The soft -soap continues

 We have just had the third and final instalment before election day. Selection by debate turns "democracy" into a TV reality show? This was not a a debate, this was a rehearsed spectacle, a staged performance by a pair of parties largely in agreement, presenting a charade of a debate.  Obama and Romney share the same fundamental ideological framework. Democrats and Republicans are of one mind on almost everything. So what sort of choice are US voters being given as they vote in November? There are no major principled differences between the candidates. Obama long ago lost the support of those those who are anti-war, wanted decent healthcare, wanted the wealthy to pay for their part in causing the recession. He lost those citizens concerned about the environment, constitutional liberties,the a clamp down on whistleblowers and international law. Obama has never fought for the 99%. Obama has advanced the interests of the 1% ever since he got into office. That was always Wall Street’s expectation of Obama, and his promise to them. That’s why they gave him far more money in 2008 than they gave John McCain. They were buying Obama. They invested in Obama to protect them.

It began with his cabinet choices when he appointed the very same individuals responsible for the mis-management of the economy and contributed to the recession, keeping the Bush tax cuts for the rich, and then not releasing any Guantanamo prisoners and escalating the war in Afghanistan. We have an administration currently fighting for the right to put US citizens into indefinite detainment without a trial, a president who approves of drones over the US as well as other countries and the presidential approval of assassinations of US citizens. He signed the Patriot Act extension into law, deported a modern-record 1.5 million immigrants, and continued Bush's rendition program. Obama personally chooses some who will die thousands of miles away by a drone attack as he supports more and more drones that terrorizes Afghans, Pakistanis, and Yemenis with death without warning from the sky. It never dawned on the Nobel Peace Prize Committee to withhold its award until Obama proved that he was deserving, which he never was.

  Because many view Romney as unfit to be president, some are inclined to vote for Obama out of fear. Many are forced into rationalizations for voting for more of the same.  Anyone who believes that voting for Obama is voting for the lesser of two evils. No matter how much evil Barack Obama actually accomplishes during his presidency, people that call themselves leftists insist on dubbing him the Lesser Evil. Noam Chomsky as resident in a safe Democrat state has opted to vote for the Green Party while recommending others in swing states to vote for the lesser evil and cast their ballot for Obama. Voting for the “lesser evil” in swing states, however, does not absolve us from having supported a candidate whose policies we consider “evil” or oppressive. The very act of voting for it legitimizes it. We should counter this act of legitimization, by organizing for a transformative change of the U.S. political system. If you are going to fight for anything, you’ve got to fight for the right to fight. Perhaps indeed Romney and the Republicans in general have worse intentions for the future of workers but that doesn’t matter. People are not going to roll over for whatever nightmare Romney would like to bring about. But, they have already rolled over for Obama. The teachers union have actually endorsed  one of their biggest critics!  There was been very little resistance to Obama. Where was the anti-war movement when Obama launched a merciless air-war against Libya? Silence was acquiescence.

Capitalism causes crises and economic downturns and their burden always falls on the vast majority of the population, the working class. Calls for re-regulation, managed capitalism, begs the question: re-regulate what? As demonstrated by history, the system of finance capitalism is intrinsically unstable. Under the guise of reviving a dysfunctional system all benefits continue to accrue to a tiny economic elite. This is why claims of substantive differences between Democrats and Republicans are so misguided. If you believe that what Wall Street does is Evil, then Obama’s service to Wall Street is Evil, and there is nothing Lesser about it.