Watch “US elections a ‘charade’ – Ron Paul to FishTank” by RT America:
Ron Paul: US Elections Are Rigged, Voting Used To Pacify Public
‘More people are discovering that the system is all rigged and voting is just pacification,’ three-time presidential candidate Dr. Ron Paul argued during an interview with RT America.
Dr. Ron Paul says the American electoral system is rigged to keep “independent thinkers” from succeeding.
“I see elections as so much of a charade,” the former Texas congressman said during an April 11 appearance on RT America’s “The Fishtank.” “So much deceit goes on.”
Paul is no stranger to the twisted rules of the American presidential horse race. He ran for the highest office as a Libertarian in 1988, and in 2008 and 2012 as a Republican.
He arguably came closest to the nomination in 2012, when the GOP amended its party regulations to prevent the former Texas representative from stealing Mitt Romney’s thunder.
Rule 40(b) of “The Rules of the Republican Party” was changed so the Republican National Committee could “limit the visibility and power of libertarian-minded Texas Rep. Ron Paul at the convention and thus present a unified front behind Mitt Romney, the presumptive nominee,” according to David Byler, an elections analyst at RealClearPolitics. The rule requires that, in order to win the nomination, a candidate must have the support of a majority of delegates from eight states.
Although recent wins have tipped Sen. Ted Cruz past the cut off, the rule as written came close to helping Trump take the nomination. Paul warned that the GOP’s machinations to block Donald Trump are a sign of a corrupt, undemocratic system.
“I’ve worked on the assumption … for many, many decades, that whether there’s a Republican or a Democrat president, the people who want to keep the status quo seems to have their finger in the pot and can control things,” he said in the interview.
“They just get so nervous, though, if they have an independent thinker out there — whether it’s Sanders, or Trump or Ron Paul, they’re going to be very desperate to try to change things.”
Paul had nothing but scorn for Trump’s policies: “He’s offering us nothing new, and he’s going backward in many ways.”
He suggested that the 2016 election is “a lot more entertainment than anything else” because none of the candidates “have answers” to modern political problems.
Even so, Paul interprets the success of these outsider candidates as a sign that “more people are discovering that the system is all rigged and voting is just pacification for the voters and it really doesn’t count.”
“I don’t think there’s an easy way out for the establishment or the parties,” he noted, explaining that Democrats and Republicans would both rather risk “further alienation of the people” than allow a candidate to succeed who could shake up the system.
Paul recalled his own 2012 encounter with Rule 40(b) as an important political lesson for both himself and the American people.
“I was upset about it but didn’t want to waste too much energy being angry because this is the way the system works,” he said. “It’s a rotten system.”
___________________________
lurking_digger: College loans, prisons, and what other institutions are used to tie down people wanting more?
hopefullydepressed: democracy is a tool to make you feel involved. Everybody would be anti-government if they didn’t let you vote. It’s a ploy to justify their actions as consent of the people. You also can’t sell the big lie of “we the people” without it.
WhereIsFiber: Great related article from Glenn Greenwald!
So many good points in this article. Here’s just one passage:
[Quote]
Most embarrassing of all was what **MSNBC** did. You just have to watch this report from its “intelligence and national security correspondent” Ken Dilanian to believe it. Like CBS, Dilanian also claimed that he independently “confirmed” the false CNN report from “two sources with direct knowledge of this.” **Dilanian, whose career in the U.S. media continues to flourish the more he is exposed as someone who faithfully parrots what the CIA tells him to say (since that is one of the most coveted and valued attributes in US journalism), spent three minutes mixing evidence-free CIA claims as fact with totally false assertions about what his multiple “sources with direct knowledge” told him about all this.**
[End Quote]
SuperPoop: I have a lot of respect for Ron Paul. He took on the system and lost. I feel bad for him.
I sort of lost a little respect for him with all of hi financial s doomsday talk. I felt like he was pandering to my fears to sell his wares.
He’s not wrong in this instance. The system is rigged.
spacep0p3: How do you explain Trump, then?
Hand_Sanitizer3000: The USA hasn’t had a single election year with more than 62% voter turnout since 1916, and in that time span we only went above 60% but below 63% in 1952, 1960, 1964, and 1968. The highest voter turnout in the USA in the last century has been in 1960 which was 62.8%. In other countries there is correlation between high voter turnout and laws/regulations that favor the common people, but I agree that the two party system is blatantly rigged. However you can’t argue that position when you live in the country with the lowest voter turnout in the developed world, because most people will always have ” well yea no one votes” as an excuse to fall back on, which is a valid argument, given the fact that this entire system revolves around the act of voting. Lets get a few consecutive election cycles in the 80% voter turnout range, and when nothing happens, you can argue the “system is rigged” argument from a more valid position.
hoipalloi52: From 2016, and I hardly believe that the powers that be wanted DJT in office
RatsuMacKinnon: When advertising and marketing strategy realized that truth was less important than ideas and associations, democracy took a harsh turn for worse. Nothing was ever perfect but the idea of democracy is pretty good, in practice though, with what became obvious in the ad men era, propaganda became a science and people no longer even try to be honest, they pay into the system and the cash flow is directly correspondent to success. Even capitalist consumer choice is largely thrown out the window when we know that products sell due to their associations with family values or whatever rather than the quality of the product itself. Mad Men is such a genius show because it emphasizes these lessons.
