American Democracy — R.I.P. 2020

American democracy died a long time ago, but just in case some folks hadn’t noticed, the political antics of 2020 have proven that fact, once and for all.

We began with the Republican-controlled Senate acquitting our guilty-as-sin-president on all counts of his multiple impeachment indictments.

The Senate’s dismissal of those charges was only the climax to the egregious failure of the  Democratic-controlled House of Representatives to bring any additional – and far more significant — impeachment charges over Trump’s numerous, prior violations of the Constitution. (See the article by Chris Hedges outlining at least 12 Constitutional breaches by Trump and others by presidents of both parties demonstrating that “the rule of law” is now an empty phrase in this country).

Now the Democratic National Committee (DNC) is reminding us that corruption is a bipartisan affair in Washington D. C. as the party mandarins brush off its 2016 playbook and rig another series of primaries; this time against Bernie Sanders, in favor of Joe Biden.

How is it happening?

First, the Democratic party is openly promoting a loser candidate who pledges to protect the status quo.

Biden is clearly the Democratic establishment preference even though he will very predictably LOSE to Donald Trump in the general election, just as Hillary Clinton — the previous establishment darling — lost to Trump in 2016.

The party establishment obviously wants another neo-liberal centrist like Clinton who will protect the current state of affairs in D.C., despite abundant evidence that a majority of the American public want change.

For example:

Most Americans want Medicare-for-All (which numerous studies have shown to be cheaper than our current system. This includes one study financed by the infamous, libertarian Koch brothers!).

Most Americans want the government to fight climate change.

64% of Americans believe that our massive income inequality gap is a problem that needs to be rectified. (Ignore NPR’s deliberately misleading headline for this story.)

Most Americans are unhappy about the rise in both racism and anti-Semitism during the 3 years of Trump’s presidency.

Only one candidate has a lifetime track record of discussing all of these social problems while offering specific solutions that would get to the root of such serious challenges. That man is Bernie Sanders, not Joe Biden. (No, this is not a campaign advertisement. I’m simply pointing out a few realities here.)

Check out this compilation of 10 polls collected by Real Clear Politics –YES, count ‘em, TEN! – which ALL show that Bernie Sanders beats Donald Trump in the general election.

Second, the mainstream, corporate media does not want change any more than the Democratic party does. (They are all making too much money the way things are). So mainstream, corporate “news” coverage provides free advertisement and propaganda promoting Joe Biden.

The media continually pushes the narrative about Sanders’ unelectability, despite the many polls showing otherwise.

You will never hear about those polls showing Sanders’ popularity from our corporate news media. In fact, all you will hear from corporate/cable news is continuous applause for lie’n Biden (who promises not to upset the apple cart and to maintain the status quo), coupled with non-stop derision of Bernie Sanders. — For an important presentation of Biden’s many lies on the campaign trail, watch this. —

But the Democratic party does not care about the will of the people any more than does the Republican party.

Both parties have their noses buried far too deeply into the dark-money orifices created by big-money donors, lobbyists, CEOs, special interests, private insurance & pharmaceutical companies, the fossil fuel industries, and other major corporations.

They are following the lead of wealthy donors like Former Goldman Sachs CEO and lifelong Democrat Lloyd Blankfein who has said that if Sanders were the Democratic nominee, he would vote for Trump.

Even the New York Times finally admitted to the biased coverage given to these two men by major new outlets (print, radio and TV), including themselves. Watch this clip from Kyle Kulinsky talking about the recent story. You can also read it online, but you need to be a subscriber.)

Have you noticed how the media Talking-Heads weep, wail and gnash their teeth whenever Sanders wins a primary, but turn around a rejoice in

jubilation when Biden wins? It’s common behavior because they, too, are very rich people who network and socialize with people like Lloyd Blankfein.

Third, not only did the Democratic party establishment admit to rigging the 2016 primaries, they have argued in court that it is their Constitutional right to rig the presidential primaries in favor of their preferred candidate(s).

Yep, you can’t make this stuff up, folks.

In the face of at least one lawsuit brought after the 2016 primaries, DNC lawyers successfully argued that not only do they have the right to rig primaries, it is an exercise of their Constitutional right to freedom of speech.

But there is more. The court agreed!

So, let’s be clear. There is now a court precedent affirming that rigging presidential primaries is a Constitutional right for our political parties. In fact, rigging primaries is an exercise of the party’s right to “freedom of speech.”

Donna Brazile, a major player on Hillary Clinton’s 2016 election campaign,

wrote a book in which she confessed to the many ways in which the Clinton campaign had controlled the DNC and directed its execution of the 2016 primary process. (Also look here, here, here, and there are many more reports available).

One of the reasons that the Democratic establishment hates Julian Assange (who is a journalistic hero being persecuted by the Western media-surveillance-military-industrial complex) and Wikileaks as much as the Republicans do is because Wikileaks published the countless DNC memos written by Democratic leaders admitting to the various ways they had rigged the primaries for Hillary Clinton.

There is no reason to think that the DNC’s prejudicial planning has changed in 2020. After all, why should they abandon their newly defined Constitutional right to cheat the voters?

Journalist Kevin Gosztola has tracked down the identities and policy preferences of many recent super-delegates appointed by DNC chairman Tom Perez, ALL of whom are strongly pro-Biden and anti-Sanders. So, if the primaries happen (miraculously) to lead to a contested convention, Sanders still doesn’t stand a chance.

Fourth, the American electoral landscape has changed radically in the last several years, in very prejudicial ways. (And I cannot discover any evidence of the Democratic party working to reverse this horrible trend).

Concerning this year’s primaries, the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights has created an online map showing where 1,688 polling sites

have been closed in 13 (primarily southern) states since the 2013 Supreme Court ruling that gutted the 1965 Voting Rights Act.

Most if not all of those vanished polling places were in districts with a majority of black and Hispanic voters.

Though Sanders has not been doing well with older voters in the black (or white) community, he has done extremely well with both Hispanic and young African-Americans. The same groups whose voting stations have been extensively eradicated.

For only one example, Texas has large African-American and Hispanic populations, and has closed  hundreds of polling sites in black and Hispanic neighborhoods making it much harder for these already disadvantaged communities to vote.

Southern states continue to close many polling stations in primarily black

neighborhoods.

There has also been a concerted effort to eliminate polling stations in college/university towns, seriously suppressing the student vote – another demographic that strongly supports Sanders.

The evidence is overwhelming.

The Democratic party has rigged both the primary and the convention system on behalf of Joe Biden because they are more interested in protecting their money and power than they are in listening to the people.

The United States is not a democracy. It hasn’t been for a long time.

We are an oligarchy (ruled by the powerful few).

We are also a plutocracy (ruled by the richest 1%).

Our ruling class — in both parties; it’s a bipartisan affair — merely directs periodic exercises in national, kabuki theater for a naïve, ill-informed, easily manipulated public.

They allow the illusion of influence.

They direct us as we play out our powerless part in the scripted, manipulated stage production called “American democracy.”