‘It’s My Party….’

Op ED Commentary

[dropcap]B[/dropcap]orrowing from the 1963 Lesley Gore song I'll Cry If I Want to: " It's my party and I'll cry if I want to, you would cry too if it happened to you."  Well, if you still subscribe to this phony Two Party/One Party system, as they say in the world of commerce ' Buyer beware!' . It is no coincidence that for as long as many of we baby boomers can remember, our nation has been controlled by this phony adversarial  political system. Yes, as we can see in 2019 that the current party in power, the Republicans, have moved completely off the charts with their ultra right, Neo Fascist agenda. So much so that even socialists like yours truly are actually contemplating voting this one time ( especially for those of us in Florida ), for the ' lesser of two evils' Democrats. This violent, racist white supremacist mindset is becoming contagious and must be pushed back... finally!

Trump and his backers, the true ' Deep State Military Industrial Empire', have succeeded in sucking in millions of blue collar and white collar Amerikans. They play upon the covert and sometimes overt racism that many white citizens have. The Republicans, for generations , have used the tactic of ' Keep the black and brown skins away from our neighborhood and our schools... and our children'  to get the votes needed. Of course, along with that undertone of rhetoric, they also played the Fear Card of terrorism, both overseas and of course right here at home. It was they who concocted the use of the word Homeland to mirror what Goebbels used ( Fatherland) to trumpet German ethnocentrism . As with the Nazi mindset, the Republicans always celebrated Amerika having a strong military. How many times has this writer have had to hear ' Thank you for your service' when the embedded mainstream media interviews a military person? Did they ever consider doing the same for a sanitation worker who picks up and carries the nasty garbage away from our homes? Or to a teacher, earning 10% of the pay that military contractors AKA mercenaries earn? Of course , the real tragedy is when the Republicans, now under Trump and his super rich cabinet, peel away most of the regulations and safety net that the majority of his ' Base ' need . It is tragic to see millions of Amerikan workers, continually screwed by Trump and Co.'s corporate pals , wearing those silly red hats as they  scream and yell in joy at his rallies. Why? Well, what has always been the only alternative, according to the empire's rulebook, that some of Trump's base can turn to is...

The ' lesser of two evils' Democrats. This is the party, the national party, that made sure that Bernie Sanders was sabotaged in 2016. They wanted Neo Con Miss Hillary to assume the mantle that Neo Con Obama carried for this empire, after having it passed to him by Neo Cons Junior Bush & Cheney, who received it from Neo Con Bill Clinton. As is the case today, when Sanders has to face a slew of middle of the road presidential hopefuls, with just about all of them marginalizing his ideas. They want him OUT! Why? Even though Sanders waited until just recently to really go after one of the two major roots of our nation's demise, the obscene military spending and militaristic mindset, he has always and relentlessly gone after the other one. For years Sanders has explained how the super rich are getting a free ride on the backs of we working stiffs, many of whom are part of Trump's base. Sanders wants to tax them accordingly and stifle the bountiful profits the corporate megaliths are earning. He wants the ' less than 1% ' to pay more to help subsidize a comprehensive Medicare for All, and not the watered down versions many in his own party are seeking. Sanders understands that tens of millions of working stiffs cannot afford the housing prices that this predatory absentee landlord culture is billing them. When his newest plan to protect renters and create millions of government run affordable housing units was just announced, all the hacks in the embedded media sang the usual tune. They , along with Sander's own party members, will sing ' How can we afford it?' Well, if only Sanders and anyone else with even half a conscience would answer: Tax the super rich and drastically cut the military spending! Why is it that you never hear, even from so called ' Progressive Democrats, that over HALF of our federal  income tax revenues goes down that Pentagon created rabbit hole? Sanders occasionally  does ' dance around ' that, but it is taboo most of the time. HIs compatriots, (excluding Ms. Gabbard), and Sanders himself play that stupid 'Russia did it' card along with vitriol for Socialist run Venezuela.

Sadly, there is no hope for us within this Two Party/One Party con. Yet, for the time being, as Noam Chomsky has said on many electoral cycles: " Hold your nose and vote out the Republicans!" And then, once we can see the racist, white supremacist anti LBGT rhetoric off of the mainstream , we true Socialists can begin speaking truth to the Democrats we helped place into power. We will need to educate our neighbors, especially the youth of this nation, to focus on curtailing this empire , the super rich and the two parties they control.

—PA Farruggio
September 2019