Texas Longhorns with newborn calf in Bluebonnets

Texas Longhorns with newborn calf in Bluebonnets

Please note I have a new phone number...

512-517-2708

Alan Maki

Alan Maki
Doing research at the LBJ Library in Austin, Texas

It's time to claim our Peace Dividend

It's time to claim our Peace Dividend

We need to beat swords into plowshares.

We need to beat swords into plowshares.

A program for real change...

http://peaceandsocialjustice.blogspot.com/2013/03/a-progressive-program-for-real-change.html


What we need is a "21st Century Full Employment Act for Peace and Prosperity" which would make it a mandatory requirement that the president and Congress attain and maintain full employment.


"Voting is easy and marginally useful, but it is a poor substitute for democracy, which requires direct action by concerned citizens"

- Ben Franklin

Let's talk...

Let's talk...

Wednesday, January 11, 2012

Should we be afraid of Romney?

I just posted this on my FaceBook Wall:








  • Alan L. Maki

    I hope no one takes this that I support Romney, because I don't; I will most likely be voting for either progressive Jill Stein or liberal Rocky Anderson from the new Justice Party. I still think the best ticket we could have are the two strongest peace, social and economic justice activists in this country: Cynthia McKinney and Cindy Sheehan. For whatever reason they have both indicated they won't be running. Unfortunate, but that's life.

    I think it is unfortunate, too, that liberals, progressives and the left aren't pushing Jill Stein and Rocky Anderson to form a united electoral front under the banner of the new Justice Party because this is what people seeking change really want. We try to unite people in all our other movements so why shouldn't we be working towards a united slate at the polls as part of our movement for change? I think it is short-sighted of both Stein and Anderson they aren't working for this.

    What is going on with liberals, progressives and the left in this country, anyways? 

    There is this outfit called "Progressives for Obama;" the very name of the organization is an oxymoron led by complete idiots and the most opportunist morons--- Tom Hayden who served as AIPAC's poster boy providing a "left" cover for the Israeli killing machine, and this left-wing imposter, Carl Davidson, who enthusiastically supported the butcher Pol Pot. 

    Why aren't we getting out to support Democratic Party activist, Darcy Richardson, a true, long-time progressive who has a long history of supporting everything we are for, as he challenges Obama in the Primaries? As far as I can tell, only the New Progressive Alliance has supported Darcy. What gives? I don't understand how it is that we demand change and then we can't even put our fingers to our key-boards to support him after his many years of activism trying push a progressive agenda inside and outside the Democratic Party. Look at these hypocrites in PDA and MoveOn.org. They  say they are for pushing a progressive agenda inside the Democratic Party--- yet, not a peep from either group about Darcy Richardson's courageous challenge to Obama as he tries to force the issues to the forefront.

    But, getting back to Romney.

    I strongly and vigorously disagree that Romney is to be feared as someone more right-wing than Obama.

    Where are the facts to back this up? 

    We shouldn't be buying into this Obama hype. It just isn't true.

    First, like I said, it simply isn't true that Mitt Romney is further to the right than Obama. 

    If anything, Romney is articulating a position that is pretty much identical to what Obama is actually doing.

    Obama is a master of linguistics using the left-wing terminology he learned from his mentor, Frank Marshall Davis. Frank Marshall Davis, the noted Communist who was the popular voice for the people's front movements for the New Deal era--- see "Frank Marshall Davis, A Voice of the Black Press." Actually, the book is inappropriately titled because Frank Marshall Davis was the voice of the entire working class. Frank Marshall Davis must be reeling in his grave seeing how his star pupil, Obama, has managed to twist and pervert everything he taught him.

    Obama has managed to twist and distort through the use of language the selling of his thoroughly reactionary Wall Street agenda--- complete with all these dirty imperialist wars and the associated austerity measures forced down the throats of working people. While using a left terminology, Obama has even managed to gain support for the most brutal and savage murders--- including the elected leaders of other countries which is clearly illegal under our own laws. Obama is a mean and cruel beast of the worst kind as he carries out the instructions handed to him by Wall Street.

