A couple of days ago, Donald Trump and Mike Pence sat down with Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer to discuss their respective agendas. Within short order, the meeting devolved into a most infantile temper tantrum as Trump jostled with Pelosi and Schumer while Pence sat almost motionless as though he was guarding Buckingham Palace. This embarrassing show of finger pointing and taunts put on by the supposed leaders of our nation is proof positive that there are no adults in the room—we are being governed by juveniles.
Sadly, what should have been understood as a conversion of imbeciles was instead broadcast by mainstream media outlets as a clash of titans. Yet again, the farce of these two factions typified by this incident was perpetuated by the punditry in order to further the false narrative that there is a penny’s worth of a difference between the jackasses and elephants who are identically owned by moneyed interests. Sadder yet is that the respective bases of both parties glommed on to this spectacle to cheer “their side” and bash “the other side”.
Let me take a moment here to discuss how the political establishment refers to voters and supporters of Democrats and Republicans as the bases of the two major parties. I never really thought about it until I walked away from the Democrat party and refused to be a subsidiary of the establishment. That is when I realized just how insulting it is to be referred to as a base, the base is the foundation on which structures are built upon. When they call people the base, it’s another way of saying the loyalists of these two reprobate factions are the stepping stones of the ruling class.
It is this willingness to suspend self-interest and the insistence of elevating sociopaths as demigods that drives the dysfunction going on in our nation’s capital. For too many who view politics as some sort of a team sport, idolatry and star worshiping has become a most potent narcotic as partisans continually act against their self-interest in order to root on their favorite politician. This unhealthy fixation on personalities was on prime display when team blue and team red took to social media to at once take glee in the comeuppance their side gave to the other.
With blind loyalty comes myopic perspectives. Both factions depend on the continued obsequiousness of their “base” in order sustain the sham that either party is working on behalf of our interests. This “us versus them” dynamic that is constantly being pushed by opinion leaders has successfully conditioned too many Americans in ways Pavlov could never have dreamed of. People who are otherwise struggling to keep up with the rent find themselves cheering for professional grifters who make more in one hour than most do in a month or more of toil and struggle.
Our national addiction to the pornography that is politics has morphed from a pastime into an exercise in self-harm. The only people who profit from this shit show of our politics are the politicians, media personalities and their corporate overlords; the rest of us are collateral damage in the quest of the neo-aristocracy to attain more while humanity suffers. There are better options before us, but too many are so wedded to the status quo that they can only imagine limited options and accept the lesser of two equal evils. #PelosiPalooza Click To Tweet
It’s all based on optics of course. Because we are naturally inclined to think in binary fashion, Democrats and Republicans successfully play off each other to present alternative visions even though they are painting from the same canvass. Mainstream media caters to this same dynamic, instead of speaking truth to power without bias, “news” outlets on the right and the left present so called facts through their narrow ideological prisms. Just look at how the same shameful conclave of buffoons that was on display at the Oval Office a few days ago was presented by the punditry. Airheads like Tomi Lahren of Fox Nation noted that Trump looked strong and that the American people are behind him. Meanwhile, duplicitous pinheads like Rachel Maddow were raving that change is in the air and gleefully ranting how Pelosi signals the arrival of women in DC.
What a bunch of baloney! Pelosi is to change and Trump is to strength as Twitter is to nuanced conversations. But these professional corporate propagandists traffic in these blatantly outlandish lies because they know that there is a demand for them. I wrote on Election Day that people who supported a new breed of “progressives” like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Ayanna Pressley were in for a rude awaking and that their new found darlings were nothing more than sheepdogs who will cave in and back the status quo before they are sworn into office.
They didn’t even wait until their inauguration before they started folding like a meet up of tents and lawn chairs. Yesterday evening, Nancy Pelosi received the endorsement of these rebels who held out their support until they received concessions from her. What are these concessions you ask? Corporate crony Pelosi agreed to a three term limit, she will not seek the House Speaker’s gavel after 2022. This development was painted by blue wave believers as a sign that you can in fact change the parties from within. A 78 year old neoliberal shill who has enjoyed a death grip on House Democrats since 2006 stipulates that she will “only” have power for 6 years and will not seek reelection once she invariably hands the House back to Republicans is seen as a victory for progress.
If you like platitudes without an iota of substance and hypocrisy that is limitless, this dysfunctional carnival that passes as government is perfect for you. As much as I say that in jest, for too many people who are addicted to the reality show of our politics, there is nothing better than the daily inanities that are spewed out by both parties and their handlers in mainstream media. It seems fun, trolling each other and defending politicians none of us will ever meet, until reality hits as more and more people become statistics of the malicious policies both parties are enacting. American politics, the greatest show on earth where we vote for ringleaders who make clowns of US.
A country that is governed by millionaires who are owned by billionaires is not a Republic but a tyranny draped in the facade of free choice::
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Teodrose Fikremariam
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