WHY WE MUST REBUILD THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY

By

Jack W. Boone

It was apparently decided by kismet or some other oracle long before we were born that there is not room in US politics for more than two major political parties, certainly not 56 as listed on the Internet. Did you know there were that many registered political parties in the United States? There may be hundreds more in the creative minds of dissatisfied citizens. Most will never materialize. Many champion a single cause and do not stand a chance of surviving beyond the life of the founder.

It’s nothing new. In past years, many people tried to form their own political party with varying degrees of success, none earthshaking, and most futile. For example the Bull Moose party of Theodore Roosevelt polled about 25 percent of the popular vote. Ross Perot polled about 19 percent. Both on a one-shot basis. The Dixiecrats pulled about 11 percent on their abortive try to become a national party. Several others have pulled from one to 5 percent. Mostly they were spoilers. Some were specifically designed to do just that in hopes of defeating a particular candidate.

Such was not the case with Ross Perot. His was an honest effort to win the presidency. As he didn’t win, the question then was which candidate did he help the most? He pulled votes primarily from the Republicans and that elected the Democrat by default. That is not a good way to win an election.

Think what would have happened if Ross Perot had spent his sixty-odd million dollars buying a major party. The general consensus of the power structure at the time was that the Democratic Party was available to a nominee for about that much money. It has been bought and sold by special interests for years. The democrats adopted the slogan "Pay to play" politics long before the republicans, If Perot had ‘paid to play’ as a democrat, the odds are good that he would have won the presidency. He would have been President with a partisan congress, but there again, money talks. It’s true that many Senators and Representatives can be bought by a clever president with "pork" distributed in the right places. If Perot had won, the Clintons would not have been on the national scene at all.

Any effective new movement must be made within the parameters of one of the major parties.  Forming a third party is like having a third leg --- it just won’t work properly regardless of where it is attached.

Nearly half of the electorate in the US will vote as a block. They are well established and will never change. Many of the block voters can be described as the ‘what have you done for me lately’ crowd. The Democrats own those votes, bought and paid for with pork.

The other half is contemptuous of the Democratic block voters and they primarily vote to spite them.

Political pundits are always looking for a vehicle with a middle-of-the-road position in politics, but with a firm, clear domestic and foreign policy. The Democratic party, with changes swinging it back toward the middle of the road, could be that vehicle. The pundits generally agree that the Democratic Party is probably the one that is the most vulnerable to a buyout, a term usually associated with business and a change in management, not politics, but it will do to get control of the party.

The Republican Party is not as far right as the Democratic Party is to the left. Of course, the Democrats have to pander to their block-vote constituency, and as the block people expect and demand freebies, that is the way the party has to go. That’s regrettable, but understandable.

I am particularly well qualified to write the following because I have been a close observer and participant in backroom politics for more than sixty years in the South. Although I disagreed at the time, I knew deep-down that George Wallace was right when he proclaimed that there wasn’t a dime’s worth of difference in the two main parties. He failed to mention that there were philosophical differences on paper, but some of the candidates apparently couldn’t read. The party with the most egregious record for blatant dishonesty and lack of integrity was the Democratic Party.

In my humble opinion, the Democratic Party of today is only a shell of the Roosevelt era Democratic Party and a disgrace to his name. It survives by pandering to the uninformed voter, who, unfortunately, comprises the aforementioned 50 percent of the total electorate, and by selling favors. Most of those same blocks would probably vote for Gangus Khan if he was on the ballot as a democrat. It appears that the only intelligent people left in the party are the users, and they are getting rich. Most of the other members are somewhere in outer space, worried about their baseball team’s standing in the pennant race or their bowling score, while pandering to politicians and trying to suck another free swallow of financial milk from the political udder.

The old party has been sagging morally for some time. The final death gasp came during the last Democratic presidency when the office of president was reduced to a cathouse.

ON HER LAST LEGS

For many years, the party was diluted by the practice of passing elective offices from father to son, brother to brother, uncle to nephew, cousin to sister, office holder to adopted heir, friend to friend and many other combinations of legal incest. There were very few ‘grassroots’ candidates that ever made it beyond the primaries. (The Republicans do the same.)

The Democratic party is worse. Its practices have reduced the party from what started out to be the loyal opposition favoring the little man, to a spent, dirty old queen with every political disease known to man. If the party does not clean up its act, it should change its name in the interest of common decency and in memory of the party that was.

The corruption in the present party may be bad today, but it is nothing compared to the ‘Solid-South’ era before and after WW II. The Republican Party grew primarily because the more honorable Democrats in the South didn’t want anything to do with a rotten Democratic Party, so they switched sides.

The present leadership seems to show very little inclination to clean up its act. A few of the old timers remain in the national House and Senate. Until they are gone or purged, it is doubtful that much will change. Most of these old timers have a rather obvious motive --- they have acquired massive wealth that they wish to preserve and they know that to get out of power is an invitation to a corruption investigation.

Much of the old leadership was not only considered dishonest and disreputable, but for sale. Most had the morals of an alley cat and the ethics of a mafioso. These model political practitioners will run for an office that barely pays a living wage, then emerge later as a millionaire. Few dare ask where that money came from. Patriotism or service to the nation has nothing to do with it.

Marginal players, particularly lawyers, who are having a hard time paying their rent before entering politics, would emerge with a client list that was the envy of their peers. That should tell the electorate something, but voters seem to be oblivious to the situation or simply too stupid to see it.

On second thought, maybe the voters don’t want to know. The voters know that the democratic party influence has been sold to special interests so many times that it is threadbare from wear. After being hustled by every nickel-and-dime scam artist and quick buck lobbyist in the nation looking for a way to stiff the taxpayers, the whole party apparatus has suffered. All power brokers in the business converge on Washington as soon as the democrats take office because they know when opportunity knocks. The Lobbyists suddenly find lots in common with new legislators, and the fine wine, trips, food, gifts and other gratuities are readily available. Expensive automobiles that some members would have trouble buying the gas for before being elected are parked in congressional garages with full tanks. The keys are in the ignition. Club memberships are paid by donors, and rental fees seem to disappear when the bill arrives.

There are many ways to beat the system without attracting attention. The clever lobbyists know them all. That is what they get paid for. A call from a lobbyist who has been overly kind to a member asking them to consider a certain project gets special attention by the member's ambitious bureaucratic staff. But, that would make a book in itself. Influence-selling is illegal, but if the nearly forty-thousand lobbyist and trade association people in Washington have their way, they would actually write the legislation to fit their particular interest. They actually furnish outlines of favorable legislation to their clients on occasion. They do that by winning the favor of the bills controlling politician, believe me, they know how to do it.