    In fact, Romney is pretty much running on a platform of what Obama is doing--- presenting the Wall Street 1%, not us the 99%, a win-win situation.


    With Obama or Romney, we, the people, get the dirty end of the stick; Wall Street gets the profits.


    As liberals, progressives and leftists, we shouldn't be fostering fear of either Obama or Romney--- we should be concerned with challenging Wall Street for power.

    A new poll just out (http://www.zogby.com/news/2011/10/18/ibope-zogby-poll-public-favor-split-occupy-wall-st-movement-60-say-demonstrators-lack-clear-goals/) clearly shows that the majority of the American people believe; that persistent organized protests can win real change. And guess what, the people are correct. Why shouldn't we have candidates articulating in the electoral arena what is being struggled for in our workplaces, in our communities and through our protests in the streets?

    When we say we "fear" Obama or Romney, we are sending the message to our Wall Street enemies that we are afraid of them. What message does this send other than let's prepare them so we can gorge on them at the public trough.

    Liberals, progressives and leftists shouldn't be sucked in to playing this game of one of Wall Street's politicians is more right-wing than the other because the only thing this does is make the Wall Street coupon clippers more arrogant in thinking they can bully and badger us into submission.

    Obama must be punished at the polls because he, like Bush, is escaping the required punishment he so justly deserves from the courts.

    I never met Mitt Romney, but I knew his dad, George Romney very well. If Mitt Romney is only half as decent as his dad, this country will be better off with him than with Obama. It is possible that Romney, in spite of his rightist talk to appeal to the Tea Baggers, will end up legislating in a far more decent way than what we have gotten from Obama.

    Quite honestly, I found George Romney a far more decent human being that 95% of the Democrats who were in the Michigan Legislature at the time--- he supported an end to racist covenants in housing and he strenuously enforced affirmative action. George Romney even called for a fair trial for Angela Davis. And George Romney even added his voice for ending the War in Vietnam. George Romney even worked towards integrated public schools.

    Even when George Romney served as Nixon's head of Housing and Urban Development, his door was always open to organizations like the NAACP--- more than I can say for that little wimp Kucinich who agreed to meet with us on school integration in his own district and never showed up for the meeting. I would note that Obama has refused to enforce Affirmative Action.

    I never voted for George Romney and told him to his face I would never vote for him or any other Republican; I would never vote for Mitt Romney, either. But, I sure as heck have no reason to be afraid of any candidate Wall Street throws at us; and I don't know why anyone would--- what we should do is stand up and fight for peace and for what is socially and economically just--- and get behind candidates like Darcy Richardson, Jill Stein and Rocky Anderson--- and we should be pushing for the three of them to work together. 

    Every single day I am chased out of casinos in our organizing campaigns by mobsters who tell me things like they will put a bullet in my head and stuff me in a trunk if I come back... working people keep on struggling for justice in spite of the threats of violence from their bosses--- why should we cower in the face of their politicians? 

    We shouldn't be afraid of these right-wing bullies--- and make no mistake, Obama is one of these right-wing bullies; we should not fear them; we should unite and fight them.

    I don't support Romney but I'm not afraid of him either because all the polls show, and all the people I talk to every day tell me, that the majority of the American people are opposed to these right-wing Wall Street agendas both the Democrats and Republicans are trying to shove down our throats.

    Did you ever watch a Rabbi try to fatten up a chicken for butchering by forcing food down its throat before slitting its throat? Even the chicken struggles.






  • -- 
    Alan L. Maki
    Director of Organizing,
    Midwest Casino Workers Organizing Council
    58891 County Road 13
    Warroad, Minnesota 56763

    Phone: 218-386-2432
    Cell: 651-587-5541

    Primary E-mail: amaki000@centurytel.net