"Revolution
Is The Solution"
By Joel Hirschhorn
& Jason Miller
19 March, 2007
Countercurrents.org
For
several days I had been bedeviled by the recurring memory of a jingle
from an out-dated television commercial. My recollection of the product
they were promoting lay tantalizingly close to the edge of my consciousness,
but remained stubbornly out of my reach.
So my “mind’s
ear” was left listening to, “It’s time for a new beginning…”
ad nauseam with no tangible context. (If I had had that, I would at
least have known which company to despise for etching such an inane
little tune into my brain).
“Beautifully harmonized”
by a group of sickeningly enthusiastic twenty somethings accompanied
by music undoubtedly composed during the “Age of Aquarius”,
this little ditty molested my mind with more frequency than I care to
recall.
At last I had an epiphany.
Sometimes frustrated subconscious minds of Gen-Xers recovering from
television addiction transmit their contents into our consciousness
in markedly bizarre ways during our waking hours. Or to put it another
way, if we ignore our dreams long enough, bad television forces its
way into your unsuspecting brains. My hat goes off to Madison Avenue,
Viacom, Fox, and the rest of the masters of the agitprop universe for
their immense success in embedding their tripe deep within the human
psyches of many of us.
My unconscious was obviously
attempting to convey an important message with this horrid little refrain.
My interview with Joel Hirschhorn, writer and political agitator, put
things into perspective.
Joel provided me with a sober
reminder that unless one has been dwelling under a pile of boulders
in a cave reaching deep into the bowels of the Earth, it is painfully
obvious that the United States and its nearly countless victims around
the globe are in desperate need of a “new beginning.”
Shaken to its very core by
the ravages of Military Keynesianism, neoliberal economic policies,
crony capitalism, corporatism, corruption, and wanton disregard for
the Constitution, international law, and standards of human decency,
our Constitutional Republic is hanging by a very slender thread.
Even before plutocrats, corporations,
lobbyists, and the rest of the malevolent cabal (who together represent
a very small percentage of the populace in the United States) acted
in concert to further their mutual interests by eviscerating the law
of the land, the United States was far from being a democracy. Our Constitution,
unique and progressive as it was prior to reactionary forces gutting
it, was written as a framework for a limited form of representative
democracy.
Like many activists, writers,
Leftists, populists, and enraged US Americans of virtually all political
stripes, occupations, and races, I have been longing to find a viable
means of inciting or collaborating with a mass movement that will force
the plutocracy to yield their stranglehold on wealth and power. I have
come to the conclusion that dedicated and sustained individual efforts
by tens of millions coupled with multiple collective actions carried
out by substantial numbers of people will eventually reshape the political
and socioeconomic landscape of the United States. If that fails, the
increasingly hubristic, avaricious, and emboldened ruling class will
most likely face a violent insurrection.
As he will tell you in the
interview, Joel Hirschhorn has provided those of us in the “lower
classes” with a tangible means of acting in unison to attack the
entrenched power structure. His suggested strategy is peaceful, legal,
and practical.
Here is Joel giving me the
details:
1. Your biographical sketch indicates that you advocate a “Second
American Revolution”. How do you envision this revolution playing
out?
"Despite the massive
gun ownership in our country, I only foresee peaceful revolution acting
within the law. Specifically, my hope is for an Article V convention,
requested by 2/3 of the states and, if Congress obeys the Constitution,
called by it. For over 200 years Congress has resisted granting a convention.
Such a convention could consider a broad array of possible constitutional
amendments offering many needed electoral, political and governmental
reforms. It would be such a historic event; it would receive monumental
public and media attention. So many groups on the left and right have
always opposed a convention. Status quo power elites obviously fear
such a convention. Talk of a runaway convention is used to create fear;
this is ludicrous, mainly because any convention proposals must be ratified
by ¾ of the states. I co-founded Friends of the Article V Convention
(www.foavc.org) to build national support for a convention."
2. What are the implications
behind the title of your most recent book, Delusional Democracy?
