{"id":1096753,"date":"2023-06-21T02:32:00","date_gmt":"2023-06-21T02:32:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/caitlinjohnstone.com\/?p=13047"},"modified":"2023-06-21T02:32:00","modified_gmt":"2023-06-21T02:32:00","slug":"15-questions-that-are-more-useful-than-what-presidential-candidate-should-americans-vote-for","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/2023\/06\/21\/15-questions-that-are-more-useful-than-what-presidential-candidate-should-americans-vote-for\/","title":{"rendered":"15 Questions That Are More Useful Than \u201cWhat Presidential Candidate Should Americans Vote For?\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"Listen to a reading of this article (reading by Tim Foley)<\/em><\/a>:<\/p> <\/iframe><\/div><\/div> <\/figure>\u2756<\/p>People keep asking me to weigh in on the US presidential race and its candidates, which is what always happens whenever there\u2019s a US presidential race on because media saturation makes it so central in the minds of Americans it\u2019s often the main issue they want to talk about, even if they\u2019re fairly aware.<\/p>I really don\u2019t have anything to say about who Americans should vote for, other to repeat\u00a0what I\u2019ve said already<\/a>\u00a0about the fact that you can\u2019t vote your way out of a mess you never voted yourself into in the first place.<\/p>But what I can do instead is offer my American friends some questions to ask that would probably be much more helpful to them and their nation than the question \u201cWhich presidential candidate should we vote for?\u201d<\/p>Here are 15 such questions:<\/p>1. Why does nothing change no matter who we vote for?<\/strong><\/p>2. Why does US foreign policy always continue along the same trajectory regardless of the president\u2019s party or platform?<\/strong><\/p>3. What keeps our voting population split right down the middle into two political factions of equal size, with neither side ever gaining enough of a majority to democratically change society in any meaningful way?<\/strong><\/p>4. Why does the stalemate described in #3 always seem to benefit the rich, the powerful, and the war-horny?<\/strong><\/p>5. Why is it that the most consequential US government policies like plutocratic influence, privatization, globalization, ecocidal capitalism and nuclear brinkmanship are never on the ballot? Why do these things keep happening, against our interests, without our ever voting for them or electing anyone who campaigned on the pledge to enact them?<\/strong><\/p>6. If our federal government\u2019s behavior never changes no matter who we elect, could it be that there are other bodies involved in government policy-setting whom we did not elect, and who remain in positions of influence regardless of the comings and goings of our official elected government?<\/strong><\/p>7. If the above is the case, then who is it? Who\u2019s really calling the shots in this country?<\/strong><\/p>8. Could it be that everything we\u2019ve been told about our country, our government, our political processes and our world is untrue?<\/strong><\/p>9. If so, what are the implications of the fact that our schools and our media have been feeding us lies since we were small?<\/strong><\/p>10. What forces would be responsible for keeping all these lies flowing throughout our society? What might keep an ostensibly free press spinning more or less the same lies throughout the western world day after day, year after year, generation after generation?<\/strong><\/p>11. Is it possible that our entire electoral system is a sham designed to give the public the illusion of control so that they\u2019ll let oligarchs and empire managers run the country undisturbed?<\/strong><\/p>12. If the electoral system is a sham, then how do we enact the changes we so desperately need?<\/strong><\/p>13. Is it possible that there are other ways to effect change in the United States which don\u2019t involve casting a pretend vote in a fake election?<\/strong><\/p>14. Could it be that those other means of forcing change are precisely what the charade of casting pretend votes in fake elections is meant to divert us from?<\/strong><\/p>15. Should we perhaps spend less energy bickering about who should get sworn into the White House a year and a half from now, and more energy examining other possible avenues toward advancing meaningful change?<\/strong><\/p>______________<\/p>My work is\u00a0<\/em>entirely reader-supported<\/em><\/a>, so if you enjoyed this piece please consider sharing it around, throwing some money into my tip jar on\u00a0<\/em>Patreon<\/em><\/a>,\u00a0<\/em>Paypal<\/em><\/a>, or\u00a0<\/em>Substack<\/em><\/a>, buying an issue of my\u00a0<\/em>monthly zine<\/em><\/a>, and following me on\u00a0<\/em>Facebook<\/em><\/a>,\u00a0<\/em>Twitter<\/em><\/a>,\u00a0<\/em>Soundcloud<\/em><\/a>\u00a0or\u00a0<\/em>YouTube<\/em><\/a>. If you want to read more you can\u00a0<\/em>buy my books<\/em><\/a>. The best way to make sure you see the stuff I publish is to subscribe to the mailing list for at\u00a0<\/em>my website<\/em><\/a>\u00a0or\u00a0<\/em>on Substack<\/em><\/a>, which will get you an email notification for everything I publish. Everyone, racist platforms excluded,\u00a0<\/em>has my permission<\/em><\/a>\u00a0to republish, use or translate any part of this work (or anything else I\u2019ve written) in any way they like free of charge. For more info on who I am, where I stand, and what I\u2019m trying to do with this platform,\u00a0<\/em>click here<\/em><\/a>. All works co-authored with my husband Tim Foley.<\/em><\/p> <\/picture><\/div> <\/figure>Bitcoin donations:1Ac7PCQXoQoLA9Sh8fhAgiU3PHA2EX5Zm2<\/p> \n

This post was originally published on Caitlin Johnstone<\/a>. <\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Listen to a reading of this article (reading by Tim Foley): \u2756 People keep asking me to weigh in on the US presidential race and its candidates, which is what always happens whenever there\u2019s a US presidential race on because media saturation makes it so [\u2026]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":557,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1775,1841,22465,14,3591,63216,3672],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1096753"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/557"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1096753"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1096753\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1096754,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1096753\/revisions\/1096754"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1096753"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1096753"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1096753"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}