Democracy con job in America

THE EDITOR: In the wake of the storming of Capitol Hill, there has been a frantic campaign by liberal media celebrities to convince themselves that “this is not America”; that it was a desecration of the hallowed halls of democracy; that nothing like this has ever happened in the land of the (un)free and the home of the…are you kidding me?

In the last year alone armed right-wing mobs have stormed the Michigan and Wisconsin state houses. But, more importantly, what is this talk about American democracy? The very Capitol buildings that are being touted as “cathedrals of democracy” were built by enslaved Africans. Ironic isn’t it?

They are selling us the story that democracy is about elections and fat cat politicians who are spawned by a notoriously corrupt political system based on voter suppression (https://www.britannica.com/topic/voter-suppression); boundary gerrymandering (https://www.britannica.com/topic/gerrymandering) and manipulation of an electoral system that has often thrown up presidents who did not win the popular vote.

In fact, in five presidential elections he who ended up in the White House lost the popular vote (including GW Bush and Trump) and fourteen presidents were “elected” who did not win a majority of the votes, but a plurality.

So, this question of democracy American-style boils down to a handful of oligarchs controlling a system that is designed to maintain an economy based on rampant exploitation of labour, “free” and un-free, based on racial terror and growing class oppression.

This democracy, far from even pretending to be ruled by the people, is really not about the people but in the view of the liberal elites, is about the politicians.

There are dozens of examples of mob violence against the descendants of enslaved Africans before and after the US civil war and continuing up to today in this bulwark of democracy, this shining city on the hill.

It’s all a con job to maintain the power of the American bourgeoisie. The problem is the system has begun to buckle under the strain.

There is ever-growing resistance by large sections of the oppressed and the ruling class is divided as to the way forward and is finding it difficult to keep ruling in the old way. Things are falling apart. Indeed we are living in interesting times.

GERRY

KANGALEE

Rambert Village