Some very wealthy Democrats use the party as a playpen to offset the boredom of being filthy rich with nothing else to do. Some politicians use their office to protect themselves from questionable activities. There are high ranking office holders today who have survived questionable practices because of family connections and wealth. At least one individual can’t run for president because of his past life, yet he is looked upon as a matriarch of the party. Why can’t the party disavow people like that? Apparently being a wealthy party member is a good way to stay out of jail and remain prominent. What a deal. It works, but that is not what the party is supposed to be about. What happened to party priorities?

There are many families in this nation today living off of the spoils of past Democratic office holders. Wasn’t it amazing how several controlled licenses and other goodies come to Congressmen and Senators after they leave office? The word in the trade was that those licences were never available to other applicants. That is only one of many examples of the advantage of insider information. All are cleverly hidden and kept quiet.

It was reliably reported that one father bragged about spending 30 million dollars to get his son elected to the top job, and had all it back in six months after the election. Other "incidents" included buying and stealing ballots, using inside information to make fortunes, particularly in real estate. Much of the inside information involved knowing key highway locations in advance, and many other ‘opportunities’ that came their way before the public, (particularly the land owners) knew about them. Purchased as farm land, it soon became highly prized commercial property. They also have first access to future utility construction plans and IPO stock market information. A legislature is the birthing point of a virtual fountain of information. Astute legislators can recognize those opportunities in a heartbeat. You can guess what follows.

In years past, other lucrative sources included issuing bonds to be sold to the public, then the authority issuing the bonds would purchase certain properties. Many of these transactions were sweet-heart deals with friendly law firms to avoid a conflict of interests. Lucrative fees can be paid many ways without exposure. Even more money can be made selling assets to the authority. It’s easy to fool a gullible public into thinking it was all for their benefit. That is a sucker -punch to the public. Many times the deal is done before the bond issue is arranged. There is other outright corruption that is not public knowledge going on all the time.

Some of the hanky-panky occasionally gets to a grand jury, but as one wag put it among friends over a drink, "Who the hell do you think appoints the grand jury?" Even if indicted for the most serious crime, the accused works a "deal" to cooperate with the prosecution for a light sentence --- or none at all. His "deal" is to rat on a low-level associate who is sent away to a country-club prison for a few months, or pass along some dubious information. The question, when asked, draws lots of knowing smiles, but no answers, and the subject is changed quickly. The list of opportunities remains long and fruitful. The present party faithful takes full advantage of these "opportunities."

Is that what you want in a political party? That’s what you’ve got. The other party is no better. One major party has to set a standard for honesty and integrity. Why not a new, revitalized, Democratic party?

What I have just mentioned is only the tip of a gigantic iceberg. It will only surface a few inches at a time unless something is done to clean up the process. These guys are geniuses at creative corruption and made volumes of laws to protect themselves. It begs the question of, who investigates the investigators?

One old trick is to use a ‘strawman’ to front the deal in a limited partnership format. A strawman is someone with a squeaky-clean record who will not be suspect if anybody checks him out. His name would be on the record as general partner. The legislators made the laws that protected the identity of the limited partners from public disclosure. Guess who the limited partners were? The system works exceedingly well.

The pitifully ignorant voters who "bust their butts" to get votes for those predators in anticipation of phantom rewards, roll blissfully along, never suspecting that they are being stiffed. If the office is high enough, having bragging rights proclaiming that they were close enough to the office-holder to demand and get favors, was sufficient. They delight in telling stories about their man, where they saved him from the press by deflecting nosey news people who could ruin his career. People like that like to boast about their influence with the office-holder.

Donors do not give their money to a political party out of civic spirit. They expect payback with a substantial profit. If they don’t get it, they will go with the party that offers the best deal. Corporations have no loyalties. Some of the officers may have, but the companies respond only to profit.

We are talking about working democrats, folks. Let’s get something straight right now. Individual voters may elect politicians, but the corporations who furnish the money for the commercials that "compel" you to vote their way get the favors. They buy the candidate with campaign funds from Political Action Committees, lobbyist and trade associations. All will make direct contributions within the law designed for that purpose. It takes millions of dollars to run for even minor public offices. Where did it come from and where does it go? Don’t bother to try and trace it. The 527 provision of the latest election law opened the flood gates. The "book cookin’" business is alive and well in Washington, folks.

Most of the old ‘yellow dog’ democrats who ruled in the golden age of graft and corruption when nobody would dare investigate or expose them, are out of office or dead. What a legacy they left.

Some of the novice politicians started out with wonderful intentions. They appeared at the legislative halls with fresh scrubbed faces, a new suit and pomaded hair styles. They had promised their constituents system reform. It took about three hours after the swearing in ceremony for that radical idea to fade into oblivion. The facts of political life sobered them up quickly and decisively. A state legislature is a trading post and they had better be prepared to barter. Otherwise, they didn’t stand a chance against those with entrenched power. They are usually told bluntly and forcefully that they cannot fight the system and win. Most, seeing the handwriting on the wall, rolled over to become one of the ‘boys’. Unless they commit themselves to play ball with the power, their ideas wouldn’t stand a chance of ever getting any consideration. They learned quickly that personal favors are handed out by amendment to another bill. If they are lucky, they might be allowed to attach one just in time for the next election. If a novice bolted ranks and threatened to publicize the hanky-panky, his/her bill would be handed off to a cooperating committee chairman where it would disappear and die with the end of the session.

If all of this so far sounds bitter, it’s not really. It can’t be written without sounding a little sour about the present , system, but that’s the way the system works. Machine politics was Democratic politics because the party would look the other way at dishonesty. What formally was called simply crooked politics has evolved over the years to a degree of sophistication that would have had the founding fathers spinning in their graves. This day and time, consultants specialize in the art of beating the system. As Huey Long told a crowd of his constituents at a political rally in Louisiana when he was challenged about stealing money, he said, "I might have taken a little money now and again,--- but I did it for you." That brought down the house. Many politicians feel that way as they dip their hands into the deep pockets made available to them by "fat-cats" in return for favors.

That’s the way we operate in the United States. We generally like what we have and don’t seem to begrudge a little dishonest self-indulgence by a politician.

