By: Donald V. Watkins
Copyrighted and Published on February 27, 2022
Independent voters, here is our political situation in 2022.
The Republican Party has morphed into the political guardian of the richest one percent of Americans. They represent the political interests of corporations and manufacturers that pollute our lungs, pollute the air, land and water we need and pollute the food we eat. They are funded by the bankers on Wall Street who steal us blind, who buy super yachts and private jets with the money they make, while laughing all the way to the proverbial banks as the anointed one-tenth of the one percenters.
Most of what the “one percenters” do is legal because they pay off lawmakers with campaign contributions to make it legal. Some of their activities are clearly illegal, but no state or federal law enforcement agency will prosecute them because they have money, jobs, lawyers, lobbyists, and politicians in their pockets. Just ask Wells Fargo Bank how it got away with 2 million confessed acts of bank fraud without being prosecuted.
The Democratic Party is the perennial “tax and spend” political party. Spending tax dollars is the Party’s answer to every problem. Two generations ago, Democratic president Lyndon B. Johnson ushered the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Voting Rights Act of 1965, and the Fair Housing Act of 1968 through a politically divided Congress and signed them into law. Since then, Democrats have been able to corral and control voters of color by giving “feel good” speeches while delivering nothing of substance beyond government patronage jobs and VIP trinkets at Party conventions.
Both Parties have their core block of voters and traditional political platforms that often neglect the political interests of Independent voters.
Independent Voters Need a Voice and Political Agenda in Washington
Independent voters have no clear voice or clearly articulated political agenda in Washington. We need to change this political paradigm. Going into the 2024 presidential election cycle, we need to advance the political agenda suggested below:
1. We seek financial and economic security for working Americans. The bell rings on Wall Street at the end of every trading day, with new reports on how well the “one percenters” did that day. We seek a daily report from the White House on how well Main Street does each day. Until we become a daily priority at the White House, working-class Americans will continue to be treated as second-class citizens.
2. American-based international conglomerates must pay their fair share of taxes. Additionally, corporations that imported American jobs overseas should not get new tax breaks until they bring those jobs back to America.
3. We seek a drastic reduction in corporate welfare for oil, gas, electric, coal, agribusiness, and tobacco companies. Corporate welfare comes in the form of tax credits and direct subsidies
4. We seek a federal Balanced Budget Act. The federal government must learn to live within its means like most American families do. Right now, America is living well above its financial means as a government.
5. We must have tough but fair policing in our communities. While the responsibility for public safety is largely a local government function, we need a new federal law that defines and bans abusive police practices, nationwide.
6. We seek a strong Department of Homeland Security and Department of defense. We should carry a “big Stick” and use it to defend our foreign allies, without hesitation or reservation. Right now, we are not respected by Russia, China, Iran, North Korea, and other rogue nations. These “school-yard bullies” are having a field day tormenting our allies, particularly after the Taliban ran America out of Afghanistan in disgrace.
7. We want American manufacturing restarted. Our federal government can lead the way by purchasing American-made goods and services for government agencies and institutions. We can minimize supply-chain issues by manufacturing our essential products at home like we did in the 19th and 20th centuries.
8. We must eliminate monarchy status for federal judges. Lifetime appointments to the federal bench was a great idea when the U.S. Constitution was ratified 250 years ago, but this judicial status has outlived its usefulness. Today, most federal judges are lazy partisan hacks who decide cases based upon their political ideology and not principals of law
Speaking Out for Independent Voters
I have been speaking out for Independent voters since 2001. I have never taken campaign money from my political candidate or political action committee. I have written and published news for Independent voters since 2001.
I have raised and contributed over $1 million to Republican, Democratic, and Independent candidates for local, state, and federal elections.
Presently, I am a political prisoner who was railroaded in the most famous COINTELPRO venue in America – Birmingham, Alabama. Racist Federal prosecutors in Birmingham railroaded me two years after career federal prosecutors in New Jersey reviewed the same allegations of wrongdoing and proffered evidence and concluded I had not violated any federal laws.
Imprisonment has not stopped my political activism or publication of news of interest to Independent voters. I am combining my experience as an elected official (from 1979-1983) with my political organizing and fundraising skills. My news site, www.donaldwatkins.com, is aligning itself with a California-based Super-PAC ( in formation) for Independent voters. The campaign funds raised for the Super-PAC will be earmarked for the 2024 presidential election.
Epilogue
As Independent voters, our political agenda is clear. Our issues are focused on economic security and a strong defense, at home and abroad. We share a commonality of interest across cultural, geographic, and racial lines. We can be politically powerful, if we choose to be.
Today, Republicans and Democrats are engaged in an ugly, divisive, and harmful political civil war. They are harming our democracy. We must save it.
Join me in making our first step in 2024 toward saving American democracy.
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