Every election in the United States is basically a “rigged referendum” in an incredibly corrupt system of war profiteers, funding war candidates in order to promote “endless war,” says an analyst.
Press TV has conducted an interview with political analyst and writer, Linh Dinh, from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania to discuss the elections in the US.
According to a Guardian article titled "The US presidential debates' illusion of political choice", contrary to what is commonly portrayed, the two US presidential candidates are in “full-scale agreement” on many of most consequential policies, leaving the American voters with “little choice” on Election Day.
“Wednesday night's debate between Barack Obama and Mitt Romney underscored a core truth about America's presidential election season: the vast majority of the most consequential policy questions are completely excluded from the process,” Glenn Greenwald wrote in the article published on Thursday.
The columnist on civil liberties and US national security said the exclusion is in large part “due to the fact that, despite frequent complaints that America is plagued by a lack of bipartisanship, the two major party candidates are in full-scale agreement on many of the nation's most pressing political issues.”
The program featuring Dinh also offers the opinions of two other guests: managing director of AMT Capital Partners Mr. Mike Harris and Co-founder of the Muslim-Christian-Jewish Alliance, Dr. Kevin Barrett.
What follows is a rough transcription of the interview with Dinh.
Press TV: Mr. Dinh, why would the government even allow these type of changes that have taken place when they know that it possibly is going to lead to more influence by special interest groups, lobbies, corporations. So why did they allow this to happen?
Dinh: Well, the US system is funded by these war profiteers. It’s totally bought out by these big corporations who benefit greatly from Pentagon contracts. They make money from war. So they’re going to fund war candidates. The US election is basically a referendum on this very corrupt system that promotes banking frauds and endless war, so they are going to get basically 98 to 99 percent of the vote.
So no matter who you vote for, you’re voting for this very corrupt system and it has been this way for a while. There is no chance for an alternative voice, for a third party candidate because these third party candidates rarely get more than one percent of the votes, if even that.
If these third party candidates have any chance at all of challenging the system they won’t be allowed to compete because of the media control of what Americans are allowed to know. So basically every election is a referendum, a rigged referendum for their corrupt system.
Press TV: Mr. Dinh, when did all of this exactly happen because as former President Jimmy Carter when he was talking and we’re just talking about the late seventies with his presidency and he was saying that it cost him zero dollars basically to run because of the way the system was set up at that point in time but now it costs 6 billion; what has happened? When did this take place and how did it take place?
Dinh: Well, it has gotten progressively worse but let’s not delude ourselves into thinking that this is a recent phenomenon. It’s been this way for a while, even Carter himself was kind of a war president. Clinton, you know, people look back fondly at Clinton somehow, this peaceful man who promoted prosperity but he was also a war president. So it’s been rotten for a while. You know, it’s just gotten more naked.
For example, Bush, in attacking Iraq pretended that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction whereas Obama just goes ahead and orders a bombing strike on Libya and now he is attacking Syria through his proxies. So it has gotten progressively worse and I’m afraid that the American public is becoming more disinterested and more distracted to know what’s happening to the country.
Press TV: Mr. Dinh, do you agree with our other two guests assessment that the United States has basically gone through a coup d’état? And if you do agree do you think that the average American realizes what has happened?
Dinh: Well, after the last debate there was a CNN poll on who voters want to vote for, Romney or Obama, and interestingly enough 47 percent said neither and these are the ones who bothered to read CNN in the first place so I would suspect that the number who would say neither is even higher. In any election only about half of the eligible voters turn out any way. So the winning candidate gets only about 25 percent of the votes.
So that’s hardly a large mandate to rule. So I’ve been calling for a boycott of the election because it appears that so many Americans are staying home any way but this must not be read as a sign of apathy, as indifference but it should be read as a sign of disgust and protest.
Americans should show up on Election Day but not to vote but to protest just to show the entire world that Americans are not these insane people who cheer and vote for one criminal after another.
Press TV: Well, what about that Mr. Dinh, what our guest there is proposing is basically that the United States needs a revolution, your take on that?
Dinh: In principle of course I support voting for alternative candidates but I would like to point out that they rarely get more than one percent of the votes considering someone like [independent presidential candidate] Ralph Nader or [Green Party presidential nominee] Cynthia McKinney, very compelling candidates who make perfect sense, they got nowhere because the system won’t allow it and it comes down to the media, the manipulations of the media.
Ralph Nader, in 2000 wasn’t even allowed to sit in the audience to watch the debate. They feared him so much they didn’t even allow him to sit in the audience. You know he wasn’t going to say anything. Just the possibility of him being shown in the background was enough for them to lock him out.
So the system is so total, so corrupt and so exclusive that I think Americans should state very clearly that they don’t want any part of this. That they want to divorce from this very corrupt system. That’s my reasoning for the election boycott.
VG/HMV
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