“Free
election of masters does not abolish the masters or the slaves.” ―
Herbert Marcuse
by John
W. Whitehead
The FBI is
worried: foreign hackers have broken into two state election
databases.
The
Department of Homeland Security is worried: the nation’s voting
system needs greater protection against cyberattacks.
I, on the
other hand, am not overly worried: after all, the voting booths have
already been hacked by a political elite comprised of Republicans and
Democrats who are determined to retain power at all costs.
The outcome
is a foregone conclusion: the police state will win and “we the
people” will lose.
The damage
has already been done.
The DHS,
which has offered to help “secure” the nation’s elections, has
already helped to lock down the nation.
Remember,
the DHS is the agency that ushered in the domestic use of
surveillance drones, expanded the reach of fusion centers, stockpiled
an alarming amount of ammunition, urged Americans to become snitches
through a “see something, say something” campaign, oversaw the
fumbling antics of TSA agents everywhere, militarized the nation’s
police, spied on activists and veterans, distributed license plate
readers and cell phone trackers to law enforcement agencies,
contracted to build detention camps, carried out military drills and
lockdowns in American cities, conducted virtual strip searches of
airline passengers, established Constitution-free border zones,
funded city-wide surveillance cameras, and generally turned our
republic into a police state.
So, no, I’m
not falling for the government’s scare tactics about Russian
hackers.
I’m not
losing a night’s sleep over the thought that this election might by
any more rigged than it already is.
And I’m
not holding my breath in the hopes that the winner of this year’s
particular popularity contest will save us from government
surveillance, weaponized drones, militarized police, endless wars,
SWAT team raids, red light cameras, asset forfeiture schemes,
overcriminalization, profit-driven private prisons, graft and
corruption, or any of the other evils that masquerade as official
government business these days.
What I’ve
come to realize is that Americans want to engage in the reassurance
ritual of voting.
They want to
believe that politics matter.
They want to
be persuaded that there’s a difference between the Republicans and
Democrats (there’s not).
They will
swear that Barack Obama has been an improvement on George W. Bush (he
has not).
They are
convinced that Hillary Clinton’s values are different from Donald
Trump’s (with both of them, money talks).
Most of all,
they want to buy into the fantasy that when we elect a president,
we’re getting someone who truly represents “we the people”
rather than the corporate state (in fact, in the oligarchy that is
the American police state, an elite group of wealthy donors is
calling the shots).
The sad
truth is that it doesn’t matter who wins the White House, because
they all work for the same boss: Corporate America. Understanding
this, many corporations hedge their bets on who will win the White
House by splitting their donations between Democratic and Republican
candidates.
Politics is
a game, a joke, a hustle, a con, a distraction, a spectacle, a sport,
and for many devout Americans, a religion. It is a political illusion
aimed at persuading the citizenry that we are free, that our vote
counts, and that we actually have some control over the government
when in fact, we are prisoners of a police state.
In other
words, it’s a sophisticated ruse aimed at keeping us divided and
fighting over two parties whose priorities are exactly the same so
that we don’t join forces and do what the Declaration of
Independence suggests, which is to throw the whole lot out and start
over.
It’s no
secret that both parties support endless war, engage in
out-of-control spending, ignore the citizenry’s basic rights, have
no respect for the rule of law, are bought and paid for by Big
Business, care most about their own power, and have a long record of
expanding government and shrinking liberty. Most of all, both parties
enjoy an intimate, incestuous history with each other and with the
moneyed elite that rule this country.
Despite the
jabs the candidates volley at each other for the benefit of the
cameras, they’re a relatively chummy bunch away from the spotlight.
Moreover, despite Congress’ so-called political gridlock, our
elected officials seem to have no trouble finding common ground when
it’s time to collectively kowtow to the megacorporations,
lobbyists, defense contractors and other special interest groups to
whom they have pledged their true allegiance.
So don’t
be fooled by the smear campaigns and name-calling or drawn into their
politics of hate. They’re just useful tactics that have been proven
to engage voters and increase voter turnout while keeping the
citizenry at each other’s throats.
We’re in
trouble, folks.
We are
living in a fantasy world carefully crafted to resemble a
representative democracy.
It used to
be that the cogs, wheels and gear shifts in our government machinery
worked to keep our republic running smoothly. However, without our
fully realizing it, the mechanism has changed. Its purpose is no
longer to keep our republic running smoothly. To the contrary, this
particular contraption’s purpose is to keep the corporate police
state in power. Its various parts are already a corrupt part of the
whole.
Just
consider how insidious, incestuous and beholden to the corporate
elite the various “parts” of the mechanism have become.
Congress.
Perhaps the most notorious offenders and most obvious culprits in the
creation of the corporate-state, Congress has proven itself to be
both inept and avaricious, oblivious champions of an authoritarian
system that is systematically dismantling their constituents’
fundamental rights. Long before they’re elected, Congressmen are
trained to dance to the tune of their wealthy benefactors, so much so
that they spend two-thirds of their time in office raising money. As
Reuters reports, “For many lawmakers, the daily routine in
Washington involves fundraising as much as legislating. The culture
of nonstop political campaigning shapes the rhythms of daily life in
Congress, as well as the landscape around the Capitol. It also means
that lawmakers often spend more time listening to the concerns of the
wealthy than anyone else.”