All office holders must be careful these days, because the opposition is much more sophisticated. It has become a game in politics on how to beat the system and get away with it. Insider information requires no public money, no public record, no publicity, no accounting and no disclosure to anyone. The public can’t win because they are up against the guy with the key to the vault. These are only a few of the many ways to beat the system. Many spoils are also won by appointing the right man to a particular job. Limited partnership shares in prime projects have changed hands for the right appointment. Usually the partnership is dissolved when the assets are sold and the money divided among the partners (perfectly legal), in some cases, a year or more later. By that time the appointment is old news and has cured itself of tarnish with time.

Corrupt people gain additional spoils by getting appointed to cushy jobs after leaving office. Jobs like directorships, consulting firms, lobbyist and high officers in institutions of higher learning and others in various organizations that serve no purpose other than act as a channel to the right people. That leads to legislation favorable to a particular group or establishment that needs inside services occasionally. Most of it is blatant pay-back and buying influence. It is surprising how many of these ‘think tanks’ are staffed by ex-politicians or high-ranking appointees who left office because of an administration change or lost election. Play by their rules and jump on the coattails of politics for a ride to a lifetime of financial security. Why not?

And yet, even with all of this corruption in its past, the Democratic Party has a great heritage.

We should not indict our entire system of government because of a bad political party. The basic premise of a Democratic Republic is still intact, and the principle remains solid . We have the best form of government in the world, and it is important that we preserve it for coming generations by keeping it honest. I started to say "pure and honest," but I realized that it will never be pure, so honest is sufficient. Our courts protect us from encroachment by some predators, but a few slip through the cracks and continue to operate. Many of those crack-slippers are democrats. I have heard it said many times at group meetings that we must not do anything that would get the ‘Feds’ involved, that, as long as the ‘Feds’ were busy elsewhere, the group is safe. That was a means of protection, operating under an umbrella of secrecy without public scrutiny.

Now that we have torn the party and its members down, let’s talk about what it will take to build it back. If we don’t, this nation will be in dire straits in a very few years with a single powerful party, probably carrying the name "Republican," and they will be in absolute control. That must not be allowed to happen. The dominate party must have formidable competition. The survival of the country depends on the adversarial system and to have that, we need the Democratic Party to have a Democratic Republic.

This time the reconstructed party must be as strong across the nation as it was in the old South years ago.

It is obvious that, if the states continue on their present course, many are headed for the financial graveyard. That is a relatively new phenomenon, and most politicians have not figured out how to handle it. What started out as simple little "departments" to give Cousin Jeff a job soon became huge bureaucracies and Cousin Jeff's pals started creating projects to justify their jobs, and projects demand money to operate. A trip back to the basic fundamentals, dumping many of these unnecessary services, will bring the system back in focus financially. A red pencil on a budget will do wonders if used liberally. Traditionally, states have been fairly healthy financially and lived within their budgets, some because their state constitution mandated a balanced budget. With huge deficits and tax ceilings locking them in, they had no place to turn. The next step was to cut services. If they look hard, they will be surprised which services they can get along without. That would also turn some very talented people back to the private sector. After all, they were creative enough to carve a handsome niche in the public sector. They should be able to do the same in the private sector. To have to discharge people is a politician’s worst nightmare.

The secret is to create a methods engineering department with the power to reduce, shut down or modify a department after a feasibility study. That way, the politician can get off the hook by placing the blame on a distant department beyond his control, thereby insulating himself from dissatisfied voters. A politician will do anything to keep the stain of down-sizing and laying off people from attaching itself to him. Reducing personnel is not in the vocabulary of the average politician.

Now, let’s go one step further; can you imagine the Democratic Party embracing such a position? I can’t as it is structured now, but a new party apparatus could do it and use that as a standard to bring the budget into balance. If the deficit condition continues unabated and the states go under, the worst possible scenario could come to fruition quickly. The country could be faced with a major depression. Another scenario is even scarier. There could be attempts by some states to break away from the union. Look for California and many of the eleven Western states to lead the charge if it happens. Texas is a sure bet because it is by far the most self-sufficient state in the union. Look for talks between adjoining states to take place in secret to discuss that very possibility. That is all the more reason to clean out the old democratic party and come in with a new one. Without the strength in Washington to curb such an action, it could, and probably will, happen. The excuse, among many, will be why should they carry the burden of debt created by Washington when they have no part in the game. Think about it.

The democratic reformation must happen because it is time to clean house and build a new Democratic Party within the framework of the old party. The party must structure itself to get back to the basics of its mandate. A democratic republic is for the people, not the elite, contrary to what the founding fathers thought at the time. ( They were nearly all elitists and nearly all wealthy.) While they thought they were creating a republic to be run by a certain level of intellect, on its own it evolved to be one for the people. That would disturb some of the founding fathers, because they didn’t think the masses were intelligent enough to govern themselves directly. The general educational level of the new citizens would have led nearly anybody to think the same. I’m sure the new leaders never had an inkling that the general public would become as educated as it has, or would be as literate as it is. It is possible that they would have framed the constitution differently. After all, most of the founding fathers didn’t think much of the average man except as a vassal. Most of the people in the country came here with a debt incumbrance either on them or under threat of prison.

The reformed party goal must be to help the citizens take care of themselves, not to do it for them. Change won’t be easy because some of the old quacks are still out there handing out favors for votes by creating give-away programs. I doubt that the founding fathers could have visualized the number of socialistically inspired programs we have in our country today.

The old Democratic Party did some wonderful things on the state level before it became completely corrupted. It was the salvation of the common man when the nation was going through some of its toughest times, particularly after the last great depression. It brought critical social change and literal salvation to millions of people as they evolved from an agrarian society to an urban culture, most without training or jobs and many with very little talent to bring to the work place. Social revolution was only one of the party accomplishments. It created jobs when there were no jobs to be had anywhere. It put food on the table for millions of families during the great depression when hunger was epidemic. It developed plans that gave the elderly the independence to live out their lives in relative dignity without putting the burden on their children or extended family. Previously, most of the elderly had to live with their children or relatives until they died or were put in the dreadful poor houses of the thirties’. The party leaders passed legislation to provided medical treatment for millions who otherwise would be without. That is only a fraction of what the party accomplished in its heyday. There are many more sources of pride for the old party that the younger generations do not know about.

All new party conscripts need a massive history lesson. The prospectus of the new party must document the many good deeds in the party’s illustrious past B.C. (Before corruption.)

The present national party accelerated its free-fall into disrepute after WW II, even though the three lower governments (state, county and city) were corrupt long before, and during the war, and many still are. The party bosses seemed to search out the more disreputable elements in our society for their constituency, like some of the left-wing labor unions and certain ethnic groups by trading promises for votes. Following that, they went after candidates who fit the pattern of the constituency, and the whole thing collapsed into a quagmire of slimy political feces. That is where it is today.

