Crossposted from Docudharma
For the eight years of the Bush Reign Of Terror when America passed an obscene tax break for the Rich, invaded a country to capture Osama bin Laden...and didn't, and then abandoned THAT war and invaded another country with no real evidence that it was threat, (even though they tortured a bunch of people to get them to say that there was a connection between Al Qaeda and Iraq and had to manufacture piles of "evidence" and make Colin Powell lie to the UN) corrupted the United States Department of Justice to shield themselves from investigations, and politicized scientific information to prevent any progress on Climate Crisis, and appointed toadies and lackeys to the SEC and every other regulatory agency while repealing or ignoring key financial regulations that eventually led to a worldwide economic meltdown....during which the rich ALSO grew richer...
Life was simple.
Simple because whatever the Bushco created problem the world faced we could just shrug and say something along the lines of...Yeah, those Republicans suck!
No deeper analysis was really deemed necessary. It was SO obvious that all of our problems like torture and a scandalous income disparity and killing Iraqi children even though they never did anything to threaten us was just how life was under Republicans.
The American voter figure it out too, and voted them out of office. They, as did we in the blogosphere, figured when we voted them out, things would change big time. The most hopeful among us thought that having a Democratic majority and a Democratic President would lead to a new golden age of equality and justice and economic fairness and recovery. And free health care!
But nine months in to this hoped for golden age, while we have seen changes around the edges, we have had to fight tooth and nail to get the relative crumbs that we have gotten.
Even though the Republicans are despised by 75% of America, and out of power, and OBVIOUSLY doing nothing more than obstructing...we still are struggling to get any REAL changes to health care, the financial structure, Climate Crisis, the Wars or any accountability on the torture that the whole world knows occurred, but we are still tiptoeing around.
Why?
The simple answer is to blame the Dems and President Obama. But you can sense THEIR frustration as well! Even they thought that they could come in to power and get things passed as easily as Bush. Heck, they thought they would get 80 votes for the stimulus!
Sadly, they thought they would be greeted a Liberators.
But even without any political power, the Republicans (it could be said) are winning! They are stopping or watering down everything the new administration are trying to do!
Why? And why did Bush have such success in getting his horrific agenda through Congress while the Dems struggle on every issue?
Because it turns out that it was not the Republicans per se that were the problem at all.
Just as Fox news is just an arm of the Republicans, as the White House just figured out, the Republicans themselves are just a arm of a larger power. An arm of the Ruling Class.
Why was Bush able to ram his agenda through so easily? Because his agenda was the agenda of the Ruling Class.
Why can't Obama get his agenda through?
Because his agenda directly attacks the Ruling Class.
As we can see most baldly after 5 months of negotiations in the Finance Committee to get the most favorable bill possible for the Insurance Industry Arm of the Ruling Class...once they got everything they could from their paid operatives like Max Baucus and every Republican in Congress, they are now rejecting the bill that was written just for them.
A year after the world panicked as the too big to fail banks came one millimeter away from crashing the economy of the whole world....the main villain in the piece is giving out23 billion dollars in bonuses while fighting tooth and nail to defeat reforms that would protect the economy they just crashed....for everyone but themselves. The Ruling Class crashed the world economy...and are now profiting from it.
And the list goes on, down through every issue and every problem our country and the world faces. Heck, we can't even have a comprehensive investigation of torture, because the trail of evidence leads directly to George Bush and Dick Cheney...and the Ruling Class always protects it's pawns own.
The Republicans were defeated, and Obama took power and got a super majority of Democrats. It should be a piece of cake to achieve great things.
But we can't.
Because it is NOT a simple partisan political fight.
The Republicans SHOULD have no power. Yet they still are dominant in the media, still are more influential in Congress, and we still are operating in a frame of societal reference where the Parties are somehow equal.
75% of Americans want a Public Option, a Majority of Senators are willing to vote for a Public Option, The House insists on the Public Option and the president wants a Public option. The Will of the People and the Will of the Congressional majority is for a Public Option.
But we can't GET a Public option.
Why?
With all the power on our side, why are we STILL unable to get what the overwhelming majority of Americans want? Why are the neutered Republicans still able to have so much power?
Because, as it turns out, it is NOT the Republicans who are the problem.
It is the Ruling Class who are thwarting the Will of the People.
The Republicans are only powerful because they represent the Will of the Ruling Class.
When will we realize....and ACT like we realize, what the real problem is?
That this is not a battle between republicans and democrats.
When will we realize that this is a battle of The Ruling Class and their Corporations against The People?
When will we start to refer to the struggle we are in as what it REALLY is behind all the political smoke and mirrors...a Class War?
A War between the Ruling Class and The People?
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For those who are wondering: Who Are The Ruling Class?