American Democracy -- Fake & Dysfunctional

It's a combo of oligarchy, plutocracy & corporatocracy

Here’s my new podcast. And the transcript below, if you prefer to read:

Transcript:

"Some of the biggest men in the United States, in the field of commerce and manufacture, are afraid of somebody, are afraid of something. They know that there is a power somewhere so organized, so subtle, so watchful, so interlocked, so complete, so pervasive, that they had better not speak above their breath when they speak in condemnation of it."

Welcome to Geopolitics Demystified. I am your host SL Kanthan. We bring in perspectives you do not see or hear in the mainstream media.

The words you just heard are not of a conspiracy theorist but a US President – Woodrow Wilson. That sounds like a totalitarian oligarchy, not a democracy.

Abraham Lincoln had the best definition of democracy: Of the people, by the people, for the people. But the reality of America was described by another American -- a Nobel prize-winner and the former Chief Economist of the World Bank – Joseph Stiglitz. He wrote an entire claiming and proving that the US is run of the 1%, by the 1%, for the 1%. That sounds like a plutocracy.

Then there are corporations, and they are giant these days. Just the S&P 500 companies have $16 trillion of revenue; and they spend billions of dollars every year on lobbying, which is legalized bribing. And all the government agencies are controlled by corporations through former employees. Thus, the FDA is controlled by Big Pharma, SEC is controlled by Wall Street, the Pentagon is controlled by weapons manufacturers, and so on. The smooth revolving door makes it a lucrative business.

Thus, in reality, the so-called American democracy is a mix of oligarchy, plutocracy and corporatocracy.

This is shocking, considering that the US has defined itself in terms of being democratic. All the American wars are sold to the world as noble wars to spread freedom and democracy. American foreign policy is based on dividing the world into “democracy” versus “autocracy.” And numerous Western institutions spend a lot of time judging and ranking nations around the world on how democratic and free they are.

By the way, saying that the “US is not democracy” is not just a subjective claim. This is a scientific fact! A decade ago, two professors from the Princeton University did a detailed study on 25 years of legislation by US Congress. This is what they found:

1)      Business interests and economic elites have substantial impacts on US government policy, while average citizens and have little or no influence.

2)      When most of the elites support a policy, they get it 45% of the time.

3)      However, regardless of how many regular Americans support a policy, they have close to 0% chance of getting what they want, if the policy goes against the interests of the elites.

4)      In summary, the rich often win, but they never lose!

Some good examples would be minimum wage, cost of housing, healthcare & education, perpetual wars etc.

Another similar study demonstrated the truth about the American political system through a chart. Look at this. In this chart, you can see that the US is actually worse than an oligarchy! Americans have lesser influence than they would in a theoretical oligarchy! This is depressing!

But why do not Americans and the world see this trickery? Well, because of sophisticated propaganda and clever Hollywood-style drama known as the elections. This year, the US candidates will spend a whopping $10 billion to get elected. That kind of money gets you the most exciting reality show in the world.

Illusion of Democracy

But here is a thought experiment. Do you know what would happen if Americans boycott all the elections? That is, if not a single American votes?

Nothing! Life will go on as usual. The oligarchs and plutocrats will select their preferred puppets, and the US will carry on. Anyways, that’s what really happens – that is, the elites select the candidates and let the masses vote.

Moreover, what do elections really mean? Can the average American call up any politician from his district or the state to discuss some concerns? Of course, not. However, if the same voter gives, say, $10,000 to the politician, a meeting will be quickly arranged. And if a person donates $1 million, he can not only have a nice dinner with the politician, but can even get appointed as an ambassador to some country! It’s not a hypothetical scenario, this is exactly how the US politics works.

Most Americans may not understand all the nuances of the deception, but they know something is wrong. That’s why a majority of Americans do not vote in the elections to choose the president, Congress and governors. And, according to Pew Research poll, a stunning 85% of Americans say that “elected officials do NOT care about people like me”:

Unpopular American Politicians

And the US Congress, which is full of sanctimonious people who love waging wars to spread democracy, has an approval rating of not even 20%! More than 2 in 3 of Americans disapprove of US Congress:

And if you use the broad word “government,” only 40% of Americans have trust in the system. This is from the Edelman Trust Barometer. Interestingly, India comes in at 76%, China comes in at 85%, and Saudi Arabia tops the list at 86%:

But if you think that US politicians give a damn about these polls, you would be shocked to know that more than 90% of Congressmen (and women) get re-elected! Whoa, how is that possible?

