An Election Without Meaning

[Orwellian_Ghost]

An Election Without Meaning
by Peter Phillips / March 22nd, 2008

Will the ninety-three billion dollar profits those parasitic intermediates between you and your doctor—be used instead for full health care coverage for all? Will Habeas Corpus and Posse Comitatus be restored to the people? Will torture stop and the US withdraw from Iraq immediately? Will all students in public universities be able to enroll for free? Will the US national security agencies stop mass spying on our personal communications? Will the neo-conservative agenda of total military domination of the world be reversed?

The answer to these questions

in the context of the current billion dollar presidential campaign

is an absolute no.

Instead we have a campaign of personalities and platitudes. There is a race candidate, a gender candidate and a tortured veteran candidate, each talking about change in America, national security, freedom, and the American way. The candidates are running with support of political parties so deeply embedded with the military industrial complex, the health insurance companies, Wall Street, and corporate media that it is undeterminable where the board rooms separate from the state rooms.

The 2008 presidential race is a media entertainment spectacle with props, gossip, accusations, and public relations. It is impression management from a candidates’ perspective. How can we fool the most people into believing that we stand for something? It is billions of dollars of gravy for the media folks and continued profit maximunization for the war machine, Wall Street, and insurance companies no matter who is determined the winner in November.

We must face the fact that the US government’s primary mission is to protect the wealthy and insure capital expansion worldwide.

The US military—spending more than the rest of the militaries of the world combined—is the muscle behind this protect-capital-at-all-costs agenda, and will be used against the American people if deemed necessary to support the mission.

...

The two party corporate political system is having a HOMELAND presidential campaign—Hillary, Obama, McCain, Election, Lacking, Actual, National, Debate. It is time for real change, but it will only come with a social movement of reform in the tradition of the progressive, labor, civil rights, anti-war movements of the last century. We need to use all of our activist, legal, and political resources to reverse these threats to freedom. Naomi Wolf says it is not too late to prevent totalitarianism, but we have to act fast.

Peter Phillips is a Professor of Sociology at Sonoma State University, and Director of Project Censored, a media research organization. Read other articles by Peter, or visit Peter's website.

http://www.dissidentvoice.org/2008/03/an-election-without-meaning/

[dawgman]

1. I agree

"The two party corporate political system is having a HOMELAND presidential campaign—Hillary, Obama, McCain, Election, Lacking, Actual, National, Debate."

This is the issue. Both parties are beholden to corporate interests in their entirety. It will take a grassroots, populist movement (and probably some rioting) to effect any true change to the system as it is set up.

Enjoy the Superbowl of politics, but in the end the true difference to the common citizen may be no larger than the difference between a Giants victory or a Patriots victory.

[checks-n-balances]

2. I'm glad to give this one a rec

and a kick too. Excellent points (and true, unfortunately) and thanks for posting it.

[cliffordu]

3. K AND R

[Mnemosyne]

4. KnR! n/t

[midnight]

5. You are talking about the important issues that seem to have

been taken off the table with impeachment. That is the real nutrition that will sustain us. In there place a whole lot of junk food has been layed down. We are to be distracted until those in power get to move on. Every time I read about this person having a bad marriage, and that person not shaking hands, and this person is tough and that person is cold. And the big guns-racism vs sexism...... We need to repeat ever day that our constitution is more important than looks and money.

[Orwellian_Ghost]

6. Kicking