By Sharm Zindini

What a difference four years makes. It is amazing that four years ago you could not talk about Neo-Cons/New-Libs in the Main Stream Media but now you have some degree of freedom to bring them up in your argument of US foreign policy.

Four years ago, I wrote an article that was published in Payvand under the title "Iranians cannot be Democrats." This was a light-hearted article directed at both political parties but mainly Democrats. In my piece, I refrained to discuss Neo-Con/Neo-Lib roles in American political system since quite frankly I was somewhat concerned to sound cabalistic and write like some old timer Iranian with conspiracy-centric  point of view. In the past four years a lot have changed, when it comes to discussing Israeli Lobby or  Bush's Zionist-laden administration or Democrats love for AIPAC agenda, it is somewhat done in an open  air atmosphere. Also, Thanks to Payvand and its contributors, I'd say Payvand readers have become one of the most informed and sophisticated political readers in America- we need to turn more Americans on to reading Payvand articles. What we have witnessed is more people in the media- still not in Main Stream Media- are writing and talking about Neo-Cons and Neo-Libs. Books such as "Israel Lobby", "Invasion of the Party Snatchers" exposes the rigged nature of the election process in America.

This time around it is much easier to reason why Iranian-Americans should not vote for neither Democrats nor Republicans.

My guiding principles in voting for a candidate never came from likes of FDR or Jack Kennedy but rather  Washington, Jefferson, and Adams, even though they had lived over two hundred years ago but understood the meaning of liberty, freedom, and small Government. FDR and Jack Kennedy were the founders of what I consider the Nanny States of America. What we have witnessed in the twentieth century and had continued into the twenty first century is the interventionist nature of most Administration from Teddy Roosevelt up to Bush Junior Administration. Along with interventionism has come loss of Civil liberty and free speech and the worst culprit in American history are Abraham Lincoln (R), Woodrow Wilson (D), FDR (D), and George W. Bush (R). When I talk about civil liberty I am not talking about going to McDonald's for a Big Mac in a tank top- I am talking about having an estimated number of over 1 million people on a Terror Watch List, and this is according to The American Civil Liberties Union.

As for the economy, unless you have just come out of coma, you should know our government- with the help of both Parties- has turned the free enterprise system into a total communist system by committing to subsidize the economy to the tune of 2.2 Trillion Dollars. My guess is that The Soviet union would have been a success story if their Government had this kind of money to subsidize their financial institutions at the time. The scary part of this story is that not even 3 or 4 Trillion dollars can help the way these two Parties have mismanaged their regulatory responsibilities- which started from 70's and  continued through the Clinton Presidency- thanks to the repeal of important regulatory constraints on  Wall Street financial institutions and their instruments of mass destruction.

The bottom line is that there is no free market, on a given day you would not know which direction the market will go because it all depends on what the Government will do.  So, you may ask what all this got to do with the election. Well, with the help of both parties we have created a Socialist Government which has no clue on how to socialize public programs because they fool themselves with the free market nonsense. And when it comes to interventionist agenda towards other countries they act like a colonist who tries to bully or buy its way for the least desired foreign policy. And when it comes to Civil Liberty at home, it behaves like a fascist who has no regard for any of its citizens.

In a nutshell, this Government acts very much like France, with Sarkozy as a president trying to provide socialist agenda and act as a fascist towards his own people and act as a bully towards other countries. In general, Sarkozy is a doozy when it comes to his way of governing- not quite sure if he is acting as a romantic French or a horny Hungarian/Greek Jew.

Back to our own election with Obama or McCain- Both of these characters are 50/50 split between Socialism and Fascism. There is too much at stake for these two fellows to change.

Remember, collectively, members of congress are profiting Billions of Dollars from the way this Government is working- for example, to the tune of $40 million for john Kerry (D), and millions for other members of Congress- James Sensenbrenner (R), Joe Lieberman (I), Jane Harman (D), Howard Berman (D), and many other.

As a responsible American citizen, we should consider other candidate who respect the constitution and Bill of Rights- the foremost principles for voting must be Civil Liberty, Free Market, free trade as opposed to interventionist foreign policy. Even if you have to write in the name of the candidate on the ballot, you should not vote for a Democrat or a Republican. Consider voting for one of these candidates- Green Party nominee Cynthia McKinney, Libertarian Party nominee Bob Barr, independent candidate Ralph Nader and Constitution Party candidate Chuck Baldwin.

The only silver lining of Obama becoming president in the absence of Hillary is lowering the standard in American politics for becoming a president so all the hyphenated Americans will have a better chance of  becoming president in the Future, be it Hispanic-American, Jewish-American, or Iranian-American. Just  remember we are not voting for diversity, but we are voting for principles. An African-American can be as  ruthless as a white man when it comes to showering Afghanis with Tomahawks or by taking a third world  financial measure to redistribute money by issuing $600 checks to the citizens to stimulate the  economy. Is this the best solution, the most powerful country can come up with when we have bagged the most Nobel prizes in the economics?

Your vote will not go to waste if you vote other than these two corrupt political parties, even if you believe Republicans stole the last election and Democrats are hijacking this election, you should still  vote but not to these Parties. Democrats are doing their best to outdo the effort of Karl Rove by using ACORN fraudulent voter registration- but two wrongs do not make a right. The last mid-term election  should serve as an example on how both Parties do not care about their constituents once they get  elected.

As John Quincy Adams said "Always vote for principle, though you may vote alone, and you may cherish the sweetest reflection that your vote is never lost." If your principles are interventionism, war, and socialism then you should vote for one of these candidates. At the end if you decide to vote democrats or republicans you can congratulate yourself acting like many other brainless voters. But, you can assure yourself you live in a "Democracy" because you voted.

As a final note, please go the these web sites to find out more about what true America stands for  www.campaignforliberty.com, www.SmallGovernmentAct.org.

... Payvand News - 10/30/08 ... --