With the upcoming national elections about to happen next month, let's take a quick look at some of the machinations surrounding those elections.
As we all know, the two main parties, Democrats and Republicans hold the reins of political power in this country and candidates from either party are pretty much the only people who are going to get elected. Except in rare instances where an independent Socialist like a Senator Bernie Sanders gets elected in Vermont or a Congressman like Democrat Dennis Kucinich of Ohio (who just got redistricted out of his seat) where neither is beholden to corporate funding of their election, all the other Democrats or Republicans elected will have big money underwriting their election campaigns.
As for the deep pocketed individuals or big corporatist funders of either a Democrat or a Republican running for office it really makes no difference who actually wins the election.
That's because the overwhelming majority of Democrats or Republicans elected are handmaidens beholden to their big moneyed underwriters who ultimately control the all important political agenda in Washington, enact the laws and regulations as well as the oversight and enforcement which goes to their benefit.
The prevailing partisanship and polarization of the two main parties is a useful distraction perpetrated by big corporatist paid appeals that keep the pot boiling and exacerbating the divisions which gets people focusing on socially divisive issues i.e. homosexuality, same sex marriage, abortion or the federal debt et al which effectively keeps the focus away from the real issues affecting this country.
Mattea Kramer, writing in TomDispatch.com about the upcoming presidential debates entitled, "A Recipe for American Decline That No One Will Be Debating" (also found elsewhere in today's OPEDNEWS site) says there are five important issues that won't be discussed in the debates between Obama and Romney yet are critical to the "future of the country". They are:
- "Immediate deficit reduction will wipe out any hope of an economic recovery."
- "Taxes are at their lowest point in more than half a century, preventing investment in and the maintenance of America's most basic resources."
- "Neither the status quo nor a voucher system will protect Medicare (or any other kind of health care) in the long run."
- The U.S. military is outrageously expensive and yet poorly tailored to act on the threats to U.S. national security."
- The U.S. education system is what made this country prosperous in the twentieth century but no longer."
Kramer elaborates extensively on all five issues noting the political disconnect that prevails which precludes their being debated. Her ideas are required reading.
Needless to say, the upcoming presidential debates will be between two corporate driven candidates from the two major parties. The debate rules were devised and controlled by the two major parties that essentially preclude 3 rd party participation in the debates.
And the American people are thus prevented from witnessing a debate by all candidates discussing the real issues facing the country. That's the ultimate machination contrived by both parties to keep them exclusively in political control.
