US Democracy is an Embarrassment

 

Opinion

It's certainly not difficult to understand why a good portion of the American people have lost faith in their democratic elections. Over the last four years, the liberal media relentlessly peddled the alleged “Russiagate” scandal, naming Trump a Russian agent, who colluded with Russia to win the 2016 presidential election. Relentless is a key descriptive term to describe all the cable networks pushing this propaganda. Rachel Maddow spearheaded this neoliberal conspiracy, even to the extent of announcing that the Russians were going to hack the northeastern power grid, placing millions of Americans without heat and light during the winter months. Then came the much-awaited Mueller report, managed to indict a few bad actors, but none of them collaborated with the Russians during the 2016 election. This was a non-stop hoax to illegitimate president Donald Trump. The Mueller Report's lack of evidence didn't stop these establishment types from continuing the hoax.

During the 2020 presidential primary's, Hillary Clinton continued to push this evidence-free conspiracy and alluded in an interview that presidential hopeful, Tulsi Gabbard, was being groomed by the Russians, and simply another “Putin Puppet.” Gabbard campaigned on her antiwar stance against America's regime-change wars. This narrative went against the Military-Industrial Complex. Hillary is a proven warmonger and cheerleader for regime change around the planet. She is also a paid stooge for Wall Street. That said, her only argument to smear Gabbard was to call her a Russian asset. Why? The arguments for regime change by the establishment are usually lies or at least becoming extremely difficult to rationalize. What is not difficult to believe, is that many people, who only get their news from cable networks would fall for this smear because the propaganda campaign has been all-prevalent and non-stop.

It is also interesting to note that now that Joe Biden has won the election, there hasn't been a peep about foreign (Russian) interference in the US presidential election. However, new conspiracy's from the Right have taken-up the American 24-hour news cycle.

President Trump and his band of lunatics have blamed his loss in the election on everything from a dead Venezuelan president, hacked voting machines to the FBI. As his right, the president and his team have filed various lawsuits in particular states like Georgia to Pennsylvania. The vast majority of these suits, claiming voter fraud, have been thrown out of court for lack of evidence. Similar to Russiagate, these allegations are evidence-free.

The problem is the powers that be, the oligarchy, the true people who run things, have used the media to spark this lack of faith in the American democratic process. This cannot be over-emphasized that the corporate-owned media has a lot to answer for their extremely biased reporting of politics over at least the last four years. Fox News has a right-wing agenda, and not so ironically, the liberal left has a right-wing agenda as well. Both serve corporations. Thus anything coming out of these outlets should be scrutinized or immediately taken with a grain of salt.

The problem is systemic corruption in the entire governmental edifice. American politicians are paid by certain lobby factions representing certain corporate interests. As a result, the politicians voted into office by their constituents do not truly represent them, but the piles of money given to them by these corporate interests. This is not news to anyone, but it is a basic problem in the system. Why else is the majority of the American people on both sides of the aisle wanting Medicare for all and a 15 dollar minimum wage, and it hasn't happened? The rest of the “free world” has medicare for all and a livable wage, while the richest country in the world refuses to implement these basic human rights. The special corporate interest groups in DC have bought and paid for the politicians not to implement these basic policies. This is corruption on a grand scale.

One adds the fact that the media pushes evidence-free conspiracies about foreign intervention in the elections, including waging cultural wars, blaming one group against the other for the injustices in the country; is it any wonder that the United States people are so divided?

These cultural war issues are distractions from the real issues that can make the US a better place for the people: Immigration, LBGTQ, Abortion, gun ownership are distractions, cultural issues that ignore the fact that the US is in endless wars, have a corporate medical system, a prison industrial complex for profit, and an infrastructure that has been crumbling since at least the Clinton administration. This is not to mention a public education system that is underfunded and failing.

It is ironic, but mostly hypocritical, that the US government invades countries around the planet to spread the goodness of democracy, when their own system is so blatantly corrupt.

A country divided over cultural issues and a government that blames the other party and other countries for their corrupt democratic system is an embarrassment. It is also convenient for the 1% to keep its citizens' attention off the main issues.

It's time to stop blaming each other and focus the blame on those who are intent on securing their own wealth at the expense of the American people.