Corporate Selection of 2012

 

The disgusting farcical spectacle known as the US election of 2012 will soon come to pass.

During the last few months, the two corporate-approved candidates, Barack Obama and Mitt Romney, have been falling all over each other in trying to demonize, slander, and out-cheap shot each other. Their rhetoric has been heavy on hyperbole, drama and wedge issues but light on substance and any details.

But this is the way the wealthy power-elites want it to be. They want election time to be take up by useless chatter, marketing gloss and hype, emotional diatribes, manipulation and petty distractions. This is so that people will not think about the real issues and ask any hard questions which have not been answered for a very long time.

The American electorate easily fall for this choreographed nonsense due to their general lack of information and very often wilful ignorance. They are like kids, ready to swallow whatever choice is made for them by the corporatocracy.

Just observe the way these two political parties, I'll call them Republi-crats from now on, treat the electorate as little kids. This was on full display during the run up to the Democratic National Convention in September of 2012. Michelle Obama, while on location at the Charlotte, NC convention center was giving an opening speech and used cheap and childish remarks to fire up the crowd; remarks reminiscent of some elementary school pep rally.

One recent event that illustrates this treatment is when a mock election was held at my daughter's elementary school. The choices were between just Obama and Romney. My daughter ended up voting for Romney. When I asked her why, her reply was that she saw him ride a horse, and she likes horses.

This is a very childish reason to vote for any candidate, but sadly this is how most of the US electorate seems to think. Their voting decisions are based on equally childish reasons.They see a picture or hear a sound byte that appeals to them and they immediately vote for the person associated with it. It is psychological manipulation and these campaigns know how to ride it to full effect. Very few voters make an informed choice after doing some research.

That's how this election has been. Lie after lie, obfuscation, hypocrisy, manipulation over and over again. Add to that the influx of private and corporate money into every race, thanks to the citizens United decision, and now we have a putrid and effluvial soup of the most foulest and corrupt junk politics and shameless corruption.

Each political party blames the other for the economic problems plaguing the US, but both of them have been complicit in their making. Take for instance the abomination called NAFTA (North Atlantic free Trade Agreement). It was passed in 1994 during the Clinton administration. It was the first of many corporate give-aways of job off shoring to Mexico and elsewhere which started the decimation of US industry, the middle class and the destitution of US economic life.

Surprisingly, at the time NAFTA was passed, the majority of the Democrats were against it (mainly because it eroded union power, which the Democrats relied on for votes and election funding), most Republicans were for it, and Bill Clinton himself was for it as well. He went against his own party by doing so. NAFTA passed and the Democratic party officially crossed into the corporatocracy's clutches for good.

If one political party was good and the other was bad, then the US would be in better shape than it is today. It took both the Democrats and Republicans to screw things up this bad. Blaming each other for their joint mistakes is a PR cop-out for the dumbed-down masses.

The influx of money cannot be overlooked, as it is the source of most of the problems in the corrupt US electoral system. Lobbying is an illegal and corrupt practice.

Its proponents and defenders argue that they are just interested in access, and having their voices heard. If those were the only aims, then these CEO s and their fellow-travelers can send an email or a letter to their congressman and the President like everyone else.

But of course, lobbying is not about having one's voice heard. It is about buying influence and influencing legislation. It is bribery pure and simple.

The US seems to have a knack for making the illegal and wrong, legal and permissible. In doing so, immoral, illegal and unethical behavior is allowed to fester and thrive without impunity, The patriot Act is one of the most flagrant examples of this demented theory at work.

US politicians whine about Russian President Vladimir Putin being elected as president for the 3rd time and all sorts of accusations of corruption that he supposedly engaged in to “rig and steal” the votes for himself.

But when two parties set themselves up as the masters of the US and prevent any other party and challenger from running against them and taking power, what is the world supposed to think about this!

In this respect, the US is only different from China by the amount of official political parties; China has one and the US has two.