"My message is that
massive numbers of Americans have deluded themselves about the nature
of American representative democracy. If they think that our system
is equitable, effective and trustworthy – or the best that it
can be – they are truly delusional. The goal of my book was to
breakthrough peoples’ psychological defenses, see the truth, and
then become engaged to improve our beloved nation through many reforms."
3. How did your work
as a Congressional staffer influence your strong antipathy for the entrenched
duopoly of the Democratic and Republican parties?
"Those 12 years working
for Congress gave me first-hand experience with all the corruption,
dishonesty and wasteful spending that defines this institution. The
enormous negative influence of big corporate and other special interest
money is even worse than informed people see. It also gave me remarkable
exposure to Executive Branch agencies and how awful the federal bureaucracies
are. I helped put a presidential appointee in jail; that was rewarding.
And I did help write a few statutes that I was proud of."
4. Whom did you serve
in Congress, what was your specific job, and with what party was your
boss affiliated?
"I was there from 1978
to 1990, working as a Senior Associate at was then the Congressional
Office of Technology Assessment. I directed many studies on industrial
and environmental issues, published many reports, and testified about
50 times before Senate and House hearings. I did a lot of work for specific
members, including helping grassroots groups that had asked their congressman
or senator for help."
5. Your homepage
for your book mentions that you offer practical solutions for peacefully
repairing our broken republic. Would you briefly summarize some of these
solutions?
"One of the most important
is to spread the use of the Clean Money/Clean Elections approach for
providing government funding for political campaigns; we must get big
private money out of political campaigns. As an advocate for third parties,
this policy approach is crucial to make third party candidates competitive
with candidates from the two major parties. There are also a host of
electoral reforms that we need to make voting easier and more widespread,
such as making Election Day a national holiday. I also advocate making
ballot initiatives and measures more widespread – among the states
and at the federal level. This is a crucial element of direct democracy
and because our representative democracy has failed the public interest,
we desperately need some forms of direct democracy."
6. One of the fundamental
flaws in many “solutions” to the myriad problems facing
our republic is that they ignore the obvious fact that the economic
paradigm loosely referred to as American Capitalism represents a significant
barrier to our political system even approaching a true republic, let
alone a democracy. What potential systemic economic remedies do you
suggest?
"An extremely important
issue for me is the rising economic inequality. It comes to this: wealthy
Americans (directly and through corporate venues) have taken over the
political system and this has removed the necessary watchdog and regulator
role of government in ensuring that our economic system is fair to working-
and middle-class Americans. There really is a war on the middle class.
We are rapidly approaching a two-class society: the rich Upper Class
and the Lower Class for everyone else. We must stop corporate welfare,
privatization of government that benefits contractors, illegal immigration
that gives low cost labor to the private sector and drives down wages
for citizens, and free trade that has already sold out many industrial
sectors and put our nation deeply in debt. We must tax the wealthy much
more, and limit the amount of profits made in the financial sectors
– such as the obscene fees used by credit card companies."
7. You have initiated
a drive for an Article V Constitutional convention. Would this involve
rewriting the Constitution or simply amending it?
"An Article V convention,
just like Congress, can only make proposed amendments that must be ratified
by ¾ of states – this cannot be circumvented. I cannot
imagine any attempt at a wholesale rewriting of the Constitution. But
I can foresee serious consideration of many possible amendments. There
is too much concern about social issue amendments (like abortion and
marriage), while the reality is that they have little chance of ratification.
Convention delegates would spend much more effort on serious reforms
to improve the quality of our democracy and government."
8. How many have
signed on to your movement so far?
"We really just got
started with a website and still have not mounted a serious campaign
to get members. But people are signing up everyday. We realize that
we have to do a lot of outreach to inform and educate people about why
we need an Article V convention and why we have a constitutional right
to one, and also that Congress and many left- and right-wing groups
have opposed a convention because they do not want to lose the power
they now have to corrupt Congress and the presidency."
9. Who would participate
in such a convention? How would they be chosen?
