A Metaphysical Need, A Worldly Imperative

Our fight for political independence

Oh, Superman, where are you now
When everything's gone wrong somehow?
The men of steel, the men of power
Are losing control by the hour

~Land of Confusion, Genesis

The remarks at the break below are those I was scheduled* to make at the More Voices, More Choices Rally for independent politics in Raleigh held on June 14. 

But first, some thoughts on this past week:

Our country's need for greater political choice has been as subtle as a kick to the head. After Thursday's dystopic debate, for most Americans, that kick comes from a steel-toed boot.

To the questions of the moment, why is Biden the candidate and why is there such a fierce defense of him from so many Blue No Matter Who voters? My best answer is that this is the consequence of Democratic Party elites who saw their gain in maintaining the status quo and tens of millions of party followers whose identity is so intertwined with the cult/tribe/team (political party) that they can't think for themselves or they are afraid to. It's the same answer, maybe slightly different, as to why Trump is the GOP candidate.

The years-long gaslighting of the American people that Joe Biden is fit for office and we should not believe what our eyes and ears are telling us of his mental and physical condition comes from the same people who tell us that it's not genocide but self-defense or that the economy is doing very well, you just don't understand how it works. This constant drumbeat of dissonance and dishonesty includes the Democratic Party's insistence that it stands in defense of democracy. In North Carolina, we know that's not true. I explain why in my remarks below, as well as why we must continue and expand our fight for political independence. 

Fittingly, the day before Thursday's debate, the Democratic Party-controlled North Carolina State Board of Elections refused to allow Robert F. Kennedy, Jr's (We the People Party) and Cornel West's (Justice for All Party) campaigns onto the ballot here in NC and denied the certification of the conservative Constitution Party. I imagine NC Democratic Party leadership hoping the Democratic National Committee notices how enthusiastically NC Democrats preserved a ruinous status quo for the perceived benefit of Joe Biden's troubled re-election campaign at the expense of allowing political choice, i.e., democracy, to 7.5 million registered NC voters. Remember, NC Dems precluded any actual presidential primary here in NC by keeping Marianne Williamson and Dean Phillips off the ballot in March…

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Here are my remarks:

We represent political choice, political imagination and political independence.

These ideas, these needs, of political choice, political imagination and political freedom are dangers and abominations to the established elites as they are existential threats to them and their hold on power, just as the refusal of such things is existential to us as free men and women.

In my case two years ago, it was not just a political party that went to great extremes to deny me, the Green Party and our supporters our constitutional right to be on the ballot; it was fellow members of the establishment who cooperated with, enabled and amplified the Democratic Party's unconstitutional efforts to deny us ballot access and to deny the voters of North Carolina political choice.

Through the Governor's office and the State Board of Elections, the state actively cooperated with the Democratic Party. I should note that this was both the North Carolina Democratic Party and the national Democratic Party, specifically the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, which, utilizing the services of the Elias Law Group, did everything they could, on multiple levels, to keep us off the ballot.

The state of North Carolina worked closely with the Democratic Party to deny us our rights.

The state coordinated its actions with the Democratic Party and provided information for partisan political purposes and actions.

The state pursued the Democratic Party's slurs and fabrications against us as official state actions, including wrongfully denying us our place on the ballot. Through official spokespeople, like the spokesman for the state board of elections, they stated falsehoods and issued slander as official government communications.

The state ignored the many violations of state and federal law the Democratic Party engaged in in their operations to keep us off the ballot. There are too many examples to go into in my short time, but one is especially worth noting. In affidavits, as well as video and audio recordings, we have clear evidence of Democratic Party operatives not just impersonating Green Party officials but impersonating state officials, saying that they were with the Secretary of State's office or with the State Board of Elections office, to pressure voters to remove their names from the petitions they had signed in support of our place on the ballot.

The state board of elections ignored this deliberate and blatant impersonation of state officials for partisan political purposes. When confronted with this lawbreaking, the board's response was that "this sounds like canvassing."

Along with the state supporting the solely parochial interests of the Democratic Party, you had statewide and national corporate media supporting and defending, if not specifically the Democratic Party, then the closed and corrupt two-party system.

