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The Kabuki Theater production of "The 2016 Election in The USA" is only a bit more than a year away.  Attention actors:  get your Kabuki masks or makeup early.  The Kabuki-loving crowd in America promises to be a large one.  Come one, come all!

We Americans should be thoroughly embarrassed and ashamed that:  1. we allow this type of charade to take place; and 2. we participate in it believing that "if we can just get the right people in office, things will be much better".  After over 200 years of such thinking, one perhaps would recognize that it just isn't true.  Politicians say what the ad agencies tell them to (after opinion polls, focus groups, etc.), and after the election, they serve their true constituency---the Oligarchy.  Probably 99% of national political candidates are selected, groomed, and financed by the Rich & Powerful.  The remaining 1% quickly are marginalized or eliminated by the Corporate Media and Institutional Inertia.  The Rigged Game then continues.

The sad truth is that voting at the national level in this country doesn't matter at all.  The best and easiest way to send a powerful message to the non-representative Gov't in DC and to the non-elected Rulers in the Corporatocracy is don't vote at the national level.  That truly would shake up the Establishment and show who really possesses the power in this Land.  If we could get voting down to 5% or even 10%, the Powers That Be would have a collective fit.  They would understand that the jig is up.  The propaganda just isn't working anymore.

Of course, I don't expect any of that to happen.  The Edward Bernays style propaganda is too ingrained, too relentless, and too long-running.  Even if it were to be recognized fully, we Americans lost our nerve long ago when it comes to changing a political system which has become corrupted and perverted.  Besides, even though we're still in an economic disaster here, we're too distracted by "hot-button" social issues to care about anything else political.  Plus, we've more or less adapted to stagnant wages and salaries.  Finally, we appear to be distracted by sports events & sports "news", soap operas, "reality" shows, and other similar fluff.  Oh, I almost forgot, we're also distracted by "The Boogie Man is coming".  [Yes, some tragic events have happened...but that has been true throughout History.]

Despite all the above, I still have a dream and a hope that my fellow countrymen (& women) will come to understand several elementary truths, as follows.
1.  Along with our Republic, the old ways in politics are long gone.
2.  A Neoliberal Coup has taken place right under our noses, and it wasn't a "conspiracy".
3.  At the highest levels in politics, the old labels are completely meaningless.
4.  The new political paradigm is the Oligarchy versus the rest of us.
5.  Wealth is being transferred from the poor & middle classes to the upper crust at an unprecedented rate.
6.  Voting will not correct any of the above.  (Neither will violence.)
7.  Only boycotts, shunning, and other means of passive resistance will begin to correct the situation.
8.  Propaganda by the Corporate Media, other mega corporations, and the highest levels in DC is rampant.
9.  Capitalism and Socialism are economic systems, not political systems.  The primary cause of our problems is political Crony Capitalism, not economic Capitalism.  It's the current political system here that must be changed, not the economic system.  [As I pointed out in a previous post, we have a Mixed Economy; we've never had Free Market Capitalism, not even in the days of the "Robber Barons".]
10.  As long as Big Money is pervasive in our politics, politicians (in general) will serve Big Business instead of the rest of us.
11.  The first step in reclaiming our government is to stop drinking the Propaganda Kool Aid.
12.  Our situation cannot be corrected from within the current system.  Before that can happen, Oligarchs have to be shown who really has the power.  Voting will not do that...99% of your choices at the ballot box are servants of the Rich and Powerful.  The other 1% are toast; they will be marginalized by the corrupt cronyism in the current system.

Not only my opinion.  Be Well