice for the obvious criminal acts committed against common citizens. They have stolen our freedom and we need to take it back by demanding complete justice not the partial justice the government is doling out.
The key purpose of punishment for a crime is to insure that others do not commit similar offenses. If the punishment does not fit the crime, then the crimes continue. The more serious the crime the more serious needs to be the punishment. Our society is in desperate need of ALL serious crimes having serious consequences. The extreme slippery slope of injustice for the rich and powerful all started when Nixon got pardoned. Ever since then the government has been unwilling to put the biggest politicians and business people in jail even though that is what their crimes demanded. The great detective writer Dashiell Hammett had a brilliant summation of our current quandary when he was describing the prohibition era in San Francisco in the “Maltese Falcon.” He wrote, “The place is run by the cops, the crooks, and the big rich.” The thread between these three is they all have the capacity to live above the law and that is how they seize power. Certainly not every business person or law enforcement official lives above the law. However, those that do have great power in our country. A tragic irony about our times versus Hammett’s time is that many of the big rich business people and many politicians have blatantly become crooks. Also in Hammett’s time police corruption was vast and easy to hide. Now they are probably more corrupt business people and politicians than corrupt cops or even flat out criminals. Until we start putting these criminals in business suits in jail with some substantial time behind bars, they will continue to commit substantial crimes. These enormous crimes have been cheating the majority of US citizens out of what is promised to us in the US Constitution. It says, “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” So the question must be asked, are powerful people like Nixon and Lloyd Blankenfeld of Goldman Sachs who have lived way above the law but avoided jail time going to continue to cheat justice and maintain an unjust system or are ordinary citizens going to demand justice and be the ultimate victors?