Friday, April 10, 2020

The Vision for Decentralist Coalition of Independent Candidates!

Present Two-Party System of governance in the United States of America was never intended by Framers of the 1789 Constitution. George Washington, war hero of the American Revolution, was acclaimed the first President of newly independent Republic forged from thirteen independent British colonies. Political Parties were never intended by the founders, as the division between Tories and Whigs in Great Britain was fresh in the minds of Americans who did not desire partisan factions to take root, yet seeds of this grew from wrangling by the colonists at the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia. Federalist and Anti-Federalist camps had emerged.

By the time Washington ran for a second term, two political parties were evident: The Federalists who supported 1789 Constitution and the Republicans, later Democratic-Republicans, and eventually Democrats After the Election of 1820, the Federalist Party collapsed and void was eventually filled by Andrew Jackson and the modern Democratic Party was formed. American Whigs briefly provided opposition until Abraham Lincoln led modern Republican Party to victory in the Election of 1860.

Following four bloody years of Civil War with southern states that seceded from the Union as the result of Lincoln'winning that election and formation of Confederate States of America, the industrial North prevailed over the agricultural South and slavery of African Americans ended there. Then the ghost of servitude rose in the form of segregation to keep white supremacy alive in the former Confederacy well into the 1960s via, so called, "Jim Crow" laws.

Following four bloody years of Civil War with southern states that seceded from the Union as the result of Lincoln'winning that election and formation of Confederate States of America, the industrial North prevailed over the agricultural South and slavery of African Americans ended there. Then the ghost of servitude rose in the form of segregation to keep white supremacy alive in the former Confederacy well into the 1960s, triggering the Civil Rights movement that followed.


General prosperity created as result of the World War II build-up continued through the 1950s and into the 1960s. The Summer of Love and the Flower Children, otherwise known as Hippies, gave this economic growth a conscience, emerging on April 22, 1970 with a first "Earth Day" celebration and birth of the environmental awareness, or "Green" movement in America.


Prosperity continued through the 1970s until early 1980s when Reaganomics changed flow of capital investment to gravitate upward toward the proverbial 1% at the top of financial wealth building pyramids, triggering the Occupy Wall Street movement in 2011 and placing focus upon on the 99%, who ended up left out of this equation. It culminated with the Occupy National Gathering in Philadelphia; June 30th to July 4th, 2012. This was sapped by organizational repression by the financial elite class via "cantonization" of demonstrations and placing them away from  media scrutiny in out-of-the-way locations, such as Franklin Park near 6th Street rather than Independence Mall as originally intended.


Months of planning for a massive presence in the "City of Brotherly Love" over the Independence Day Weekend were thwarted by the "powers that be," via re-direction of protesters to a nearby city park that never filled to capacity due to energy dissipating as a result of the venue change. Before this alteration of plans, the National Gathering organizing committee were looking at an alternate site in nearby Valley Forge, Pennsylvania to hold it. Large-scale demonstrations against U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War, such as the May Day march on Washington, DC were not viable anymore, thanks to police repression tactics put into place afterward.


The Citizens United U.S. Supreme Court decision of 2010 opened the floodgates of bottomless corporate political campaign contributions, whereas only the top 1% could afford to sway Elections in this country. The Inter-corporate state had taken virtual control, fueled by influence of Wall Street investors. Once the modern Republican Party led by the maverick candidacy of Donald J Trump took control of the Executive branch, while retaining the Senate with Mitch McConnell as "gatekeeper" stopping Democratic sponsored legislation from moving to the floor for a vote, nothing progressive was able to be passed into law on the Federal level.


Radical intervention by the people, individually and collectively, is necessary to reverse this upward movement of financial resources into pockets of the already wealthy billionaire class in this country. Artificial Personhood of corporations must be abolished. People are persons, and should be recognized in Law. Associations or organizations of people are groups and do not have collective "rights" that are protected under the 1st Amendment to the Constitution.


Now, it is up to the People of this great Republic to be heard at the grass-roots level in every city, town, and county via local elections. Referendum petitions need to be initiated everywhere that call for decentralization in all forums of political expression, and environmental justice be included in this. Extraction of fossil fuels has to cease, clear-cutting of tropical rain forests must end, and clean energy solutions, such as solar and wind power require promotion on an unprecedented scale if there is to be any hope to reverse the disastrous effects of global climate change.


Political cooperation by all candidates running for office, in the United States and in other countries, is essential if humanity expects to turn the tide, to prevent an extinction level event in the near future on this planet. The time is NOW for formation of a Decentralist Coalition of Independent Candidates!


Joseph David Henry Ware Bryan-Royster
Editor and Publisher, Lantern of the Hermit

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