Slightly over a year ago I went on record claiming that America was an “endangering and endangered ruination” with ruinous domestic conditions and destructive and deadly international interventions all stemming from her “corpocracy,” the “Devil’s Marriage” between big corporations and government. ((Brumback, GB. “Real America, an Endangering and Endangered Ruination“. Dissident Voice. March 28; OpEdNews, March 29; PopularResistance.Org Daily Digest, March 31; Greenville Post, April 2; Transmedia Service, April 6; Uncommon Thought Journal, April 8; 2016.))
America remains on course for oblivion and taking the rest of the world with her sometime later this century unless her corpocracy is ended and her course drastically changed to prevent one or more of these events from dooming our species; Armageddon, ecocide, genocide, or a pandemic. The same sort of gloomy conclusion has been made by many others who have followed and analyzed U.S. domestic and foreign affairs. ((See, e.g., Boyle, FA. “American Militarism Threatening To Set Off World War III”. OpEdNews, December, 12, 2012; Chossudovsky, M. Towards a World War III Scenario: The Dangers of Nuclear War. E-Book Series No. 1.0, Global Research Publishers, 2011; Noble, S. Anarchy and Near Term Extinction. Dissident Voice, June 18, 2014; and Roberts, P.C. “Is That Armageddon Over The Horizon?” Institute for Political Economy, April 12, 2017.))
Gnashing our teeth and thinking matters have to get worse before they can get better is inviting doomsday. At the same time, repeating the kinds of initiatives at changing the status quo that always fall far short are definitely not the answer. They fall short for one or more of these reasons: (a) they are divided rather than united with a unity of purpose and effort; (b) they address single issues and symptoms rather than the underlying cause, America’s corpocracy; (c) they are not organized sufficiently; (d) they are not guided by a comprehensive strategic plan with objectives and a means for monitoring progress; (e) they do not have sufficient public support; and/or (f) they lack sufficient funding.
As I am writing this article announcements were made about three major events aimed at changing various aspects of the corpocracy. One event is the second annual People’s Summit attended by some 4000 progressives. ((Kall, R. “People’s Summit: It Always Seems Impossible Until it is Done”. OpEdNews, June 11, 2017. See also, Geery, D. “A Critical Look at the People’s Summit”. OpEdNews, June, 11, 2017.)) The second is a conference of workshops on “stopping the wars at home and abroad” to be held June 16-18, 2017 at the Greater Richmond Convention Center in Richmond, Virginia. ((Swanson, D. “Invitation to the national ‘Stop the Wars at Home & Abroad!’ Conference”. E-mail, May 30, 2017.)) The third is the third annual meeting of the Democracy Convention to be held August 2-6, 2017 in Minneapolis. ((Democracy Convention III: August 2-6, 2017, Minneapolis.))
Each event by itself represents a major undertaking sponsored by many NGOs and involving overall thousands of participants. I cite the three here because none of them alone or collectively meet the prerequisites I just mentioned and undoubtedly were not intended to meet all of them. For example, the events have different sponsors, organizers, and agendas. In the future the organizers and sponsors should consider adopting an approach that does seek to meet those prerequisites. Such an approach is the subject of the remainder of this article.
Round One of Two-Fisted Democracy Power Briefly Reviewed
“Two-fisted democracy power” is an idea and initiative I conceived and started several years ago. ((Brumback, GB. The Devil’s Marriage: Break Up the Marriage or Leave Democracy in the Lurch. Author House, 2011. Chapter 4, pp. 43-66.)) It involved a comprehensive strategy to end the corpocracy and build a new America. The “fists” are a metaphor, not a call for physical and violent confrontations. One fist was a U.S. Chamber of Democracy (USCD), an Internet connected organization to plan and carry out a host of strategic initiatives, coupled with the second fist, the “People’s Reignbow Coalition,” a unified and massive movement of activists that would apply enough pressure on the corpocracy to nullify its resistance to the reforms being pursued by the USCD.
