By: Todd Smekens
Against my better judgment, I watched the media’s presentation of an argument between a no-nothing bully president and a tired old politician. To me, it was symbolic of what this country has become in so many ways. Our ruling class has captured both political parties making one completely fractured between the donors and voters, while the other has to embrace racism and white supremacy.
President Donald Trump is giving a voice to racists in this country. The Koch’s used racism to stir the Tea Party up into a frenzy so they could take over the Republican Party. Charles and David thought they could dog whistle the racists to a national party, but Trump used a bullhorn to take supporters down a different path. Trump’s signaling to the Proud Boys to “stand by” after the election on November 3rd was chilling, and television personality Chris Wallace let him slide right on by without condemnation.
Charles Koch owes a very public apology to the American people and the world for the damage he’s caused over the last fifty years.
Former Vice President Joe Biden is no savior because he’s been a member of Washington bureaucracy his whole adult life and crafted the tax strategy for the ruling class travesty. The rich have giant loopholes to avoid paying taxes. Billionaires and corporatists have no problem taking advantage because they paid big dollars as donors to get the special breaks. Joe’s claims now that he will “tax the rich” to pay for his capitalist-backed platform is way too little, way too late. He and former President Barack Obama had their chance in Washington and blew it because Citibank and Wall Street owned them.
My basic theory when I started down this path of journalism was, “Can you be a leader and a politician at the same time.”
In the United States of America – you cannot. Why?
We’ve been subject to so much propaganda for decades that telling the truth offends everybody. Every American wants to be told precisely what they want to hear versus what they need to hear. You have to speak through echo chambers or target markets, which is exactly what the corporate-owned media does to citizens. An advertiser can use Facebook ads to target a particular target market.
If truth-seeking or honesty were the foundation for our free press (media), there wouldn’t be so many different media outlets because they’d all be approaching something resembling the truth. For questions like, “Are the rich getting richer?”, the correct answer is yes. What we hear from the corporatist-owned media is, “Well, it depends.” Bullshit!
That’s called propaganda. Either the working class is keeping pace, or it’s not. It’s not a gray subject. While working-class productivity has grown exponentially over the past several decades, all the gains of this productivity have gone to CEOs and shareholders. The economic system is not providing adequate or fair distribution. Did Joe Biden articulate that last night? Did the moderator make that point before asking both men a question? No, because it would offend the sponsors of the show.
When I would send tough questions to politicians in Indianapolis, universities, economic developers, professionals, etc., there was one thing I would get across the line – ignored. I’d get no answer. They’d refuse to answer. I wouldn’t be invited to pressers because the questions I asked required honesty. Those in power want to spew propaganda or press releases for the media to print verbatim. The corporatist-owned media would publish what they were told.
Neither party appeals to all its voters, but Trump is more honest about who he wants to attract. Joe has a problem because his donors wish to one thing while voters want something different. He can’t be truthful, or he would disenfranchise either donors or voters. Joe’s platform was approved by Wall Street donors. Trump and the GOP don’t have a platform except for white patriarchal supremacy.
Many pundits cry for unity. As long as the media is dishonest, there will be no unity. There is no unity because there is no foundation of honesty. Trump couldn’t denounce racism as hate because he’d lose much of his base. Biden couldn’t embrace the Left because he would lose his donors. What we witnessed last night was our unaccountable Ruling Class supported by their public relations/media, and it wasn’t a good look for the world to view.