"Article V leaves all
the details of operation up to convention delegates, and the states
are free to select their delegates as they choose. However, the very
first Article V convention would be such a historic and newsworthy event
– with global coverage – that attempts by corporate and
other interests to pervert delegate selection and convention operation
would be difficult to pull off. What I like to say is that the many
millions of Americans that are truly fed up with the current state of
our democracy and government that has already been taken over by evil
and greedy forces should accept some risk and support an Article V convention.
All revolutionaries must believe that there is so much to gain that
the risk of making things even worse is worth taking."
10. What specific
changes are you advocating if such a convention comes to pass?
"My personal interest
is in electoral, political and government reforms. Virtually all the
reforms I examine and recommend in my book could be accomplished through
constitutional amendments. People need to see amendments as an alternative
form of lawmaking. Because Congress has failed the public as our regular
lawmaking institution (and we have no federal ballot initiative mechanism
to create laws), we are forced to use the Article V convention option
the framers of the Constitution gave us – they correctly anticipated
that the time would come when we the people acting through our sovereign
states would need a way around Congress. One thing about Friends of
the Article V Convention group that I stressed during its formation
is that we should not make the mistake that all previous efforts at
getting a convention made: namely, they all advocated a specific amendment.
All that does is bring out opponents not just to the specific amendment,
but to the convention idea itself. What I stress is that we must honor
the exact words of Article V, and that means we have a right to a general
convention. Convention delegates must be free to consider any possible
amendments they think worthy of discussion. Our group will try very
hard to avoid advocating specific amendments and stay passionately focused
on getting a convention – period."
11. What are your
thoughts on electronic voting machines?
"I have always had a
Luddite streak in me. And so I have always been skeptical of the trustworthiness
of electronic voting. We need absolute transparency in our voting system
to maximize trust in it. I have such a negative view of the two major
parties that I think they (and their rich supporters) are quite capable
of using any available dirty tricks to win elections. It may sound crazy,
but if no can stop damn Internet spam and Microsoft can’t make
reliable software, then why should we trust electronic voting?"
12. With your obvious
disdain for the two party duopoly, I assume you are not supporting a
presidential hopeful from either side. Putting reality aside, who would
you like to see as our next president?
"I have zero confidence
in ALL Democratic and Republican candidates; as long as they all take
big money from corporate and other special interests they have no credibility
and deserve no trust and public support. I have waited for some major
party candidate to say that they would only take campaign contributions
of no more than, say, $50 dollars from individuals and groups. I always
vote for a third party candidate."
13. You often write
about the need for a vibrant and competitive third party. Of the existing
third parties, which do you think has the best opportunity to break
the duopoly?
"None of the current
ones have a chance. That really saddens me. The two big ones, the Greens
and Libertarians, never seem to have the capability of reaching a broad
cross-section of Americans. They also delude themselves that winning
a few local elections will, somehow, some day make them competitive
on the national level; I just don’t see it happening. I am working
with a new party: the Centrist Party (www.uscentrist.org) that has just
been formed, and I also support the Populist Party of America (www.populistamerica.com).
There is also a new Whig Party that merits attention ( http://thephoenixchronicles.org/)."
14. What do you say to critics who assert that voting for a
third party candidate (i.e. Nader) is a waste or to those who contend
that it robs a viable contender of a chance at victory?
"The only people who
should feel ashamed and guilty are the ones putting Democrats and Republicans
in office. To me, it is pure insanity to keep putting both of these
totally corrupt parties in power. I am a proud dissident and would rather
see more people not vote, than keep voting for the two major parties.
Lesser-evil voting has already destroyed our country. In a perverse
way, it would help the nation if voter turnout dropped to, say, 10 percent
of eligible voters, so the two-party controlled political system and
government would have absolutely NO credibility, certainly not as any
type of democracy. At least voting for third party candidates sends
some message to the power elites about the degree of dissatisfaction
in the electorate. I also favor, as an electoral reform, having all
ballots give voters the option of None of the Above."
