Empire Has Little Reason to Change

By Deb Equality Della Piana on September 12, 2017 • ( 0 )

Empire, formerly known as the United States of America, has little reason to become a home for the 99%. The inhabitants of Empire are hopelessly mired in the distractions being fed them, too lazy to take it upon themselves to do anything about the bullshit the government is foisting upon us, and hoping beyond all logical hope for a Democratic savior to ride in right around 2020. All too often their hopes are riding on Bernie Sanders, Nina Turner and Tulsi Gabbard. Far be it from me to dampen anyone’s hopes, but we’re way beyond that now.

The Democratic Party that people are relying on has paid a hefty $10 million to The Center for American Progress to select, vet and present an “acceptable” list of candidates to the Democratic leadership. CAP is headed by none other than Clinton operative Neera Tanden, so it should surprise nobody that Sanders, Turner and Gabbard are not on the list. Instead, we find establishment operatives like Kamala Harris, Cory Booker, and Chris Murphy as potential candidates. Then, there’s everybody’s pal, Joe Biden, who just makes the American people swoon because he’s such a buffoon. Only he isn’t. Just take some time to find out what he did to Anita Hill back in the day. Barack Obama is back, slithering around the outskirts of the party, lending his hand in the background. He wants Deval Patrick, who now works for Bain Capital. Remember them? A few years back, they were a favorite target for the Democrats when Romney, a Bain alumnus, was running against Obama. As you might guess, Bain is not a target now!

Then, the Democrats spent another $20 million to come up with a new slogan. Hell, can you imagine how much they would have had to spend to actually retool the party? And where to you think they get this money? (The same place Bernie Sanders got the $100K he gave to the Democrats for his half of the Unity Tour…US.)

The message:

“A Better Deal: Better Jobs, Better Wages, Better Future.”

The problem is that none of that is true. They haven’t offered anything better. They have been in power more than the GOP in the last quarter century, and the American people have nothing to show for it. The ultimate snake in the grass of the party is Barack Obama, who happens to be the biggest fraud in Democratic Party history. Yet, the American people are captivated by his style, charm, oratory (sheer bullshit), and the fact that his family is so perfect. They ascribe saintly characteristics to the man that simply fly in the face of his actual record, which nobody seems to want to acknowledge. It’s much easier to keep your head in the sand. The reality is that Barack Obama didn’t help the American people after the 2008 crash. Millions lost everything, while the banks got a trillion dollar bail-out. Not one bank failed. Not one bankster was brought to justice, although he promised they would be. As for adding jobs. Sure, Obama did add jobs. Hourly wage jobs.

But hey, he’s just like you and me. He feels our pain. That’s why he just bought an $8.1 million dollar home in D.C., where he boast neighbors like Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner, as well as Amazon’s Jeff Bezos. He also kept his Chicago home, where he will put the Barack Obama Presidential Library. If that isn’t enough, he’s also looking at summer homes on ‘the Vineyard’ in the range of $12 to $19 million. Yep. Just a regular guy like you and me. (Ever wonder how he has amassed all of this wealth on $250K a year?) Best of all for you Obamabots, a yet unconfirmed rumor is out there that he has moved Valerie Jarrett into his D.C. digs to help him fight Trump and retool the Democratic Party. Woohoo! Does it get any better than this?

Honestly, there is no reason for either the current regime in D.C., or the Democratic Party to change. None. We make absolutely no demands of our elected officials. We beg. We beg our “public servants” on both sides of the aisle, not just the GOP. Every four years, we sit around and wring our hands while those whom we elect to represent we the people attempt to take away what little health care we have. We watch the vote in desperation to see if we can actually eek enough Democrats out of the cesspool to help us out. Witness the recent GOP attempt to repeal the Affordable Care Act. Our health care should be a right for every American, not just for the wealthy. However, until we demand it as a right, our health and well being will always be at the mercy of the corrupt politicians we elect. We continue to breathe a sigh of relief when they throw us table scraps. That is our problem, and it is a problem that only we can solve.

In actuality, having held the presidency for more years in the past twenty-five, the Democrats should have delivered medicare for all by now. Obama campaigned on it in 2008, then abandoned it after his election, of course. John Conyers has introduced a single-payer bill (the current is HR676) for every term he has been in office, to no avail. The fact is that the majority of Democrats don’t want medicare for all any more than the Republicans. Why? Because the Democrats are as “in bed” with our health care industry and big pharma as the GOP. Just go visit Open Secrets and do the math. Both Hillary Clinton and Tom Perez have said there isn’t a chance in hell of getting it, and Dick Gephart (remember that slug?) is now a superdelegate who has assured the insurance industry that we will never have single payer. Yet, we continue to buy into the brainwashing of the Democrats and can now hardly wait to return them to power in 2020, even though they have done absolutely nothing to deserve it.

