I kind of understand why people gravitate to politics and glom on to politicians. It is easier to hold on to dogma and broken ideologies than to confront the gravity of the problems before us. It is easier to throw on the shades of partisanship than it is to realize that our politics is slow walking all of us towards regression and dissolution.

It is harder to disavow politics than letting go of a blanket during the coldest of December nights. Politics is a comfort, it is a means of escaping reality and in the process a way to hide behind ideological battle lines. Walking away from politics is thus walking into terrain of accountability and a greater awareness.

I’m not saying this from a podium of high-mindedness. Hell, until reality mugged me into cold consciousness, I was as partisan as they come. I was quick to blame Republicans and “conservatives” and quick to absolve the misdeeds and sins of my own party and bankrupt ideology. But now I see exactly how the game is being played on all of us. I know some will read into my disavowal of “liberalism” and the Democratic Party as an endorsement of the Republican Party or conservatism. Trust me, I am doing no such thing. I walked away from ideology; following the dogma of others makes one a slave of their agenda.

This government of ours has been, for a long time, nothing more than a legalized mafia. The godfathers are the billionaire class who fund and act as benefactors of the people we elect. The politicians are nothing more than their lieutenants and consiglieres who do the bidding of their corporate patrons. The endless bureaucracies are the henchmen and hit-men, the enforcers who take a “taste” by means of taxes and fees and in the process have made a slave of all of us.

The government thus exists to protect the interests of the rich, control, constrict, and if needed squash the people, and to preserve and perpetuate the power of politicians. To think, this country was founded on the myth that the founders rebelled because of high taxes (they actually rebelled because taxes were repealed by Great Britain and in the process ate into the profit of bootleggers and black marketers). But whatever tyranny the founders felt at the boots of imperial England is NOTHING compared to the ways our own government has put their boots on all of our necks. The powerful always using patriotism to hide past misdeeds and obfuscate their current maliciousness.

Not too long ago I used to make fun of “conservatives” who used to rail against an over-sized and over-bloated government. How ironic though, as I was mocking the “other side” I was in my own way getting frustrated by being taxed too much, the continued militarization of our police, the endless immoral and illegal wars that our government keeps loosening for the sake of profits and the ways our own government is abrogating our right to privacy and free speech.

In other words, my ideological label was the only thing that stood in the way of standing in solidarity with others who were pissed off by the ways this mafia come government is hijacking our freedoms and polluting the world with injustice and corruption. This is how conniving politics is, it turns natural allies into adversaries even though both sides are asking for the same thing.

So I am writing this to beseech those who are actually able to pause and listen. Stop falling into the trap, the politics you are following is poisonous and an anthem to reason and good will. They keep using our pains to fracture society, do not let them use you as pawns. I can give you endless instances where politicians keep using us as pawns in order to advance their hidden agendas.

Take for example the 14th amendment, supposedly implemented to give “slaves” citizenship and a standing in America. Yet the 14th amendment has been hijacked since its inception to give standing and legal protection to corporations. The 14th amendment has been used to protect corporations than it has ever been used to protect “black folk”. The sheer nefarious brilliance of it all, they implemented a law to give former slaves “equal protection” under the law then used that law to give enhanced protection to corporations so that these corporations can make slaves of all of us.

I love words until I realize that these devils in suits use words to deceive people and do the exact opposite of the words they unleash. These political con artists are malevolent, they did the same thing with the “patriot act”, establishing a department to prevent terrorism when in reality the Department of Homeland Security is viewing us, the people, as the terrorists as they spy on us as if we were a nation of Aldrich Ames.

The only way the 99% can overcome the 1% is when the 99% decide to stop being used and divided by the powerful. These political parties, both Democrats and Democrats, are toxic and both need to be rid. We are fighting over politics but in reality what we should be fighting against are the policies that have enabled a ruling gentry to run roughshod over all of our lives and as the few bleed the entire continent.

Bush is no better than Clinton, Clinton no better than Bush, Bush no better than Obama, Obama no better than Trump. They are a continuum of putrid snakes who have sold their soles to gain status and fame. Hoping for those who are part of the 1%—like these aforementioned politicians and the rest of the political anacondas—is like hoping for a shark to save us from a flood.

The moral of the story is simple, stop being a situational moralist when it comes to politics and instead understand that the situation is dire and bleak. We just had 8 years of an empty suit president Barack Obama who has normalized grand theft as he used monetary means to shovel our savings to the very same pricks and criminals who bled us in 2008. The next president Donald Trump is part and parcel of those same greedy monsters; a man who made his fortunes by declaring bankruptcies and gaming the political system to build an empire based on graft and corruption.

It is the height of folly to argue about red meat issues while we are getting robbed into insolvency. This is akin to arguing about the wall paper on the Titanic as the ship is sinking into the freezing Atlantic. I promise you, the rich are one by one getting on their life rafts. If we keep arguing about politics instead of uniting to abolish this mafia government, we will finally have equality buried in the ocean of poverty and perpetual bondage of debt and dependency.

It is high time that we stop following rules set for us by the powerful for we are the people are the ones who are the powerful-if we only realize our power. Stop voting for the same evils and expecting a different outcome. How much longer are we going to keep being toyed with exactly? Let us vote to be united as a people instead of letting a few dissect us in order to have us fighting each other.

Lastly, vote by other means, share this article on social media and use #EqualEvils