Lend me an ear my fellow countrymen and women for I am about to divulge a nasty little secret about a bill of goods called “democracy” that has been sold around the world as the alpha and omega of freedom. It’s not really a secret that I’m spilling as much as I’m outlining a basic hustle that politicians of all stripes, ideology and shades have been using to dupe their followers and gain power at the expense of the proletariat. Below are the common steps that public serpents (trust me they are not servants) take in order to climb political ladders and enrich themselves:
- Make a grand pronouncement
- Have a fundraiser before doing anything
- Promise hope and change
- Use the money raised from the rich and the poor alike to enrich themselves
- Grand pronouncement turns into grand larcenies
- The status quo remains unchanged
- Rinse and repeat cycle
I initially wrote these “seven steps of political crooks” on Facebook this morning inspired by yet another political party that has just been started in my birth land Ethiopia. It is a sad thing to witness and write about, a land that was once one of the most powerful empires throughout history has been reduced to rubble by a bunch of political swine who feast at the trough of injustice while they feed the people who are suffering empty calories of antipathy. EPRDF, TPLF, ODP, ADP and now NAMA. The hits of acronyms just keep on coming; all promising change, all populated by tribal demagogues.
I thought I exorcised my frustrations on social media and could move on to offering solutions instead of navel gazing at the hounds of politics. After all, I made a decision not too long ago to stop writing about the media-politico circus for a reason, I know that the establishment intentionally manufacture outrages and sideshows in order to keep us perpetually distracted. However, the more the day progressed, the more I kept thinking about the seven steps of politics I wrote earlier on Facebook.
What started off as a satire evolved into a saddening realization: the same playbook of divide and colonize that was used with lethal efficacy against Africa has been unleashed with brutal efficiency against my native land Ethiopia and has been loosened like virus upon America and throughout most of the world. In the 1800’s, colonization was all about brutality as Western empires sliced and diced Africa, Asia and the Americas in order to steal their resources and enslave humanity. As technology evolved and communications became decentralized, imperialists could no longer commit genocides in order to turn people into chattel. Oligarchs could no longer use the bullet to subdue their targets so they decided to leverage the ballot as a weapon of mass distraction.
The idea is simple yet brilliant, give people a false choice between two or more equally bad options and then let them vote for someone who will represent their interests. Ah, but therein lies the rub! What happens when every “viable” candidate is on the dole of the rich and the powerful? What happens when only two parties monopolize power? What happens when every faction is actually a controlled opposition? What happens when “democracy” fuels tribalism and prevents a unifying movement? What happens when people keep voting for change yet keep getting the same damn thing?
No need to ask questions, the answer is evident: prosperity for a few and poverty or despair for most, a government that is not responsive to the needs of the people and is wholly owned by the 1%, wars to enrich the military-financial complex, prisons to enhance corporate profits and a society that worships money and disregards our common humanity. This is what “democracy” has wrought us and this is the poison that is being promoted throughout the four corners of the world in order to enhance the power of globalists and rob nations of their sovereignty.
Look around our planet and you will see the same end result even if the means are different. America, France, the United Kingdom, Canada and Ethiopia, the candidate du jour vacillates between a charismatic and telegenic face who promises unity and hope only to be followed up by a brutish jingoist who promises to make his people great again. The pendulum swing is as predictable as snow in Anchorage; the whip saw between the two extremes gives the citizenry the veneer of change when all the while the policies remain constant and the bureaucrats who control the decision making process behind the scenes keep precedents untouched.
Remember when Obama promised to ditch Bush’s wars, close down Guantanamo Bay and to “spread the wealth around”. Barack Iscariot did the complete opposite the minute he entered the White House. Obama actually started more wars than Bush, kept Gitmo open for business and fleeced Americans to the tune of $14,000,0000,000,000 as he initiated the biggest wealth transfer from the poor, working and middle class wright into the pockets of the plutocrats who bled the world economy. Not to be undone, Trump employed the same hoodwink that Obama perfected as he too spoke to the frustrations of his base and demonized his opponents, he too continues the policies of never ending wars and breaking the bottom 90% in order to enrich the plutocracy.
The same technocrats who control our government here in America trained despotic puppets throughout Africa. I’ll admit, I fell for the hoodwink one more time as I actually believed that the new Prime Minister of Ethiopia, Abiy Ahmed, would stand up for the marginalized and rally Ethiopians around the notion of economic fairness and social inclusion. Instead, Ethiopia got Barack Obama 2.0 as Abiy goes around Ethiopia preaching lovely words while he does the bidding of his globalist masters. There to offer alternatives are myopic politicians who pretend to be against the status quo who inject tribalism into Ethiopia and threatening to turn my native land into ghettos of tribe that can one day flair up into Rwanda redux.
Here is an approximation of humanity in a nutshell: 90% are unable, 9% are unwilling, .9% are motivated but selfish, .1% are willing, able and selfless. This is why injustice is common place.
We are being led by minister who preach intolerance, doctors who deliver death and professors who teach hatred. This is the farce of democracy we are being conditioned to believe will work for us. I fell for it for more than two decades; no more, there is a reason I walked away from politics and decided to dedicate my life to restoring the monarchy in Ethiopia. Let me take my chances with one person who is visible instead of believing in politicians who are ruled by invisible kings. Governance that foster tribalism and enables politicians to only serve their own interests is not a democracy but a tyranny of false choices #FarceOfDemocracy Click To Tweet
We stand at the precipice of another war, this time one that could end with mushroom clouds blooming from Tehran to New York. If this game of chicken between the United States and Iran flares up into a war, it will not be contained to just the Middle East. Russia and China could be pulled in which could start the domino effect that could end with the fall of humanity. Instead of sane leadership, what we are being treated to is a carnival show and a cult of personality. One day we will wake up to these lies and realize that politics is not the solution, it is the toxin that has been poisoning us all along.
“The difference between a democracy and a dictatorship is that in a democracy you vote first and take orders later; in a dictatorship you don’t have to waste your time voting.” ~ Charles Bukowski
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Lij Teodrose Fikremariam
Originally from Ethiopia with roots to Atse Tewodros II, Lij Teodrose is a former community organizer whose writing was incorporated into Barack Obama's South Carolina primary victory speech in 2008. He pivoted away from politics and decided to stand for collective justice after experiencing the reality of the forgotten masses. His writing defies conventional wisdom and challenges readers to look outside the constraints of labels and ideologies that serve to splinter the people. Lij Teodrose uses his pen to give a voice to the voiceless and to speak truth to power.
