‘Americans not buying democratic mask of US elections anymore’
The Democracy Spring protest in Washington, DC is a sign that Americans are simply fed up with the current election process, which has led to an oligarchy oriented at a “small cabal of elitists”, Curtis Ellis, executive director of American Jobs Alliance told RT.
Some 400 arrests were made after the Democracy Spring march and sit-in at the US Capitol building on Monday. The demonstrators slammed the current election system, the massive influence of money in politics, and the rise of inequality.
RT: Why has the 2016 presidential election caused so many controversies and protests around the country?
Curtis Ellis: The American people have had enough. I could say they have finally woken up. They’re aware, they’re not buying any lies anymore. They’re aware there’s an oligarchy that’s ruling this country, whether it’s a Democratic Party or the Republican Party, and they are not falling for it any longer.
You see, in both parties you have Donald Trump running away with the nomination because he’s saying: ‘I can’t be bought. All of the politicians are paid for by lobbyists.’ Bernie Sanders is saying the same thing on the Democratic side: ‘Hillary Clinton is paid off by Goldman Sachs, the international bankers that run Wall Street and the City of London.’ David Cameron is under fire for his Panama Papers’ secret bank accounts.
Everybody is very well aware of the fact that these politicians have a mask of democracy, but they’re really working for a small cabal of elitists that have nothing to do with the American people.
RT: Is there a realistic chance that the protesters’ demands of electoral reform will actually be met?
CE: Probably not in these election cycle, but as John F. Kennedy says when peaceful revolution becomes impossible, violent evolution becomes inevitable. If the oligarchs at the top of the Democratic Party and at the top of the Republican Party manage to quash the assurgent candidacies of Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders, I just say ‘Katy, bar the door.’
We can only imagine what will happen in the next election cycle because people aren’t buying it anymore. They’re well aware that the huge mega-corporations that operate on a global scale have corrupted the political system.
RT: Should we expect more protests like this to come?
CE: Well, absolutely. Look at what just happened in Colorado over the weekend. The Republican Party did away with popular voting and assigned all of the delegates to Ted Cruz.
A million Republicans in the State of Colorado are quitting the party, you have people burning their registrations the way people burned their draft-card registrations in the 1960s. We’re going to see plenty more protests.
READ MORE: Fury at GOP after Cruz handed ‘voterless victory’ in Colorado
RT: Why did the national media or much of the national media outlets choose to ignore the protests?
CE: Well, you see, the national media outlets, the corporate media, are owned by the same people that are buying the politicians. Donald Trump is in a unique position and that he has just great ratings, delivers such great ratings that the media can’t ignore him even though he is delivering a message that’s antithetical to their grip-on power.
Bernie Sanders has managed to pull in huge crowds, so that they tried to ignore him but they no longer could, especially when his message dovetails so neatly with Donald Trump. But they’d rather ignore all this and keep the people try to pull the wool over everybody’s eyes.
The statements, views and opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of RT.
