Election 2012: The Grand Charade Continues

01-11-12

The extent to which America still buys into the perpetual clown show that is Washington politics and the campaign for president reveals just how far down the rabbit hole this country has fallen. As I make my daily rounds online it's truly depressing to read the comments from those on both sides of the mythical partisan divide, many of them otherwise obviously intelligent people, who simply can't bring themselves to admit they've been had. They spend all their time hiding behind the sensationalism of the complicit mainstream media, lobbing rhetorical dirt bombs of blame at each other, each side naively hoping to be viewed as “the lesser of two evils” come election time, as if such a simplistic approach has any chance of delivering real change. These blind partisan masses are right where the nefarious powers that be want them: Diligently enabling the grand charade while the ugly reality continues to fly under the radar, rendering our country a crumbling shell.

“Conservatives” attack the perfectly logical idea of We the People helping each other out with our own money via programs like Social Security and Medicare (neither of which has anything to do with the debt or deficit), while acting as if it's actually sensible to commit trillions to needless perpetual war. They scream "SOCIALISM!" at any effort to benefit everyone collectively (including themselves), but sit strangely silent in response to the SOCIALIZATION of bailing out the Wall Street criminals who crashed our economy, the SOCIALIZATION of making up for the lost revenue from ten years of Bush tax cuts (which are now of course Obama tax cuts) that have delivered nothing except a bunch of additional disposable income for super-rich people, and the SOCIALIZATION of the cost of endless war that benefits nobody except weapon makers, oil barons and wholly-owned politicians.

"Liberals" say things like "Well Obama might not be perfect but MY GAWD, can you imagine if McCain had won? We'd be in REAL trouble," as if Obama's sickening expansion of Bush policy is somehow okay simply because he's their guy. They claim all we need to do in 2012 is vote to restore full control of Congress to Democrats and everything will be hunky-dory shortly thereafter, as if nobody remembers what happened the last time they made that promise.

Voters awarded democrats control of both the House and Senate on Election Day 2006, only to see them refuse to act on the main reason their majority happened, which of course was the voters' desire to end the wars and force accountability for the criminals who started them.

As the newly anointed first female Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi whined disingenuously about how "obstructionist" republicans would not allow the Congress to vote on whether the wars should end, knowing full well that no vote was necessary. All she had to do was refuse to bring any war funding bill to the floor for a vote and the wars would have been over. She also famously declared that impeachment was "off the table," as if it was strictly up to her.

Speaking of impeachment, we can't forget the cowardly collapse of John Conyers, who released the amazing Constitution in Crisis in 2006, a report detailing the crimes of the Bush administration. As part of the Democratic majority that took over in January 2007 he became Chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, THE person responsible for initiating impeachment proceedings. Unbelievably, instead of exercising his authority as Judiciary Chair by acting on the overwhelming evidence of Bush crimes that he himself detailed so impeccably, Conyers sat on his hands, claiming an impeachment effort would be a distraction and that he didn't have the votes to impeach anyway.

Contrary to what Mr. Conyers would like us to believe, honoring your oath of office is not conditional on whether or not you think you have the votes to impeach. He knew the evidence of Bush crimes perhaps better than anybody. His refusal to act on this evidence is a betrayal of his oath and the people he was elected to serve.

Then of course we have Mr. Hope and Change himself, Barack Obama. One of the most articulate, assertive chief executives this country has ever seen, but whose naked betrayal and phony promises reveal just another greasy politician doing the bidding of special interests at the expense of We the People.

As an Illinois state senator in 2003, he proudly proclaimed himself an advocate of a single payer universal healthcare system, saying we could get there but that it would require his party's control of the House, the Senate and the White House. All those things happened, of course, but when Obama held his 2009 "Healthcare Summit" at the White House, single payer advocates weren't even invited to participate.

As a United States senator, he promised to vote against the FISA bill that granted immunity to telecoms for assisting in the illegal Bush wiretap program, adding that he would even filibuster it if necessary. Then he voted for the bill.

On the presidential campaign trail, he promised that his first act as president would be to bring all our soldiers home and end the Iraq war, emphasizing the promise with "You can take that to the bank." Of course, the Obamapologists are saying he has finally done it. But anyone who thinks leaving thousands of mercenaries armed to the teeth (including flying fully armed helicopters) to guard 15,000 people working at the largest embassy on the planet means the war is over, perhaps they need to ask an Iraqi. You know, those people who are still dealing with a few hours of electricity every day at most, nearly 50% unemployment, raw sewage floating in the streets and a government that is among the most corrupt in the world.

In another prominent campaign promise, Obama told working people that if their rights were being threatened he would put on a pair of comfortable shoes and walk the streets with them as president of the United States. But when there were 100,000 people in the streets of Madison, Wisconsin protesting Governor Scott Walker's union busting bill, he was not only nowhere to be found but also silent on the issue.

During one of the final debates with John McCain, he repeatedly refused to discus the pending original $700 billion dollar Wall Street bailout (as did McCain), then voted for it (as did McCain), completely ignoring the will of the overwhelming majority of American citizens, including a group of more than 300 economists who signed a letter to Congress detailing exactly why it was a BAD idea.

Just a few examples that solidify Barack Obama's status as just another Pretender-in-Chief. There are many others, of course, several of which can be found in the post immediately preceding this one on this blog.

To act as if Barack Obama has any genuine interest in changing how this entirely corrupt system operates, or as if there is any fundamental difference between democrats and republicans in Washington is to play right into the hands of the unseen, deep-pocketed forces who own all of them.

This is my last post for a while. In addition to the fact that I have other things happening that I need to focus on, I figured this would be a good point to take an extended break, leaving the focus on some truth and sanity as an alternative to the perpetual presidential election charade. I will stay up to date with my daily research, continue answering email and posting article links through my Facebook & Twiitter, and of course all my previous posts will still be available for reading. Other than that I will be giving it a rest. All the effort to tell it like it is while so many continue to insist on remaining oblivious to their own country's demise eventually really starts to wear you down.

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