[Peace-discuss] A Message From The American Corporate Plutocracy

[C. G. Estabrook]

[Gallows humor from Paul Street that says much more about the election than all 
the day's MSM -- altho' tonight's PBS Newshour did contain these nuggets from 
the head of Pew Research: he said that his current election polls show (a) 
"There's no correlation between the issues Democrats say are important and the 
candidates they choose"! and (b) "Among Republicans issues are more important, 
but many people who say the war is the most important issue are voting for 
McCain -- including those opposed to the war"!  Street explains this wonderful 
system. --CGE]

	A Message From The American Corporate Plutocracy
	February 04, 2008
	By Paul Street

I could swear this happened last night (I am writing on the morning of Thursday, 
January 31st), but it may be my addled, anxious, and overworked mind playing 
tricks on me.

I was watching "American Idol" and trying to balance my checkbook.

I was thinking I should try out for "Idol." I was also thinking about the gap 
between my income and my irreducible life expenditures.

A commercial for a drug that promised to make me happy and relaxed flashed 
across the television. I reached for the clicker to hit "mute."

But before I could turn off the sound, the ad was interrupted by the image of a 
sixty-something businessmen sitting behind a giant desk in a plush corporate 
office.

A message ran across the bottom of the screen. It said: "A Message from the 
American Corporate Plutocracy."

The businessman was wearing a pinstripe suit. Behind him hung pictures of J.P. 
Morgan, Ronald Reagan, Bill Gates, and Bill Clinton.

He looked very serious. He read the following speech:

"American subjects, we are interrupting this important pharmaceutical 
advertisement to tell you of the special satisfaction we feel at learning that 
John Edwards has dropped out of the Democratic presidential campaign."

"Edwards was on the cover of Newsweek a little more than a month ago. He was 
charismatic, handsome, and very effective on the campaign trail and in debates. 
He had star quality and many millions of dollars."

"In the last big match-up survey taken before the Iowa Caucus, he polled as the 
most electable candidate in the presidential race. He was the only Democratic 
contender who defeated all of the likely Republican presidential candidates - 
even John McCain, who defeated Hillary Clinton and tied Barack Obama."

"Democratic Party primaries have been held in just four small states and he's 
already done."

"We are very pleased to hear of his early surrender, in which we played our 
usual quiet but powerful role. It is we who made sure that Edwards' more 
explicitly corporate and centrist opponents could outspend him by a wide margin."

"It is we who pushed him to the margins of the all-powerful media system we own 
and manage in your interest - and ours."

"We've already voted John Edwards off the presidential version of 'American 
Idol'" - so you don't have to.

"We've winnowed the presidential field to four (4) officially elect-able and 
corporate-friendly candidates and the election is more than ten months away!"

"It's all about he hidden primary of the rich and powerful operating behind the 
scenes, in the hidden corridors of power under the benevolent reign of Empire 
and Inequality, Inc. We are the Simon Cowells of American presidential politics. 
We love it and you should too."

"We do it for you, to save you the effort and heartbreak of 'democracy,' for 
which you lack the time, skill, energy, and resources."

"Take note, would-be critics of our caring rule! The spectrum of permissible 
debate grows narrower with each quadrennial election extravaganza we stage."

"Do not misunderstand us, American subjects.  John Edwards was no radical threat 
to the corporate system we have crafted in response to our need for spectacular 
wealth and your inability to construct a better social order. Edwards said 
repeatedly that be believed in what he called 'a market economy' - what we and 
you should understand as a heavily state-managed system of private profit and 
class rule."

"He followed our counsel when he wrapped his call for universal health insurance 
in a plan that continued - beneath all his anti-corporate bluster - to protect 
the very insurance and pharmaceutical companies that have done so much to create 
your health care crisis."

"He made it clear again and again that he supported the broader global framework 
of the splendid imperial order and the related military-industrial complex we 
have built for the good of the world - and our own profit".

"He agreed to never to mention the overseas victims of our clumsy oaf George W. 
Bush's foreign policies, including the 1 million Iraqis killed by 'Operation 
Iraqi Freedom' - an action that continues to generate considerable profits for 
us."

"He remains ridiculously wealthy (like us) and never really challenged the core 
inequalities inherent in the workings of the 'market economy.' "

"He stood to the right of those malevolent radical mischief-makers Ralph Nader 
and - to mention another presidential candidate we recently liquidated - Dennis 
Kucinich."

"But that's all part of what makes Edwards' early defeat all the more delightful 
and rewarding for us. The magnificent march of our munificent reign has 
progressed so far that even John Edwards is defined as too radical to make a 
serious run at the White House."

"He may not have fundamentally questioned the corporate-imperial system that all 
of us enjoy, but he did develop some very nasty habits that displeased us. He 
spoke insistently about and against endemic U.S. poverty and related it to 
oppressive economic inequality and the supposedly 'exorbitant' wealth of the 
'privileged few.' He won Nader's approval by speaking against our 'plutocratic' 
control of government and politics as if that rule isn't a good and necessary 
thing!"

"He insisted on praising the labor movement, which he repeatedly referred to as 
'the single greatest anti-poverty program in American history.'"

"He also connected his obnoxious and inherently dysfunctional and dangerous 
'populist' appeal to very specific and detailed policy issues and agendas."

"American subjects, we are certain you found this foolish issues and policy 
obsession as irritating as we did! As we hope you appreciate, we kindly cater to 
your limited capacities and sensibilities by framing elections around trivial 
and childish matters of candidate image, identity, and personality."

"We don't want you to tax your limited and overwrought minds with difficult 
matters of policy and governance. We want to help you vote for the right kind of 
politicians you find most likeable, pleasant and fun - kind of like the 
'American Idol' show to which you shall momentarily be returned."

"As part of this mission, we employ an army of marketers, researchers, 
data-miners, publicists, and image consultants to help you understand which one 
of the presidential 'Idols' makes you feel best about yourselves and your 
glorious, business-run Nation State."

"We, the surviving four 'Idols' - Mitt, John (McCain that is), Hillary, and 
Barack - and the people around them (most of which we provide) will handle all 
the issues and the policies. We and they will give you all the 'hope' and 
'change' and 'unity' you need."

"Get ready for a long and tedious exercise in delusion and identity politics 
that may well guarantee the White House to our favorite party - the 
arch-plutocratic, messianic-militarist GOP."

"We do it all for you, America. We are here to take and keep the last risks out 
of your 'democracy.' The nation is in good hands."

"Thank you for your attention.  We return you now to your previously scheduled 
anti-depressant commercial and to the rest of the countless advertisements and 
programs on this and any of the other 154 stations we have generously created 
for your endless diversion, brainwashing, marketing, and indoctrination."

	"Yours in Eternal Thought Control,"
	"The American Corporate Plutocracy"


Paul Street (paulstreet99 at yahoo.com) is a writer and activist in Iowa City, IA. 
  His latest book is Racial Oppression in the Global Metropolis (New York: 
Rowman & Littlefield, 2007).  His latest print magazine article is "Largely 
About Oil: Reflections on Empire, Petroleum, Democracy Failure, and the 
Occupation of Iraq," Z Magazine (January 2008), read at

http://www.zcommunications.org/zmag/viewArticle/16105