America has a problem

http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/opinion/has-america-entered-the-dark-ages-of-politics-_204737?profile=1096

America needs more than ‘a decent person at the helm of government’. America is suffering from a similar condition as Jamaica and American voters who faced a Hobson’s choice. The political establishments of democracies can be taken over by corporate elites. When this happens, government and the political process become discredited in the eyes of most people. History shows that this often gives rise to populists who promise ‘Liberty, Equality, Fraternity’ (French Revolution), 'Peace, Land and Bread' (Russian Revolution) 'Liberty' (Haitian Revolution), 'make Germany Great again' (Hitler), 'Serve the People' (Mao - China), ‘make America great again’ (Ronald Reagan/Trump), or ‘drain the swamp’ (Trump). None of these achieved their aims and many presided over even more tyranny than their predecessors. ‘A decent person’ entering the political arena cannot fight against the systemic corruption of the political establishment and Biden in particular may be ‘a decent person’ but his election will not make much of a difference to the massive problems America faces: the growing impoverishment of the middle class, widespread gun ownership, growing income inequality and racial justice.

The problem with democracy is that the individual choice that citizens periodically exercise during elections do not confer political wisdom or virtue on those chosen to govern. Only strong oversight from an engaged civil society can ensure reasonably good government. We leave government to the politicians at our peril.

The democratic party has been successful in making this US election one about the character and personality of the candidates. Trump frightens the children, Biden will sooth them to sleep. Trump is bellicose, mendacious, rude and obnoxious whereas Biden is a polite doddering old gentleman who will bring decorum back to the White House. While that decorum may be important to elites, it is not that important to average people who can barely make the rent. Neither candidate seems to have a progressive vision for America.

Raymond D. Grant
Research Director, EXILED
Canada Cell: (867) 445 - 2865

Immigrants, Migrant Workers and Refugees - Making the World a Better Place for All

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Jamaicans! TIME COME!

Image
  You can also see my video on this topic here:  https://youtu.be/sZm5eCjwym0 As the above Gleaner graphic shows, Jamaicans believe that their politicians are the most corrupt group in Jamaica. Second to that is the police. Yet, nothing has been done about it. There has been no widescale social upheaval. In this piece, I will deal with how this situation has come about and what we can do about it. There are three areas of state power: 1.     1.   Political power - those who control the government. 2.      2.  Economic power – those who control the land, the banks and businesses. 3.      3.  Social Power – those who control the mainstream media and religion. Recently, Barbados removed the British monarch as their symbolic head of state and replaced the title of monarch with a symbolic Barbadian President. This woke up the Jamaican political leaders who had grappled with this issue before but were unable to come to an agreement so the issue was re-opened again and a Constitutio
Read more

A suh di ting set!

https://www.jamaicaobserver.com/columns/are-there-honest-politicians/ For the last 60+ years, Jamaica's politiricks has been hijacked by a consortium made up of the corporate elite, a corporately supported subservient media elite and a corporately supported corrupt political elite which leaves Jamaicans with a choice between a corrupt JLP and a corrupt PNP. Realizing this, most Jamaicans passively opt out of the political process which maintains the status quo leaving the political field to loyal party hacks and party thugs feeding on the political trough. It is practically impossible to break this stranglehold on the political system because the corporate elite will not fund the start-up of any other political group as the corporate elite is quite happy with the obedience of the PNP/JLP gangs. The media elites, in subservience to their corporate elites will not give equal or positive media coverage to any new political movement. Although most of us Jamaicans do not support the JLP
Read more

US Election could lead to civil war?

Image
  Could the US be heading towards another civil war? Will there be  war refugees from the US if there is a war? See the Atlantic article below. What does '..only if the American people acquiesce..' mean? How do the people not 'acquiesce'? Take up arms? Guns and ammunition are flying off the shelves of US gun stores. Many are setting up bunkers. Black people are forming militias. Who will be president if there are legal and constitutional issues leading to doubt about who is legally elected? Who will the military be loyal to if such a scenario arises? Trump as the incumbent will remain in charge of the military, all federal agencies, the nuclear football and The War Room up to 79 days after the election. There are no checks or balances. Even if a president goes insane, a military strike up to and including a nuclear strike can be ordered by the incumbent or his successor - on anywhere. It is alleged that when President Nixon was depressed and drinking heavily, he hinted
Read more