Is the United States Descending into Despotism?
After watching the congressional sausage-making spectacle to pick a new Speaker of the House, I am again reminded that the Republicans really aren’t meaningfully different than the Democrats. Rather, they are more like two sides of the same coin, or the right and left wings of the same bird of prey. Pepsi versus Coke. World Wide Wrestling Federation. Pick your metaphor.
It took 15 rounds, but a well-connected, establishment candidate–Kevin McCarthy–will be anointed. Surprise, surprise. This is no different than the annual debt ceiling charade. The important matters of governance mutually shared by both parties (aka “not-for-profit” political corporations) will resume once again. Of course, the on-going drama was exactly that. A drama. An opportunity for political grandstanding by mostly philosophically and ideologically bankrupt toadies.
False Dichotomy and Illusion
The internal sideshow is meant to create an impression that there is a substantive difference between Republicans and Democrats. Like voting in any two-party system, it’s meant to create a false choice. And, by choosing (or identifying with) a side you are exercising a sacred democratic ritual material to your own governance and existence.
This is a magician’s illusion. Some call it the matrix. The truth is your selection does not really matter, nor does the selection for the Speaker of the House. Selection of Speaker, like our involvement in ceremonial voting rituals, is meant to reinforce the sacrosanct democracy narrative while securing your subliminal willingness to abide by the outcome. The objective is to obtain your submission to the process, and by extension, submission to the political class. This is how the control game works.
Don’t take the bait, and don’t be fooled. There are no meaningful differences between the two parties, not a ball’s hair difference! Except for a few notable exceptions (Thomas Massey, Rand Paul, Ron Johnson), there is even relatively little difference among most individuals in Congress. Clearly, a few exceptions exist, but they are exceedingly rare.
When it comes to things that really matter, such as preserving individual liberty, property rights, and freedom of speech, both parties could not care less. They are mutually silent, doing the solemn bidding of their paymasters.
Those who seek positions of political power simply crave power. That’s it.
Where Power Resides
Besides, the real power does not reside with any of the politicians. They are merely acting as individual front companies for the plutocracy. The plutocrats are who the politicians work for, certainly not their voters. This mistaken belief by the voters is the fairytale that keeps the system alive.
The fairytale is indeed pervasive and seductive. How many times have you heard people say “My taxes pay your salary, you work for me” about their local police? It sounds plausible, but it’s completely untrue. The police work within a hierarchy: police officer, police chief, commissioner, Mayor, etc. Like everyone else, they are accountable to those responsible for cutting their paycheck. The police do their bidding.
The heart of this plutocratic power ultimately resides within our governmental institutions and the banking system—and especially the alphabet soup of national security agencies and the Federal Reserve. All of them constitutionally unfounded.
How do I know this? Because both political parties religiously support undeclared war, the national security state, the Federal Reserve, and endless government debt. No substantive arguments there. Just lockstep agreement. Sure, one side will always accuse the other side of not being tough enough or spending enough, whatever, but that’s just posturing for their constituents.
How Power Thrives
As Randolph Bourne once famously quipped, “War is the health of the state.” I guess our state must be extremely healthy since the United States of America has been at war for 93% of its existence (222 years since 1776)!
The state derives its power through expansion. Our politicians discovered long ago that it is easier to stay in power when you have an external enemy to foment a society’s animal spirits. This is why both sides of the Congressional aisle are fixated on the Ukraine-Russia conflict, and so keen to demonize Russia.
By the way, Russia is not an enemy of the American people. Russia, and China for that matter, are merely offered as excuses for state expansion by our neoconservatives and neoliberal politicians.
Daniel Natal, from The New American, makes the importance of state expansion abundantly clear. I could not agree more with his analysis:
Of course, what the elite fear most is loss of their power. Simply put, power fears the loss of power. That’s why, dollars to donuts, both parties will enthusiastically support Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC), health passports, and even Chinese-style social credit scoring. It’s all about consolidating control, and it’s coming, so prepare yourself now. (I will expand on preparations in a future post.)
Clearly, these initiatives will be done “for our own good” and under the guise of security, safety, and health—to prevent those evil criminals, terrorists, and deadly viruses from threatening our American way of life. Whatever that is.
Divide and Conquer: The Path of Despotism
Regrettably, it is becoming ever more apparent that our political system was actually designed this way on purpose. Those in control of the system, the self-anointed elite, never intended on letting the common man challenge their preeminence. Even in the earlier days of the American experiment, politics was little more than show business by those seeking power to manufacture consent and the support of the unwashed masses.
Albeit better than democracy, a republic still handily serves the purposes and designs of the elite. This is especially true when the citizenry have collectively lost their moral compass. Our moral flexibility has allowed us to become soft and extremely malleable, and therefore easy to manipulate.
The elite know this, and that’s why they are constantly pitting us against one another. Right versus Left. Black versus White. Gay versus Straight. Traditional versus Modern. Rich versus Poor. You name it. If we fight each other, we can’t fight our puppet masters. In fact, we will willingly allow them to enslave us for own supposed good.
Their time-honored strategy is nothing more than divide and conquer.
As Natal explains in his video,
In a free society, the people are united and the government is divided. In a despotism, by contrast, the government is united and the people are divided.
Sadly, I fear the United States of America has descended fully into despotism. On the surface, our government is divided. This is what they want us to think. In reality, our central government is fully united. Their unity does not bode well for individual liberty, property rights, and freedom of speech.
The Way Out
Yet, I believe that there is still hope to resurrect the idea of America and the founding principles upon which America was built. Perhaps, it will occur through secessions or through the individual States reasserting their constitutional prerogative over centralized power.
Or, maybe the American experiment will continue outside our borders, or outside the domain of any state. Anarcho Capitalists, like Doug Casey, already know this.
However, to accomplish such a resurrection, we must not give in to evil or accept the “lesser of two evils” mantra. This will change nothing. Rather, I believe the answer lays with decentralization and going local. We, as individuals, must delegitimize these largely praetorian institutions by withholding our support. We need to check out of their matrix.
If we must support a government, and I don’t believe this is actually necessary, then we should focus our efforts on the things that which we can actually influence: our towns, cities, counties, and states. Moreover, we must coalesce around those who represent our values, not seek to dominate those who do not. We must seek out those who share our interests.
Finally, we must resist the urge to feed the beast of centralized authority. We must resist their despotism. Most of all, we must vehemently resist those who claim to know what’s best for us. It will only lead to our total enslavement and pain.