But in reality, as far as the core principles of foreign policy bent on the economic, political, military and strategic domination of the world for US corporate and banking interests is concerned, both the Democrats and Republicans are in full agreement. 

The differences between them are only procedural. They both seek the same aims, albeit in different ways. Winning an election just puts one party and their cronies as the beneficiaries of government largess, and it is this largess which they want access to. That's what the fighting, bickering and mud-slinging is all about. All the rest is just pious PR rhetoric devoid of substance, and offering nothing new.

When it comes to these presidential candidates and US politicians, there is never any in-depth attempt at self-analysis and introspection by any of them. They never admit mistakes, they never doubt themselves and their decisions even after they prove to be disastrous. They do what they want for power and wealth, consequences be damned, and think they are right 100%. If the bad fallout from their decisions turns out to be too much to hide or gloss over, they simply find a scapegoat like Al Qaeda, terrorism, Iran, Russia, China, etc.

This deluded and arrogant way of thinking was on full display during the presidential debates between Obama and Romney. Both candidates have showed themselves to be avowed militarists and expansionists, and unwavering capitalists. They openly discussed the overthrow of foreign leaders in other nations (Syria) and talked casually of starting another war (against Iran).

The entire debate process is corrupt to the core. It is controlled by a private corporation headed by a democrat and a republican. It vets and pre-selects all questions that can be asked, sets rules on what questions and topics are off-limits, prevents 3rd parties from attending debates and people who submit questions for the town-hall debates are screened to make sure they ask “approved” questions. There are no follow-up questions allowed and microphones are immediately cut off after a question is asked. Even the moderator cannot ask follow-up questions.

How sad it is that in the country which touts itself as the greatest democracy that has ever existed, the electoral system is so corrupt, co-opted and censored. How sad it is that in this so-called great democracy people are only given two choices to vote for. This is embarrassing and pathetic. Americans should be ashamed of themselves for going along with this dog and pony show.

The media are also part of the problem. They act as the enablers of this rotten and corrupt electoral system and only give face time and coverage to the Democrat and Republican candidates. 3rd party candidates are not interviewed and ignored. This is evidence of the pro-corporate electoral system hard at work.

Add to this the questionable results from these malfunctioning and rigged electronic voting machines which leave no paper trail, and the final nail in the coffin of US electoral fraud is firmly in place.

Taking into account the farcical debates, the pre-approved topics, the faulty voting machines, the anomaly know as the electoral college, the deliberate mainstream media blackout of 3rd party candidates which challenge the Republicrat monopoly of US political life, and yes, add to this the election fraud fiasco of 2000, the US has absolutely no right whatsoever to criticize any other country's political and electoral systems and the fairness thereof. Doing so while having a corrupt electoral system of it own makes the US a supreme hypocrite and liar and a laughing stock of the world.

The US electorate are being deliberately manipulated and herded into a republican or democratic box by the party and corporate/bankster operatives and their PR marketing machines. Both of the candidates are pre-selected and marked as business and empire friendly. This is why they are being allowed to run at all.

On November 6th, these pre-selected corporate candidates will be presented to the people who naively will shoot themselves in the foot by voting for them. The entire US election cycle has become so money-ridden that it is more like a corporate auction. The whole damn election season has become a huge marketing campaign and the two Republi-crat candidates are the products.

The Democratic and Republican stranglehold on the US election and political system must be broken if there is ever going to be any semblance of normality restored in this country. People must educate themselves about other candidates and do research before casting their votes, instead of being spoon fed corporate pre-approved shills which only perpetuate the mess we are in.

One thing is certain about this election: Things will only get worse regardless of whether Obama or Romney win. The losers will be the American people. The true winners will be the corporate and banking elites.

So vote your lives away for either one of these cheap and glitzy overmarketed products who promise you grand things and grand visions, but the buyer's remorse will set in after the election year consumers realize that the product they purchase says in little letters: BATTERIES NOT INCLUDED and ALL SALES FINAL.