I will start this off by saying this is not intended as a troll post. My aim is not to offend, but rather to smack the members of this forum into a different state of mind. I am not here to tell you that your goals and mindsets are incorrect, but rather that they lack proper scope. The fault is not yours. We have all been conditioned in such a way that it can be very difficult to fully accept the obvious truths set before us. But we all must try and step back and set aside our preconceptions, because what is happening in the world right now is too important to ignore.
Now with that said, I want to present the idea that the idea (which is often advocated by the users of the Daily Kos) that by eliminating the Republicans from political office and by creating a more left leaning Democratic party from within, the current neoconservative, corporate-headed monster that has taken control of this country can be unseated, and democracy rescued from certain oblivion. Certainly mainy people hold a wide variety of views and this isn't an idea held by everyone, but I believe it's safe to say that this is how most liberal Americans view the removal of our current, conservative government. Work from within. It is certainly the primary idea behind Kos's own book, Crashing the Gate.
I am now going to tell you that that idea is flawed at a fundamental level. In effect, restoring democracy from within is impossible. It's a noble goal to be sure, but it's based on one essential assumption: that we still have a democracy to work within. But we do not. We have something that may at times resemble a democracy: we vote, we have limited terms in office, we have a multi-branched federal government, but at the end of the day all the votes in the world count for nothing if the people counting the votes are the people being elected, if the people enforcing the laws are the people writing them, and if the people who control the economic foundations of the world pay the campaign bills of the people in charge.
The biggest error to make is to presume that the people at the helm, the people making the decisions on the highest level, are those elected officials. They are not. They are but cronies and henchmen themselves to the interests of economics. This is no secret, we all know this. Wealth dictates power because wealth is power, the physical manifestation of physical force. So why am I even bringing up the obvious? Because people fail to make the next logical leap: that anything we do within a system of laws created by wealth cannot ever overcome wealth, just as Saddam Hussein could never be removed by operating within the set of rules set down by his regime. The powers that be do not put in clauses for their own demise. So we are wasting our time trying.
If you have any doubts as to the absolute level of control the economic giants (the international corporations, the ultra-wealthy resource barons and dynasties) hold over this country and many others, you need only look at what happens to entire nations when their economic interests are threatened. Look at Panama, where the rights to Panama Canal where threatened. Look at Venezuela where an anti-Businessman came to power. Look at Iraq, which had the misfortune of being the center of the most oil rich region in the world, and the home to two of it's major rivers in a parched region to boot. Those are the obvious examples where the muscle of American military power was used to crush opposition and gain strategic control of resources. There are endless examples that don't follow this mold, like the Congo with the assassination of Lamumba, Nicaragua with the Contras, the tyranny in Egypt. These are countries that couldn't even stand up long enough to warrant military attention.
These events are also no secret, though many are unknown by those who do not explicitly look. Many liberal thinkers use these events as evidence of the corruption and immorality which constitutes our government. They seek to blame the politicians in office and the administrations in power for the events which occured under their watch, or even at their command. But to do that is to miss the point, and let the real culrits get away. The main beneficiaries of these imperialistic actions always have been and always will be businesses. Look at the oil and military industries in Iraq today for our blatently obvious example. How do the politicians benefit from these often unpopular actions? In many cases, they don't. Just look at Bush's approval rating. This isn't about Bush, and it isn't about the office of the Presidency. They are just doing what they are told. It's just a matter of putting 2+2 together.
So why won't electing individuals into office who refuse to be complicit help solve the problem? Well theoreticly it would, if A: the powers that be don't cheat (which I think we all can agree they do, and if your not so sure I suggest you do more research, there's plenty of irrefutable evidence out there) and B: the new government is willing to admit the fact that this country and many others are all run by a small handful of wealthy families and international companies. Neither of these are likely to work out in our favor. Our people will either be complicit in their schemes, just like every other leader this country has ever had, or if they are truly sincere about stopping the corporatocracy once and for all, the other side will cheat and lie and do everything in their power (which is mighty indeed) to stop them. And if they still were to somehow fail, and an American government came into power intent on bringing them down, they would destroy them utterly. There are people who have proven themselves willing to eliminate heads of state around the world without hesitation. These people don't care about America, nor are they tied to it in anyway. If America was destroyed tomorrow, sure it'd be a loss for them in many ways but they're be dug in in China and other parts of the world in ways that make them impervious to the petty quarrels and plights of mere nations. They practice economics beyond that. They have the will and the means to destroy anyone who opposes them within their systems, because they are their systems. The laws we have now were passed by politicians bought by them. They are their laws not ours. We can't fight them on their battlefield.
So it's hopeless right? They already have everything. They are consolidating their powers further by the day. America is dead, doomed to innevitable recession and collapse and the world will fall into a slow chaos that will further profit the puppetmasters. There is nothing we can do, no?
There is something we can do. We can choose to fight them on our terms, not theirs. Their power is capital, which they use to control us. Wealth is all powerful, so long as it ios acknowledged. We must no longer acknowledge their tool and their rules. They must be brought down and brought to justice by people outside of their world of control, and outside of their systems. We need to completely reform our government from scratch, in a way that is exclusive of them. We need a restructured economy that has moved beyond the primitive notion of the free market, to a system where people, not the monster that is rampant capitalism, are in control of something so important as our economy. It is the primary tool of a nation, it's economy, and it should be weilded with careful control and precision, not set free to run amok. If we cast aside their system, they will no longer be able to control us, for their tools will be useless.
What I say is very radical in many ways. I know many of you will not agree, or will not want to agree. You will still choose to believe that the problem lies singularly with our government and therefor can be fixed by fixing government. Maybe you fear what this might mean for your life and your future: by simply electing new people into office, we make change without having to make personal change and sacrafice. This is all well and good if it is effective, but it will not be effective. At best it's a short terms solution and we'll be right back here again in 30 years, just like we were 30 years before now. At worst, the liberal leaders you elect will suffer the windfall of the problems being created today, and the corporatocracy will use them to absorb the blame, destroying the liberal movement and empowering the wealthy elite even more then ever before. The only way to stop it forever is to eliminate the corporate elite, the wealthy dynasties, and the international conglomerates, forcibly if necissary. Otherwise the cycle of violence for profit will be neverending.
So put aside those things you think matter to you now: your car, your career, your childrens college fund, for those things will all be meaningless if the corporatocracy consolidates their power. Stand up for your childrens future. When you start making REAL change, you will know, for that is when they will start arresting you, humiliating you, lying about you, destroying and killing you. That is the measure of our success: their violent overreaction. It is the only reliable way we have ever had of knowing when they were threatened. It is how they operate, how they think, and by their own hunger and our own sacrifice, they will be shown for what they really are. But we have to be willing to make these sacrifices. Change can only come through confrontation, as they will not give up power without a fight. It simply will not happen.
As things get worse with time, more and more people will begin to take up the cause for revolution. They don't yet control everything in the world, and their conflicts and their heavy hand will become more and more apparent with time. America will fight many more wars in the years to come, and the American economy will teeter on the verge of collapse. When that happens, it will radicalize the public and create the conditions needed for a complete reformation of government. Until then, keep fighting the good fight on the off chance that I am horribly mistaken, for I to am but a human being. But keep these thoughts always in the back of your mind, lest we fall into their trap and become slaves to their empire.
~MESAFINA
P.S. I apologize for any glaring spelling or grammatical errors. I will edit it more thoroughly when I have the time.