Source and Video: presstv.ir
 

Barack Obama has been reelected as the president of the United States.

Press TV has conducted an interview with Caleb Maupin, with the International Action Center from New York, to further discuss the US presidential election. He is joined by two additional guests: Mark Dankof, a former US Senate candidate from San Antonio, and Webster Griffin Tarpley, author and historian from Washington. What follows is an approximate transcription of the interview.

Press TV: The figures that have been out before the election were saying that this year we are going to see a lower voter turnout compared to the previous elections.

Do you think that up until now that is actually translating on the ground?

Maupin: Well, I think that in 2008 there was an especially large turnout due to the fact that many people were very excited about the election of President Barack Obama and what he meant to African-Americans in this country, and many hoped and believed the rhetoric he had about change and believed that he, through taking office, would carry out the changes that millions and millions of Americans desired. However, unfortunately that has not come about and there is still a huge war apparatus in the United States. There is still threats of war. Poverty has increased and the suffering has gone on and the alternative in this election, Romney, is even more to the right of Obama. He wants to carry out even worse policies, even more openly.

So this election has not captured the imagination of millions of people in this country. Millions of people do not feel excited about this. They do not feel in need to put their efforts into it because it is not offering them what they need.

But here in New York there was Hurricane Sandy and recently we saw that there are things people will put effort into. All across New York the amount of relief efforts that has gone on, been mobilized mainly by the Occupy Wall Street and the Committee Against Anti-Asian Violence. They have done amazing things for relief when the government and the Red Cross and other organizations have failed.

So people are putting their efforts into the political process but it is not the political process set up by the One Percent and the Capitalists in order to keep order. It is the process of getting involved in their communities and fighting against injustice and of coming to the people’s aid when the system fails.

Press TV: Just to remind you about the facts and figures that have been given, I would just like to tell over the past eight elections we are hearing according to the census bureau, an average of 45 percent of voters did not vote.

Now in the 2008 election that sent Barak Obama to the White House, 43 percent of the eligible voters stayed at home, which is quite surprising for some but the US, basically, has about 234 million people who are able to vote and of that number, over 100 million of them chose not to vote.

Now, Caleb you referred to some reasons there but the issue of the election system in the United States is also being raised and that includes, the Electoral Colleges and the concerns that why is it that this law that prevents presidents from being chosen directly through popular vote is not changing?

Now, how strong of an impact do you think, this fact in itself has in voter apathy?

Maupin: Well, I think it has a very, very big impact. For example if you are a Republican and reside in the New York state, which is largely a Democratic Party stronghold, your vote is basically irrelevant because the majority of voters in New York will vote for the Democratic Party and so your vote is meaningless. It does not get tallied up in the final thing and if you are a Democrat in Texas, which is a Republican stronghold, again your vote is pretty much rendered meaningless.

But this is not changing because both of the two parties have been able to utilize the electoral college for their own ends and been able to hold on to power and it has been really key. The Electoral College has been very key in keeping down the formation of a strong third party.

During the Great Depression there was talk of a Farmer-Labor Party being formed. It would represent the farmers and the working class. There has been pushes for the Green Party, for a strong socialist or communist party, but electorally these parties have always been weak because of the way the system is set up.

And if you compare the voter turnout in the US, you know, US always talks about how democratic it is, but if you compare the voter turnout in the US elections to the voter turnout in places like Venezuela or Iran or Cuba or countries where the US is always claiming are not democratic, you will see people in those countries tend to vote much more and by much larger numbers. People there are involved in the political process and they are excited about it. And while the US goes around talking about how democratic it is, most people see they do not really have a say.

Press TV: Electing presidents and vice-presidents indirectly through the Electoral College, now some say that while most of the anti-Democratic features of the constitution are now gone for instance when we come to, basically, in many states adult citizens having the right to vote, etc. and that we elect Senators now directly in the United States.

But the fact is, is the Electoral College system is still in place. The question here, why is this particular part of the constitution remaining the way it is while we have seen other reforms made in the constitution?

Maupin: I want to thank the other guest for bringing up that quote from Jefferson about how he feared actual democracy and “mob rule” because the founders of the United States were very afraid of the common people.

The founding fathers were owners of slave plantations. They were the superrich. They were the One Percent of that period and they set up a government to represent their interests and that was very clear.

Originally one could not even vote in the United States if one did not own property. The situation now, as long as you are 18 years, the age you can vote, that took centuries, really, of struggle, to get that situation.

Some of the right wing in the United States, they always say: We are a republic, not a democracy. That is the truth. They fear popular rule. They fear popular sovereignty because they know that would result in the loss of power for small elites.

The elections are very much controlled by the superrich and if you want to have democracy it is going to be a battle.

Every struggle, every creation of democratic rights in this country, has come through struggle whether it is just the right to vote itself, whether it is the right to have freedom of speech, they have always been seeking to take these things away and they have always been won as the result of popular struggle.

So it is very good to point out that the founders of this country certainly did not believe in democracy.

Press TV: Would you agree with the statements there that when it comes to foreign, domestic policy these two differ, especially when it comes to the issues of a war we have in Afghanistan, in Iraq, the threats of war against Iran, the situation in Syria, threats of even military action there. We have been hearing a lot of concerns. What is your view?

Maupin: I think the difference is not in action, it is in tone. I think if Barack Obama is reelected we will continue to see the same actions. However, it will be done with the tone of pretending to be concerned [about] peace and peoples’ concerns while carrying out war.

But if Romney gets in, it will be done in the tone of militaristic jingoism and the same thing we saw with Bush.

The policies are the same. The fiscal cliff, they are talking about that, after this election is over. They are going to announce that the party is over and they are going to start going after all these social programs in the United States and they are also going to start stepping up the push for intervention in Syria and that is whether it is Obama or Romney.

Just the question is what tone of voice they are going to use while they do. Are they going to be riling up the population into a war drive, or they are going to be saying, oh! This is just something we have to do, you know, humanitarian intervention. What words they use while they carry out the policies; that is the difference.

MY/HSN