By Timothy V. Gatto

Gee. Once again the American people are offered the choice between two lousy candidates that honestly, nobody really wants. There, I said it. Nobody really wants Barack Obama or Mitt Romney. Maybe there are a few deluded Democrats and deluded Republicans that are solidly behind their candidates, but from what I’ve heard from people on the street, this is a battle between the lesser of two evils.

The Democrats have this idea (or the idea pushed on them by the DNC) that they are fighting big corporate money and they are like David fighting Goliath. Actually, according to The Center for Responsive Politics (OpenSecrets.org) Obama has $348,413,128 to Romney’s $193,373,762. That’s almost $150 million dollars MORE than Romney! So all of you Democrats that believe you are the underdogs, guess what, you aren’t. Obama has more campaign money than Romney. The Republicans are the underdogs. You guys are rolling in money. Isn’t it amazing how the Democrats framed this election?

Do you know who’s not rolling in money? All of the people running that are not Republicans or Democrats. All of you Americans that continually whine about not having a choice really don’t know what you are talking about. There are plenty of choices out there. My favorite, Rocky Anderson, wants a new investigation on 9/11, wants out of Afghanistan and all of the countries where we have military personnel running drones and special ops and air bases. He wants our military to come home. He wants our civil liberties restored. He wants to investigate Bush for War Crimes.

Frankly he hasn’t a chance. The reason that he doesn’t have a chance is because of all the media attention and advertisements and campaign coverage of the Democrats and Republicans. Third Party candidates get no coverage. The sad part of this is that the American people put up with it. They let money control the election. The candidate with the most money wins the election. That’s true. Most Americans think that is just fine. We could have the reincarnation of Thomas Jefferson running in the race and unless he had friends in AIPAC or at GE or any of the big players out there, you’d never hear of him.

Do you know why this country is so screwed up? The reason this country is so screwed up is because the American people are just plain lazy when it comes to deciding who their leaders should be. They seem to think that there is a magical way that their leaders are chosen for them. They believe that there are really smart people in the country that somehow get together and pick people to run for office. Then most Americans believe that their only duty is to pick one of the two people that are eventually chosen and vote for one of them. This simple act of going to the polls and voting makes them “good Americans”. They believe that this simple act of voting is all that is required of them. They have done their duty.

Then Americans wonder why this country is a mess. They wonder why the leaders of this country don’t do what they want them to do. They get angry and blame the system.

As much as most Americans really don’t want to hear this, I’m going to tell you why this country is so screwed up. It’s screwed up because the majority of Americans have no idea of how our political system works and they are too lazy to do anything about it. They delegate their responsibility to pick candidates to people that don’t represent them and don’t give a sh*t about them. What happens is that you get two candidates for President that represents different factions of the military industrial complex.

These two candidates, in this particular moment are Barack Obama and Mitt Romney, these two basically work for the same people, and that doesn’t include the majority of average Americans. The way you’ll know that are from the things that they say and do, For example; both candidates say nothing about shrinking the military budget or stopping any of these wars we are fighting around the world. Both candidates say nothing about ending or revising the free trade agreements that are strangling this nation.

They say nothing while only 27 percent of Americans say they back the war effort, and 66 percent oppose the war, according to an AP-GfK poll released. Two thirds of the country says they want an end to the war in Afghanistan yet the candidates say nothing. They say nothing about free trade agreements yet 53% in US Say Free Trade Hurts Nation: NBC/WSJ Poll. These are big issues, yet the candidates say nothing.

They say nothing because they are both on the same page. They both will continue the wars and they will both honor and expand the free trade agreements in spite of the fact that most Americans want an end to them both!

Sadly, this is OUR fault. We have allowed these two political parties to become completely co-opted by the military industrial complex. These two candidates will not work for the American people; they will work for the goals of the military and business. The candidates were chosen and financed by big business interests, not the American people. That’s all there is to it. There is basically no difference between what Barack Obama or what Mitt Romney will do in the future. The military will continue to operate in other nations to continue American business interests. That includes invading other nations for their natural resources and to insure that America controls the oil market. That’s the plan. Both men will continue to implement these aims.

Most trans-national corporations don’t really care about what happens to the American people. Free trade agreements allow them to operate and send their manufacturing to other nations with cheap labor. Most Americans know this and are clamoring to end these free trade agreements that resulted in millions of good manufacturing jobs going overseas. The candidates say nothing about doing anything to correct this situation. That’s because they don’t represent the average American. They represent the MIC.

Eisenhower warned us against this in 1960 when he left office. Including that in his last speech to Americans as our President speaks volumes. This was a man that knew the military and knew the government. He must have thought it was important. It was. In fact, he was predicting the future. We are now facing an America that is run by the military-industrial-complex. They have control of both American major party political candidates. This is the American reality.

This is another reason that third party candidates get no press coverage or opportunities to join in debates with the two major party candidates. The press is completely controlled by the MIC. Most of their sponsors are members of the MIC. Networks don’t want to lose sponsors so they only cover candidates of the two major political parties.

The sad thing is that the American people let this happen. If anyone wonders what they could possibly do about this situation, all I can tell them is to spread the word. Tell people to look at these two candidates and see for themselves. They promise no new future, only more of the same.

We use 53% of our discretionary spending on the military, yet we are a nation in recession. Don’t you think that 53% of our money going to the military is a bit ridiculous? This is happening even while the United States has no real threats. There is no nation in the world capable of starting and winning a war with the US, yet we spend 53% of our budget on the military. We spend more on our military that the rest of the world combined!

So this time when you vote and pull the lever for the man of their choice, ask yourself why you are doing it. Be prepared to read about the US military operating in nation after nation and continuous war, while jobs are scarce because most have gone overseas. Welcome to the new American reality.

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Tim Gatto's new book "Contempt to Outrage" will be available soon from Oliver Arts and Open Press.

By Timothy V. Gatto, a retired Army Sergeant and former Chairman of The Liberal Party of America. He can be reached at: timgatto@hotmail.com Read Tim's Book "Complicity to Contempt" and his Novel "Kimchee Days or Stoned Cold Warriors From Oliver Arts and Open Press and available on Amazon and all other online bookstores.