Bailout is capitalism murdering democracy

An Obama election would unquestionably mean that the 700$ billion bailout package is simply an INITIAL installment on Obama's intended reparations payments to our African American population. As you will recall, the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) voted overwhelming "AGAINST" the initial bailout proposal; but, after assurances by Obama to a prominent CBC member that, if elected, he would direct government officials to write-down the principal on inner-city delinquent mortgages, thirteen members of the CBC conveniently switched their bailout votes from "No" to "Yes". In other words the advertised feature of a promised re-coupment of the entire or at least a major portion of the bailout expense when the housing market recovered, which prompted conservative members of the congress, essential to its passage, to sign-on to the bailout legislation would prove to be a "total farce" under Obama. "Jawbone" Biden let Obama's hidden agenda "slip" during the VP debate when he stated that Obama intended to not only reduce interest payments on defaulting mortgages; but, "to as well write-down the principal". The apple doesn't fall very far from the tree. Obama, whose father was born into privilege, served as the Senior Economist for a corrupt Kenyan Government; and, advocated a: "100% taxation and repossession of land and property against the will of the rightful owner". An ideology that some call Communism; and, which was explicitly sanctioned by Obama with his proclamation: “It was into my father’s image . . . that I’d packed all the attributes I sought in myself.” Obama's Marxist principles are re-enforced by his 20+ year immersion in "Black Liberation Theology" thru his membership in Jeremiah Wright's church; and, its reliance on the foundation teachings of the Ideologies' guru, James Cone, who wrote: "Marxism, as a tool of social analysis, can disclose the gap between appearance and reality, and thereby help Christians to see how things really are." There can be no rational argument countering the fact that Obama is the most extreme far-left-radical EVER nominated by a major political party. His election would represent the obituary on an America as we now know it. Greg Neubeck

It is rare to find a genuine attempt at intelligent analysis of the effects of economics on the political process, so I salute your efforts. Obviously, writing for mainstream publications limits your vocabulary, so as a political economist (Stanford '71), I would like to offer a few comments.

The process whereby monopoly capital and corporate policy have gained control over the political process has been going on since the beginning of the US, to wit:

"I hope we shall ... crush in its birth the aristocracy of our moneyed corporations, which dare already to challenge our government to a trial of strength and bid defiance to the laws of our country." (Thomas Jefferson, Letter to George Logan, 1816)

"Corporations have been enthroned. An era of corruption in high places will follow ... until wealth is aggregated in a few hands ... and the Republic is destroyed." (Abraham Lincoln)

"This is a government of the people, by the people and for the people no longer. It is a government of corporations, by corporations, and for corporations." (Rutherford B. Hayes)

"In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist." (Dwight David Eisenhower, farewell speech)

Despite these warnings, after the courts ruled that corporations are persons, corporate rights gradually superseded, then eroded, personal rights. The destruction of our constitution (by domestic terrorists, i.e., the executive, legislative, and judicial representatives sponsored by corporate dollars) has completed this process.

It is curious that, in light of the $811 billion dollar corporate subsidy, you have termed this condition authoritarian capitalism. There is nothing inherently wrong with this characterization, but in political science, when corporations take over control of the state it is called fascism. What we are seeing in the US is the purist form of this: Racism is passe, as long as one worships at the altar of the Golden Calf.

The US has never been a democracy, though it once has some democratic trappings. Initial voting was confined to white male property owners and senators were not determined by popular vote. While the electoral process has been broadened, the selection of candidates has been narrowed by corporate control over the choice of candidates offered by one-party rule (the Democrats and Republicans are the left and right wings of the Captalist Party).

A key event in the transformation of the US from a financial republic to fascism was the formation of the privately-owned Federal Reserve, our so-called central bank. What this means is that it it is in the interest of certain private individuals that the US government borrow money; so, wars and economic crises are encouraged and fomented.

When Bush claimed "Mission accomplished!" in Iraq, he was not wrong; he was expressing the opinion of those he represents: they are profiting on every penny the US government borrows to finance the war and they are profiting on the money the US government spends on armaments to carry out the war. Dropping bombs across an empty mountain range in Tora Bora has nothing to do with bin Laden; it has to do with the profit on automatically reprocured spent armaments. Instead of spending tax monies to benefit the interests of the people of the United States, tax monies are diverted from social programs and infrastructure to corporate coffers.

As noted, this conversion has been in the works for a long time and was greatly facilitated by the creation of the Fed. The mass media in the US (now owned by five or six corporations) has facilitated this process:

"We are grateful to The Washington Post, The New York Times, Time Magazine and other great publications whose directors have attended our meetings and respected their promises of discretion for almost forty years. It would have been impossible for us to develop our plan for the world if we had been subject to the bright lights of publicity during those years. But, the work is now much more sophisticated and prepared to march towards a world government. The supranational sovereignty of an intellectual elite and world bankers is surely preferable to the national auto-determination practiced in past centuries." (David Rockefeller, founder of the Trilateral Commission, in an address to a meeting of The Trilateral Commission, in June, 1991.)

"There is no such thing, at this date of the world’s history, in America, as an independent press. You know it and I know it. The business of the Journalist is to destroy truth; To lie outright; To pervert; To vilify; To fawn at the feet of mammon, and to sell his country and his race for his daily bread. You know it and I know it and what folly is this toasting an independent press? We are the tools and vassals for rich men behind the scenes. We are the jumping jacks, they pull the strings and we dance. Our talents, our possibilities and or lives are all the property of other men. We are intellectual prostitutes." (John Swinton, former Chief of Staff, The New York Times, circa 1880)

Thanks again for attempting to address issues that have been systematically ignored.