A model nation for democracy, is that what we claim to be? My guess is that many political scientists would place the US as democracy’s anti-model, not exactly the nation to emulate.
For starts, here we are more than three weeks before Election Day (November 6) and people are already casting ballots in some states. Not that it should matter much, some would say, with the farcical duopoly political system we live under; almost half the population (46%) in ignorant belief of creationism; and an ingrained system of predatory capitalism ruling our lives. Could it be that what we have befits us . . . it’s our just deserts? Hopefully not!
It seems as if the leadership in these United States of America, whether in politics, the world of business or academe, is totally missing or misinterpreting the triad affecting our present and future lives: globalization, predatory capitalism and militarism. And, what is even worse, overlooking, carelessly or by design, the intertwining of these three things.
Republicans and Democrats, indistinctly, tackle the problem of unemployment—true unemployment, not the inadequate interpretative data provided by the Bureau of Labor Statistics—from a narrow perspective which tends to temporalize the problem instead of showing the long term implications. Globalization has been sold to the American poor and middle classes by both Tweedledee and Tweedledum politicians as a win-win situation for all inhabitants of the planet. And although globalization brings a measure of synergistic overall gain for the world, there is also some shift, not measured by the individual nations’ GDP, in labor-created wealth from the industrialized countries to the developing nations. And that’s the root of the problem for the unemployment and underemployment we face in this nation, perhaps affecting as many as a quarter of American households. But that’s a subject our nation’s leadership is unwilling to confront, intent in not telling the affected population that globalization has become the new form of underground foreign aid.
And who benefits in America from globalization? You guess right: Corporate America; the Thug-elite with its predatory capitalism, and an international police force (the US military) at its disposition. And that brings us to the un-differences between the two parties partitioning the body and soul of the American worker, and their candidates. Americans, at least 80 percent of them, are in dire need of a champion-ombudsman, and not a president wearing an imperial toga. We can be sure of one thing: Barack Obama, the current resident of the White House, has proved to be neither a champion nor an ombudsman for the continually increasing struggling-class.
For almost four years we have witnessed a presidency which many had hoped would begin with the roar of a lion, and maintain a dignified stand in the fierce battle against the all-powerful Thug-elite; yet we see it ending as sacrificial lamb for that Thug-elite to feast on.
For almost four years we have witnessed the man at the White House foolishly thinking of himself as representing the interests of all the people in these United States when in effect he was representing the interests of no one—not so much as a patriotic idealist but as a gargantuan fool.
For almost four years we have witnessed Barack Obama advocate compromise with a Republican Party, in and out of Congress, which detested him . . . their sole aim during this entire period: to get him out of the White House. His inability to prove himself as compromiser left him with a deserving goat-title of capitulator.
For almost four years we have witnessed a “lesser evil” administration allow the further distancing in our society between haves and have-nots, making it obvious that the leadership of the party in power, supposedly safeguarding the interests of the have-nots were themselves haves . . . acting de facto as the fifth column for the oppressive haves.
It’s sad to see 80 percent of Americans without strong voices representing them in the media, or the nation’s institutions, offering leadership and a fertile ground for the establishment of a movement which would work towards a representative democratic government of the people, by the people, for the people, instead of the fascist plutocracy (Thug-elite) ruling over us today.
My progressive vote four years ago was cast for Obama, one of somewhat skeptical hope. This election, I’ll be true to both my heart and my soul . . . and park my vote with the Green Party for, although small and lacking a strong voice, its platform stands for all the right things.
© 2012 Ben Tanosborn
Ben Tanosborn, columnist, poet and writer, resides in Vancouver, Washington (USA), where he is principal of a business consulting firm. Contact him at ben@tanosborn.com.
