THE CIRCUS IS IN TOWN - PRESIDENTIAL POLITICS

Nearly 18 months before the next presidential election will occur in this debtor nation to decide which representative of big business will lead us into the abyss the American corporate owned media has already started to cover “the greatest show on earth” to gradually manufacture consent for a system that no longer works for a majority of Americans by presenting the first of the so-called Republican debates which will determine who is most representative of a political ideology that comes wrapped in the flag and carrying the cross to successfully challenge an incumbent who promised hope and change but failed from day one to grasp the distinction between compromise and appeasement and in the process becoming “the way Washington works” that candidate Obama promised to change.


On Obama’s watch: Guantanamo – our nation’s eye sore to the rest of the world remains open. Troops are still in Afghanistan well after Bin Laden was killed and initially the sole reason for invasion was that Afghanistan was harboring a terrorist yet Pakistan was harboring that same terrorist for over the last 5 years and no invasion. The anti-democratic Orwellian “Patriot Act” was extended. The Iraq war costing over 1 trillion dollars and yet no one in the previous administration was or will be held accountable. War crimes committed by us – ignored by us. An economic collapse caused by those casinos on Wall St smelling with the stench of greed covering our political institutions with corruption and no one was or will be criminally charged. Jobs still shipped overseas and an income gap mirroring the Great Depression remains a fixture of this debtor nation.

The circus came to Manchester NH a week ago today when this year’s political theatrical production began like most other circuses by entertaining the public with the clowns wearing flag lapel pins tripping over each other in their attempts to out ridicule and out deride President Obama while repeating the mantra for their financial supporters offering the same solution that in large part created the current economic morass, uncertainty and insecurity i.e. no new taxes. In fact tax cuts for the wealthy paid for by the rest because the wealthy will create jobs repeating that lie ad nauseam and calling for less governmental regulation of laissez faire capitalism letting the free market correct itself like it did in 08 by having the public pick up the tab and having the shameless gall to call it “shared sacrifice”.

The opposition offers more of the same since 1980: an incompetent government whose sole purpose is to starve the beast with no new ideas. The masters of such madness claim in essence that we repeat the financial fiascos of the past trying to convince the public a different result will occur.

The corporate owned media including those laughable pseudo journalists who say “we report, you decide” has a year and a half to convince a sufficient number of people they have a choice between a Republican and the incumbent Democrat while concealing the fact that if it matters at all it’s only by degrees because one party represents the interests of big business and the wealthy and appeals to the baser instincts of the less well-off for support while the other party only claims to represent the rest at least until they are elected then all bets are off because it’s the politics as usual i.e. appeasement masquerading as compromise and the voices for change are silent.

Once again the people are divided into “us” vs. “them” and once again the people are conquered by those who profit from the status quo. While most pretenders to the throne of political power preach the gospel of American exceptionalism, appeals to American ingenuity and along the way exposes American narcissism. I prefer Kafka’s observation that “there is hope, but not for us”. In my perception we are broke – financially, socially and politically and as long as we accept “either/or” political party I don’t think we as a people have it within us to stop the decay and decline of the world’s leading democracy because too many of us for whatever reason or excuse participate in our own demise and perpetuate a two party dictatorship posing as democracy. Meanwhile the circus is in town. Send in the clowns.