With a few notable exceptions, like Kyle Ingram at The News & Observer and David Larson at The Carolina Journal, most of the state media regurgitated the Democratic Party and the state board of elections' false accusations against us.

When the state board of elections outright lied and said we were under criminal investigation, corporate media outlets across North Carolina echoed and trumpeted in headlines that false claim, stating we had committed organized fraud and submitted thousands of forgeries. And when it was clear that such a thing did not occur, most notably through the state's inability to provide evidence against us in a public hearing in August 2022, again despite months of attacks from the state, there was no correction or retraction from both North Carolina and national media.

Likewise, when we won in US District Court and then again in federal appeals court, where it was clearly shown that the state and the Democratic Party had no basis whatsoever to deny our spot on the ballot, that essentially both the state and the Democratic party were making things up about us to keep us off the ballot, carrying out organized and well-resourced fraud themselves, the silence from most of the media was, as they say, deafening.

Just two months ago, we won again in Federal Court, this time winning damages against the Democratic Party, a judgment that, as I understand it, is quite rare. The judge noted that such decisions and awards for damages are unusual but noted ours should be an exception because of how, in the court’s words, "frivolous, unreasonable, and without foundation" the Democratic Party's actions were in trying to deny us our rightful place on the ballot. (I am grateful that, in our case, we had an independent judicial process. Still, I am not going for a moment to disrespect anyone by implying that is true in courtrooms across the US. I understand how fragile and targeted our judicial independence in this country is, as everyone else does.)

Prior to winning in court against the Democrat Party in April we agreed to a settlement with the state of North Carolina for damages in the state’s obstruction of our political and civil rights. The state recognized it would lose in court against us, again.

These state, corporate media and political elites that locked arms to prevent and deny political choice, political imagination and political independence for me and the Green Party are continuing today to protect and advance their own selfish, greedy and petty concerns and interests. We see this in their grossly obscene and all too obvious undemocratic actions against the Kennedy, Stein and West campaigns both in this state and nationwide. We see it in their unjust and specious obstruction of the Constitution Party here in North Carolina. We see it in the untold numbers of citizens in every election cycle who realize politics is closed to them unless they possess great wealth or a mindless and slavish disposition to serve those with such wealth. And, we see it in the millions who don't vote, not because they are lazy or apathetic, but because they know ours is a rigged and corrupt political system that doesn't want, let alone reward, their participation.

Yet, as the elites that control power unite to keep that power, we unite to oppose them. We have no choice but to remember who they are and, despite our differences, who we are. To abdicate to them, to leave them the political space to determine our lives and our futures, is cowardly and treacherous to any of us possessed of the hearts, minds and souls of free men and women. To give up our self-determination through constitutional and natural rights passed on to us by men and women, ranging from Thomas Paine to Angela Davis, is a diminishment and meanness that none of us here will ever accept.

They will not stop fighting us because political independence is an existential threat to them. Their tactics and strategies will broaden and grow more tyrannical and criminal, and that is ultimately what we want them to do: expose themselves for who they are and who they represent. Faced with such an adversary, knowing the increased oppression that is coming, we will remain steadfast. We will pursue democracy, we will keep to the freedoms as articulated in our Constitution, we will advance and advocate for the natural rights of all, and we will not surrender our political independence, whether to the state, to corporations or to the elites' failed, noxious and grotesque political parties.

Our fight for political independence will only grow harder and may never get easier, but capitulation is not possible. As the earth and the people the elites have debased, harmed and stolen from erode, devolve and loom heavy with apocalyptic risks, we are left with no choice. Our metaphysical need for political independence is coupled with a worldly danger from a collapsing economic, societal, and military order that endangers us all. I cannot overstate the connection between the need for political choice, imagination and freedom and the consequences the established political elites will bring onto us if we allow their political theater to continue.

Continue our fight for political independence. There is no other option.

Thank you.

*Due to health issues I was unable to address the rally. I am grateful to the organizers for including my remarks in the summary of the event.

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Finally, while not a perfect match, I had recollections of Genesis’ music video for their song Land of Confusion while watching Thursday night’s horror show.