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DERISION 2000: FUCK THE VOTE
R.U. Sirius Makes It Official

What follows is the campaign announcement speech R.U. Sirius would have given at the DisInfo Conference on February 19 if he didn't misplace his notes just before going on. (The rather existential discourse about the foolishness of Presidential aspirations was well-received.)

Victory Over Horseshit! Mock the Vote!!!

Let’s make it official. I’m seeking your support in running for President of the United States. Starting from this simple point in cyberspace, we can create an idea virus that could ultimately give expression to the complete and utter disgust that so many of us feel with the crop of candidates being offered to us by the corporate sponsors.

      The basic idea of this campaign is to MOCK THE VOTE! Now, The Revolution has an updated platform, it’s now 20 points. It’s a great platform for developing a political organization around. But I’m not running on the platform. I’m running on my name, R.U. Sirius. It’s just that simple. I’m affording every American who thinks that this Presidential horserace is a fucking joke, no matter what their politics might be, the opportunity to say R.U. Sirius. Let me spell it out for you. George Bush? John McCain? Al Gore? Patrick Buchanan? Are you serious?!!! (You know, it’s amazing how many people don’t get it until I spell it out. But I’m no elitist. Even if you’re witless, you should still express your alienation from the corporate sponsored candidates by writing my name in or casting your ballot for me.)

      It’s just that simple. In the last presidential race, approximately 60% of the people didn’t bother. 89% of the newly eligible voters didn’t bother. 89%!!! When the campaigning started this year, the political pundits were the only ones even paying attention to it. When asked, the "man on the street" would express an avid DISinterest. It seemed like R.U. Sirius was a shoe-in, the statement everybody was ready to make.

      Then along came Fightin’ John McCain. Is this desperation or what? John McCain, a racist, right wing, authoritarian militarist… Oh boy, he’s honest! Wow. He’ll be honestly bombing even more countries than hippie Bill Clinton. He’ll be honestly taking away choice from women. Oh boy! He’s never seen a Pentagon budget increase he didn’t like. He’s never NEVER voted for any environmental protection. But he’s honest… He’s a drug warrior who’s supported every single assault on the constitution that war has produced. He’s a Republican Senator who has the same corporate donors that the other candidates do… Ths is our rebel boy Angry Johnie?

      Anyway, the basic statement I want to make with this campaign is… WE’RE NUTS!!! We have pre-school kids on speed… which is what Ritalin is… and we have hundreds of thousands of adults in prison for marijuana, a substance so mild and benevolent that it makes Starbucks look like crack pushers. We’ve got a legless and armless woman in jail for possessing marijuana for pain relief! We’ve got the media going Elian Gonzales Elian Gonzales Elian Gonzales and meanwhile we’ve imprisoned this woman, not to mention all the Haitian refugees still living behind barbed wire.

      We’re FUCKED! And we’re STUPID! What a dumb fuckin’ country! You know, presidential candidates are all supposed to go around muttering all this crap about the great wisdom of the American people, and how this is the greatest country in the world… GREATEST COUNTRY IN THE WORLD?!!! Hasn’t anybody in this country ever traveled to Europe?!! They don’t have 2 million people in prison in Europe, between all of the countries put together! Kids in Europe watch Oliver Stone flicks and don’t feel the sudden need to commit mass murder (except maybe against Oliver Stone). They have nudity and sexually explicit material on TV and their teenagers don’t all get pregnant! My gawd. How do they do that? Well, they educate their kids. And their parents aren’t a bunch of bug-eating Jesus nuts. Their schools aren’t caving in while a few hundred of their young adults make billions off of a pyramid scheme masquerading as a "new economy."

      So we’ve got kids on government speed, and one million drug prisoners, and the confiscation of property without a trial, and we’re searching people’s urine. We accept the fact that they’re searching people’s urine. *China* doesn’t even fucking search people’s urine. Corporate CEO’s walk among us who search their employees urine. Their companies put commercials on television that associate their products with rebellion and freedom and individuality, and they’re searching their employees urine. And we don’t drag them out into the public square and pelt them with eggs. Why not!!? What a bunch of contented fucking sheep we are. People in the future will laugh at us for what we were willing to countenance

      Of course, all the major candidates are so gung ho for the death penalty that they don’t want to leave any room open for NOT executing those on death row, despite the recent revelations that some eighty people on death row have been proved innocent. Which means, given the percentages -- do the math -- we’ve been executing a number of innocent people. Which is what this is supposed to be all about. We’re taking a strong stance against the murderers of innocent people, and if we have to murder some innocent people in so doing, so be it. The inescapable conclusion though, is that all these major candidates, all of whom are effective and powerful in their support of an unmitigated, hurry-up-and-kill-‘em death penalty, and none of whom support a moratorium on the death penalty until we have the checks and balances like DNA testing in place.. the inescapable conclusion is that they MUST ALL COMMIT SUICIDE RIGHT NOW in accordance with their position… because they’ve been killing innocent people, and they’re going to keep on doing it so they have to commit suicide forthwith. I mean, I’m not even THAT MUCH against the death penalty for, say, well-convicted mass murderers… but you get my point.

