So here we are, less than 3 weeks before what is likely the most consequential mid-term election in this country’s modern history. At this point we’ve had a fairly definitive A-B comparison between the kind of stewardship the two parties exercised over the country and its people; the 4 years of the previous administration versus the last two years of the current one. In terms of legislative temperament, domestic priorities and international relations, the differences are as stark as they are revealing. Even in the candidates running for office this election cycle, those differences follow along the same lines, and portend what each person would be as they mete out their party’s brand of representation.
Meanwhile the barbaric, vulgar dystopia of the media and its myriad of flash polls, talking heads, media honeys and stud-muffins with their prognostications and pundits rattling off meaningless canned statistics and fantasy fabrications continues unabated, amplified by the hundreds of millions in dark money expended for slander, innuendo and flat-out lies on broadcast television and radio, cloaked in a sanctimonious shroud of “free speech” that means so much in the development of a fascist state. All of this, intended to indulge the perceived public appetite for another hyper-competitive horse race… the entire emphasis having been designed to hype the upcoming fifty round “bout” on election evening with no thought given whatsoever to the eventual consequences, even with the A-B comparisons of such recent vintage being as revealing and stark as they are.
Example after example comes to mind, the most recent one being the debate between Herschel Walker and Raphael Warnock. Warnock addressed positions and policies that mattered to women, children, the general public and democracy; Walker instead held up a toy badge to demonstrate his fealty to law enforcement. (Admittedly I couldn’t help but recall that moment when Fred Dobbs asked Gold Hat in The Treasure of The Sierra Madre where his badge was...)
And so, looking at all of this from the 30,000 feet view, this entire election has turned out to be NOT about policies, NOT about women’s rights, NOT about democracy, NOT about moving the country forward and NOT about the critical issues: as far as damned near everyone in the media is concerned, this election is about either endorsing or not endorsing Donald Friggin’ Trump. And the exclusive purpose behind that is DISTRACTION.
Every industry in this country that is bankrolled and controlled by the conservative 1% financial elite is scared out of their mind, imagining the prospective consequences of a progressive government dismantling the trough at which they’ve been slopping, all the while at the expense of the taxpayers for 45 years. The petroleum industry, the health insurance industry, the defense industry, the pharmaceutical industry… all of them stand to undergo drastic changes to their business models of financial rape and pillaging of the American under-classes as a result; and the prospect of a dramatic modernization and reconfiguration of the Supreme Court, voting rights, environmental and consumer protections makes it even worse for them. Here’s an example: the current general thinking is that Biden is responsible for this inflation problem, the supply chain problem, the manufacturing problem… ad infinitum, ad nauseam. What’s NOT being said is that after the waning of the pandemic eased up on people’s mobility, businesses saw an opportunity to recover lost revenue from the previous two years by artificially jacking up prices on fuel and transportation, and everybody else followed suit in kind. After 2 years of pent-up demand and businesses slow to restart their production to previous levels, supply chain issues began to develop. The usual, normal price controls then became meaningless with the typical capitalist excuse that when demand exceeds supply, costs instantly become subjective at the consumer level — no matter if the supply is artificially choked by transportation, expense or staffing. Add to that the unpredictable political alliances of international trade (Saudi and Russian oil production, for example - likely driven by Jared Kushner’s previous Saudi relationship no longer able to influence White House decisions) and a perfect storm of greed and power plays takes over. Thus, in one way of looking at it through a neocon Gingrich lens smeared with bullshit, it IS all Biden’s fault — because he’s so far failed to completely change capitalism and human nature to make it less predatory.
As if...
None of this, of course, matters to someone lying on his couch in his underwear eating a bag of Doritos with a 6 pack of Bud to wash it down in front of the teevee. They won’t notice it at all until it DIRECTLY AFFECTS THEM DRAMATICALLY in some way… and even at that they willingly believe the “alternative facts” of the Tucker Carlsons, Alex Jonses and Peter Thiels. Otherwise the rest of the facts are abstract ideas to them, instructed to be ignored by the pundits and no doubt created as “fake news” by the “Lib’rul Antifa Mob”. And that’s when they’ll get off the couch, put on some clothes, wipe the orange Dorito dust off their faces with their shirt sleeves and go to vote.
So should we be worried?
Hell yes.
Vote like your life, your liberties and your loved ones depend on it. Because they do.