I spent several years trying to implement the idea in its entirety. It failed partly because of lack of funding. For example, many wealthy foundations declined to fund the USCD. One in particular stands out, the Peace and Security Funders Group, a large network of extremely wealthy public, private and family foundations, and individual philanthropists that is “committed to promoting international peace and security”. Balderdash!! I did not get a dime from them. What the “ultra rich” generally seem to be doing instead, one study of them concluded “—is undermining global democracy.” ((Lazare, S. “Ultra-Rich ‘Philanthrocapitalist’ Class Undermining Global Democracy, Study Says”. Common Dreams, January 17, 2016.)) No kidding! I had learned the hard way years earlier how NGOs and foundations are co-opted by the corpocracy. ((Brumback, G.B. “Tyranny’s Hush Money”. OpEdNews, September 28, 2013, and The Greanville Post, September 29, 2013.))
Round Two?
Despite its abject failure the first time around, I believe two-fisted democracy power is an idea whose time has come and is desperately needed for the sake of the future. A round two version needs to be launched. An outline and possibilities for a second round are discussed next.
The USCD Outline: An Internet Organization
The U.S. Chamber of Democracy
is NOT
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce
Our core mission is to fight for business and free enterprise before Congress, the White House, regulatory agencies, the courts, the court of public opinion, and governments around the world help America shed her corpocracy and become a true democracy.
www.u.s.chamber.com
www.uscdnotthere.yet
The strike-through of the heart of the USCC’s mission statement is intended to illustrate the difference between that organization and the purpose of the USCD. The USCC is a “brick and mortars” organization located in the Nation’s Capitol that spends large amounts of corporate money lobbying for corporate interests on Capitol Hill. Obviously its antithesis, the USCD, has no postal address and no building.
Steering Council
Twelve or so very knowledgeable activists from the different regions of America to develop a strategic plan, purpose and vision; pick self-managed teams to carry out the reform work; secure sufficient funding; and to steer the entire endeavor’s course to its final goal of ending the corpocracy and the building of a shared and operationally-defined new America (e.g., an America with a military budget slashed in half, no membership in militaristic partnerships like NATO, no military bases in other countries, and the like):
Illustrative Self Managed Teams to Carry Out the Strategically Guided Initiatives
(1) Think Tank — (a) to propose a vision consistent with the goal and a strategic plan to achieve it; and (b) to research and incorporate where appropriate all other existing reform ideas and initiatives. An innovative idea, for example, that definitely should be part of an overall strategy is John Rachel’s no-contract/no vote proposal. ((Rachel, J. “No Candidate Contract No Vote”, OpEdNews, June 12, 2017.)) If it were to be adopted nation-wide political reforms ought to follow quickly.
(2) Government Reform Team — (a) to disenable government’s enabling of widespread corporate wrongdoing by eliminating all hand outs to and all hands-off treatment of corporations, including the two inseparable financial and war industries.
(3) Economic and Business Reform Team — (a) to set the stage for creating a socially responsible capitalism; (b) to end privatization; (c) to promote non-corporate forms of business; and, (d) to persuade corporations to adopt new models of organizing and managing their businesses. ((See, e.g., Brumback, Op. Cit. 2011. Chapter 10. Ending Undemocratic Capitalism, pp. 149-180., Appendix C. Creative Economic Thinking from A to Z minus E for Economists, pp. 203-213; Brumback, GB. See also; Corporate Reckoning Ahead. Create Space Independent Publishing Platform. 2015. Part Two. Corporate Self Reform, pp. 31-115; Chapter 11. Some Alternatives to Corporations, pp. 117-123; and Chapter 12. Socially Responsible Capitalism, Not Socialism, pp. 124-136.))
(4) Health Care Reform Team — (a) to make universal, single payer insurance the law of the land; and (b) to responsibly regulate the health care industries to protect the health and safety of the insured.
(5) Social Justice Reform Team — (a) to end all artificial forms of individual and group discrimination; (b) to ensure civil liberties and rights to everyone; and, (c) to end militarized and racially biased policing.
