Friday, August 27, 2010

Corporatist America: The revolution has already been televised

“It’s the government that’s to blame for everything!” right-wingers cry. “We need to have less government!” But exactly which government are these people talking about? Is it the government that Americans used to have back when George Washington was president? Or has a new form of government stealthily replaced that old-school government we used to know and love — sort of like a take-over by body-snatchers, happening while our backs were turned and we were happily off watching TV.

Let’s face it, guys. The U.S. government IS to blame for everything nowadays. But it is not the same government that we used to have — as recently as 60 years ago. It’s our former government’s evil twin that is screwing everything up!

Just exactly which government is getting blamed by the right-wingers these days? Are they blaming a government that is run according to the Constitution, was elected by people who knew that their votes were being counted honestly and which is designed to work for the benefit of us American voters? Yep, that’s the very one that the wingers are blaming — even though that fantasy government has been moribund for decades.

And are the wingers blaming this new doppelganger government too — the one that was bought and paid for by lobbyists, that is owned lock, stock and barrel by corporatists and corporations, and that is turning Americans into just another source of cheap labor for the new oligarchs? Nope. THAT government is escaping Scot-free from the right wing’s wrath. That government is not being blamed for anything.

Right now, there is almost nothing on this planet more “privatized” than the American government. All the fruits of our labor, and perhaps even our very souls, are government property now — a government taken over by oligarchs. And the government of George Washington, Thomas Jefferson and the Boston Tea Party — the one that right wingers seem to hate so much — no longer exists.

And this oligarchs’ revolution has already been televised