      Anyway, here’s an opportunity for you to ask the other candidates the only meaningful question you could possibly ask them: ARE YOOOOO SERIOUS!!!???? Now you could vote for Ralph Nader or for Harry Browne of the Libertarians, and either one of them would be a better choice than bore or gush or mccain.

      Let’s talk about Nader for a minute, because I’m in favor of using the government to protect consumers. In fact, while I’m generally opposed to the punishment orientation of our current culture, where someone always has to be jailed or sued whenever anything goes bad, I would like to see some of these people in the insurance industry, and the credit card industry, and the airlines… I’d like to see some people do time for consumer abuse. And I want a law that if you have a business of a certain size, you have to have a phone number where you can EASILY locate a living human being, and you can’t leave a customer on hold for more than five minutes when doing so. Hide behind an 800 number… go to jail! But even though I’d be a virtual Robespierre when it comes to punishing consumer abuse, I wouldn’t write lots of laws. And Nader, I’m afraid, would overindulge in legislation. There’d be an orgy of regulation that would make Cuba look spontaneous by comparison, because it’s one thing to believe in organizing all life through the state, but when you believe in that AND you’re way over-protective as well, watch out. This is Ralph Nader talking about kids, and violence in the media, and obviously advocating censorship as a health benefit: "If there was a child molester in the neighborhood, would it be enough to tell parents to lock the doors?" Now, Hitler wanted art to be wholesome because he believed in a kind of spiritual purity that was vouchsafed to the Aryan race, and Stalin wanted art to be wholesome because it would encourage the workers to build a glorious industrial future. But Nader just doesn’t want you to consume anything that might be bad for you. Big Mother.

      At the other extreme, you’ve got Harry Browne of the Libertarian party. I congratulate the Libertarians for emphasizing ending the drug war in this campaign, but to vote Libertarian you pretty much want to BE a libertarian. You’ve got to believe that you can trust the pharmaceutical industry without any regulation. You’ve got to believe that the environment can be protected by… I don’t KNOW what… lawsuits, I guess. Maybe black magic. Ideologically pure Libertarianism is nuts. In fact, what the Libertarians need to do is get away from ideological purity and nominate me as their candidate. Finally, these candidates are just culturally WRONG. They’re bow tie daddies. Why are we so convinced that we can’t win with a hip candidate? Look at Jesse Ventura. America is a rebellious country. There’s this tremendous reservoir of disaffection. I mean, who’s watching South Park? Who’s buying all the Rage Against the Machine CDs? Where do all those kids with nose-rings go to vote?… I mean, seriously. Why are our voices silent? There are more of us then there are Christian fundamentalists! Why are we silent?!!

      Anyway, I invite you to become involved in this campaign. We’re going to try to get on the ballot in 24 states, states that require 5,000 or fewer signatures to get you on the ballot. Those states are: Alaska, Arkansas, Colorado, Connecticut, Washington DC, Hawaii, Idaho, Iowa, Louisiana, Maine, Minnesota, Mississippi, Montana, Nebraska, New Jersey, New Hampshire, Nevada, Ohio, Rhode Island, Tennessee, Utah, Vermont, Washington, and Wyoming.

      We need some powerful media figures to stand up with us for Victory Over Horseshit. Now, one of my platforms is Tibet Can’t Wait. So where’s Stipe? Where’s Stipe and Adam from the Beasties, and all those Hollywood people? Because Gore ain’t gonna do it, you know? And it may sound crazy, but R.U. Sirius may be the only one who will raise these issues in this campaign. We need these people to perform, speak out, sign up voters… Why not?

      And we need YOU! What will you do to get the word out? What’s stopping you from printing up your own one-pager and posting it around town? Hand it out at the university. And if you can, do more. Get me invited to speak. Get the local papers to cover this campaign. Talk someone influential into endorsing. You know what to do. Do it! Why not?

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