In fact, two years ago, 100% of US Senators got re-elected! The magic of the great American system!

What is the definition of insanity? Doing the same thing over and over but expecting different results. Thus, the American system is insane!

This happens because the country is deeply polarized and divided into red and blue districts. The red districts always vote for a Republican, and the blue ones always vote for Democrat. Within this system the politician can keep winning as long as he (1) keeps his fellow 1% happy by supporting whatever policies they want, and (2) gets some money every year for pork barrel projects for his district. After all, the US federal government spends $7 trillion a year, so it’s easy to sneak in a few special projects in the spending bill, which runs for 1000+ pages.

For example, it could be something as small as $1 million to renovate a LGBTQ community center in Philadelphia or $15 billion to build a 4-mile tunnel in Boston. The Boston tunnel was originally estimated to cost $3 billion and ended up costing 5 times more and took over 20 years.

RNC and DNC: Two sides of the same coin

So, why cannot honest people run for office? Because it’s impossible in the 2-party system that is run by DNC and RNC, two corrupt organizations controlled by oligarchs, plutocrats and corporations. These gatekeepers’ job is to screen the candidates and eliminate anyone who wants to rock the boat. There is a reason that almost all the politicians in the Capitol Hill are millionaires. They don’t need much convincing to help their fellow plutocrats.

This rigged system has also raised colossal barriers to prevent the rise of any third-party candidate. It takes millions of dollars just to get on the ballot system. And then, the candidate will be completely ignored by the mainstream media. Only the establishment candidates will get interviewed by TV stations and endorsed by the print media.

If the maverick candidate gets a bit too popular, the mainstream media – which is part of the corporate network that rules America – will demonize the candidate and destroy his chances. There have been only a handful of virtuous candidates – like Ron Paul. The system just tolerated him, since he could not do any damage. However, the system is so totalitarian now that we will not see anyone like that anymore.

Only a billionaire has any chance to compete in this system at a national level. The US had such a candidate in the 1992 presidential election when Ross Perot won almost 20% of the popular vote, but couldn’t win a single state. This year, Robert Kennedy Jr. – a very decent guy – is running but he will end up with perhaps 5% of the popular vote, and thus will make no difference in the big picture.

Here’s another not-so-secret fact. The ruling elites pick their winner of each party and the election one or two years before the people get to vote. The rest is all just orchestrated contest like the WWE.

In the DNC, they have superdelegates who have the veto power to override any candidate who might win the primaries during the presidential race. Wikileaks emails showed how Hillary Clinton was decided as the winner in 2015 – 1.5 years before the election. Bernie Sanders was just controlled opposition to fool the young people.

Trump is definitely an oddball who fooled the RNC and became the President. He did not fit the mold of the establishment. That’s why he was a one-time President, and that’s why they tried to assassinate him. And are even trying to cover it up on social media and search engines. I am not 100% not sure what happened, but we all know that JFK was assassinated because he challenged the deep state or the permanent government that President Woodrow Wilson talked about – remember the quote in the beginning of this podcast? Similarly, other US Presidents like Lincoln and Andrew Jackson faced assassination attempts because they refused to bow down to the banking and certain industrial class.

How’s that for a democracy?

Are the elections themselves rigged by tampering with the voting machines? That’s anyone’s guess. But the US mainstream media once had documentaries about how easy it was to hack the voting machines. In 2016, there was hysteria about Russian interference, but in 2020, the logic changed – US elections are sacred and nobody could question them. However, if Trump wins this year, the logic will be reversed and US elections will once again become vulnerable.

The brain hurts trying to keep up with the American absurdity.

It’s even hard to figure out what’s the difference between Democrats and Republicans anymore. They are just two wings of the same imperialist, oligarchic bird. Or, as George Galloway says, two cheeks of the same ass.

The two parties vehemently fight culture wars, and even that is fake, since Republicans have eventually surrendered in every cultural issue over the last several decades. Similarly, Democrats used to be the champion of workers, but now they are as pro-corporations, pro-Wall Street, pro-Big Pharma and pro-wars as the Republicans.

Inequality and Demise of Middle Class America

Consider than the real federal minimum wage in 2022 was 40% less than what it was in 1968! Shocking! (Real means adjusted for inflation).

But the Democrats have no solution for this. Instead, they worry about if a school boy who thinks he’s a girl should be able to use the girls’ bathroom.

Life is quite bad in America, unless you are in the top 10%, who own 93% of the stock market and 75% of the wealth!

