Electoral Disruptions

I am very seriously considering not voting in the next election. I find that electoral politics only continues the status quo, whomever is in power. This relates to what I believe is an ingrained power structure in the US that is comprised of insiders who may have different takes on the way power is doled out but whose assumptions about that power are basically the same.

These elites or insiders are comprised of people who believe that only technocrats can solve political issues and have the know-how to run the country. The premises of this view were first enunicated in the 20s by Walter Lippmann. Why Lippmann's honest, tell-all approach has not been taken seriously by those on the Left is one of those mysteries I have yet to figure out. Is it because your Leftist is really a Utopian and can't face the hard scrabble, hard-ball tactics of real politics?

Anyway, here's my proposal, which I floated at Kotsko's Weblog:

The problem is institutional. Except for Simone Weil and Alastair Hannay, perhaps, who has provided any type of Leftist response that is rational and realistic?

Armed rebellion is a no-go in the US. Besides, the issue here is about insiders--both Dem and Rep. How do you get rid of them? A purge?

That's why I say the left should call an electoral action by not voting in the next election. There are too many middle-of-the roaders, sitting on the sidelines, people around. You have to polarize the country.

Bush has done that and we see some cracks appearing. I say vote in Thompson and watch the cracks begin to turn into fissures. It's only when a majority begin to see the extremes that the Right is willing to go to to hold on to power that anything resembling a change in the country's direction will begin to take shape.

Bush has done one thing of service for the Left. He has polarized the country to an extent not seen since the Civil Rights and Anti-War movements. These movements pressed people's ho-hum take on their lives and their priorities to the wall, such that they were forced to take a position. They couldn't sit on the fence, as many are prone to do.