Fifteen Issues This Election Is NOT About (By Bill Quigley)

Bill Quigley has once again done what he does so well - cut through the smoke and mirrors to discern the rkey issues, and the stark reality surrounding them.  In this particular case he has laid out in a very concise way the striking similarities in the two candidates (of the controlling political parties) running for president.

One of the key lessons learned from this should be that no matter who ends up in The White House for another four years, We The People will have an extraordinary job ahead of us.  We face a deeply entrenched Corporatocracy and Military-Industrial Complex that continue to strengthen themselves at the extraordinary cost of this nation's (and quite possibly humanity's) future.

Fifteen Issues This Election Is NOT About was published today (September 24th) in various online publications including Countercurrents.org and Commondreams.org. 

 

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Fifteen Issues This Election Is NOT About

 
By Bill Quigley, September 24, 2012

 

Neither candidate is interested in stopping the use of the death penalty for federal or state crimes.

Neither candidate is interested in eliminating or reducing the 5,113 US nuclear warheads.

Neither candidate is campaigning to close Guantanamo prison.

Neither candidate has called for arresting and prosecuting high ranking people on Wall Street for the subprime mortgage catastrophe.

Neither candidate is interested in holding anyone in the Bush administration accountable for the torture committed by US personnel against prisoners in Guantanamo or in Iraq or Afghanistan.

Neither candidate is interested in stopping the use of drones to assassinate people in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Yemen or Somalia.

Neither candidate is against warrantless surveillance, indefinite detention, or racial profiling in fighting “terrorism.”

Neither candidate is interested in fighting for a living wage. In fact neither are really committed beyond lip service to raising the minimum wage of $7.25 an hour – which, if it kept pace with inflation since the 1960s should be about $10 an hour.

Neither candidate was interested in arresting Osama bin Laden and having him tried in court.

Neither candidate will declare they refuse to bomb Iran.

Neither candidate is refusing to take huge campaign contributions from people and organizations.

Neither candidate proposes any significant specific steps to reverse global warming.

Neither candidate is talking about the over 2 million people in jails and prisons in the US.

Neither candidate proposes to create public jobs so everyone who wants to work can.

Neither candidate opposes the nuclear power industry. In fact both support expansion.

 

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Bill Quigley is a law professor and Director of the Law Clinic and the Gillis Long Poverty Law Center at Loyola University New Orleans. He is also Associate Legal Director at the Center for Constitutional Rights.  Bill is extraordinarily involved in matters of social justice both in the U.S. and in Haiti.