It’s all about the money, boys. In our hypercapitalist society we’ve even managed to take what was the last holdout of some sort of original vision of America and turn it into a pissing contest to see who has the biggest wallet.
Now political office can be simply bought by the highest bidder. At least in the old days there was some strategy required, but now the position can simply be bought.
I mean, it’s not like we haven’t seen a bought and sold political election in our time. Just now it’s so audaciously out in the open that the political hacks aren’t even trying to cover it. Now a good campaign is based on its expenditures.
For example, we just had a $60 million race for congress in Florida and John McCain, ol’ maverick himself, spent $20 million to win a pissant primary in Arizona.
I hold no ill will to any of our fellow united states, but why in the hell is the last continental state to be admitted to the union all of a sudden the epicenter of national politics? It cannot be because they suck so hard.
Furthermore, instead of questioning the intentions of individuals who are hell-bent on spending the GDP of Luxembourg to win a Senate primary, the media will just pander to this situation and never say a darn thing. Then again, ol’ John McCain should be surreptitiously painted into the scene of Washington crossing the Delaware and that money he’s spending is a down payment on freedom.
We do get to see the first presidential election brought to us by our friends at BP (or any other multi-national corporation) since the Supreme Court weighed in that corporations have just as much right to dole out cash in support of presidential candidates as they see fit.
Also, corporate America gets to do this behind the scenes with absolutely no transparency.
It’s like this, boys and girls, the more in-roads corporations have to covertly pump money into our political system the more we can guarantee that we lose more and more of our liberty.
A lot of people are slowly, but finally, waking up to the fact that our government isn’t really serving the nation’s best interests. This is true, but let’s tone down the socialism rhetoric just a little bit and start looking back at the things that are truly toxic to our democracy.
Here’s just a short list of what we should be worried about: our deficit, the PATRIOT Act, Iraq, Afghanistan and the too-close-for-comfort relationship of the houses of Congress and corporations.
Everybody thinks the government is out to get them, but corporations have our best interests at heart. Rainn Wilson, the dude that plays Dwight from “The Office,” said that. Wilson has more intellectual insight into our current state than any pundit on TV ever hoped to.
I’m not saying that to be funny, nor am I a big fan of Wilson (disclaimer: I do follow him on Twitter), but when a guy whose job is to play a moron on television is more insightful than most of our politicians we’re pretty well over a barrel with our pants down. (I know over a barrel is a rarely used term, but the imagery of one bent over a barrel is quite germane to our current situation)
Lyndon Johnson said, “If you can convince a poor white man that he is better than a poor black man, you can pick his pocket and he’ll never notice.”
OK, we’ve got a lot going on in that line and I’m sure a lot of the politically correct audience is incensed, but let’s use your higher level reasoning here. Johnson is basically saying if you can cause division among class lines, you can do anything, and that’s exactly what is going on.
On one hand, we have polarizing political debate to ensure that most Americans can easily find themselves a fervent supporter of politicians that do not want anything to do with them except their vote.
And on the other hand, while we’re watching the distracting, seemingly unending series of American crises, the real agenda is getting rammed through by lobbyists with no one any the wiser.
Say if I were a dyed-in-the-wool Marxist, absolutely abhorrent of any capitalist measures, atheist, but I was against abortion, I’d be a Republican &mdash totally.
If I were a fundamentalist evangelical Christian, but I was for gun control &mdash well, hello Democrats. There is the preposterous reasoning that governs our day.
We should applaud the masterful political puppeteers that made it so easy for everyone to weigh in on politics and never suffer the burden of trying to actually inform oneself.
Meanwhile, Sarah Palin tells people to be wary of the “elitist” liberal media. I really want to trust a politician that hates the press, because, you know, reading is for wimps and communists. Real Americans watch their news, only some commie would look at a newspaper or blog.
Hey, you may think it’s all a load of bull, but think about one last thing to see where our government’s true focus is.
Immediately after 9/11, the president of the United States went on television to address the nation. What was the main message of his speech?
If we, as Americans, don’t go shopping then the terrorists have one. Then again, that is the most capitalist of ideals &mdash equating buying merchandise with patriotism.
If you’re listening, keep sharp, we’re about to go on a crazy ride.
David Breland is the copy editor for The Reflector. He can be contacted at [email protected].