Submitted by Pachamama
Bajans can’t wait to wade into the election euphoria now in its Christmas season in the United States and elsewhere. Not all Bajans though, for there are some of us who, in fact about 50% of us, have consistently NOT voted for either one of the two dominate parties in what are generally called western democracies. But this factoid has never alarmed the protectors of these pernicious political duopolies. We are told that the un-voted don’t count. Moreover, with the possible exception of Australia and a few other countries, where there are civil fines for choosing not to exercise a so-called democratic right, most people everywhere have acted with their feet and the determination that elections are merely window dressing to obscure the operational requirements of fascism as the dominate and underlying system of governance.
The American election system from at least the Reconstruction period has been synonymous with high-tech fraud. It is American which gave us the lexicon for election fraud whether to illegally overthrow a government or to maintain a compliant regime – at home or abroad. They gave us words such as ‘gerrymandering’, ‘redistricting’ and ‘robocalling’. A documentarian has remarked that when the American fossil is dug up our descendants will be left to wonder why so many people were running around talking about democracy when in fact few people benefited from the actions of party political actors operating across epochs. Strictly speaking the United States of America is not even a democracy. But you can’t tell that to the masses of the people who are enthralled by the religiously emotional diatribes of leading Democrats and Republicans. The political science literature tends to consider the American political system as a poliocracy. But very few would be aware of this. And even if they were, would it make a difference? Yet, for over a century the marketing of ‘democracy’ (as a political system) has intentionally misled several generations to view the Anglo-American political constructions as worthy of emulation.
The pantomimes that are the RNC and DNC conventions represent the highest levels of mass disinformation. These directed to a population that already exhibits a staggering level of ignorance in several critical areas. The political operators, behind the scenes are reliably acting in the interest of big money men, have reached levels of excellence that evaded their intellectual forefather Joseph Goebbels. Enter Michelle Obama! With a representation of Barak Obama as a human being when in fact this is the man who saw Palestinian children dying for days under the bombardment of Israeli bombs, supplied by America, dozens of times in the past four years alone – this is now a continuing normalcy for this ‘kind’ father and husband. It is Obama who continues to engage in illegal and clandestine wars in Yemen, Syria, Iran, Pakistan, Somalia, DRC and elsewhere. To him these are smart wars where other people do the dying. It is the sweet smiling Obama who could be making after dinner speeches and telling jokes while at the same time having drones bomb innocent men, women and children in their beds as he prosecutes a so-called war on terror in a more perverse fashion that Bush, himself. Are these the fruits of a political democracy? Quite frankly, the presidency of the United States is by definition a criminal enterprise forcing anyone who finds himself in office must, of necessity, be prepared to commit more crimes than misdemeanors. If the American people can’t stop Obama from committing crimes in their names, what is the utility of democracy, elections or voting anywhere? The Mormon alternative will be no better. So what is this foolishness about, again? It is a corruption that could never be constructed to serve all the people.
In the Caribbean it is difficult to detect more than a modicum of progress as measured strictly by the actions of political actors. We contend that any progress made by Caribbean peoples is primarily a function of their historical struggles – not the efforts of politicians. Jamaica has settled into the new window dressing as a result of the changes made during the most recent political season. In Barbados the party goers can’t wait to attend the several nightly meetings of the two political tribes. Like religious devotees 50% of the Barbadian voting age population is eager to go to the polls. 25% of them may be thinking that some snake oil economic salesman will make a difference in their lives and let them into economic nirvana. The other 25% could be made to think that the incumbents are to be given another chance to better serve corporate interests. In a real democracy the silent majority (the non-voting 50%) should be asked to form the next government – ah lie? This maybe better than having minority rule forever – as is the case in Barbados. However, in all cases and whether the DLP or BLP wins, 3000 or 4000 votes will be the difference between the parties. Let the people who don’t vote form the first truly majoritarian government, everywhere (LOL).
Well, if this idea is unacceptable what about letting a corporation be the President of the USA or Prime Minister of Barbados. In the USA all operators within the election system must bow down to the moneyed interests. A recent Supreme Court decision gave corporations and wealthy individuals the right to donate an unlimited amount of money to candidates and campaigns with zero transparency – no accountability. Therefore, we now have about seventeen billionaires donating billions of dollars in a fascist attempt to openly control their government. Yuh think these elitist criminals joking? Yes, it has long been their government! Of course this has been happening in Barbados for years, illegally. But now for the first time the pretense about democracy is being discarded for all to see. You say you like democracy and that you have a good argument for voting for these criminals and having elections. So why can’t we have the name of a corporation, being a separate legal entity, with its name entered on the ballot, be voted for and do all the other things a normal human being would do, if elected (selected)? The dying election system in Barbados is no less bought or paid for by local but petite corporate elites. They are also sponsoring their minions for the whole interregnum between elections. This must qualify as the worst form of political prostitution. We still have people like Peter Boos trying to shape the political landscape with money from a hidden hand. Why can’t this real hidden hand come forward and stop corrupting the political culture – as corrupt as it is already? Or why not let him or his company be Prime Minister of Barbados – no? No wonder no future government of Barbados will ever have real controls on election spending and transparency legislation. In the final analysis these undemocratic structures in Barbados are a function of a slavish obeisance to Empire.
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