In 1966, President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Civil Rights Amendment into the law of the land. Before the ink was dry on that document, Johnson made the following statement, "I have just delivered the South to the Republican party for the next generation." Unfortunately for America, Johnson was wrong. The insurmountable level of bigotry and racism prevalent in 1966 has been genetically transmitted to every subsequent generation and sadly; it appears to be a dominant gene.

The Democratic campaign enjoyed a spectacular and spirited convention climaxed by a phenomenal speech by Senator Obama. The McCain campaign followed with a phenom of its own with the addition of Governor Sarah Palin to the ticket. Prior to that spontaneous decision, John McCain was experiencing difficulty attracting an audience. In fact, with the prearranged agenda including Bush and Cheney, they would likely had difficulty filling the convention hall. This situation was remedied by the creation of the John McCain traveling burlesque show. Hopefully, the same people who support Sarah Palin are those who supported Sanjaya right up until it was time to declare him an American Idol. While the Republican propaganda machine is frantically fabricating a history for Palin, scrambling like canaries in a cage startled by the appearance of a cat, Barack Obama himself appears tired, bored, deflated, and even defeated. It's time for the Democratic Party to employ a novel strategy in the political arena. It's time to tell the truth.

The Republican Party has once again employed a brilliant strategy with the selection of Governor Sarah Palin as their 2008 vice-presidential candidate. On the last night of the Democratic Convention, Barack Obama delivered a sensational acceptance speech, which stunned even the “liberal media” covering it. Furthermore, it stunned the Republican National Committee who could not provide a meaningful response. The Republicans needed a sensational candidate of their own and they found one. Thursday evening, there was one flaw in Obama’s speech: he addressed the topics of Gay Rights and abortion and followed them by stating that the Republicans want to make this election about “small issues.” In response to that, the Republicans had to inflate the abortion issue and make it the number one issue of the campaign much the way they used the gay marriage issue to attract Evangelicals to the polls in 2000 and 2004.

I have been a passionate civil libertarian and an independent voter my entire life. At one point I entertained the possibility of voting for John McCain in the upcoming presidential election. Politics is a filthy business and Barack Obama is nowhere near dirty enough for the task. I envisioned McCain as the candidate who could clean up the Republican Party and restore its credibility endowed by leaders such as Abraham Lincoln. McCain often described Washington as a, "culture of corruption," and I believed that his experience would allow him to rally the few remaining public servants in the government and, along with Democrats, achieve compromises which would represent the will of the people. I had great hope right up until Dick Cheney took McCain aside and graphically introduced him to the astronomical amount of money with which McCain could line his pockets by towing the corporate line. After being offered membership in the self-proclaimed illuminate, McCain went, overnight, from a reformer to a conformist.

Judging by the uninspiring and dispassionate campaign launched by the McCain camp, one can conclude that the current regime along with the entire Republican ‘leadership,’ are completely unconcerned with the outcome of the November election, and with good reason. Last week, the White House announced that the next administration will inherit roughly, a 500 billion dollar debt. The question the American people continue to avoid is, to whom do we owe this astronomical sum? The answer, while ugly, is quite simple. We owe it to them. When Georgie W. took over the family business in 2001, he had one and only one goal: to establish a perpetual source of wealth for his father’s friends and the private interests who installed him in office. Through a campaign of lies, deceit, and propaganda he has achieved his goal.

As the desperation reaches fever pitch in the Clinton campaign demonstrated by Hillary’s schizophrenic public relations style, it would be wise for the American people to take an honest look at the Clinton history.

It is becoming more apparent each day that the Democratic Party will be guiding the course of American politics for the next four to eight years depending upon its degree of success. As this reality looms closer, the Republican Party, in order to exert any influence upon the hearts and minds of the American people, will undoubtedly employ any means necessary to acquire control of the media. A good illustration of this type of influence was exhibited during the Presidential Election of 2004. It is now a matter of historical record that the Karl Rove propaganda machine, funded by T. Boone Pickens, launched a campaign of lies to disparage the military record of John Kerry. The subsequent character assassination produced a new colloquialism in the American lexicon labeled, “swift boating.” The American people have since expressed disappointment, if not outrage, for the implementation of this deceitful practice.

As the presidential campaign gains momentum in favor of change, it would appear that the neo-cons, the hierarchy of the status quo, remain curiously calm. The Democratic frontrunners and the National Committee would collectively commit a grave error by breathing any sigh of relief upon the departure of Karl Rove from his perch in the Oval Office.

As the Bush administration continues escalating the war in Iraq, more and more Americans are questioning the ethics of the involvement asking, “What are we fighting for?” Unfortunately, in our blissful ignorance, we moral idealists have forgotten our history and often choose to deny uncomfortable truths.