The reformed party must present a positive program that will appeal to a better class of candidate for the future to gain credibility. That can be done by recruiting people with impeccable credentials to carry its banner. It hasn’t done anything credible lately except to embarrass the nation before the world. It must use the accomplishments of the past to prove to a skeptical electorate, and public-spirited citizens, that the party is not a giant welfare organization, bent on giving its electorate something for nothing in exchange for votes.

In general, the Republican Party represents the nation’s wealthy. That is certainly no crime, and it is good to know where their loyalty lies. It is also a fact that as Democrats achieve some degree of success and wealth, they tend to move from the Democratic Party to the Republican Party. That is where a lot of the best talent goes when it is needed most by the democrats. Such migration must be stopped, or at least slowed.

A typical example of Republicanism is the protected drug mess presently costing our citizens billions and making billions for their friends in the pharmaceutical industry. The wealthy don’t care if drug prices are exorbitant, they can afford it. Of course, higher drug prices will also increase dividends. The Republicans allowed the oil debacle in this country to flourish by allowing larger oil companies to buy out the competition, while at the same time pandering to the tree-huggers. That set the stage for gouging the public, so they are doing it. Even when these adventures are publicized, nothing is done to correct the situation. Do you think the top people in the oil industry worry about gas prices at the pump? Yes --- only that higher prices means more profit.

But, the Democrats are also wading in that muddy stream. The bucks are too big for them to let that slide.

The Republicans wear their pro-business slant as a badge of honor. As expected, they are protecting the wealth of their friends and relatives.

One of my gripes is that the wealthy act as if they made themselves rich. With the exception of those who inherited their fortunes and a very few others who made it through entrepreneurship, they became rich because the working class bought their products including software, computers, cars, auto parts, clothing or whatever else they manufactured. Now their primary fear is that the same workers may want some back. The republican protection schemes allowed the conglomerates to get so huge that an attack against them now is like a pin prick in the backside of an elephant. No pun intended. Any criticism is simply ignored.

The ardent republican supporters (mostly radio talk show people and sympathetic columnists) spout that rhetoric day in and day out, crying that the rich are paying for the poor. It makes you wonder if these people realize that the rich would not be rich if it were not for the working class (poor by their definition). Wealth redistribution is certainly not the answer, but it is incumbent on any party to see that those who did the labor necessary to earn it receive a fair share of the opportunities it brings. Don’t get me wrong, the poor must not have unlimited access to the national trough just as the rich must be accountable for what they get.

What about our future as a nation if we continue along the present track? Lord Woodhouselee, Alexander Frazier Tytler, A professor at Edinburgh University in Scotland allegedly wrote a theorem in the late seventeen hundreds  that may have defined our future closer than we would like to think. It was during that time that our forefathers were creating our constitution and the foundation of our Democratic Republic. Tyler wrote about the Athenian republic two thousand years earlier, giving conditions under which a democracy would fail. It is amazing how our history has followed the warnings of his theorem. The parallel is scary. The following is his text:

---A Democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the voters discover that they can vote themselves generous largesse (gifts and money) from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority will always vote for the candidate promising them the most benefits from the public trough, with the result that a democracy will collapse under loose fiscal policy, which is always followed by a dictatorship.

---The average age of the world’s greatest civilizations has been two hundred years. (Ed. Note: Until that time.) These nations have progressed through this sequence of events.

---From bondage to spiritual faith—from spiritual faith to great courage----from great courage to liberty—from liberty to abundance— from abundance to complacency — from complacency to apathy — from apathy to dependance — and from dependance back to bondage and finally a dictatorship.

Professor Tyler’s theory, when applied to our present and past situation, contained amazing similarities to us and our government. Where do you think we stand today? Granted, Tyler wrote this centuries ago, so the standards have changed a little, but our constitution was also written more than two hundred years ago and its values and principles have changed very little. One wonders if the framers of our constitution knew about Professor Tyler’s theorem, even though it was written about the rise and fall of the Athenian Republic more than two thousand years earlier. If so, would the framers have changed anything? Probably not. They put all of the checks and balances in our constitution that they could to make it last forever, in their opinion. But, the generations who followed bastardized it by ignoring its precepts. They did it using legislation to eliminate the possibility of later having to withstand the scrutiny of others later, if called to accountability. Analysis of the present situation shows that we are in the complacency to apathy stage right now. By Tyler’s reckoning, we have only one more stage to go before we implode, and the signs are on the horizon that an implosion could happen within the next few years.

Secession by the individual states is only one of those options. If we don’t stop the erosion of the two-party system now, it is entirely possible that we could evolve into a dictatorship, or a group of dictatorships.

Reviewing our history, we can bracket those years where we fit in each segment by events at the time. Here is my analysis of how we fit into the prophetic professor’s theory.

---We moved from bondage to spiritual faith from 1780 to about 1812.

We were in virtual bondage to the British prior to 1780 when our revolutionary leaders decided that enough was enough and it was better to be dead than virtual slaves. Success in the revolution led to the constitution. Yet we held a segment of our own population (Blacks) in servitude under the constitution for more than fifty years after we achieved our freedom. The constitution also freed us from the church of England. The nation became deeply religious and the vast majority of Americans became affiliated with a source of spiritual faith. New religions were born and prospered under our new freedom of religion concept. So, we fulfilled that prophesy nearly to the letter.

---Next we moved from Spiritual faith to courage during the years of 1812 to 1865.

It took the fifty odd years during this segment for our nation to recover from the devastating wars of the past and to prepare for the events leading up to the Civil War. Although some have declared that the Civil War was really fought for economic superiority of the North over the South, and slavery was a convenient excuse to make the war legitimate by taking the reason out of the realm of economics and replacing it with a moral issue. Human bondage has been in effect since the human race became somewhat civilized. An excellent byproduct of the Civil War was the steps taken to correct it at the time. When Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation, he knew full well that he had cut off the free labor market for the Southern planters, and that it would effectively put them out of business.

The social structure of the nation was lopsided at the time. Half of the country had all free people and free trade. The other half had slavery and an economy that depended on its survival. The Civil War was one of the bloodiest wars in history, after which the nation was reborn under a flag of forced solidarity. Freedom and resolve were incidents that came with the package. It took several generations to erase the bitterness of that period and some still persists. A few generations in the future, unless there is some action to aggravate it --- and we came close during the riots of the sixties and seventies Time will probably cure that problem.

