US election process serves 'imperialist, capitalist agenda'

The US election process is undemocratic because it is unresponsive to the electorate's priorities and, rather than representing the interests of constituents, it is rigged to achieve outcomes which advance corporate interests, according to an American political analyst.

The US Commission on Presidential Debates announced on Friday that Libertarian presidential nominee Gary Johnson and Green Party candidate Jill Stein will not participate in the September 26 debate because they failed to garner the 15 percent support in five polls required to qualify for the debate.

“The US touts itself as the greatest democracy on the planet yet has one of the most undemocratic election processes possible,” Myles Hoenig, a Green Party candidate for Congress, told Press TV on Saturday.

“We were often lectured to as to how the old communist countries like the Soviet Union and others were merely one-party systems, where you could only vote for a candidate of the State Communist Party. True or not, the US bragged about its participatory nature of electing representatives. Nothing could be further from the truth,” he stated.

US system is rigged

The analyst said “the opportunity to represent the masses of people does not exist. There is the pretense of exposure for candidates but in the end, the system is rigged to deny all but those who adhere to an imperialist, capitalist agenda to win.”

He went on to say that Bernie Sanders was “an exception but he played by their rules, and like the stooge he was, they screwed him. Now he’s their poster boy for an imperialist corporatist candidate and party, even after they stole the Democratic Party nomination from him in elections throughout the country wrought with fraud and outright theft.”

“The one candidate whose positions most resonate among the American population is Jill Stein of the Green Party. Her views on climate change contrast those with the other candidates who either deny it or pay lip service only to support the very causes of climate change,” he noted.

'Americans fed up with wars'

The activist said Americans are “fed up with our never ending wars which both major parties rely on for maintaining an aura of fear and intimidation in order to win at the polls.”

“The vast majority of Americans want a universal, Medicare for all healthcare system which the entire industrial world has. The other main parties and their candidates prefer the privatization and commodification of our medical services. Jill Stein is the one who represents the true needs and desires of the American population,” he stated.  

“In a week the world will be able to watch the first of three presidential debates being played out by the two most disliked, untrusted, disreputable candidates both parties could ever dig up, Clinton and Trump. Missing from the debate, by design, is Johnson of the Libertarian Party and Stein, of the Green Party,” the commentator observed.  

Debate Commission's wrong criteria 

“They are denied being part of the debate based on an imposed criteria designed to keep such parties and views from being aired. Like a Catch-22, they need to get 15% in the polls to be on the stage but can’t get to the 15% until they have the exposure from the debates,” he continued.  

He said “Stein often says that the American people not only have a right to vote, but the right to know who they can vote for. This is denied by the Debate Commission, which represents the two dominant parties.”

“Ironically, the majority of American voters do not even identify with either of the two, yet they control the political atmosphere. Each party represents no more than 30% of the electorate yet the 50+% are denied even knowing that there are candidates out there most likely to represent their real interests,” Hoenig concluded.

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