The
President. What Americans want in a president and what they need are
two very different things. The making of a popular president is an
exercise in branding, marketing and creating alternate realities for
the consumer—a.k.a., the citizenry—that allows them to buy into a
fantasy about life in America that is utterly divorced from our
increasingly grim reality. Take President Obama, for instance, who
now enjoys greater popularity than any previous president, including
the beloved Ronald Reagan. This is a president who got elected by
campaigning against war, torture, surveillance only to make them
hallmarks of his presidency, and yet somehow these “indiscretions”
are overlooked and forgiven as long as he presents a jocular, hip
façade: slow-jamming the news with Jimmy Fallon, reading mean tweets
with Jimmy Kimmel, singing, dancing and being cool. In other words,
to be a successful president, it doesn’t matter whether you keep
your campaign promises, sell access to the Lincoln Bedroom, or march
in lockstep with the Corporate State as long as you keep the
feel-good vibes flowing.
The Supreme
Court. The U.S. Supreme Court—once the last refuge of justice, the
one governmental body really capable of rolling back the slowly
emerging tyranny enveloping America—has instead become the champion
of the American police state, absolving government and corporate
officials of their crimes while relentlessly punishing the average
American for exercising his or her rights. Like the rest of the
government, the Court has routinely prioritized profit, security, and
convenience over the basic rights of the citizenry. Indeed, law
professor Erwin Chemerinsky makes a compelling case that the Supreme
Court, whose “justices have overwhelmingly come from positions of
privilege,” almost unerringly throughout its history sides with the
wealthy, the privileged, and the powerful.
The Media.
Of course, this triumvirate of total control would be completely
ineffective without a propaganda machine provided by the world’s
largest corporations. Besides shoveling drivel down our throats at
every possible moment, the so-called news agencies which are supposed
to act as bulwarks against government propaganda have instead become
the mouthpieces of the state. The pundits which pollute our airwaves
are at best court jesters and at worst propagandists for the false
reality created by the American government. When you have internet
and media giants such as Google, NBC Universal, News Corporation,
Turner Broadcasting, Thomson Reuters, Comcast, Time Warner, Viacom,
Public Radio International and The Washington Post Company donating
to the Clinton Foundation, you no longer have an independent
media—what we used to refer to as the “fourth estate”—that
can be trusted to hold the government accountable.
The American
People. “We the people” now belong to a permanent underclass in
America. It doesn’t matter what you call us—chattel, slaves,
worker bees, drones, it’s all the same—what matters is that we
are expected to march in lockstep with and submit to the will of the
state in all matters, public and private. Through our complicity in
matters large and small, we have allowed an out-of-control
corporate-state apparatus to take over every element of American
society.
We’re
playing against a stacked deck.
The game is
rigged, and “we the people” keep getting dealt the same losing
hand. The people dealing the cards—the politicians, the
corporations, the judges, the prosecutors, the police, the
bureaucrats, the military, the media, etc.—have only one prevailing
concern, and that is to maintain their power and control over the
citizenry, while milking us of our money and possessions.
It really
doesn’t matter what you call them—Republicans, Democrats, the 1%,
the elite, the controllers, the masterminds, the shadow government,
the police state, the surveillance state, the military industrial
complex—so long as you understand that while they are dealing the
cards, the deck will always be stacked in their favor.
As I make
clear in my book, Battlefield America: The War on the American
People, our failure to remain informed about what is taking place in
our government, to know and exercise our rights, to vocally protest,
to demand accountability on the part of our government
representatives, and at a minimum to care about the plight of our
fellow Americans has been our downfall.
Now we find
ourselves once again caught up in the spectacle of another
presidential election, and once again the majority of Americans are
acting as if this election will make a difference and bring about
change. As if the new boss will be different from the old boss.
When in
doubt, just remember what the astute commentator George Carlin had to
say about the matter:
The
politicians are put there to give you the idea that you have freedom
of choice. You don’t. You have no choice. You have owners. They own
you. They own everything. They own all the important land. They own
and control the corporations. They’ve long since bought and paid
for the Senate, the Congress, the state houses, the city halls. They
got the judges in their back pockets and they own all the big media
companies, so they control just about all of the news and information
you get to hear. They got you by the balls. They spend billions of
dollars every year lobbying. Lobbying to get what they want. Well, we
know what they want. They want more for themselves and less for
everybody else, but I’ll tell you what they don’t want. They
don’t want a population of citizens capable of critical thinking.
They don’t want well-informed, well-educated people capable of
critical thinking. They’re not interested in that. That doesn’t
help them. That’s against their interests.
They
want obedient workers. Obedient workers, people who are just smart
enough to run the machines and do the paperwork…. It’s a big club
and you ain't in it. You and I are not in the big club. ...The table
is tilted, folks. The game is rigged and nobody seems to notice….
Nobody seems to care. That’s what the owners count on…. It’s
called the American Dream, 'cause you have to be asleep to believe
it.
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