Writer Eric Zuesse wrote a great new piece “How Democracy Ended “ seen on a few fine sites. In it he shows how our U.S. so called democracy is really a scam controlled by the super rich. When all else fails to stop a political momentum, the two parties have always resorted to ‘The Fix is in’. To this writer, the ‘fix’ that Zuesse alludes to is deeply nesting in both our mainstream media and our elected and enabling two party structure.
The police have that wonderful saying ‘To protect and to serve’. In many cases, witnessed at times throughout the years by this writer, local police have done just that. Sadly, in just as many instances, they have ‘protected and served’ the private property and rights of the super rich. Remembering the great labor disputes spanning perhaps since the beginnings of our republic, it was always the ‘Cops’ who came in on the side of the corporate few. It has always been as IF the corporate domain was the castle and the striking workers the barbarians. Instead of being there to ‘protect and serve’ both adversaries, the police always stood in front of the bosses vs. the working stiffs.
Well, we have that in spades in not only our mainstream corporate owned and operated media, but also in the three branches of this government. The mainstream media was always controlled, but since 9/11 it went on steroids! Most of us who actually study history (from non mainstream sources) knew that the Iraq debacle was based on hearsay and fabricated lies and half truths.
The whole ‘War on Terror’ was what the late great Gore Vidal named ‘Perpetual War’. Wars keep the natives in line. Wars make lots of money for a select corporate few (General Smedley Butler’s 1935 essay ‘War is a Racket’), and wars help justify our obscene and bloated military spending (duh, like over 50% our federal tax revenue). And who serves this War Economy so well? The media and of course the Congress.
Most of the members of Congress are very wealthy people, especially in the Senate. Regardless of that, they rely on the donations of the super rich, through personal and PAC money, to fund their re-elections. The late Sen. Paul Simon (image on the right) of Illinois once stated:
“When I go out on the campaign trail, and I come back to my hotel room, I usually have a whole bunch of messages. I go through them, and unfortunately, but honestly, if I see the name of someone who has given large donations to my campaign, I do call that person first. Sadly, that is the way it is.”
Simon was actually one of the most progressive Senators at the time, and he knew the realities. Money talks. That was in the late 80s and early 90s. Now it is 100 times worse. You watch the hearings on C-Span and all you see are ‘talking heads’ speaking NOT for their constituents… rather for their corporate handlers… from BOTH parties!
We are about to enter, as a nation, into an economic abyss, and hopefully not, a new hot war. All those who are there to ‘Protect and Serve’ this empire will give us are more of the same: Hype, spin, lies and half truths!
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Philip A Farruggio is a son and grandson of Brooklyn, NYC longshoremen. He has been a free lance columnist since 2001, with over 300 of his work posted on sites like Consortium News, Information Clearing House, Global Research, Nation of Change, World News Trust, Op Ed News, Dissident Voice, Counterpunch, Activist Post, Sleuth Journal, Truthout and many others. His blog can be read in full on World News Trust., whereupon he writes a great deal on the need to cut military spending drastically and send the savings back to save our cities. Philip has a internet interview show, ‘It’s the Empire… Stupid’ with producer Chuck Gregory, and can be reached at [email protected].