---Then we went from courage to liberty from 1865 to 1945

This was the longest interval of all. It took participation in two world wars to finally bring us out of two devastating depressions, one at the turn of the century and the other in 1929-39. Future presidents learned quickly that armed confrontation was a quick-fix for a sick economy. Development was crippled during that time because of the extreme greed of the politicians and business leaders, most of whom showed an amazing lack of patriotism.

The white-knight that started the transition from depression to prosperity rode in on the wings of the Democratic Party. That was Franklin D. Roosevelt. He was elected primarily because of the stupidity or lethargy of the Hoover era Republicans. At that point, he had a grand opportunity as a nation to rid the nation of machine politics forever, but the fear of not being able to marshal the necessary votes to stay in office forced the democrats to leave the situation alone. In fact, Roosevelt embraced machine politics by selecting Harry Truman, a machine politician in the Pengergast machine in Kansas City as his running mate. Truman was an honest man.

The party also saw a dark period during that time. The only way to energize the economy seemed to get us involved in another world war. The Democrats began to build on a war platform, and it paid off in the end. Several other nations had the same idea, so a war wasn’t too hard to find. Multiple ideologies were always great excuses for war. After all, many of our wars and police actions since our revolution have come under those conditions. That’s a sorry record because it was built on the graves of military personnel.

Then we went from liberty to abundance from 1945 to 1975.

We were blessed with an incredible amount of new technology, mostly originating out of war. Now—we had all of this knowledge and nothing to build. The great transition in everything from the automobile and airplane to the washing machine and computers was underway. We were forced to develop heinous weapons because our enemies were trying to develop them also, and the race to destruction was on. Everything was a prime target of this new techno-reformation. A group of entrepreneurs took the computer to a new development stage and started the high tech revolution. It was then that we saw the seeds of incredible wealth begin to grow. Many of the new rich worked out of garages and basements and came to market with little miracle boxes under their arms. The bubble started growing and it grew and grew and grew. Uncontrolled growth is always risky because many times the foundation is weak and the bubble can eventually burst. It did.

But, we had plenty of money, so we went from abundance to complacency from 1975 to 2000

The nation was wallowing in money and cheap credit. People were living the good life with no thought of the future. Jobs were plentiful. Business was booming. Never have we had it so good. We had a place for anyone who wanted to work. That situation was created by the technology revolution, and generous benefits for those who didn’t, so we decided to stop and spend a little on ourselves.

We were overly generous. After all, there was more where that came from, so we began to buy. The politicians in both parties were in political heaven and encouraged the use of credit even more recklessly. Citizens could even use credit cards to contribute to favorite politicians. Tax money was flowing into the government coffers by the billions, and spending it wisely was becoming a problem. People whom you never heard of were suddenly prominent citizens because they had huge check books and sharp pens. People could and did buy anything. Give a million or so to a university and they will put your name on a building.

After credit cards became money and an item of convenience to ease the purchasing process, people didn’t have to go to the bank, but unfortunately, it became too easy and the exhaust workers began to build debt, and became complacent about paying the bill. That led to complacency in other areas. Many politicians run for office because they knew that a complacent electorate would elect them if the process was easy enough. ***** It surely wasn’t because they liked the cut of the politician’s coat, or the indicated that he would be elected anyway, ability or not, so why bother. Where education formally opened doors of opportunity, now money is the door-opener today. Which new car to buy was more important than studying the background of the politician we were about to elect, and the fallacy goes on and on. That complacency started the next stage.

During that period the United States rolled the entire population up a notch socially. The African American came on line in a big way and took his place in the grand scheme of things by replacing the old middle class. The Black nonviolent revolution, modeled after Mahatma Ghandi, had given the Blacks the confidence to speak out and demand their piece of the pie. After numerous name changes, from "Colored" to "Negro" to "Blacks" to "Black American" to "African American." They finally settled on the latter and started the climb toward acceptance as an equal in society.

The older middle class with all that new-found money and voluminous credit, had moved up another level, called Baby Boomers for lack of a more dignified name. The Boomers contain a lot of the Hippies and Pacificist from the several wars. Most of the Boomers didn’t want to be clerks, teachers, nurses, truck drivers, secretaries, warehousemen, laborers and the other mundane jobs like their fathers had done before them. They now owned homes and cars and had money in their jeans. Many were professional or semi-professional with good corporate or government jobs. They didn’t worry about spending thirty-years with an employer to get meager retirement. They would play the market and move from job to job, taking their retirements with them. The education for the average Boomer was far above middle class job holders of past generations. It was time to move up, so they did.

African Americans, as the Boomers shifted upward, began to realize the power of the vote and used their block vote to great advantage to get preferential treatment from the various governments and sympathetic institutions. A huge number of younger African Americans had no training or preparation for the move into middle class. The rise in the minimum wage gave the younger people a new lease on life. Even the lowest paid individual had money to spend.

Quickly recognizing this fountain of wealth, the merchant class rapidly switched their orientation to the Black potential customer, sticking at least one black person in every ad and TV commercial to prove their solidarity with the class. That opened the flood gates for huge credit debt, and now the average citizen (White and Black) is supposedly in debt for thousands of dollars, being repaid in small payments at an exorbitant rate of interest.

Seeing a grand opportunity, the Blacks started capturing the urban cities by heavy infiltration and converting city governments to nearly all Black voters. Any other ethnic individual or group didn’t have a chance. The more qualified individual Blacks quickly moved up to important positions; judges, administrators, supervisors and political.

Apparently the corruption is rampant among the new heads of cities and their staffs. One Black city department head told me in private that every morning, when he arrived at his office, an FBI agent was there to greet him with questions. I have heard that from others, but there are seldom any indictments. It is hard to tell if indiscretions are being overlooked or not, but some believe that the sheer numbers of indictments, if the inspectors had their way, would jam the court system for years, and with like juries, it is seriously doubtful that anything would come from it. It would be difficult to put an entire city administration in jail.

The Boomers, by ignoring the return to political graft sands corruption in the cities, were apparently trying to atone for slavery a hundred and fifty years earlier. They are reluctant to criticize the occupants of their old offices, regardless of the ineptness. Their aim was to give the African Americans anything they demanded as some sort of warped reparation. That put more hands in the treasury trough. The demands covered items like special tax advantages, job allocation by census percentages, forcing business and government to hire African Americans over more qualified Caucasian candidates with threats of boycotts and just plain graft. They also demanded special university quotas, welfare, free housing and many other areas where the payback is still going on, and will for many years to come. Now that the system has been bled dry, a new demand is surfacing, that of reparations for their deceased forefathers who were slaves. Somewhere along the way somebody forgot to mention that the original slaves were sold to the slave traders by their own people in Africa and resold to the planters.

