Boy, all you hear from both sides of the Two Party/One Party dribble, along with their embedded mainstream media, is how we are a ‘ Democracy’. Then they preach, according to which side of the right wing sphere they inhabit, how ‘ Our democracy is under threat.’ According to the Open Secrets website, the total money spent on Congressional and Presidential races in 2016 was a whopping $ 7 billion plus. In this past election cycle ( 2020 ) it was double that ( $ 14 billion plus). Imagine folks like the activist union member who earns $ 50k a year, and wishes to run as an independent candidate. How can he or she get voters to even know the platform proposed when the two major party candidates outspend by a factor of minimum of 10 X 1 ? Edward Bernays made it clear over 100 years ago that ‘ Advertising works’ , and it takes money… lots of money. That is why Corporate America controls the **** that is fed via the boob tube to influence consumers (Just note the slew of Big Pharma commercials that saturate the airwaves, in reality selling sickness NOT health). Thus, the super rich who run corporate America AKA This Empire use the airwaves and media in general to push their right wing agenda. Sad.
Don’t you just love it when ALL the Two Party/One Party pundits hammer this disgraceful refrain about our country wanting to ‘ Spread Democracy throughout the world’. They did some job in Iraq didn’t they? Ditto for Afghanistan and Libya, along with Syria and many South American nations. Wherever one looks one can see the imprint of this military’s jackboot on the necks of the citizens of those countries. Since WW2 we have been doing it so long that few here at home even realize it. What was the collateral damage ( a phrase the War Mongers love to use) of our overt and covert instigations or outright occupations ? Well, in Europe the mess of a USA created ‘ Refugee Crisis ‘ was tantamount to fueling their terrible Neo Fascist ( and even Neo Nazi) movements. Wherever you turn in Western and Eastern Europe… even Scandinavia, the anger generated by the influx of refugees ( mostly folks of darker colors than the nation in question) has spurred this phony right wing ‘ Populism’. As with the Trump phenomena here, it is all BS!! As usual, it is populism generated by the super rich at the expense of the everyday working stiffs who drink that Kool-Aid. The ‘ evil ‘ Mexican drug dealers, rapists and murderers are on par with how those across the pond see their problem.
Listening to that Neo Con tool, National Public Radio in my car, they repeat the crap so many of my fellow citizens have been buying. The segment was on how a ‘ Liberal Democratic ‘ candidate in Pennsylvania for the Senate was ‘ troubling ‘ the party leaders. ” They said that he may be too liberal ,turning off the voters and hurting Democratic chances of winning the seat.” Now, this was not about issues like gender rights or abortion, or Black Lives Matter ( co-opted by the Democrats to a large extent). Perhaps this candidate was wanting better rights and conditions for workers, Medicare for All of us, taking money from the rabbit hole of obscene military spending, transferring it to strengthen the Safety Net… just to name a few. Since the national Democratic Party mirrors the greedy Republicans on the aforementioned, we will NEVER have a democracy.
In France you had the center/ right wing Macron winning from Ms. LePen, as close to a Fascist as one gets. That is how it works, just like here. You had Joe Biden, the quintessential Military Industrial Empire Democrat, winning from the Neo Fascist Medicine Man populist Trump, who bordered on Neo Nazi January 6th , 2021. The ‘ Movers and Shakers’ of this empire got just what they dreamed of. The Republicans, floating along with that Trump base made up of crazy evangelicals, white supremacists and outright wannabe brown shirts, continue to move the moral compass to the far right. Then the Democrats , kinder and gentler, simply ask us, the level headed and caring public, to choose them to stop the bleeding. And , to some extent, they are actually correct! So, yes, the bleeding may cease for awhile, but the wound never heals! Isn’t that what democracy is all about? If we really seek a true democracy then the only solution is to get ALL private money OUT of electoral politics. We need public funding of ALL elections, local, state and federal. With perhaps five or ten times the number of registered candidates for any office…
Philip A Farruggio is regular columnist on It’s the Empire… stupid website. He is also frequently posted on Nation of Change, Countercurrents., Smirking Chimp and Independent Australia sites. He is the son and grandson of Brooklyn NYC longshoremen and a graduate of Brooklyn College, class of 1974. Since the 2000 election debacle Philip has written over 400 columns on the Military Industrial Empire and other facets of life in an upside down America. He is also host of the ‘ It’s the Empire… Stupid ‘ radio show, co produced by Chuck Gregory. Philip can be reached at [email protected].
