I know, this is mostly "no crap" to most of Thom's listeners, but it's surprising how many people don't follow these two rules.  Here's my argument why everyone should do it and tell everyone they know to follow these two rules as well.

I know the main topic these days has been health care, but we all know the problem behind that is that we have too many conservative Democrats in the Senate and the entire Republican party won't vote for anything the Democrats do.

The Citizens United decision has ended the entire notion that we, ordinary folks, can "vote with our wallet".  As if we really ever were able...even in 2008, we figured a million drops in the bucket would fill it up and get the job done...and the corporations just made the bucket much, much bigger by threatening to dump their cash into all these politician's opponents.  Now, they can make that bucket as big as they want, or drown out your 50 dollar droplet.

We have only one thing left, and that's the vote.  It's the last card that almost 350 million US citizens who aren't in the top 1% have to play, and when they take that away, the only thing after that is revolution.  So here's how you play that card:  We advertise two very simple rules, and we pound those rules into everyone's heads. 

1.  Don't give politicians any money.  When they look at you with those big watery eyes and beg because they want to finance another political commercial, put your wallet away and say no. 

2.  Vote for the politician who has the smallest war chest.  You need to be in one of the major parties and vote in the primaries.  You need to vote for the candidate that has the least in the primaries and general elections, every time.  Why?  Because that's the politician that is the least owned by corporations.  It's a little tricky, but if the average person pays attention, the person who puts out the most ads, sends out the most mailers, and gets mentioned by the press the most is most likely the one you DON'T want to vote for.  By all means, pay attention to their stance on the issues and qualifications, but if they have a lot of money, none of that matters.  They invalidate themselves by taking that money.  Don't vote for them no matter how much you liked their ad.  They're not on your side.  TV ads cost a lot of money, as do fliers, buying talking heads off to pound your name around, etc.

It's so simple, so easy, and they're two rules that everyone should follow if they want something better out of their country.  Let corporations pour their money into the pockets of a loser.  The only way you're going to get single payer health care, real environmental policy, real jobs is if as many people as possible follow those two rules.  You don't even have to be in one party or the other, just follow those rules.  The corporations aren't really in either party, they're in whatever party that can get them results.  The people have to think of things the same way.

Tell everyone you know to follow those two rules.  Anyone you know who donates to politicians.  They're throwing their money away into a black hole, while making it more difficult to tell which politician is further in the bag.  Tell them to use that money instead to buy American made products or something like that.  Get the good organic stuff or buy some coffee from a local roaster.  Giving it to a politician is idiocy. 

Voting with your wallet is dead.  The fact that this current health insurance bill looks so much like the lobbyists wrote it is dead proof of that.  The fact that we still have contractors in Iraq and Afghanistan is proof of that.  The fact that we don't have real financial regulation is proof of that.  How much proof does the average voter need?