Eventually, the Boomers began to realize what a monster they had created and began to renege on the deal by abolishing some of the more outrageous demands, like affirmative action, special home loans and other absurd grants, but it was too late to stop the massive flow of most free services in many areas.

A little recognized sleeper in the making is the huge Hispanic population that is proliferating rapidly. As the African Americans moved into government and private sector jobs, the lower wage scale labor market appeared nearly overnight. Faced with the demands for everything from homes to automobiles by the social revolution, the door was opened for immigrants, both legal and illegal, to flow into the country to take those jobs. The immigration laws were ignored as the demand grew and the national borders ceased to exist for all practical purposes. The immigrants came in droves (millions). The cost to the governments and the private sector to keep them here is staggering, For example, indigent medical care alone in the Northwest sector of Atlanta, GA, costs thirty million dollars per year to take care of the immigrants, with no chance of recovery. There is no telling what the national totals are. Where do you think that money is coming from?

---Next came the move from complacency to apathy.

If we apply Professor Tyler’s prognostication, apathy is where we are today. The situation may not be salvageable. I don’t know. However, the Democratic Party could play a huge role in saving the system if it were reorganized and moved into the realm of respectability. If the party would dump the far left image and move toward the middle of the philosophical road, I believe the situation can be salvaged, but only with a complete overhaul of the party from top to bottom. It must be prepared to lose much of the block vote of the African Americans and others because once you advocate taking away the gratuities that you gave so generously, they will probably turn on you. That is not racial, but human nature. The Hispanics will more than fill the gap. They already outnumber the African Americans, but most cannot vote —yet. Once they achieve that right, the party will take on a whole different look. Hispanics are more aggressive than African Americans and will move faster. The illegal immigrants in the country now are not the intellectual class. They came to fill laboring class jobs. The intellectuals will follow or gravitate from New Mexico or California once they realize that a voting block is waiting for them.

The party was founded to represent the common man and make that accommodation so comfortable that it would attract the majority of voters. The Party will require about ten years of intense public relations, education and planning under strict scrutiny and creative examples by carefully selecting the candidates it puts forward to do it.

It is a shame that what was once a great political party has slipped into leftist purgatory with many of the splinter parties. Can it emerge as a great party again? Will the party ever do it, or will the slide continue? If it does continue, the entire nation could be dragged into the muck with it, and the final prediction of Professor Tyler is just a matter of time. We will be ruled by a dictator.

The Democratic Party needs an internal revolution to make it truly a party of the people again. To wait is to be too late. With the three huge blocks of voters, the working man, the immigrants after they get voting rights and the African American could account for more than 55 percent of the electorate. Just with those voters, the party would be a worthy adversary. The question is, can the leadership of the party handle the responsibility if they get it, without screwing it up? Time will tell.

Certain basic rule changes will have to be considered to make the party attractive to the average voter. Some of these recommendations will be momentous in scope and will change the country.

One of our failures is our attitude. We are arrogant enough to think that our system is the best in the world, and we should force it on everybody else, not give any consideration to the way other countries govern themselves. We seem to have forgotten that many of them have governments in place much older than ours and they are not in the state of disarray that we are today. Most of them have been living, worshiping, dancing, dressing and thinking the way they do for hundreds of years. We are upstarts as far as their history is concerned. We have no business interfering in their lives.

We have a trade deficit that will eventually bankrupt us unless we do something to stop it. Anytime a government has more money going out than coming in----the end is in sight. The average man doesn’t understand, so he is not concerned. Those who do will stay silent out of fear for their jobs. Someday we might not be able to pay the bills. That is when it will take a market basket full of freshly printed dollar bills to buy a loaf of bread. That is when we sink as a nation unless we do something to stop the flow outward and get something started inward.

We have been on a spending drunk for a long time now. We had better sober up. Some of our waste is pork for politicians, used to buy votes by pandering to local political bosses who can deliver votes. The rest is pouring huge amounts of money into programs that do not, and will never, benefit the average American, like trying to change the way the rest of the world lives and thinks.

This is only scratching the surface of the changes that we need to make. Here are some others in which the new party needs to take the initiatives.

It is time for the party to do something momentous to regain the credibility and momentum to return it to greatness. In the past, some of those acts were the social programs that brought the nation out of the great depression, WPA, Social Security and WW II. All of these molded the nation and galvanized generations of people into cohesive voting units. The party members were proud to be Democrats, as were the Republicans. The party must do something along a giant scale.

I suggest adopting one or more of the following as a history making move. It would mean that the nation has turned the corner from an agrarian society to a technological marvel. It would mean that the people have elevated themselves to a point of sophistication where each has the capacity to participate in his or her own destiny. There are several areas available to the party. For example, the flat tax idea is an excellent idea. The national sales tax to replace the IRS is even better, Limited advertising where a candidate would tell his or her life story in minute detail in 24-- 81/2 X 11 pages of type and pictures telling why he or she is the best person for the job. Limit all advertising to the one booklet and maybe one debate. Put the booklet in the hands of every voter one month prior to an election. Forbid candidates from running against each other and make them run for the office. No personal attacks allowed. Set up a nationwide voting system to vote by phone and keep the polls open Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Security would be no problem. There is plenty of technology available or that can be developed to reduce the chance of crooked voting to an infinitesimal fraction. Those are just a few. There are others. My favorite is the following:

In the United States today, all adult citizens are eligible to vote unless the privilege has been revoked for cause. Voting should be changed from a right, as stated in the 15^th amendment of the constitution to a requirement by a new amendment .to the constitution. This formula will justify this position. It is partly based on a simple concept of averages. For example, if 100 percent of the eligible voters were required to vote in every election involving a living candidate, many of the incumbents would not last through the next election. This idea is based on the premise that, as a citizen, paying taxes, electing politicians, using the facilities of this nation and participating in many government programs, each voter has a duty to vote to insure that we elect the best candidates available for office.

Less than 40 percent of the eligible electorate votes now, and will continue to vote, regardless of a mandatory vote law. These are dedicated people who actually believe in the system and want to be a part of it. You and I are in that group.

That means that more than 60 percent of the eligible voters are presently not participating in the process. They are doing an injustice to the rest of us. Their inattention allows malcontents and inept people to run for office and get elected. Probably half, or 30 percent, of these would take an active part in the process once they realize that they can make a difference, and with a little nudging by a legal requirement. They are a part of a large block of law-abiding citizens who are not well organized, so they don’t bother to vote. Vice President Spiro Agnew properly classified them as "The silent majority." Once these people become involved, no more action will be necessary to keep them doing their duty.

