COMMENT POSTED TO AN ARTICLE BY RAFAEL BEHR IN THE GUARDIAN
"I knew that many
people don’t vote. I should have asked why"
If you don't know why, I really don't think you should be in
the political column business.
The reasons are many and clear.
The system is pretty well stacked against any significant
change and stacked against ordinary voters.
It is no different in any major Western country, only
reaching obscene extremes in the United States.
When, for the first time in many years a decent and thoughtful
politician succeeded in gaining the leadership of a British national party,
what happened?
All the newspapers and old hacks like Tony Blair come out
with guns blazing for months, and The Guardian, supposedly traditionally a
friend of progressive and left affairs, was a leader in the assault with a long
and shameful McCarthyite campaign.
Here's another way the system is stacked. David Cameron
ruled, leaving a terrible record of blunders and lies, and only had the support
of about 35%. The voting system is rigged.
Tony Blair ignored the greatest peace demonstration in
British history to lie and manipulate his way into assisting George Bush to
decimate a country and leave chaos behind.
And this same Blair remains in the respectable portion of
society and even gets regular boosts from the press, very much including The
Guardian, to re-enter politics.
The press, including The Guardian, pushed daily to try and
replace Corbyn with Owen Smith, a blow-hard, vacuous politician of the Tony
Blair school, with almost regular features of him bellowing with his mouth open
so wide you could see back teeth.
I could write a very long list, but that should suffice.
