Arianna

It's remarkable. Just when I thought that there would never be anyone who would speak zealously against the governmental status quo of the US, there is a book written with the shocking title How To Overthrow The Government. The author is a very courageous woman by the name of Arianna Huffington.

I missed most of the Larry King show when Ms. Huffington was being interviewed regarding her new book. However I did get the name of the book and ordered it from Chapters the next a.m. I had the book in my hands three days later. (Would you like to borrow it?)

It is difficult for anyone to speak out against the American Way as he/she immediately becomes a target of "Commie-Bashing." For those who think "McCarthyism" departed with the Fifties decade, you are very much mistaken -- even today it is next to impossible to intelligently debate environmental issues in the Internet environmental news-groups because of the ongoing commie-bashing. Everyone with a contrary view- point is attacked. The same opinionated defenders of the status-quo go from discussion group to discussion group simply to disrupt the debates. It is so consistent and obvious, that I expect they are paid lackeys.

Arianna Huffington's choice of a title is a little shocking and may encourage people to discard the book's jacket with its 'subversive' bold black lettering -- How to Overthrow the Government! -- Man-oh-man, no subtlety there.

The author is well known in Washington DC. She plays no favourites in her ongoing political commentary. The Democrats and the Republicans, and even personal friends, do not escape her candid reviews. "Of course, loyalty to one's friends is an important principle," she says, "but so is writing what you believe -- otherwise, why bother to write at all?"

So she tells it as she sees it. Familiar names fall from the pages like leaves fall in the autumn.

Where did all of this hostility come from? Quite simply she sees the American dream as failing the majority of Americans. "What I mean is simple," she says in the preface "Our government is no longer serving us."

She identifies the immorality and injustice of the current governments. She sees government as "slow, unfair, corrupt, and peopled by politicians living on graft and sinecure." (OOPS, I had to look that word up -- it means cushy job or political plum.) "Incumbency becomes the only important issue to the individual after winning his/her seat."

Concern for social justice "is not the exclusive province of the Left" she points out correctly. She further challenges the Right "to activate their social conscience and bring the Biblical admonition of caring for the least among us to the very heart of public policy." (I bet she and our own beloved and belated Tommy Douglas could have been good friends in a different time and place.)

Ms. Huffington has judiciously concluded that things are out of control and that financial interests have far outstripped the people's interests and right to be represented.

"What is the point of registering and voting when your vote means nothing?", is the consensus of those polled. "Recently 115 million US eligible voters never even bothered to go to the polls. For those that did vote, many held their noses and voted for the candidate they abhorred the least" she continues.

Presently, each and every seated Member of Congress has 38 Industry-paid lobbyists demanding his/her attention. All 20,000 of these industry representatives are shelling out cash to purchase political influence on American governmental policy. Together they spend $1,420,000,000.00 dollars annually. (That are accounted for.)

Although I believe she has failed to identify, in her book, the key to electoral reformation, she certainly has amply exposed the inadequacies of the current two party American system, which is generally referred to as the "first past the post."

She further fails to identify with the wastage of resources and the pollution of the planet that are a direct result of political policies.

Canada, Britain, Jamaica and the US share the same old, and antiquated, systems -- systems that the rest of the world has discarded and replaced with Proportional Representative systems.

The following quotation comes from the Ontario Campaign for Proportional Representation web site. "We have to stand up to our governments and demand change. The government in power owes its victory, however artificial, to the old system, so we can not rely on government to bring us democracy without prompting. We need to speak out for ourselves and take back our voice!"

It is indeed unfortunate that corporate American lobbyist dollars are slowly but surely, eroding the Canadian political system to parallel the American way. Just what we need -- more greedy politics and heartless policies -- all under the influence of Corporate-America.

It is said that people turn over in the grave when something of which they disapprove happens after their death. If this is true, I have a suspicion that Tommy Douglas has a new nick-name in Heaven. He is very likely, and affectionately, know as 'Spin'.

Have a nice day.