The US political system is a lot like the movie “Usual Suspects” where politicians play the part of Keyser Soze and the voters are flimflammed like Agent Kujan. Every election cycle, the two political parties sell pie-in-the-sky plans and fanciful ideas to their respective base in ways that would make Verbal Kint shake his head in disbelief. Yet, the minute the last votes are counted and politicians move into their posh offices in Congress and the White House, campaign promises meet the reality of DC gridlock and the changes we were promised vanish into the night.
Thing is though, it’s not gridlock that prevents these policies from being enacted, the parties had no intention of actually letting them see the light of day to begin with. It’s happens all the time; whether it was universal health care, the green new deal, tax cuts for the middle-class, and now the new shiny object being dangled to “the left” that would forgive college student loans, all the pomp and circumstance that comes with these proposals never materialize into reality.
It’s downright Machiavellian, both parties have perfected the art of promising their loyalists rings only to leave them jilted at the alter. The trick is to market programs that are all sound bites with no substance beyond bullet points on platforms that have zero chance of being codified. Their aim is not to pass these laws, the idea is to absolve themselves of accountability to their voters, shift the blame to the other side and use these political impasses to raise money and turn failures into talking points to get more votes. It’s downright malicious, they emotionally manipulate their most loyal voting blocs and then use human suffering as bumper stickers.
Student loan debt is holding back a whole generation from buying homes, starting small businesses, and saving for retirement – all things we rely on to grow our economy. Executive action to #CancelStudentDebt would be a huge economic stimulus during and after this crisis.
— Elizabeth Warren (@SenWarren) November 16, 2020
Both parties do this, but just like Agent Kujan, those who are too attached to “their side” and stare too close to the manufactured drama of politics can’t see how they are being played for suckers. Red meat and wedge issues keep voters locked into perpetual modes of animosity and hostility for “the other side”; people who are otherwise struggling the same are conditioned by identity politics—which henceforth I’m calling tribal hustles—to bash each other in order to defend “their side”. Meanwhile, Democrats and Republicans work behind closed doors to enrich their wealthy patrons while impoverishing the rest of us.
Every year, more and more Americans drop their coffee mugs in disbelief upon realizing that they have been getting bamboozled all along. But enough new believers are drawn in to keep this bankrupt duopoly in place while those who opt out are blamed for refusing to partake in a political Ponzi scheme. It has gotten so bad that more and more people are blaming others who refused to drink their Kool-Aid instead of putting the blame where it belongs, the politicians who are making all our lives miserable.
Read my lips, my fellow Americans, we are not going to get our student loans forgiven nor will we be getting affordable health care as long as the two parties continue to monopolize power. I don’t write this to be a pessimist nor to rain on people’s parades, it’s just that I have seen this movie one too many times. [bctt tweet=”How many times are we going to gullibly line up to kick the football like Charlie only to have Lucy pull the same okiedok and we land right on our collective backs? ” username=”teodrosefikre”]
This same deception is used on Republicans all the time, except with that side of the aisle, it’s not so much promises of equitable programs that are deployed as much as it is red meat and wedge issues. For example, Republicans have been running on a campaign of repealing Roe vs Wade for the past 40 years. My friends on the right, trust me when I tell you this, Republicans have no desire to repeal Roe vs Wade, there are way too many cottage industries and politicians making money off this issue for it to be resolved one way or the other. Wedge issues are not meant to be resolved, they are used to derange and distract the electorate.
Our government does not work for us, Democrats and Republicans are both owned by the same plutocracy, their job is to present false alternatives so that we can “vote the bums out” while keeping the contemptable system in place. It’s a most cunning scheme to make us give consent to being pillaged, sadly most Americans have been so thoroughly indoctrinated to believe that the vote is an end that we no longer see it as a means to affect change. We proudly display “I voted” stickers on social media without really knowing what we are voting for outside of affiliation and group think.