(6) Education Reform Team — (a) to end charter schools; (b) to end teaching to the test; (c) to end propagandized curricula and teaching; and, (d) to emphasize the teaching of critical thinking skills.
(7) Communications Reform Team — (a) to return the airwaves to the public; and (b) to responsibly regulate corporate media.
(8) Political Reform Team — (a) to end the Electoral College; (b) to require ranked voting; (c) to remove all illegitimate voting hurdles; (d) to replace the Constitution reserved as it is for the power elite to a Constitution guaranteeing the just and equal rights of all citizens; (e) to strengthen gun control; and, (f) to support the other teams’ initiatives.
(9) Coalition Building Team — (a) to establish the Reignbow Coalition; and (b) to persuade existing protest movements to join the coalition.
(10) Tracking Team — (a) to track the progress of all initiatives; and (b) to spot ongoing opportunities for other teams to exploit for achieving interim successes.
The Reignbow Coalition
At any given moment there must be dozens of small to large movements each with their own specific protests. Common to them all is their underlying cause, America’s corpocracy. Leaders of such movements need to be persuaded to “connect the dots” and include their movements under an umbrella coalition of movements, the “Reignbow Coalition,” or whatever might end up being its name. An umbrella movement of 25 or so million disaffected Americans all demanding, perhaps via Rachel’s clever no contract-no vote condition that political candidates support the USCD’s reform initiatives or else, ought to be able to put honest politicians into office who would be real public servants for once.
Peopling Round Two
The first go around I was the chef; chief bottle washer and server spending several years doing so. An octogenarian now with waning energy I can not do that again. I need to pass the idea and any second round implementation of it onto people who might be willing to succeed me and take the lead in trying to kick start some version of two-fisted democracy power. After this article is published I will start seeking one or more successors who share my conviction about the potential of my idea, have the time to nurture it along, have organized or played a significant role in a major reform initiative, are well known, and have connections to some funding sources. ((Readers of this article are also encouraged to suggest themselves or others. One way readers can contact me is through my twitter address, #LibertyQuotient.))
As for recruiting people to serve on the Steering Council and teams there are several possible sources to draw upon for prospective members. One is the U.S. Democracy Corps that I originated several years ago. Its several hundred members are, figuratively speaking, ambassadors for democracy who have in their own ways been promoting peaceful and lawful means of reclaiming social and economic justice in America and establishing peaceful relations with other nations. ((See the list of members of the U.S. Democracy Corps posted October 4, 2014 on my blog site.)) Other possible sources include all the people who have read and commented on my work and who also have been very active themselves in their own work; and the few NGOs that actually endorsed the first round of two-fisted democracy power. ((The many people who have endorsed my books and commented on my work, and these NGOs: Citizens Works; Code Pink: Women for Peace; Fellowship of Reconciliation; and Just Foreign Policy are encouraged to promote the idea of two-fisted democracy power.))
Funding Round Two
If rescuing America’s future is worth the effort it is worth the cost. And the cost would be monumental, amounting to millions of dollars over a period of years, to start up and operate two-fisted democracy power until all its strategic initiatives succeeded and the main goal was reached.
There are over one million multimillionaires in America. Surely there must be a few thousand not entrenched in the corpocracy. Finding them is the trick, of course. Ralph Nader claims that only the “enlightened super wealthy” can save the world. ((Nader, R. Only the Super-Rich Can Save Us! Seven Stories Press, 2011.)) A few years ago I sent him through his personal assistant a copy of my book, The Devil’s Marriage, which I had dedicated to him. I think I will see if he would be willing to contact some of those 17 real super wealthy people he fictionalized in his book and ask them to fund the two-fisted democracy power initiative.
In Closing
Continuing the Quest for a New and Better America Must Continue or Else, No Matter How Hopeless, No Matter How Far—
— Cervantes/Don Quixote, Man of La Mancha (paraphrased)
Time is running out on the survival of America and the rest of the world’s inhabitants. While two-fisted democracy power may never be launched, failing to continue the quest for ways to protect the future even if it is an impossible dream should not be acceptable.