tried to convince all the rest of us that all we had to do, in order to change things was to vote for the Republicans if you didnât like the way things were goinâ, or the Democrats, whichever one was in power at the moment.â
âI been a Democrat for twenny years,â Father Franklin shot in, not exactly delighted to hear his daughter run down the America he had voted for.
âBut,â Lubertha continued earnestly, âwhat they didnât tell us, the lilâ poâ dumb believers, is that the money people run both parties, and when it gets to a point of makinâ a decision about whether weâre goinâ to have good government or dirty money, itâll be dirty money every time.â
Ed Franklin fished a pack of cigarettes out of his robe pocket, lit up and looked at Lubertha with a deep frown.
âHold on now, you done lost me somewhere ⦠and I donât mean about the money part; I know, for a fact that all them slimy politicians got they hands in the kitty but Iâm still sayinâ that this system is still the best.â
Lubertha rode past her father, knowing that she would get bogged down if she allowed him to deviate too much. âDaddy, letâs just stay with the money part for a minute âcause thatâs really what itâs all about. Those names theyâve stuck on these so-called political parties donât really count. For all we know, a couple billionaires in Argentina or somewhere may have gotten together with a couple billionaires in the U.S. of A. to decide who was gonna be president for the next four years, or vice versa.â¦â
âAinât you forgettinâ somethinâ?â he asked sarcastically, certain that he had a nail for her.
âWhatâs that?â
âWhat about the people? You forget, we vote whoever we want into office even in Missâssippi nowadays.â
Lubertha gulped her beer and almost choked on it in her hurry to reply. âI disagree, Daddy. We think we vote whoever we want into office. In this day ân age, television, meaninâ Big Money, makes the vote happen for whoever Big Money is behind.â
Ed Franklin smiled at his daughterâs logic, liking and disliking her opposition. âHmf! Shoâ is cold, daughter. Shoâ is cold. To let you tell it, the American voter ainât got a leg to stand on.â
âIt may sound cold, but facts are colder still. If the American voter had a leg to stand on, things wouldnât be in the messed up shape theyâre in now.â
He shook his head slowly, picked up his can and drained it, thinking hard. âAwright, things ainât as good as they could be, but we still got it better than most other folks in the world.â
âThe reason why,â she answered promptly, âis because weâve no, no, I canât say we , lets say theyâve exploited, cheated, conned, warred and ripped off all the rest of the world for as long as theyâve been in power, the only things weâve received have been the leftovers, the crumbs from the ripoffs and you can bet your bottom dollar that if they had a way of keeping the crumbs away from us, they wouldâve done it a long time ago.â
âThese billionaires you talkinâ about?â
âUh huh, one ân the same, some of âem have English names, Spanish, Greek, Indian, German, Arabic, Jewish a lot of âem have Japanese names these days. The point is, when they link up to exploit, their names are all the same, Exploitation.â
Ed Franklin shrugged away the wild urge to snatch his daughter across the table, pull her across his knees and spank her. âAwright! awright! money rules! the rich run every damned thing and all the rest of us fools is just runninâ âround tryinâ to survive. Awright! Iâll go for it. Now lemme ask you this, since you seem to have all the answers. What other way could thangs be?
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