Monday night was more evasion, distraction and political fraud than anything resembling real debating—like all previous encounters of the same kind preceding them, demagoguery and bad theater instead of substance, failing to give voters real information on where candidates stand on major issues of our time.
Monday and two upcoming spectacles conceal America’s imperial madness, its endless war on humanity at home and abroad, its neoliberal harshness, neocon lunacy and police state viciousness—its fantasy democracy serving its privileged few alone at the expense of most others, millions most in need treated like nonpersons.
Tyrannical ruthlessness gets increasingly worse, each new administration since the neoliberal ‘90s outdoing previous ones in villainy.
World war rages in multiple theaters, new ones waiting to explode, all independent governments at risk of being violently toppled, trillions of dollars spent on militarism and imperial madness, social decay festering at home.
Deepening homeland poverty, real unemployment at Depression-era levels, along with an epidemic of hunger and homelessness nationwide go unaddressed, while social justice erodes en route to disappearing altogether.
Presidential aspirants deliver hollow promises for change. Betrayal always follows once in office.
What kind of society spends most of its vast wealth for butchery, barbarism, brutishness, bloodshed and enriching its privileged few at the expense of most others?
What kind turned planet earth into a slaughterhouse, making it too dangerous to live in, laying waste to whole nations, sustaining an insatiable genocidal rage—while giving short shrift to vital needs of its own people. Pretending otherwise adds insult to injury.
Presidential aspirants ignore or pay lip service alone to major issues of our time—power and self-enrichment their main goals, monied interests benefitting over popular ones, tyranny replacing fundamental freedoms.
Will next year bring responsible change? Will new political leadership serve everyone equitably, going where no administration and Congress ever went before?
Is a new leaf about to be turned? Will warriors become peacemakers? Will neoconservatism and neoliberalism disappear? Will honesty and integrity follow longstanding debauched practices?
Will real democracy replace its fantasy version? Will government henceforth represent everyone fairly and squarely? Will swords be turned into plowshares? Will equity and social justice become the new national norm?
Will history’s greatest human and civil rights abuser become its principled champion? Will daily sunrises forevermore occur in the West, sunsets in the East? Will humanity survive endless imperial wars threatening everyone everywhere?
Borrowing a line from Joyce Kilmer, I think that I shall never see America at peace instead of war, harmony instead of conflict, equity instead of injustice, wellness instead of endless suffering.
Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago. He can be reached at lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net. His new book as editor and contributor is “Flashpoint in Ukraine: US Drive for Hegemony Risks WW III.” Visit his blog at sjlendman.blogspot.com . Listen to cutting-edge discussions with distinguished guests on the Progressive Radio News Hour on the Progressive Radio Network. It airs three times weekly: live on Sundays at 1PM Central time plus two prerecorded archived programs.
Too true, Mr. Lendman. “America, you will be the death of the world”, Henry Miller, “Air Conditioned Nightmare” (1945).