SpeedBalling

Following the election that just took place I have seen a lot of very intense sentiment expressed by those who were shocked, appalled, dismayed, and disillusioned by its outcome. I myself spent several days getting drunk and stoned, from wake till sleep, just to deal with the reality of the voting results on November 2.

I have seen many people, who I previously considered to be much less radical than myself, talking about and engaging in the kind of action that even I would have considered "extreme" less than a week ago.

Everyone who I have talked to is talking about action, and a shocking amount of the action that I have heard considered is either violent, illegal, or both. The second topic of conversation that I have been inundated in, is talk about how the results of the election are fraudulent, with the most often mentioned source of fraud being electronic voting machines.

Now, while I am not actively seeking to dissuade anyone from immediately engaging in revolutionary action, or trying to convince anybody that Bush's victory was won freely and fairly, I feel that I should make some explanation as to why I am not out in the streets throwing bombs myself, or standing up and decrying the vote fraud that took place on November 2.

Starting with the allegations of fraudulent vote counting:

I don't know if the machines were rigged, or if partisan officials engaged in fraud on election night, and to me, it doesn't make a bit of difference.

I worked to support John Kerry's election. I volunteered to support John Kerry's election. But I never did it because I believed in John Kerry. To me, John Kerry is just another PIG. Now that he has failed to achieve the only function he could have ever performed for me - defeating Bush - I have no further use for him.

Fraud or no fraud - it doesn't matter. John Kerry has conceded. Which means that even if fraud did occur, John Kerry is now complicit in it, because he would rather protect his legacy, and political power, than stand up for his constituency and fight for their democratic rights.

I carried John Kerry's flag before, because it was the best chance I had to defeat Bush. I am carrying my own flag now, and for me, victory can only be achieved by defeating both George Bush and John Kerry.

Aside from my sentiments toward the respective candidates, the honest truth is that Every Election In America Is a Fraud. The results would have been just as fraudulent if Kerry had won as they are now.

Either way, there would still be a PIG in the White House. The only difference that a Kerry victory would have made is that it would be my PIG in the WH, and the other half of this poor fucked up country would feel the exact same way that I do now.

Revolution, etc:

Despite my clear dislike for Kerry, the prospect of Bush's defeat gave me a great deal of strength and hope prior to the election. For myself, the exposure of my weakness and the shattering of my hope was devastating, as I know it was for many others.

For those people who are talking about moving to Canada, or engaging in widespread civil disobedience, or simply running amok and smashing anything that they can get close to, I can't say that I haven't had the same urges. But for myself, I don't view any of those choices as solutions, only as reactions.

Reaction is a strategy of guaranteed defeat. As it is, I have just suffered a devastating loss, and I am now on the defensive. To have any hope of victory, or even survival, I have to retreat, collect my wits, and calmly plot the next offensive.

Even before the election, before I knew who would win, I was planning ways to increase the magnitude and intensity of my resistance. This planning continues now, and my efforts are only driven more forcefully by the election's result.

The focus of my resistance is our country's unjust system of courts and prisons, and the disparities in wealth and power that exist between the underclasses, and the corporations and wealthy elite.

Consider that one third of Oregon's inmates are incarcerated, not for having harmed any person, but only for offending the sensibilities of the ruling class.

The "War on Drugs" is not a metaphor, but a real war, in which the poor and dispossessed people of the United States are conscripted onto the field of battle to fight against the best funded and best equipped police force in the world.

Consider that despite the crimes that individuals commit, the numbers do not lie when they say that, by and large, our so called corrections system is really a chain of debtors prisons that punish the poor for failing to earn enough money to pay the taxes that the rich have imposed upon them.

"Class War" is not a metaphor, but a real war, in which corporations and the wealthy elite exploit their middle class armies, using them to rape and pillage the poor, and then toss them the scraps from the spoils of their conquest.

In this context, it should be clear what an "active resistance" might entail, and for myself, I view it not just as an option, but as an obligation.