As Robert Kennedy's blood poured out on that dirty kitchen floor it wasn't just Bobby dying, it was the Democratic party. Three progressive leaders, who championed Peace, progress and Liberalism were dead by assassin's bullet's in five years. Who would dare to pick up that mantle and fearlessly walk down that road again. When the candle is extinguished, the light goes out.
Twenty two of the previous thirty years had been under true Democratic control.
Twenty four of the next twenty eight years would be under Republican control. Nixon left office in disgrace, Watergate? Or perhaps his plan to end the Vietnam war?
We have seen over the last few decades the acceleration of the accumulation of money. Over the past decade we have seen the acceleration, accumulation and centralization of police powers. As an American citizen you stand no freer today than the average citizen of the old Soviet Union. You have two wings of one central party where the conservatives want one annual report on the five year plan while liberals want a bi-annual report on the five year plan.
From the standpoint of the actual rulers of the American oligarchy, George W. Bush was a very successful President. He accomplished more of the things that the oligarchy wished to see done than even Ronald Reagan. His one glaring failure was the failure to privatize Social Security. The problem for the oligarchy was that George W. Bush was by now wildly unpopular, and Dick Cheney had lower approval numbers than even Lee Harvey Oswald. George W. destroyed the public base of the Republican Party.
It was clear long before the election that it would be extremely difficult for another Republican candidate to get elected President. So what's the oligarchy to do?
The sitting President was a smirking, sneering,inarticulate, little white man with a cold wife and rebellious daughters, ostentatiously steeped in hedonism, excess and power.
You need someone friendly, you need someone articulate. Someone with a beautiful, friendly wife and kids! Kids are great, especially young children, less trouble, better photographs. But how could you sell a commodity such as this to the American public? How could you make it special?
An African American? Great idea! But can he get elected? There is the problem, how can you be sure that he can gather enough support?
Simple, you pick a Republican to run against him who is grouchy. A Republican who likes to smirk and who wants to continue the Bush legacy. An old man who is not very photogenic, an old broken down Nixon against a young and vibrant African American John Kennedy.
So the leaders of the American oligarchy sit back and watch. Come the party conventions it's still too close to call. So what do you do now but throw the trump card, like something from a Hollywood farce, you pick an incompetent. You pick Goldie Hawn or Reese Witherspoon as your Vice Presidential nominee. You've made the Republican unelectable and the Democrat unstoppable.
The Democrat once elected continues the same policies as his Republican predecessor. Tax cuts for corporations, more troops for Afghanistan than even more than the the Republican candidate wanted. The card check bill evaporates, just like the public option and the President explains it as, "I tried but the Republicans are too strong and wouldn't let me." Despite making a deal on his own with the hospital association and the insurance lobby. Turning thirty million Americans over to a privatized Nixon heath care system.
The Republicans attack the President vociferously, "he's Mao, he's a socialist, he's a Communist, he wasn't born here." They never attack him as a stooge, a pawn or as a Trojan horse. The Republicans then begin to rebrand themselves, spontaneously of course. This gives them both a new platform to sell the same old crap but it also gives them a safety valve for 2012. If they want the Trojan Horse to continue in 2912 they will split the Republican party with a tea party candidate. The oligarchy wins either way, but they have to convince you that it was your idea.
The President appoints a committee to cut the deficit with exactly the same goals as spelled out in the 2008 Republican platform. The President's stimulus package is 35 percent tax cuts, his jobs bill is almost 100 percent tax cuts. Who approved deep water oil drilling on the Gulf after Richard Nixon banned it?
Now the poor, poor President has been bamboozled again, I don't want to give the Bush Tax cuts to the wealthy he moans, but the Republicans are making me do it. I want to draw the line at people earning $5,000 per week, you know regular working folks.
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