I used to hate those segments where sneaky “reporters” would give a quote to someone on the streets and when that man or woman agreed with the quote, the grand reveal comes and they are left speechless when they find out the words they agreed with came from a politician they did not like. It’s not so much the substance that people support, like a cult, too many parrot talking points based purely on personalities and herd-like behavior. When people form this level of kinship to politicians they don’t know, they will bend themselves into pretzels in order to justify the transgressions of their idols and bash anyone who dares to speak ill of their political golden calves.
Just a few days ago, Barack Obama noted that “black” people did not support Biden nearly as much as they supported him by morphing into Allen West and employing the dog whistles of Donald Trump. Talk about audacity, Obama tarred African-Americans who refused to blindly vote Democrats by insinuating that the hip-hop culture of money, misogyny and “bling” is the reason why Trump received such a large contingent of “black” votes. If these words were uttered by Trump or anyone on the “right”, the cancel culture would have gone into a tizzy, but because the First Bank President said it, crickets.
The first Black President reassuring white liberals that the reason Democrats can’t get Black men to vote has nothing to do with bad policy decisions, but the inherent inferiority of their culture.
Hood-JD-Vance-ass mfer pic.twitter.com/5jjWqZBMFi
— Raphael Peacenock✡️🔥🤦🏽♂️ (@EvelKneidel) November 16, 2020
Truth is that Obama did to his base what Trump did to his, both played on the frustrations and hopes of their followers to gain power only to give them a stiff-arm once they stepped foot into 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. Take this as the gospel truth, the vast majority of Americans are marginalized and have been indentured by the corporate state. The American dream has turned into a nightmare where most are teetering at the precipice of economic insolvency while more and more are being ground into dust by a pyramid scheme that transfers wealth to the top by squeezing the poor, working and middle-class.
Alas, identity politics, I mean tribal hustles, prevents us from seeing that we are all being bludgeoned. It is this “us versus them” mentality that is getting in the way of forming a critical mass of Americans that could compel change. Instead, we are sliced and diced into our respective ghettoes only to have bought and paid for demagogues appeal to our emotions and vilify others who struggle just like us. This is nothing short of psychological warfare yet every four years Americans line up to vote for a change that never comes—we have become a nation of masochists voting for sadists to liberate us.
Hopefully, I did not spoil the movie for those who have yet to see the Usual Suspects, but I will spoil the plot on Joe Biden’s next four years. His agenda will be catered to Wall Street and the wealthiest 1%, there is a reason why Big Banks, Big Pharma and Wall Street writ large bankrolled his campaign. While vilifying Republicans, he will work with them in order to enact laws and monetary policies that will reward equity and crush workers. After four or eight years of insipid leadership, his base will be sufficiently demoralized that a Republican will get elected and the liberals will go back to protesting while the “right wing” take their turn dancing. Rinse and repeat.
The US government is not broken, it is working flawlessly just as it was designed. Velocity for the 1%, inertia for the rest of us, America is Balkanized into blue and red states and a litany of manufactured identities are foisted upon us in order to create an interminable paradigm of political and social strife. Legitimate grievances that many have are weaponized by pundits, politicians and “social justice” defrauders to incite emotions and gas light people into compliance.
There was a time when despots used brute force, bullets and bombs to subjugate the masses, the establishment use marketing, euphemisms and manufactured scarcity to arrive at the same means without reverting to violence. Why use guns when people are willing to put chains on themselves in order to defend the very system that is oppressing them. The illusion of freedom is a greater prison than the reality of shackles. We keep expecting the people who are benefiting through the status quo to change a system that is enriching them.
Politics is not about presenting solutions, it’s about prolonging problems. There is too much money to be made by leaving the underlying disease alone and treating the symptoms with cosmetics and pyrotechnics. Americans just voted out one Soze and voted in another, it won’t be too long from now where the same people who popped champagne celebrating Biden’s election will be dropping their coffee mugs in disgust once they realize that they yet again been duped::
“The greatest trick the devil ever pulled was convincing the world he did not exist.” ~ Verbal Kint
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