Click on photo to enlarge
Donald
the Brash and the Jeb the Toad playing their respective
political roles in Republican
Presidential primaries.
Watching the recent Republican Presidential auditions was like
watching Kabuki theater where a toad like Jeb Bush attempted to rationalize the
criminal actions of his older brother while at the same time riding on his
badly frayed coat tails. Meanwhile an out of control Donald the brash Trump
seized his moment in prime time with the ultimate narcissistic and vacuous TV
selfie thereby revealing Hillary's secret weapon ~ the total discrediting and
irrelevance of the Republican Party via Donald Trump: Allen L Roland, PhD
In this world of sin
and sorrow, there is always something to be thankful for; as for me, I rejoice
that I am not a Republican: H.L. Mencken
The
obvious problem for Hillary lies in Trump's narcissism which, when fully released and uncontrolled,
will eventually destroy the enabler herself. Witness Maureen Dowd's recent
comment regarding the debates in the New York Times ~ "Consider how Trump yanked back the curtain Thursday night explaining how
financial quid pro quos warp the political system. “Well, I’ll tell you
what, with Hillary Clinton, I said be at my wedding and she came to my
wedding,” he said. “You know why? She had no choice because I gave. I gave to a
foundation that, frankly, that foundation is supposed to do good. I didn’t know
her money would be used on private jets going all over the world.”
But
the most important audience for the Republican debates is not TV viewers ~ The party’s leaders also carry tremendous
sway ~ since the infamous election of 1980, the single best
predictor of a party’s nominee is the number of endorsements from party elites
in the months before primaries begin. As Lynn Vavreck points out in the New
York Times ~ " in 2012, it became clear that when candidates’ share
of media coverage grew and the tone of their coverage became increasingly
positive, a direct bounce in poll numbers resulted."
So
what we really have here is a National Audition before the financial elite,
including AIPAC ~ where the decision is really made before the primaries on
who to back and which one to concentrate media coverage as well as the big
bucks.
For the top candidates, it’s an audition for party
elites, moneyed supporters and lastly, the
voters. The goal in reality isn’t to wow the crowd or create a
surge in the polls, but instead to reassure ~ to confirm their ability to
win, to handle the presidency and above all to maintain the status Quo of the
Oligarchy.
It's
ShowTime and all the pretenders are there including the barker or lightning
rod (Trump) to create the illusion of real change in the air ~ and thus true
Kabuki theater.
It
is no longer the people's election ~ it is now the Oligarch's election in that
a few dozen super-rich contributors are bankrolling ~ and
thereby controlling ~ the 2016 presidential election campaign.
Here's the true breakdown on the bankrolling of
candidates as reflected in these representative headlines that appeared over
the past two weeks:
As
usual, WSWS provides the lurid details ~
" Each of these
reports relies on the figures from the FEC to document the role of a tiny group
of extraordinarily wealthy contributors in shaping the course of the 2016
presidential campaign in both the Democratic and Republican parties. The
bulk of this money has been channeled through so-called super PACs, the
nominally independent political action committees called into existence by the
Supreme Court’s 2010 decision in the Citizens United case, which legalized
unlimited political contributions by millionaires and billionaires.
A few of the most
important figures are worth citing:
* Fewer than 400
families account for nearly half of the $388 million raised by June 30 for the
2016 campaign.
* Just 130 families
provide more than half of the super PAC money raised for Republican candidates.
* Some 67 donors have
kicked in more than $1 million apiece, nearly half of them in the camp of Jeb
Bush, who leads the fundraising race with $119 million.
* Super PAC
fundraising has shot up ten-fold since the last presidential campaign, from $26
million at this point in 2011 to $258 million this year, nearly two-thirds of
the total campaign cash that has been raised "
Of
course, the Democratic campaign, in terms of the number of candidates, offers
the inverse of the Republicans. Hillary Clinton has become the prohibitive
favorite because she was the only candidate with significant backing from the
financial oligarchy. Already, eight individuals have given $1 million or
more to one of Clinton’s super PACs, with Wall Street and Hollywood the main
contributors.
In
a little-noticed commentary on a national radio program Tuesday, former
President Jimmy Carter correctly confirmed that money had completely corrupted
the political system of the United States. “Now it’s just an oligarchy,”
he said, “with unlimited political bribery being the essence of getting the
nominations for president or to elect the president. And the same thing applies
to governors and US senators and Congress members.”
Just
note all this as we watch Bernie Sanders bring in the huge crowds in his
current grassroots Presidential campaign ~ and recognize what he is really
up against. Because of the Supreme Court's
Citizens United decision , corporations are now citizens with a vote and the
means to decide an election with all their money and media support. What is
emerging in the corruption of the 2016 US presidential election is the essence
of capitalist politics ~ the dictatorship of the financial overlords who
dominate every aspect of American society.
The
game is rigged and we don't really have a meaningful vote ~ we are not in the
big club and no one says it better than the late George Carlin. 3 minute video
~ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hYIC0eZYEtI
The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace
alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an
endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary: H.L.
Mencken
Allen
L Roland, PhD
http://allenlrolandsweblog.blogspot.com/2015/08/hillarys-secret-weapon-donald-trump.html
Heart centered spiritual consultant and advisor Allen L Roland can be contacted at allen@allenroland.com Allen is also a
lecturer and writer who shares a weekly
political and social commentary on his web log and website allenroland.com. He is also featured columnist on Veterans
Today and guest
hosts a monthly national radio show TRUTHTALK on www.conscioustalk.net
A politician is an animal which can sit on a fence and yet keep both ears to the ground; H.L. Mencken
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