- Since the 1980s, neoliberalism dominated US politics
under Democrats and Republicans. Bush I continued Reagan policies. Clinton
hardened them. Bush II much more, and Obama so far matched Star Trek, going
where no administration went before. Count the ways. They're manyfold,
favoring business over popular interests, yet he's accused of being socialist.
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- On November 2, angry voters responded, shifting right
despite favoring many left of center issues, a combination of outrage and
angst overriding their best interests. Go figure because what they got
will incense them more.
-
- During hard times, election cycles repeat a common pattern.
Angry voters throw out bums for new ones, discarding them next time around
for still more, mindless of what an earlier article explained - that US
democracy is fake. The criminal class in Washington is bipartisan. Mock
elections pretend to be real. The process is mere kabuki theater run by
political consultants and PR wizards, supported by major media misreporting,
featuring horse race issues, not real ones.
-
- Everything is pre-scripted. Secrecy and back room deals
substitute for a free, fair and open process. Party bosses chose candidates.
Big money owns them. Key outcomes are predetermined, and cheated voters
get the best democracy money can buy, each time no different than others.
-
- Recall November 2008. Promising change after eight George
Bush/Republican dominated years, Obama won the most convincing non-incumbent
victory in over 50 years, sweeping Democrats to large majorities in both
houses.
-
- On election night, the mood celebrated hope for progressive
change, an end to imperial wars, and a new day for America. When word came
around 10PM, expectant thousands in Chicago's Grant Park erupted with chants
of "yes we can," hoping Obama would deliver at a time of deepening
economic duress. Two years later, disappointment, disillusion, frustration,
and anger erupted over promises made, then broken, once again betting new
faces will govern better than old ones. Think again.
-
- New York Times writers took the lead reporting it, Jeff
Zeleny and David Herszenhorn, for example, headlining, "Restive Voters
Divide Power in Congress as GOP Surges to Control of House," saying:
-
- They also came close in the Senate "as discontented
voters, frustrated about the nation's continuing economic woes, turned
sharply against President Obama just two years after catapulting him into
the White House." It showed in how they "indiscriminately ousted
Democratic incumbents who loyally supported Mr. Obama's agenda," decidedly
anti-populist whether or not they know it.
-
- Times writer Carl Hulse headlined "Republicans Oust(ed)
Old and New Democrats Alike," throwing out babies with their bath
water. It's what usually happens in hard times, especially when big money
effectively manipulates minds, pushing them right, not left, that means
over the cliff through planned austerity when massive stimulus and much
more are needed.
-
- Universal single-payer healthcare for one. Taking money
out of politics another. Holding real elections, not fake ones. Giving
Congress back what the Constitution's Article 1, Section 8 mandates - the
power to create money and control the value thereof, not Wall Street bankers
using it to their advantage. They delivered hard times, transferring wealth
from the majority to themselves. Obama and Congress support them, Republicans
as guilty as Democrats.
-
- The best Times writer Peter Baker could say was "Somewhere
along the way, the apostle of change became its target, engulfed by the
same currents that swept him to the White House two years ago." Instead
of denouncing his shameless betrayal, he said only that he "must find
a way to recalibrate with nothing less than his presidency on the line."
-
- Shifting right, not left, is what he means, what Clinton
called triangulation. Obama earlier promised austerity, more favors for
business, hardline immigration policy, deficit reduction, continued imperial
wars without saying it, and more for privilege, not people, buying into
Reagan's "trickle down" economics, what, Bush I called "voodoo."
-
- All a Times editorial could do say is that "voters....sent
President Obama a loud message: They don't like how he's doing his job,
they're even angrier at Congressional Democrats." Republicans exploited
it "turning out their base....Democrats....fail(ing) to rally their
own." Besides noting a shift right, hard issues weren't mentioned,
instead saying "his opponents (were able) to spin and distort what
Americans should see as genuine progress in very tough times."
-
- For Wall Street, defense contractors, Big Oil, and other
corporate favorites perhaps, not Main Street that drove voters for change.
What's coming, however, will infuriate them, what no major media report
will explain. For example:
-
- -- greater than ever military spending;
-
- -- expanded wars, perhaps to new theaters at a time most
Americans want them ended;
-
- -- privatizing Social Security and Medicare, letting
Wall Street racketeers exploit them for profit, scamming the public at
the same time;
-
- -- privatizing public education as well as increasingly
at the university level;
-
- -- trashing labor rights;
-
- -- hanging American workers out to dry;
-
- -- ignoring growing millions facing foreclosure;
-
- -- letting poverty and unemployment spiral out of control;
-
- -- yet eliminating unemployment compensation and other
social benefits, saying they're "unaffordable;" tax cuts for
the rich, however, will be maintained;
-
- -- enacting more police state laws on top of many in
place; and
-
- -- turning America darker, a reactionary direction pitting
bread and butter issues against ruling elites, both parties offering bipartisan
support, especially new incumbents and their leadership.
-
- The big money backing them demands it, assuring they'll
get what they bought. It's how US politics works, more than ever delivering
the best democracy money can buy. As a result, American workers are on
their own, out of luck, and unsupported by both parties. Democrats are
no different than Republicans.
-
- As a result, governance in America is dysfunctional.
The electorate remains mindless to reality. Only grassroots activism might
change things, sweeping all the bums out, electing progressive independents,
reversing repressive and corporate friendly laws, as well as enacting a
new constitution by national referendum, letting the electorate decide,
not states or Washington.
-
- A utopian vision? Absolutely, adopting working class
France's 1968 slogan, "Be realistic, Ask for the Impossible"
through collective political action, the only way "impossible"
goals ever are reachable, social justice topping the list.
-
- Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago and can be reached at
lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net. Also visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com
and listen to cutting-edge discussions with distinguished guests on the
Progressive Radio News Hour on the Progressive Radio Network Thursdays
at 10AM US Central time and Saturdays and Sundays at noon. All programs
are archived for easy listening.
-
- http://www.progressiveradionetwork.com/the-progressive-news-hour/.
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