That leaves 30 percent to be deal with. Of that 30 percent, probably more than half, or at least 15 percent are capable of understanding the law, and will actually vote knowledgeably once it becomes mandatory, but with some resistance at first. When a voter sees his peers and family members voting, they will come on board. These people are easily lead. Many will come because they simply don’t want to be different. We are a herd-bound society, and once these people see the way the herd is headed, they usually will follow.

Of the remaining 15 percent, about half (7.5 percent) of these will not be capable of telling one candidate from another. They are basically ignorant, but will obey the law out of fear. For all practical purposes that is all that they will be doing. A few candidates will get gratuitous from them. Their participation will be strictly to abide by the law. Nothing else.

Of the remaining 7.5 percent, a small fraction is not capable of deciding anything, particularly which is the best candidate for a given post. These people will not understand the significance of their vote, if they bother to vote at all. Part of this group will never vote and never understand why they should. The low IQ of these people will have to be dealt with humanely, possibly an exempt status or card should be created for the indigent.

The figures above indicate that approximately 85 percent of the people will vote intelligently. That more than doubles the number of votes casts now.

A political party should have control of who uses its name to run for political office. If a candidate does not measure up based on his past history, ethics, honesty and integrity, he or she could be turned away and advised to find another party if the party minimum standard can’t be met. There would be no prohibition against anyone running for office and it would be the obligation of the candidate to find a party banner for his campaign.

Couple this percentage of knowledgeable voters with term limits, and we would have legislatures composed of outstanding people with no ulterior motive to get elected and a willingness to donate the time required to make our government what it should be, rather than a morally decrepit haven for degenerates, thieves and people with hidden agendas.

The Democratic Party could be the leader and trend-setter for change again, as it was in the old days. Its integrity alone will be the example for making democracy live forever.

Some politicians are my friends whom I know to be honorable people. Others I know are of questionable integrity. It is a shame that the good are forced to associate with the bad because of a party label.

Now for the flip- side. I have been told by knowledgeable people that my reasoning was flawed and would fail, that the uninformed and ignorant should not vote. I argued in opposition to that view, that all people who had the option should be encouraged to exercise it, and that I was sure the opposition from the people would be minimal, that we would be able to teach the public quickly and easily, even if we had to have a practice election to work out the bugs before we had a real test.

I have reason to believe that their argument have some merit. The claim that I had overlooked the obvious, that up to 50 percent of the American voters not capable of making a rational decision when it comes to politics. I believe the American people have a much higher percentage of illiteracy than we think. Functionally illiterate means that they have some education, but do not meet the minimum standards of basic literacy. It’s true that most functionally illiterate people can read and write enough to get along in life.

A friend of mine, a retired college professor whom I respect very much, and who was convinced that I was on the wrong track with my total vote concept, frequently pointed to some of the more obvious people in passing and remarked, "And you think that moron should vote!" Of course, I disagreed at the time and jokingly accused him of snobbery, because I had a category for that odd looking fellow. My system would mandate that I educate him or write him off in the small 7.5 category designed for such people.

Taking into consideration the crop of young people graduating from our totally inadequate public school system, I can understand his anxiety. Each year we have another crop of morons on the streets from our government schools. Many of them are being socially promoted to get them out of the system and to keep fourth graders from growing a mustache. If the students are promoted out of the system, they don’t have to be counted for budgetary purposes. We must change that situation or we are in big trouble as a nation. We lag far behind the rest of the world in educating our young people, so a campaign coloring the situation red, as it is, and promising to change it to green would be another worthy cause for a rehabilitated political party to adopt.

We have always been critical of our government. That’s one of the freedoms that we enjoy. There are many people like me who respects our Democratic Republic so much that we want to reform it for the future. I want to keep it technologically in harmony with the times and use every resource to the maximum to make life in our country better in every way. I want to make our lifestyle, not just compatible with the rest of the world, but better and not force it on any other nation. If we create the proper model, the other countries will come to us.

In the past, we were idealistic and thought that modern education and technology eradicated enough ignorance to make the world to make it a safe and respectable place to live and work. I was back to the chicken in every pot and car in every garage notion, --- then I looked around. The revelation startled me. As pure and idealistic as the concept was, the key ingredient was missing. That ingredient was the lack of capable and willing people to step forward to positions of leadership without reservation. That left those positions available to the predators. We need people whose aim in life is to make the country better, and to make life for all of our people good and decent without an extreme ideology, left or right. We need people with the backbone to keep the country from drifting into socialism or nationalism. To protect the good from the bad. Not a utopian state, but a nation of realist operating within the framework of a great national party. That could be the democratic party ---if it would rid itself of its bad element and return to the basics.

People are generally not interested in other people. They are interested in themselves and how they can use the system for their own benefit.

I said long ago that if we didn’t modernize our system, we were headed for third-world status or a dictatorship. Sheer greed and moral turpitude would take us there and bury us so deep that it would be doubtful that we would ever work our way out of it. The awful Third-World nations of today could be role models for us tomorrow unless we recognize our direction and change.

Here is the key message. A good percentage of people who do not vote are the literate people who must come forward to reform and save the system. Unless the system is reformed, the American dream could become an American disaster in a few years. The country is shifting rapidly and unless we change, we will be on the slippery slope to dictatorship and Professor Tyler’s prophecy about a democracy will be fulfilled.

If a collapse comes to pass, the country could emerge under a yoke of tyranny. Germany did. Shortly after Hitler became Chancellor, he had a law passed taking away all civil liberties away from civilians. Congress has recently passed a similar law in the United States. It is called the Home Defense Bill. It has been signed by the president and is in full force and effect today. It is called the Patriot Act. It was a law like that could authorize concentration camps to hold dissident civilians.

Americans have never experienced anything like that, so it will be a terrible experience. When that happens, may God help us, for we will be powerless to help ourselves.

What kind of government will we have after the transition? It won’t be Communism. It has had its run on the world stage will probably be an also-ran forever, so it won’t be that philosophy. Its failures were monumental and well documented.

The Nazis used the communist as their excuse to pass their equivalent of our Patriot Act. We are using the terrorists. Our liberal left has flirted with socialism for many years, and it has come to the same dead end. It is seriously doubtful that any form of socialism will pass muster as a successor. If it does, it will be under a completely different format, and even then, I don’t see it as a threat. So, forget the socialist philosophy.

