Monday, February 10, 2020

America’s Real Divide Isn’t Left vs. Right. It’s Democracy vs. Oligarchy

This is so spot on! Truly, our real problem is the polarizing propaganda that we’re constantly fed which divides us up into democrats vs republicans. Our true struggle is indeed between democracy — and economic, racial, social, and environmental justice — and oligarchy.
We humans share so much more in common than what our mainstream media all too often leads us to believe. At our core, it’s my belief that we are compassionate and caring and want what’s best for our families and communities, our nation and other nations, and the Earth. If we’re thinking otherwise, then we’ve likely lost touch with how interconnected we all are and that the pain and the joy of others is also ours.
In peeling back the many layers of what we’re told to believe, I have found that there are powerful forces leading us to turn on each other rather than the actual sources of our struggles and suffering. And the propaganda of polarization is such a poisonous tool of distraction.
I envision a time where more and more of us will be doing the courageous work of recognizing and dismantling the obstacles within ourselves which impair our instincts and our capacity for understanding, compassion, and love.
One part of this journey is to embrace a profound commitment to truth. And this can lead us to follow the money and truly come to see how the oligarchs — which have largely taken over both major political parties — have poisoned us against each other so we won’t look deeply into the shadow side of the Republican Party (if we identify as republicans), or the Democratic Party (if we identify as democrats). And this clinging to my side is right and you on this other side are wrong and the problem keeps us from knowing the true source of poverty and endless wars and the climate and ecological crises and on and on.
AND, gratefully, more and more of us are waking up and recognizing that oh!, we’re all connected and all in this together and it’s the whole damn oligarchy and its patriarchal neoliberal predatory capitalist system that’s what must go!
That’s when we recognize that Trump is a symptom of something so much bigger than this one man. And we realize that the Clintons and Obama and Biden and Buttigieg and all corporate democrats are also just symptoms of this whole oligarchy and its deadly systems of divide and conquer and greed and insane redistribution of wealth upwards at the expense of everyone else.
And all this even in the midst of the climate and ecological crises which threaten our children and grandchildren and all children everywhere with catastrophic suffering and ultimately extinction if we don’t dismantle this oligarchy NOW!
Everything, absolutely everything, that we love and cherish is at stake. Which brings us to an essential imperative: FOLLOW THE MONEY. When we do so, we recognize who the republicans and the democrats are who’ve aligned themselves with their wealthy donor friends rather than we the people and the planet.
If there’s to be any chance of a livable planet for our children and grandchildren and all beings 100 years from now or less, then we must be courageous and care enough to find out who’s bought and who’s not — who is aligned with the plutocracy and who isn’t taking a penny from any wealthy special interest.
The oligarchs are truly fighting us now because they know that those of us who see them and what they’re doing are fighting with everything we can to stop the madness of destroying our country and the Earth. This is true of Trump and the Republican Party, this is true of the DNC and corporate democrats, and this is true of the .1% and all predatory capitalists who are fiercely determined to hold onto their power.
Let us all do our deep truth seeking, putting principles before personalities, and together dismantle all systems of death and destruction and instead come together in the movements in America led by Bernie Sanders and others — and movements worldwide — which are grounded in Revolutionary Love and committed to economic, racial, social, and environmental justice for all. — Molly



I keep hearing that the Democratic party has moved “left” and that some Democratic candidates may be "too far left."
 
But in this era of unprecedented concentration of wealth and political power at the top, I can’t help wondering what it means to be “left.”
 
A half-century ago, when America had a large and growing middle class, those on the “left” sought stronger social safety nets and more public investment in schools, roads and research. Those on the “right” sought greater reliance on the free market.
 
But as wealth and power have concentrated at the top, everyone else—whether on the old right or the old left—has become disempowered and less secure.

Safety nets have unraveled, public investments have waned and the free market has been taken over by crony capitalism and corporate welfare cheats.

Washington and state capitals are overwhelmed by money coming from the super-rich, Wall Street and big corporations.
So why do we continue to hear and use the same old “right” and “left” labels?

I suspect it’s because the emerging oligarchy feels safer if Americans are split along the old political battle lines. That way, Americans won’t notice they’re being shafted.

In reality, the biggest divide in America today runs between oligarchy and democracy. When oligarchs fill the coffers of political candidates, they neuter democracy.

The oligarchs know politicians won’t bite the hands that feed them. So as long as they control the money, they can be confident there will be no meaningful response to stagnant pay, climate change, military bloat or the soaring costs of health insurance, pharmaceuticals, college and housing.

There will be no substantial tax increases on the wealthy. There will be no antitrust enforcement to puncture the power of giant corporations. No meaningful regulation of Wall Street’s addiction to gambling with other peoples’ money. No end to corporate subsides. CEO pay will continue to skyrocket. Wall Street hedge fund and private equity managers will continue to make off like bandits.

So long as the oligarchy divides Americans – split off people of color from working-class whites, stoke racial resentments, describe human beings as illegal aliens, launch wars on crime and immigrants, stoke fears of communists and socialists – it doesn’t have to worry that a majority will stop them from looting the nation.
 
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