“Our Revolution” is no revolution

What the Democratic Party and Bernie Sanders is selling you is pure fantasy, that there can be a revolution from within the party. Moreover, Senator Sanders wants you to believe that he can lead a revolution while taking direction from the establishment he is trying to topple from power, a party that carefully choreographs what he can and cannot say. I just have to ask, does that truly make any sense to you? Honestly, I know the history lessons we get in school are revisionist and not very “in depth,” but I’m a political junkie. I spend an awful lot of time investigating and educating myself, and I have never heard of any kind of revolution, political or otherwise, that has worked that way. Maybe Sanders is some kind of miracle worker or seer. Is that this one historical event that is simply made to defy all logic and work? Oh, please. I can’t even. I know I’m sarcastic and snarky, but there really are Sanders “true believers” out there. I’ve met them, and it is positively frightening to me given our present predicament.

The size of the nothing muffin they want you to swallow would choke a rhino. Bernie Sanders takes to the road with Tom Perez on this thing called the “Unity Tour.” You know, let’s unite to get Trump out is essentially what the tour is. Sanders is out there, propping up the party — the party mind you that he railed against for taking Wall Street blood money while he was candidate Sanders — and anteing up $100,000 for his portion. Where do you supposed he got that cash? From us. From Susan and I, my niece, my sister, my friends and, I’m sure, you and your friends. Bernie Sanders raised a hell of a lot of money. He gave the Democrats money that many of us gave to him specifically because we did not want the money going to the Democratic Party. Is Sanders expecting us to believe that he is just humoring the establishment by propping them up?

Now, Sanders is being pressured to get his supporters in line for the 2018 midterms and for the 2020 presidential run. Personally, I find that insulting. I’m not following. I didn’t vote for Hillary Clinton after the primaries, and I have no intention of voting for a Democrat at either juncture, regardless of what Sanders does. It will be hard for Sanders to rally all of his troops; some of us aren’t buying it anymore. The Democrats’ new “tag line” didn’t go over so well either. The political critics hated it and a good portion of the American people don’t believe the Democrats will ever deliver on it. For the time being anyway, the Democrats are back to “we’re better than Trump.” Like single payer, their $20 million tag line appears to have been shelved.

Sanders keeps touting a “political revolution.” This is how a political revolution might have looked: After Sanders was cheated and democracy was subverted, it was his duty as an elected official to contest the nomination of Hillary Clinton at the convention. His silence on the issue was deafening, and his silence made him complicit. Opportunity lost. However, Sanders had another opportunity when he was offered the top slot on the Green Party ticket by Jill Stein, who offered to move to the VP slot. He could have mounted a real populist challenge to the duopoly. Imagine if the 42% of the registered Democrats had been given a choice? I don’t think there was a way they could lose. The tide was high. Instead, Senator Sanders chose to dismiss the offer, never even returning Jill Stein’s calls. At the end of the day, he’s a good establishment politician.

There’s no voting our way out of this mess

Voting isn’t the answer, particularly not in this system, yet those Sanders supporters who were so angry at the widespread election fraud perpetrated on us last November seem to have a short memory. They are ready again to follow Sanders blindly, no matter where he goes or what he does, “true believers” all. Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, and I’m an idiot who deserves the Democratic Part’s bullshit. When I point out the obvious issues with Sanders, such as his continuing to prop up a party that takes millions of dollars from the entities he campaigns against. The retort I get is that he doesn’t take that money. That’s not enough.

We still have superdelegates. We’re still voting on the same problematic electronic voting machines. We still have an inconsistent system of voting with widespread voter suppression. We still have Wall Street and special interest money dictating our political direction. Worst of all, we still have the same old establishment shills to choose from, touting the same old lame policies.

So, where’s the revolution?

Author’s Note: Essentially, the Democratic Party is now divided into three groups, two of whom will not be running the show during the next election cycle. In addition to “Our Revolution,” we have the “Justice Democrats,” led by none other than Cenk Ugyur who, by the way, also wants you to believe he can continue to build a news empire that will be objective. How does that work? It is amazing to me how many people are willing to avert their gaze to this utter bullshit. If Cenk was trying to build a fledgling FOX, rather than TYT, and simultaneously raising money and vetting candidates for the Tea Party, I’d have to say the “liberal” outrage would be off the charts. Am I wrong? Personally, I’d be outraged by it, and I am outraged by it. How is that any better than our corporate-owned media? It isn’t. The long and short of it. Yet, again, I find people unfazed by any of it. I can only guess that they have no idea what the role of the media was intended to be. To assume, however that they are simply uneducated, rather than willfully ignorant, would be a stretch. Many are choosing ignorance. Facts are too painful for these people.