One problem lies in the dangerous rise of Nationalism in the world. Nationalism means dictator. That is probably the logical successor after the fall of a Democratic Republic, as Professor Tyler pointed out. Why leadership inevitably moves in that direction, or cycle, is not known. It could be the lack of discipline that follows when every citizen is accustomed to having everything they want and price is no object. Credit replaces cash and integrity collapses as the bills come due with no way to pay them. Individual credit burdens could be the key. It could be called the spoils of prosperity on a massive scale. Usually, the only way to correct a situation like that is to destroy the system and rebuild it in the image of a new leader or party, and of course that new leader will be a dictator. If a dictatorship comes to pass, many of our institutions will become unrecorded history under the new leadership. The hotbed of advanced education must be extinguished for the new order to survive. With that comes the destruction of written history. Laws will be selectively enforced and any threat to the new leadership will be put down with heavy force. Corruption and revolutionary ideas outside of the dynasty will be discouraged by severe punishment and eradication of the revolutionary element will be quick execution. The Romans did that with the Christians. Hitler did it with his enemies and Stalin starved an entire nation into submission. These people were brutal, but we have people of that same mentality walking among us today.

"You ain’t seen nothin’ yet," a popular singer used to say, until you see what a dictator will do. Regimentation will be strict, and education will be channeled to fit the image of the new government. All of our freedoms will be gone. A citizen’s failure to perform to the satisfaction of the new system will be grounds for extremely harsh punishment. Other moves to kill the opposition will be restrictions on group meetings or any activity where anarchy could breed. History will repeat itself — aided by technology that Hitler and Stalin never attained.

That is the most extreme form of punishment that can befall a free people. Life will become unbearable to many, especially those who lived through our present times. Our greatest danger is that The American people don’t believe such a calamity can happen to us. Unfortunately, not only can it happen, but it probably will happen unless we make our present form of government strong. By keeping the most powerful political forces in the nation from falling into retard is the first step. A powerful adversarial system is the only answer. Otherwise the present system, with all of its good points is headed for the abyss of oblivion. That alone makes it necessary that we rebuild the weakest of the two major parties.

To remove less than five hundred of our present leaders, and replace them with surrogates, would probably collapse our government as we know it. That operation would take a total of about three hours. Confusion would reign supreme. The transition would probably not be contested by our citizens.

Of course, that must not be allowed to happen. If we have a strong two party system, each to keep the other honest, we will be strong enough to avoid any activity by a would-be dictator or group. That is reason enough to rebuild our weaker party to one of strength and integrity and then keep both strong. Time is of the essence. The move is being made under the masquerade of religion. That can only be stopped with strength, and a strong two-party system is the way to do it. Situations move fast this day and time. We must settle into a format that is absolutely tamper-proof by political monkeys. Our system must be built in granite and immune to maneuvering by party hacks, particularly bureaucrats. That is what a rebuilt Democratic Party can contribute to this nation.

Why don’t the young democrats see that, and do something about it? The rot became really obvious when rumors surfaced recently of fortunes being made by party officials using inside information. Rumor has it that one high party official made twenty-million dollars in the last couple of years from what was believed to be an inside tip. It has been established that a now sitting Senator made a hundred thousand dollars several years back, apparently with insider help from a constituent. That was a violation of a now disregarded law. The rumors must not have much substance because there have been no indictments to date, (giggle), and these lucky people are out there leading the good life. There are also rumors that some highly placed democrats, who are in positions of influence, have been very generous with their off-the-record counsel to other democrats.

There should be strict ethical questions about office holders who became rich while in office. There has always been unanswered questions about how this money was accumulated so quickly. The answers are always fuzzily mumbled about something called ‘good investments.’ Lucrative book deals that obviously will never recover the advance are made with abandon, but who’s counting?

The first step is to clean up the mess, get rid of the accumulated crud and start fresh. It’s time to get idealistic, enthusiastic and above all, honest younger people involved in the process, and support them.

We must have a strong, clean party. Without adversarial pressure, the nation could evolve into a dictatorship. For that reason alone, it is necessary that we restore the system and give the electorate an honest choice of candidates in front of the electorate.

There will be people who will take great exception to any thought that this republic could collapse. That is a narrow approach blinded by faith in a system that is as vulnerable as any other nation in the world, and the win-loss record is long. No government will last forever. Who can point out one major government that has not changed in the last thousand years?

The nation has fallen into the hands of latter-day robber barons. They can be found in the rosters of the exclusive clubs and organizations like the Trilateral Commission, the Council on Foreign Relations, the secret societies in some universities including independent organizations like The Bilderberg Group who meet annually to discuss world events. All of these organizations have greatly influenced world events, and most have a global agenda. Our decision is to decide which of the many choices of government do we want in the future. My suggestion is that we keep the best of what we have in this one, and develop the next one using our present format, with additions for the better.

The party should disavow these organizations. If the party does not separate itself from these secret societies, it will never get the full support of the working class once they realize that their leaders are not their leaders at all, but working within the agenda of some secret organization. The reason the members have not bolted from the party already is the lack of knowledge about the influence these organizations have on the national stage. As of now, very select groups decide who they want in office, even the President, then get behind him with money and the influence they wield and elect him. The rebellion of the voter is not to correct the democratic condition, but to escape to the other party.

The condescending attitude of these groups toward the rank and file is that they know what is best for you. You don’t. The common-man touch is nonexistent.

The party must get better quality candidates. Most first-time candidates not in the clique soon realize what is happening, so they go as far as they can go, then drop out. Without the support of the global strategists and their money, a candidate has very little chance. Money is no object to the great merchants of the world. Their tentacles stretch far and wide and cover many fields. How do you know whether that bright idea being considered by the Congress was not born in the meeting rooms of some other country, or maybe the United Nations?

The ultimate goal of the secret strategists are to make us a part of a global economy. Such a strategy will reduce us to third world status in a few years unless we stop it now. We must move to preserve what we have or we are on our way.

Don’t forget the Alexander Tyler prognostication. We can’t let that happen here.

This is the opinion of one old man, a former democrat who voted with the party for nearly sixty years, until I too got disillusioned and became an independent. I need to go back to my political home, but not in the condition it is in today.

. What is your opinion? I would like to hear your ideas. My e-mail address is jabo@rightconnections.net. Be sure to put politics in the subject slot.

Just remember this — we must not let this party continue in its slide toward oblivion. Young blood, with young energy and ideas must come forward and make their move into leadership positions. The party needs people with high ideals and respect for the members. We need that now, not next year, but right now. God bless the United States of America

Jack W. Boone, and don't forget --- I'm a fiction writer.