Consider another mind-boggling wealth inequality fact in the greatest country: The top 1% now own more wealth than the entire middle class. Vote Democrats, Vote Republicans. Rinse, Repeat. Your life ain’t gonna change — unless you’re in the top 1%.

Yet, most Americans are brainwashed to celebrate the performance of the stock market or how the US GDP is #1 in the world. Conservatives and libertarians are told that talking about inequality is a sign of socialism or communism; and if you work hard, you can be in the top 10%... and then laugh at the bottom 90%.

Democrats are told to worry about the endless social engineering revolution – every few years, there will be a new cause to fight for. Of course, those causes for virtue-signaling will do nothing to improve their wages, bank balance or the standard of living.

All of this is possible due to extraordinary propaganda and censorship. The media, academia, business leaders etc. work 24x7 to maintain the illusion of democracy.

To summarize the political system in America, let’s listen to Aldous Huxley, the author of the Brave New World. He said:

“The perfect dictatorship would have the appearance of a democracy, but would basically be a prison without walls in which the prisoners would not even dream of escaping.”

US Foreign policy

The British imperialism had a slogan: “King, Faith and Empire.” The US imperialism modernized that to “Freedom and Democracy.”

However, if the US does not have democracy at home, how the heck would it spread it abroad? Of course, it does not. The US arms, funds and supports 70% of the dictators around the world. It’s easy that way. Other countries which have elections are good as long as they get to choose between two pro-US candidates. Vassals like Japan, South Korea, Taiwan and Germany are controlled to be 100% pro-US. You will never see any politician or even the media challenge the American Empire.

During the Cold War, any leader who was against American exploitation was immediately labeled a communist, which means he could be overthrown or even assassinated. This happened many times in Latin America and sometimes in Asia. Now, a similar leader would be called a dictator, autocrat etc. and would face calls for regime change.

The US never accepts democratic elections in other countries if the outcome does not favor the US. The recent elections in Venezuela are a great example. Similarly, in Russia, however popular Putin is, the US acts as if he is a dictator. For example, the Wikipedia page for Putin does not even mention him winning any elections after 2012!

In Ukraine, the US organized a neo-Nazi mob and overthrew a democratically elected leader in 2014. And if the people of Crimea overwhelmingly voted to join Russia, the US would not accept the results. In Syria, when Assad refused to be a vassal, the US colluded with other countries in the region and sent in 100,000 Islamist jihadists into Syria and wrecked the country.

There are countless examples of such American imperialism crushing real democracy around the world.

US History

By the way, the US has hated democracy from the beginning. First, genocide of the natives and slavery of Africans laid the foundation of the US – not quite the embodiment of democracy, freedom and human rights.

In the first US election, George Washington got only 28,000 votes, although the population of the newly formed USA was 3 million! That is less than 1% of the population. You had to be a white, land-owning male to vote. In some states, they didn’t have a popular election – instead, the state legislatures chose the electors, who would then cast the vote for the president.

The founders of America were always afraid of populism and the rule of the mob. That’s why they had in place all sorts of checks and balances. And the word “democracy” does not even show up in the US Constitution. Having only one-third of the Senate run for elections in a given year was an insurance policy against populism.

Similarly, if the people got carried away and voted for a radical populist President, then the electoral college could ignore the popular vote and choose another person to be the President. And, of course, a handful of unelected judges in the US Supreme Court can overturn any law or referendum.

Conclusion

The US elites have mastered the democracy propaganda to fool the world and their own population. Yes, pure democracy is impossible, and a representative democracy is needed. However, there must be accountability to make sure that the politicians meet the needs of most people. Without that, the system turns into neo-feudalism, which is what the US has now. Elections alone do not change anything. As someone once said, “If voting changed anything, they would make it illegal.”

Look at China, where they don’t have popular elections, but 90% of the people are happy with the central government in Beijing, which is run by highly skilled people, who don’t need empty slogans and endless campaigns. In China, there is surprisingly a lot of responsiveness. For example, a Chinese person can dial 12345, talk to a live person within 15 seconds, and file a complaint about anything from potholes to a malfunctioning air conditioner in a public library. And Chinese politicians are rated and promoted based on their ability to fix such problems. Is that not democracy?

The US system – with a procedural democracy - has deep structural problems which, if not fixed, can lead to a civil war.

The next decade will be very consequential and will reveal if the American system is resilient and can survive the upheavals that will accompany the multipolar world.

The end.

Thanks and please make sure to like this video and subscribe to the channel.

— S.L. Kanthan

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