The most important way US elections are rigged is not voter disenfranchisement, touch screen voting machines or tampered software in ballot scanners, but media manipulation of public consciousness about the candidates.
The 2008 "election" was a choice between the Rockefeller Republicans and the neo-cons, between the Council on Foreign Relations (Biden) and the American Enterprise Institute (McCain), between the old guard of foreign policy and the crazies.
The argument that the two parties should represent opposed ideals and policies, one, perhaps, of the Right and the other of the Left, is a foolish idea acceptable only to doctrinaire and academic thinkers. Instead, the two parties should be almost identical, so that the American people can "throw the rascals out" at any election without leading to any profound or extensive shifts in policy.
-- Carroll Quigley, Tragedy and Hope: A History of the World in our Time
(one of Bill Clinton's teachers at Georgetown University)
Republicans play hard ball and the Democrats play hardly have balls.
-- Swami Beyondananda
Yes there is a difference between Republicans and Democrats. One has no heart and the other has no has no spine. But they both work for the same crime syndicate.
-- Joe Bageant, November 20, 2009, One party has no heart, the other no spine
"'Bipartisan' usually means that a larger-than-usual deception is being carried out."
-- George Carlin
Give the people a choice between a Republican and a Democrat who talks like a Republican and they'll choose the Republican every time.
-- Harry S. Truman
Corrupted by wealth and power, your government is like a restaurant with only one dish. They've got a set of Republican waiters on one side and a set of Democratic waiters on the other side. But no matter which set of waiters brings you the dish, the legislative grub is all prepared in the same Wall Street kitchen.
-- Huey Long
It is my belief that since the JFK assassination the secret government, the CIA and the [Military Industrial Complex], have been running the show. They have not allowed anyone to become president, from either party, that was not under their control.
-- Bruce Gagnon, Global Network Against Weapons & Nuclear Power in Space
I don't see why we need to stand by and watch a country go communist due to the irresponsibility of its people. The issues are much too important for the Chilean voters to be left to decide for themselves.
-- Henry Kissinger, Secretary of State under Richard Nixon, about Chile prior to the CIA overthrow of the democratically elected government of socialist President Salvadore Allende in 1973