isfied with the results in Mexico, where victory goes to a candidaternhandpicked by the outgoing president and representingrnthe party that pays most of the voters and controls the media,rnthe schools, and the economy. If the PRI had two wings,rncalled Democrats and Republicans, it would be a mirror imagernof our own partitocrazia.rnFor years Americans have been smug, looking down theirrnnoses at the Banana Republics of Central America, pointingrnour schoolmarmish fingers at apartheid in South Africa, excoriatingrnthe Chinese for refusing to tolerate a Woodstock revolutionrnin Tiananmen Square, where the rioters’ ultimate objectrnwas the right to wear jeans and drink Coke. But the time forrnsmugness is gone. There is no insult or indignity we as a nationrnwill not put up with so long as our rulers continue to bribe usrnwith promises of “free” health care and added police protection.rnIf there were any conservatives left in the Congress, onernwould have expected a filibuster against the mere idea of a federalrncrime bill. From whom do we need protection, if not fromrnthe feds? The idea that armed gangs of blacks are roaming thernsuburbs stealing Volvos and molesting pom-pom girls is a fictionrncreated to justify the police state that is under construction.rnBut what were the grounds of the failed conservative opposition?rnThey wanted a federal crime bill, insisted thernMinority Whip, just not this one. When the conservatives declarernthat big government is here to stay, what do they meanrnexcept that they have joined the institutionalized revolutionrnand forfeited their right to be taken seriously—not just as conservativesrnbut as any kind of political force.rnWell, one of them will say, this is a democracy, and if yournthink you have a better plan, all you have to do is to get downrninto the marketplace of ideas and causes and sell your wares,rnbut the failure of third parties proves that by and large thernAmerican people are satisfied with the two-party system, whichrnallows the formation of broad coalitions and the alternation ofrnparties. . . blah, blah, blah. This is the style of Stalinist pamphletsrnand public school civics texts.rnSupposing one did form a third party, the obstacles constructedrnby the regime are enormous. The Democrat-Republicansrnhave seen to it that ballot access is very limited in mostrnof the 50 states, that tax dollars go to already existing politicalrnparties to strengthen their power. They own the government,rnwhich serves as paymaster to its corporate clients, the multinationalrncorporations that survive on government contracts andrnmonopolies, and to its individual dependents, both state andrnfederal employees and the vast welfare class that they can usernas voting blocs. They also own virtually all the big newspapers,rnthe television networks, the movie studios, and the publicrnschools. So many Americans have, however, dimly graspedrnthese facts that fewer and fewer of us even bother to exercisernthe illusory privilege of the franchise. “Don’t vote,” goes my favoriternbumper sticker, “It only encourages them.” Every voternfor an Establishment politician only feeds the federal monkey,rnwhich has sunk its claws deep into the backs of the Americanrnpeople, and the so-called leftists, who claim to be radical andrnrevolutionary, are only well-curried stalking horses for thernparty state. Real leftist opposition died in the I930’s when thevrnsold out to Stalin and Roosevelt.rnNow it is time to hear from our friends on the far right, whornwill tell me it is really the communists or the queers or the Jewsrnwho own everything. So long as reactionaries allow themselvesrnto be distracted by their paranoia, they will always missrnthe point. We live under a revolutionary regime that is ownedrnlock, stock, and barrel by a stupid and corrupt master class thatrncould be overthrown peacefully, if even a fourth of the men inrnthis country would tear up their Social Security cards, boycottrnall the big corporations, and vote for anyone but a Democrat orrnRepublican. In the current circumstances, the only oppositionrnour party state is facing comes from the world government theyrnare selling us out to. As a Banana Republic, it is only fittingrnthat the United States find themselves subject to internationalrnconventions. At the very least, the international communityrnought to send in U.N. observers to monitor Americanrnelections.rnThe Windowrnby Bradley OmansonrnOn the winter morning that they were wed,rnshe made of her husband a sole request:rnthat before old age should overtake them,rnhabits harden and joints be possessedrnby infirmity, they would move to town.rnThe thought of a widowhood spent alonernamid all that silence filled her with dreadrnand she begged his promise. He nodded oncernin cautious accord. Now, fifty years hence,rnshe lives contented with neighbors at handrnand a house she can manage. As for him,rnhe stands at the window in reveriernas though in the empty street he can seernacres and acres of newly plowed land.rn16/CHRONICLESrnrnrn