I am writing to tell you why I will not vote for any of the candidates now running for office in this upcoming election. It’s not because they are not good people. It’s because these candidates, like most of the candidates running for office around the country, do not know what their job is. And since they don’t know what their job is, they aren’t going to do the job that needs to be done.  

What we need in our elected officials is leadership, vision and courage. But if they don’t even know what their job is, how can they provide the leadership we need? So what is their job? Most of them think their job is to fulfill their local campaign promises. It is not. Their primary job is to keep their oath of office. If they don’t have the intention, honor or courage to do that, they’re not going to do what needs to be done.

These are not stupid people. They are just undereducated, misinformed and misdirected. Their first and primary function is to preserve, protect and defend the Constitution. And it is their failure to do that — along with all the other elected officials all across the country — that has cost us our freedoms and the rule of law.

The Constitution is in shreds. Most U.S. citizens do not yet realize what they have lost. For what is the meaning of freedom if the rule of law no longer applies to everyone, and the Bill of Rights is no longer respected and defended by those who gave their word to respect and defend them.

Our president now has the power to put people in prison indefinitely without a trial, and he has done so. Our president now has the power to declare or perpetuate illegal wars of aggression, and he does so. Our president, most members of Congress and many members of the military are now war criminals and belong in prison.

Your government commits murder on a regular basis. Your privacy is no longer respected. Most members of Congress have sold you out — with the help of the corporate media. I can document everything I’m saying. And many others can do the same, and have already done so. But that doesn’t matter now because apparently you don’t want to know. If you think your government respects your rights and freedom it is only because its power over you has not yet been unleashed. Actually it has been, you just don’t realize it — unless of course you have no home or can’t afford to feed your family, and only then if you are well enough informed and educated to think through how this has come to pass in what we are told is the richest country on Earth.

Dear citizens, you only think you are free and safe, but you are deadly mistaken. You are undereducated and misinformed. And so are the people you are about to elect to office. The Constitution now stands undefended and debased. And these candidates have no intention of keeping their oath of office any more than you intend to keep your pledge of allegiance.

— Mark A. Goldman is a financial adviser on Vashon.