Amerikan Demokracy: Gatekeeper of Tyranny

     Corruption in American politics runs deep, and it's as old as the Republic.

Like many party bosses and political patrons, Hanna prided himself in being a pragmatist in politics, and a shameless kingmaker. This is a 1896 Puck cover showing Hanna (left) and Pres. McKinley's Thanksgiving dinner—carving up the presidency.

[dropcap]M[/dropcap]ark Hanna, a top Republican financier, once remarked " There are two things that are important in politics. The first one is money, and I can't remember what the second one is."  In the 2016 election cycle for Congress,  469 winners of seats had outspent their opponent. Only a mere 24 seats were won by those who spent less than their opponent. Money talks folks! Where does most of this cash come from anyway? Well, when one looks at the 2018 campaign donations from three select interest groups, Labor, Health care and finance/insurance:

* Labor- approx. $ 100 million

* Healthcare- approx. $ 200 million

* Finance/ Insurance- approx. $ 600 million

So, who are most of these politicos going to represent?

What we have dear readers is a system orchestrated by the super rich for ... duh, the super rich! As with most forms of business advertising, the more you advertise (spend) the more you earn. This writer partnered in a very unique Mom and Pop cafe in 2006. We had a menu with top quality Panini sandwiches, using the best meats and other fresh ingredients. We had a great Italian espresso machine, an old fashioned NYC style soda fountain (making authentic NYC treats like Egg Cream and Lime Ricky sodas); Italian ices imported from Brooklyn, NY; cafe tables, each with a historic photo of old Brooklyn laminated onto the entire tabletop; a Juke box, live music on weekends...oh and of course NYC treats like Coney Island made Knishes, Bronx bagels and bialys. Alas, Panera and Starbucks destroyed us. Why, if our sandwiches and lattes were much better than our competition. and  our atmosphere AND our prices  were more customer friendly? You got it: Duh Money!!  Those guys had the better locations and of course the name recognition, and yeah, the advertising.

As with the business world, political ventures like 3rd Party campaigns will always be strangled by the false narrative of this ' Two Party System'.  Their advertiser, and main customer, the super rich corporate empire, makes sure that only Column A and Column B are what the suckers will see... or read about... or hear! Talk about out and out censorship, remember the run-up to the illegal and highly immoral invasion of Iraq in 2003? Well, the invasion, with its Shock and Awe carpet bombing campaign, began on March 19th ( to quote from FDR regarding Pearl Harbor, " A day of infamy" ). This writer recalls interviewing Jeff Cohen, former producer of the Phil Donahue Show on MSNBC. Jeff related how, during the run-up to that invasion, he had many shows in early '03 on the subject of Iraq, Hussein and of course the 'infamous ' Weapons of Mass Destruction debate. Jeff stated how, before each show could go on air, MSNBC ( owned at the time by General Electric Corp., a major weapons manufacturer) had an ' edict' given to him that for every guest that was anti invading Iraq, he needed to have TWO guest s that were pro invasion. Of course, this all became moot because the Phil Donahue Show was cancelled before the invasion anyway.

There is no viable democracy in our Amerika. The super rich took that away from us, perhaps from our inception as a nation. Remember, the founding fathers of this nation made sure that women could not vote, slavery was OK (unlike the nation they broke away from, England) , and Senators were chosen by individual state legislatures. Historically, the USA we live in ( or under ) has always made sure that private money could and would influence elections. More than that, private money has always been able to control our media, print or electronic. New laws of course made it even easier for semi monopoly control of local markets of media. Bottom line folks: Socialism must be so much more effective and fair, by just seeing how the media, along with this "two" party system, continually denigrates it and falsifies it with terms like totalitarianism. Sadly, so many good and decent of my fellow citizens still hold fast to the dual illusions of the fairness of both democracy and its two party system. Or the idea that voting alone can change the system. That famous line, used by Kevin Spacey's character in the film The Usual Suspects: " The greatest trick the devil ever pulled was convincing the world that he did not exist."

—PA Farruggio

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