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OpEdNews Op Eds    H2'ed 3/16/14

The U.S. Is Abandoning Democracy, Becoming an Aristocracy Instead

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Chelsea's parents are centi-millionaires because, due to Bill Clinton's (earned) Presidency, they receive (unmerited) enormous speaking fees, of hundreds of thousands of dollars for each speech they give at closed-to-the-press meetings at Goldman Sachs, etc., fundraising for themselves or their political campaigns, plus favored access to investment information, and other such advantages that are typical for aristocrats and that cause inequality of wealth to be soaring in this country -- as it now is soaring.

Chelsea Clinton's paparazzi press constitutes a sign of America's descending into aristocracy.

But, instead of democratic revulsion against it, the reader-comments to this news-story were like this:

"Hillary 2016 and Chelsea in 2024!!!!"

"goodonya Chelsea!!!!"

"Look at the great genes she has.....smart, smarter & smartest.....U GO GIRL!!!"

"She really is a cutie. More importantly, she is a smart cookie."

She hadn't said anything noteworthy, but people were praising her as if she had.

Latching onto a charitable cause, in order to promote oneself, is both good and bad: it is good if the person is especially well-qualified to talk about the subject (which Chelsea Clinton wasn't), or else is especially articulate and persuasive in making the case (which Chelsea also wasn't), or else doesn't easily get sidetracked onto other topics (such as tacos, as Chelsea was -- and a quick goodbye to the cause of opposing diarrhea -- for which, it turns out, she wasn't even fundraising). 

There are millions of people who can make a case more informatively than Chelsea, or more persuasively, or with fewer of "uh" and "um" and repeated, stumbled, words. But those other people aren't aristocrats, as Chelsea Clinton is.

And, so, since this country is degenerating from a democracy into an aristocracy, our "news" media become more and more focused on less and less qualified "stars" such as she. Competency is no longer rewarded with success. And incompetency increasingly is. Not only the body-politic, but the economy, thus head downhill.

This is becoming a "whom do you know" country, no longer a "what do you know" one -- much less a "what can you do" economy.

Democracy in the U.S. is dying, and those are just some signs of the broader trend toward a rule by aristocrats, otherwise called "plutocracy," which inevitably means, in fact, rule by thieves, stealing from the masses to enrich the classes: kleptocracy. Because inherited wealth or status is stolen from everyone else, not earned in fair competition.

This is the new welfare program for the super-rich. It's Robin Hood in reverse. And it is profoundly un-American. 

It is even anti-American, in the sense that America's Founders had waged war against rule by aristocrats. But today's Americans accept it.

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Eric Zuesse Social Media Pages: Facebook page url on login Profile not filled in       Twitter page url on login Profile not filled in       Linkedin page url on login Profile not filled in       Instagram page url on login Profile not filled in

Investigative historian Eric Zuesse is the author, most recently, of  They're Not Even Close: The Democratic vs. Republican Economic Records, 1910-2010,  and of  CHRIST'S VENTRILOQUISTS: The Event that (more...)
 
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