Liberal writer Joe Bageant's work: DEER HUNTING WITH JESUS, Dispatches From America's Class War, is a great read to go back and take a look at now, after the smoke has cleared. Writing after the 2000, 2004 Bush elections, his comments are revealing as to how the Democratic Party managed to regain so much ground lost to the GOPers during the Bush decade.
Though I have to disagree with some of his stated beliefs about working poor folks, his analysis is right on target when it comes to the combined interests of commerce and state working together to perpetuate the inequities that keep some poor, sick, or dead, while the other side prospers.
My main bone to pick with Joe is his bias towards Democrats and his blanket-blaming of GOPers. There's only one "party" Joe, and that CLASS of people work for the same goals no matter which flag they rally under. That's why neither "side" ever changes that nasty, status-quo for the proles who work themselves to death at the bottom of the pile.
The single, biggest, reason for Democratic Party's successes in recent years have nothing to do with the Democrats and everything to do with the previous eight years of George Bush II.
Instead of upholding liberty and the rule of law, Democrats have continued the crimes of their opponents, for the same reasons, personal aggrandizement, monopolizing of wealth and power, destruction of opposition.
It wasn't just those Rotarian Republicans in Winchester, VA. that were complicit in devaluing labor in American society Joe. And that devaluing of labor and work has continued to destroy the foundation of our national identity ever since.
Mr. Begeant longs for the worker-centered, pro-liberty, party of Roosevelt, but that Democratic Party no more exists today than does the Republican Party of Richard Nixon.
Meanwhile, yes, the working poor seem to vote against their own interests, and have little awareness beyond their daily lives, and both parties exploit this to the full. Neither is interested in having the workers wake up to how badly they are being robbed and abused and killed in this supposedly "best nation on earth."
The Dems have become the first party to kill Americans without trial or due process. The Dems have become the party of Nixonian Surveillance, and obstruction of justice and blanket government secrecy. The Democratic Party now wields the misinformation mediasphere as much or more viciously and falsely than their perpetual strawmen from the other side of the aisle ever have.
It was Democrats, not "big business" Republicans who gave us the income tax, the I.R.S., and the Fed. It was Democrats who gave us the Gulf of Tonkin false-flag and 65K dead Americans in Vietnam. It has been Democrats who, possessing a mandate from the voters to halt the crimes of Washington and punish the guilty, that have failed in every, single, campaign promise made by President Obama to end the ILLEGAL military wars and occupations, bring our military home, close Guantanamo Bay Prison, end the Patriot Act, and now their companions the NDAA, and defund and remove the DHS.
Not a one, Mr. President, six years in on your promises, and not a ONE.
Democrats gave the farm away to Wall Street, K-Street, and the Banks, with trillions of dollars in bailouts, secured by taxpayer debts. FOR WHAT? But bailout the people? You know, the folks that comprise 75% of the U.S. gross domestic product? Nah.
One has to wonder if they really are that criminally inclined, or just too bloody stupid to survive on their own.
Meanwhile, Mr. Bageant is very, very correct about the men and women who live "lives of quiet desperation," not-making-it in a world where corporations have rights, but not people. Where Sp4's are court-martialed, while CIA officers remain unpunished. Where bloggers who reveal crimes get more jail time than the rapists, or the bankers whose commit them. Where whistleblowers are systematically targeted by government hacks and agencies for financial and professional ruin, and even assassination attempts.
All while the actual criminals walk off scot-free and publicly unimpeached by either law enforcement or the complacent, useless media.
We talk about the horrors of Richard Ramirez, the Night-Stalker, who died in prison this past week, or the shooter in a restaurant who kills his family members while ignoring the feted and praised members of government who have helped murder MILLIONS yet walk free, even receiving media attention and public adoration, their crimes ignored.
Miss Ron Paul yet?
No comments:
Post a Comment