15. In light of the
severity and extent of the Bush administration’s criminal behavior,
how do you account for Pelosi taking “impeachment off the table”
now that the Dems have control of Congress?
"Just proves my point
that Democrats as well as Republicans do not merit any support by true
progressives, dissidents, and politically astute people. Another constitutional
amendment we need is one that broadens the scope of justifications for
impeachment of the president. I also advocate prosecution of Bush and
Cheney for criminally negligent homicide. I am sick of so many people
calling themselves progressives (what I call neo-progressives) because
for some reason they are ashamed of openly calling themselves Democrats.
Of course, as Pelosi and most other Democratic members of Congress are
showing, neo-progressives should feel ashamed for their support of Democrats."
16. If you were sitting
face to face with the reader of this interview, what are five things
you would encourage them to do to aid in destroying the delusion and
making democracy a reality?
"First, visit www.foavc.org
to learn more about the Article V convention provision in our Constitution
and why it is needed.
Second, become an active
member of the group and help build support for a convention among citizens
and state legislatures. Anyone who thinks of themselves as a dissident
or rebel, or is just turned off by our political and government system,
should become a member.
Third, read my book Delusional
Democracy – Fixing the Republic Without Overthrowing the Government.
I can promise even the most politically engaged persons that they will
learn a lot of new information about the decline of American democracy
and the ways to restore it. People need to rally around a set of specific
reforms to improve our nation. Emotions are not enough.
Fourth, stop voting for Democrats
and Republicans. Either do not vote or find a third party candidate
you feel good about.
Fifth, find a third party
that looks like they have a set of principles that appeal to you, join
and become active to make the party competitive at any level of government
– local, state or federal – that they are active on."
I offer many thanks to Joel for giving me the opportunity to pick his
brain a bit and to share the results with you. We amongst the poor,
working, and middle classes owe you a debt of gratitude for your efforts,
Joel!
I have signed on as a member
of the Friends for the Article V Convention and have read Delusional
Democracy. Both acts helped sustain my hope that the United States has
not “crossed the Rubicon,” as some have suggested.
Over 70% of us want an end
to the illegal occupation in Iraq and desire some form of guaranteed
health care for all of our citizens. Both are minimal prerequisites
for establishing some authentic morality as a nation, are essential
to the well-being of US Americans and Iraqis alike, and are readily
achievable simply by slashing the obscene $600 billion per year military
budget. How many times do we need to be able to blow up the world before
we are “safe”?
Despite the will of the people,
the entrenched opulent class is working feverishly to ensure the perpetuation
of their genocidal war on “terrorism”, which is actually
blowback they created through their innumerable imperial provocations.
The ruling elites have fought with virtually every fiber of their collective
being to fend off nearly overwhelming popular demand to divert our tax
money from killing to healing. Profits, power, property, and the military
industrial complex have superseded the needs and welfare of We the People
for decades.
Mustering the support to
force a Constitutional convention would greatly enhance our chances
of re-empowering ourselves and emasculating the tiny minority comprising
the governing plutocracy in the United States.
Let’s follow Dwight
Eisenhower’s suggestion and “demand a convention to propose
amendments that can and will reverse any trends [we] see as fatal to
true representative government."
You can help make it happen
by signing on at http://www.foavc.org/index.htm.
Joel S. Hirschhorn is the author of Delusional Democracy
- Fixing the Republic Without Overthrowing the Government (www.delusionaldemocracy.com).
His current political writings have been greatly influenced by working
as a senior staffer for the U.S. Congress and for the National Governors
Association. He advocates a Second American Revolution, beginning with
an Article V Convention to propose constitutional amendments.
Joel Hirschhorn Website:
www.delusionaldemocracy.com
Jason Miller
is a wage slave of the American Empire who has freed himself intellectually
and spiritually. He writes prolifically, his essays have appeared widely
on the Internet, and he volunteers at homeless shelters. He welcomes
constructive correspondence at [email protected]
or via his blog, Thomas Paine's Corner, at http://civillibertarian.blogspot.com/
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