Manipulation is more powerful than strong arming, hands down.
shassamyak: In light of Donald Trump’s winning against every prominent media, established prominent leaders across party, big donors , every celebrity whether a movie star or a player, social pc activist I think this statement of ron paul is factually wrong.
crudos_na: RP rolled over at the GOP convention to the powers that be in 2012. He talks a good game, but when the rubber hits the road…..
mikedmann: That’s a lot of butt hurt.
chase_demoss: Pacify? Is that double-speak for create chaos among the masses?
BillyBones8: I did believe this until Trump got elected. Now I am not sure.
thisisATHENS: Hey Ron I spent a lot of time campaigning for you too, thanks dickweed!
conspiracy_thug: Why do you think everyone is up in arms about Trump being president? Because we actually voted him in!
And even though they tried to rig it and they were called out on it they lost and still won’t shut the fuck up over the fact that they blatantly rigged the election but got away with it for so many years!
Chiyote: Both the Republican and Democrat party are pro-olygarchy.
downtownplaid: So trump was planted… Please
Bad_Sex_Advice: yeah that’s how a non politician became president. Because the elections are all rigged.
Universe-Deception: https://youtu.be/wsBTM20hhwA
This guy talk about the truth about the world in whole new level, must check him out
BaconAllDay2: Elections are rigged? 2016 kind of show otherwise? /s
iwifia: In other news… water is wet!
L4destroyer: It’s not just the US. It’s all rigged.
prkrrlz: Why would the government decide to vote in Trump instead of Hillary???
yoquis: then how trump won?
bhgryd: Yet he kept getting elected? (And his son)
Funny how that worked out
xsp4rrow: He of all people should know this. He won straw polls across the country, sold out venues, and was incredibly popular among young people.
The media didn’t want him to win, so they literally wiped him off the face of the election. He got robbed of the presidency 100%
Voting just makes us feel like we have a voice.
xfearbefore: That’s funny Ron they didn’t seem to be rigged the multiple times you ran for the presidency.
It’s funny because I agree with what he’s saying, but it just sounds like whining coming from him because he never won a nomination. He sounds like the fan of a team that’s getting it’s ass kicked in a sport who declares the game was rigged by the refs out of immature anger.
I used to really respect and admire this guy about ten years ago. Boy how times have changed.
tres3tres: His point is illustrated so perfectly with this last US election. How many people voted for a hopeful future then argued (distracted) about it for the last year?
Think about all that time+energy+focus unified and directed toward common national/global goals, instead? *That’s* what TBTB don’t want, hence the division, distractions, and terror, keeping everyone’s attention span limited.
By the time work is over and we’ve eaten our processed foods, watched our favorite propaganda TV shows, and argued on social media, we’re too tired for critical thinking and hard work.
skorponok: Yeah he’s basically correct. Has been this was since voting machines largely went electronic. The last time I felt like someone actually counted my vote was back in the day with those old metal punch cards. They used the 2000 election as an excuse to ditch those and go electronic where you can pre program the results.
rockarollawmn: Well no fucking shit!
BandyBanana: If the guy had billions and won the election, he would have done great things for the world. Without the billions he wouldn’t have survived.
D0NT_TAZE_ME_BRO: In terms of being completely geared to a two party system and making it hard for anybody outside of those two parties to succeed, definitely. The vote counts aren’t rigged though.
CrazyCommunistBernie: It’s true. Trump was put in to pacify the violent right who every 5 minutes threaten civil war.
jaydimes10: of course the elections are rigged. Donna Brazile proved it with the DNC rigging the primary against Bernie.
I bet Trump is all part of the plan too. he’s another George W Bush, puppet figure-head that is a bumbling fool to make everyone hate, instead of hating the real people behind everything. I think every rational person knows that the elites and the ruling class, the rich, are behind everyone else’s struggles, all the wars or oil, everything. but instead of everyone being mad at Goldman Sachs or Wells Fargo or CitiGroup or Apple, everyone is blaming Trump as if he’s the reason for everything being completely sh*t. Trump is awful obviously, but he is not the problem.
I would also venture to say jews are somewhat involved in everything too. obviously a lot of violence in the middle east is because of jewish and muslim religious myths. but look at the CEO’s and people in congress (Chuck Schumer, etc) pulling all the strings and hoarding all the money to themselves
KefkeWren: I mean…duh?
irondumbell: I’m so glad I watched this on CNN /s
abumubarak: How did electing Trump “pacify the public”?
StirlingG: The elite sure spend a lot of money to changes votes for a system that is “rigged”….
PrussianHacker: I wish people could revolt
Aye_or_Nay: We should all stay home for a few elections – or everyone vote for a single solid ticket for 10 years.
Make both parties void or make them stop blaming one another.
applebucks: I am very saddened by this. I have plenty of friends who repeat this garbage, and this is exactly what the GOP and Russia want- a failed democracy. People who do not believe in democracy, or the power of the vote. Which is how DJT is now in office, who chooses cabinet positions and Supreme Court Justices. Like net neutrality? Too bad.
I do not blame DJT and the GOP for these problems, I blame registered voters who simply do not believe in the power of the vote. Until you vote, things will keep getting worse.
There have been some sketchy things going on with electronic voting, but that should not be a reason not to go out and vote for presidents, local elections, and policies.
Whaddaya Say?