BananObama

Watching the Democratic Feel-Goodathon today is like taking a trip to another planet. While the political game has always been played in much the same way here in the US, the disconnect between actuality and politics as played in these extravaganzas has grown so huge that even the few words that make any sense are lost beneath the mass of formalistic bullshit that must be repeated, again and again.

The Democrats, and Obama, are going to run a campaign based on a narrow set of policies that they hope will convince the electorate. Global warming! Health care! Better wars! They turn a blind eye to the actuality that this is no longer a country where electoral politics has a grasp on the real levers of power, some levers are there, but they no longer have any effect on the course of the nation. This was obvious during the Clinton administration.

Since then, the Republican kleptocracy has corrupted the institutions of government to a point where the US is now a banana republic. Even if Obama is elected, which I doubt, he will be unable to do more than conform to the predetermined path. From the moment he takes office, there will be unrelenting pressures from the corporate media, the corrupted justice department, and possibly the military that will make the Arkansas Project seem like a walk in the park. Neo-con foreign policy, neo-liberal economic policy, a police state to quiet the grumblers, and a continuing march towards the gated community for the few and mega-slums for the rest, that is the future.