It’s All Smoke and Mirrors
All of the machinations, nonsense, about whether or not Joe Biden is fit to be president is almost beside the point. The point being that a president in the US serves at the behest of the power elite. Who are the power elite? They are members of the corporations, the top bananas, the weapons manufacturers, the top brass of the military, the major investment companies, and the political establishment. Certain parameters of behavior and actions are expected of candidates and those in office, through the blessing of the power elite, and they know that boundaries can’t be stepped over. Step over that boundary and a person is history.
They, the elite, would rather have a smiling face at the helm, but a scowling face will do as witnessed in 2016. Reading the Guardian (July 2, 2024), it seems the debate was about appearances rather than any discussion of substantive issues. Try to raise the issue of the military-industrial complex in a debate of the incompetent chosen and that line of reasoning will lead to a dead end because that is what US politics is all about.
The US is always involved in hot wars all around the globe in either a direct, or as a proxy. The CIA also has its secret army and we have no ability to know what that entity does or where they operate. Syria, Ukraine, and Gaza are but three examples of hot wars and there are many, many others. The US has about 750 military bases and that eliminates the need for an empire in the sense that Great Britain had an empire prior to World War II. The war machine costs trillions of dollars to operate and those dollars could go to help ordinary people. A politician can’t be against war in the US and see the light of day. All of Biden’s predecessors understood the need for the acceptance of war. The public is generally not far behind in the acceptance of war, but Ukraine and Gaza have been a wakeup call for some. However, Biden is one of the worst warmongers with equals being Lyndon Johnson, Richard Nixon, George H. W. Bush, and George W. Bush. Trump was less bellicose than most, but I wouldn’t trust him with issues of war and peace more than I’d trust a fox babysitting chickens. Third parties, such as the Green Party, serve going beyond the pale through social programs, are against endless wars, but they mean next to nothing in this political system.
Here are two more examples of what the two party system here demands. Look at Biden’s ban on electric cars from China. They’re quite affordable and they could help reduce fossil fuel emissions, so our not so new enemy, China, can’t send them here. Alternative sources of energy are also poorly developed here. Price a solar panel array on a home and get ready to take out a huge loan.
Domestic policy is pretty much a laughing matter in the US. Health care is divvied out, or rationed, public schools increasingly fail for a number of reasons, millions of people can’t afford housing, increasing numbers of people sleep out on the streets, police have an open license to torment or to kill those people who don’t fit the “acceptable” mold, nutrition stinks, and income inequality is at historic levels while the top few percent of the wealthy elite keep gaining on the average Jane and Joe. Many cities are abandoned hulks of their former selves. The globalized economy, a bipartisan affair, accomplished the latter.
Recall only as far back in the 1960s when there was a viable economic system that supported both a working class and a middle class.
So Biden’s obvious inability to act as president is almost beside the point. He often acts and looks like he doesn’t know where he is and his operatives are attempting to gloss over his inadequacies. The fact that he wasn’t able to complete sentences during this past Thursday night’s debate tells almost the entire story of how the political and economic systems work.
It’s All Smoke and Mirrors