Lend me an ear my fellow citizens as I attempt to deconstruct our “democracy”. In the process, I hope to expose the fraudulence of our political process and the deception of change that is used by the establishment to keep the permanent state intact. Most Americans have been conditioned to believe that our government is hopelessly broken. This is the one prevailing view that crosses all of the artificial barriers and superficial identities that have been imposed upon us.
But what if I told you that our government is not broken. Far from defective, our Republic is working perfectly like it’s supposed to. The two party system and the way the public has been shattered into the ghettos of identities and ideologies was always meant to ensure a gridlock for the people and a giveaway for the plutocracy.
Instead of ameliorating malfeasance, voting has become a vital tool to preserve the status quo. I know this might seem radical to most who believe that voting is a civic responsibility that should be exercised by all. But by making the vote an end upon itself, it takes the focus off the systematic rot of our governance. This is why elections come and pass without any meaningful changes beyond the mannequins who are paraded before us.
The reason why entrenched interests remain fixed no matter which party is in power is because both Democrats and Republicans work for the same corporate interests. By alternating between these two equally reprobate factions, the permanent state successfully hides its presence using the pretense of change to lull us into compliance. Power swings like a pendulum between the two major parties as a divided and polarized electorate vacillate from enthusiasm to dejection.
And therein lies the cunning brilliance of these fixed elections. The change in power that we keep witnessing every four to eight years is not so much a popular revolt but an engineered modification. After eight years of Bill Clinton’s philandering and slick triangulation, Democrats were not as motivated to vote as Republicans who could not wait to get rid of Slick Willy. Eight years of Bush’s bumbling ways and incoherence reversed the motivation gap with Democrats excited for change while Republicans were left uninspired.
Do you see a pattern yet? Eight years of Obama catering to Wall Street, continuing Bush’s legacy of wars and “letting things play out” while corporations enriched themselves by bleeding millions of people led to another reversal. Democrats were depressed in 2016 while Republicans were motivated like hell—the pendulum swings left and swings right but policies remain unchanged. The age of Trump is not an indication of a course correction, it is a manifestation of a government that is broken on purpose. The same pendulum swing that led to Trump’s election ensured that Democrats swept to power in 2018’s “wave election”.
By monopolizing power and eliminating competition from the marketplace of elections, Democrats and Republicans have effectively nullified our votes and made meaningful changes impossible. In the process, they keep driving out more and more Americans out of political participation—this is why more than 60% of Americans who can otherwise vote refuse to do so. This continued attrition ensures that the electorate is dominated by ideologues who vote based on passion as informed voters are driven out into the cold.
Imposed identities are perfect ways for the status quo to divide & conquer, politicians to pit the oppressed against other oppressed people, corporations to create narrow demographics/microtarget customers & people to lose themselves as they sink into the rabbit hole of labelism.
— Teodrose Fikre ✒ (@TeodroseFikre) January 12, 2019
More than 90% of Americans don’t approve of Congress, Trump’s approval rating is hovering around 40%. As abysmal as these numbers are, they don’t measure the true dissatisfaction of Americans since polling companies only canvass registered voters. This is another facet of the subterfuge the ruling class and opinion leaders use to lend credence to a government that is rejected by most Americans. As more and more people drop out of participation and stop voting for a duopoly that is not responsive to the people, the only ones who get polled are the ideologues who are wedded to party above self-interest.
If you include the nearly two thirds of Americans who are not registered to vote or sit out the elections on a regular basis, it becomes evident that we are being governed without consent. The minority of people who self-identify as Democrats or Republicans are giving a veneer of legitimacy to a government that is clearly illegitimate. Majority rule is the basic premise of a democracy, by that standard we are its polar opposite. The majority are ruled by the tyranny of a rabid minority who are emotionally manipulated to act against their own interests by a tiny fraction of the filthy rich.
What we have before us is not a representative democracy but a veiled kleptocracy. Every election cycle exacerbates the problem as zealots push the parties further into the ideological extremes. Democrats are inundated with fanatics who just sent 25,000 roses to Speaker Pelosi who has a net worth of over $100,000,000. Republicans are populated by diehards who decided to crowd fund a wall that Trump wants to build to enhance his ego. This perversion of democracy that is presented to us as a government is the reason why Americans are opting out instead of opting into lunacy.
To obfuscate the issue and displace blame, establishment voices point fingers at voters instead of putting the spotlight where it belongs. Voter apathy is diagnosed as the problem as if more involvement in elections will magically lead to a transformation of government. We can have 100% participation but if the outcome is rigged to ensure that only Democrats and Republicans have a shot of winning, we will get the same results no matter how many people vote.
The reason why mainstream journalists, pundits and media personalities don’t discuss the systemic defect of our elections and government writ large is because they have a vested interest in keeping the status quo intact. They are reaping too much money and accumulating too much clout for them to upset the apple cart; they would rather go along with the racket then question the system and risk losing their stature. This is why it is foolish for us to believe that some politician who has cast his/her lot with the establishment will be the one who will lead a political revolution.
I really hope people keep these things in mind as a slew of candidates are announcing their intentions and promising to deliver a new day in DC. Remember what I said about the pendulum swing and how the enthusiasm gap leads to faux-changes? After four years of Trump behaving like a brutish oaf and normalizing puerility, the Democrat who will be pre-selected to run against him in 2020 will most likely be someone who is radically different. Why do you think so many women are seeking the presidency all the sudden? This is not an indication of progress, it’s another hoodwink being manufactured before us.
No matter who wins in two years, wars will continue unabated, money will continue being transferred from the bottom 90% to the neo-aristocracy and we will keep complaining about a government that doesn’t work for us. Our politics is not broken, it is working perfectly to the benefit of the oligarchs who own it. Click To Tweet
“A government that robs Peter to pay Paul can always depend on the support of Paul.” ~ George Bernard Shaw
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Teodrose Fikremariam
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