meganmonkey

The current crop of soap opera scandals that dominates the political conversation in this country is particularly annoying. We’ve got a member of the House of Representatives who accidentally posted suggestive pictures to the internet, and we have a former VP candidate (and potential future Presidential candidate) misrepresenting the story of Paul Revere’s legendary ride.

Can we all just agree that they are both stupid assholes and move on? No, because that would leave a void in the nonstop onslaught of ‘news’ which may need to be filled by something important that actually effects people’s well-being and livelihood. If we dare concentrate on things like employment numbers, falling wages, cuts to schools and health care and other basic services, and the overall failure of the capitalist economy to provide anything to anyone other than the uber-wealthy, we may have to confront the fact that the two ruling parties are doing nothing to represent the vast majority of the people of this country.

Despite the hysteria present on the 24 hour news channels, NPR, network talk shows and political websites, most people don’t give half a shit about Weiner’s weiner, or Palin’s blunder, or whatever superficially outrageous event is happening at any given time.

We are in a country where less than 60% of eligible voters show up at the polls even in a Presidential election year (1). Partisans would have you believe that this is because people are ignorant or apathetic and don’t realize that they need to vote in order ‘to have their voices heard’. Yet those very partisans do everything they can to keep the political discourse focused on personalities, manufactured wedge issues, titillating scandals, and middle-school level rivalries, further alienating reasonable, intelligent people who realize that our so-called democracy is a farce.

Thing is, even if 99% of the people show up to vote, the people will still never be heard, let alone have their interests represented, by either of the two ruling parties in the U.S. Any candidate or party that would challenge the actual social and economic policies of the ruling class is shut out of the process - kept off the ballot, ignored, ostracized or ridiculed by the ruling parties and media (yes, the same media that treats Weinergate as the most important political issue today).

Let’s not forget about the money - Obama is expected to raise and spend more than a billion dollars on his 2012 re-election campaign. Is there any doubt that the process favors the wealthiest among us, and favors the candidates that will protect the interests of the wealthiest? Is there any doubt that both major parties are advancing those interests while the rest of us - the workers - struggle to keep our homes and jobs? The widening gap between the uber-wealthy and the working class is fed by the policies of both parties.

An honest evaluation of US elections, even a superficial one, makes it clear that it is not a ‘democracy’, not in any meaningful sense. The strongest argument for participation we hear from the Democrats, the supposed ‘left’ in the US, is that they are somehow better than the Republicans. When it comes to measurable results of policies and the real conditions for people who are affected by US domestic and foreign policy, this claim is blatantly bunk.

No significant change will arise from the prescribed political process in the US. Capitalism’s concentration of wealth and power knows no national boundaries, and neither can a unified working class. The power of the people is not found in the voting booth. It is found in the workplace, in the streets, and in international solidarity. We need to look to the lessons learned throughout the history of the labor movement in the US and follow the lead of our brothers and sisters in Greece, Spain, Libya and elsewhere. The ruling class can only live off the fruits of our labor as long as we allow it. The class war has been one-sided for too long. It is time to disregard the distractions and scandals. It is time to fight back.


(1) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voter_t...tial_Elections