Implosion or Explosion?
The predicted demise of the major political parties is overblown
The January 6, 2021 storming of the Capitol had many in the dominant media predicting the end of the GOP. Many indicated there was a split between GOP Congressional officeholders: those in support of disputing the POTUS election and those who accepted the results. Some pundits claim this split will lead to an implosion of the “GOP as we know it.”
Similarly and prior to that, many said that the Democrat Party faced its own implosion due to a “divide” between what many label as the “left-wing” of the party and the “centrist” portions. And again, it was said that this fracture will lead to the “end of the Democrat Party as we know it.”
This is soap opera nonsense. As long as obscenely rich individuals and transnational corporations dictate the laws and regulations of the United States, neither one of these parties will implode, disintegrate, disband, disassemble, or in the vernacular, fall off. Especially if those same monetary forces control the leadership of both parties.
Proof? Issues such as Medicare for All, $2000 monthly relief checks, and cancellation of student loan debt are favored by the majority of citizens who are registered with both parties. Yet, the leadership of both parties withhold floor votes on all of the above. A sprinkling of members from the alleged “left wing” of the Democrat Party have made some minor noises about supporting the notion of these kinds of bills. But no serious movement has been made in that direction.
The reality is that the major parties represent the interests of factions of the rich and super-rich while giving lip service to the poor, working, and middle classes. That lip service is inducement for those votes. The party that fools the best, achieves majority status in Congress. And hence, that faction of the wealthy leads the direction of policy-making (and theft of the Treasury).
Neither party has demonstrated any major shift in direction of tax, fiscal, or monetary policy. Or investment in the war machine. The singular voices that do are ostracized, ignored, and/or suppressed. Or the donors fund campaigns of opponents of those voices. Or, even worse, they co-opt them.
The Democrats and GOP are well-oiled machines who re-run their messaging (quite effectively) daily via the dominant media (CNN, Fox, MSNBC, CBS, NPR, New York Times, Washington Post, etc.) Their legislative “disputes” are choreographed. Hearings summarized (unless you tune into C-Span for the raw unedited footage), and so on.
Implosion, nah? Not unless the poor, working, and middle classes explode from being squeezed by the wealthy donors of these parties and pressure such an implosion.
Not talking about literal explosions that result in physical injury/death or destruction of property — although those may be a natural consequences of folks being pushed to the level of desperation that they are. More like strikes, boycotts, shut-downs, and other economic withholdings or withdrawals that impact the donors’ investments and operations. Yeah “elections matter”. But only to enable one of the factions’ control. Certainly not to the extent of affecting the bottom-line of the office-holders’ donors.
But this ballyhooed change coming from an implosion of either major political party? That’s to keep you glued to your news source of choice.
