US Election Circus Awash in Clichés

[Echo In Light]

No Change for me: I want Bills

US Election Circus Awash in Clichés
By Daniel Patrick Welch

08/01/08 "ICH" --In the runup to this year's political circus, the buzzwords of hope and change are being bandied about like the cheap currency they are. Divested of any real meaning by their repetition and cynical misapplication, they quickly become the empty slogans that make "election" season all the more depressing. Newspeak, long the vernacular of a self-perpetuating media coroporatocracy, has rendered the worst year in Iraq into proof that "the surge is working." By continually culling the arguments, adjusting the lens, and narrowing the field of discussion and inquiry, the media run by a shrinking oligarchy has assured the US electorate that up is down: while creative if misleading permutations of 'hope' and 'change' clog the airwaves, there is virtually no chance at all that we will see anything but more regurgitations of the status quo.

The most recent and depressing, if predictable, variation on this insanity comes with the decisions to exclude Reps. Dennis Kucinich and Ron Paul from various debates in the New Hampshire primary: Paul from a Fox-sponsored debate, and Kucinich from one hosted by ABC and Facebook. But you can see the point: for years the major parties and their allies in the media have worked hard to exclude "fringe" candidates from third parties or other wackos from foisting their dangerous opinions on unsuspecting voters. Consequently, voters have been well protected over the years from loony proposals such as the eight-hour day, abolition of slavery, and an end to whatever imperialist adventure we may have been involved in at the time.

Not only have malcontents like Paul and Kucinich managed to get elected under the tent of the major respective parties and hold these elective offices for years; they have the audacity to try to move up the chain and hold the parties to their core values. For shame!

While one may argue that, having poked their noses under the fumigation tent of their respective wings of the War Party, these men get what they deserve. Why shouldn’t they choke on the same poison used to sanitize the field of public debate to which all other politicians are subjected?

I can’t mount a defense that rises above simple logic, a kryptonite to which the system has obviously proved itself increasingly impervious. But why candidates who are obviously competing in the arena set out by the gatekeepers should be excluded in the very first contested primary is simply beyond the pale. Who the hell are they to restrict access to our airwaves in this way? It is wise to remember that: they are controlling our airwaves with the people’s permission. Yet emboldened by their successes in squelching debate in recent years, the media kingmakers have determined that they can go the extra mile. And the parties, co-conspirators in every crime against humanity wrought by this criminal administration despite their weak protests, are quick to tighten the noose. Liberals have had no real voice in the Democratic Party in a generation, so protests will be feeble. At least the New Hampshire Republicans had the integrity to withdraw their co-sponsorship of the Fox debate in protest.

So US voters have no need to hear the only candidate who embraces single-payer health care, a solution adopted to some degree by almost every developed nation on earth, and an answer to a crisis of enormous proportions. Likewise, we have no use for the only candidate who steadfastly opposes the expansion of US empire. All the other candidates will keep us in Iraq for a very long time. None will speak up for the Palestinians in any meaningful way, or challenge the unspoken ban on open discussion of issues in the Middle East. None will face up to the dragon in the room, which is the disastrous and resource-devouring war machine that is quickly sucking the life and spirit out of our democracy and society.

More:
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article19024.htm

[Apollo11]

1. interesting column

maybe worth posting in the "Editorials & Other Articles" Forum?

[Echo In Light]

3. Most passers by shoot for the "general" thread

Obviously there are those who would prefer to keep dissident views marginalized...but that's not why I post here.

[Apollo11]

4. I hardly ever go to the general discussion forum

because it is harder to find interesting posts there.

General Discussion - Politics is my regular hang-out.

[Echo In Light]

5. You don't qualify as a "passer by" though w/1000 + posts. See?

[flashl]

2. The simple truth and power in the words 'common work' is a path to American freedom. n/t