The revolt of the oligarchs

The Republican Revolution has been kind to the oligarchs who rule America. The Fortune 400, the 400 wealthiest people in America, now control 50% of the wealth of America and even the least amongst them is a multi-billionaire. Their investment in getting their servants, the Republicans, elected to office, appears to have paid nicely.

That said, the oligarchs appear to be getting nervous. Their servants have started to become arrogant and started to believe their own propaganda. The last time this happened, they got their servant Richard Nixon fired by having one of their own, former Naval Intelligence officer Bob Woodward, publish details of Nixon's corruption. Once again, they've started pulling out the stops. Once again they've sent in their hired gun to smear the President (not that it takes much to smear the most incompetent and most corrupt President since Ullyses S. Grant). And now comes the latest: an article in the house organ of the oligarchy, Time Magazine, taking whacks at the Republican legislature in general.

Clearly the oligarchy is worried. While Republican rule has been kind to their pocketbooks, allowing them to amass more personal wealth than 50% of the American public combined, the continued degeneration of Republican competence to what is now a level that is astounding only in that these people all somehow managed to graduate from college (talk about your grade inflation!) is a threat to that pocketbook. The massive costs of the Iraq and Afghan wars, the enormous budget deficits, the lack of investment in infrastructure needed to help them live a good life with their wealth, and, more importantly, the possibility of public disorder if the economy and government infrastructure utterly collapses as appears likely if the Republicans continue to rule, have all combined to alarm them.

Especially the possibility of public disorder. The last time that happened was in 1932, when a Communist revolution appeared to be certain due to the collapse of the Republican order into corruption and incompetence. To prevent a revolution then, the oligarchs had to put forth programs and compromises that went far beyond what they were comfortable with. But better to offer semi-socialist solutions via FDR's "New Deal" than to have the Communists take over and strip them of their wealth and power altogether -- and that's what anything less than the New Deal would have resulted in.

They don't want the situation to get to the point this time where another "New Deal" is necessary to prevent revolution. They want to remedy the situation early, before they have to once again give up a huge chunk of their wealth and power in order to keep the peasants from storming their gates and hauling them out and hanging them from the nearest oak tree. Thus the latest sabre-rattling by the various old-line oligarchical institutions.

The only question is whether the Republicans will give up power voluntarily, or whether they will instead defy the oligarchs and cling to power by any means necessary -- by ANY means necessary. Already the Busheviks have some assets in their corner that prior regimes opposed by the oligarchy did not have -- their own propaganda networks, their own armies of brownshirted storm troopers willing to do anything for their Dear Leader and His holy annointed administration, and, most importantly, control over the voting machines that count the votes in major swathes of the country. No longer is it necessary to have operatives in each and every precinct in order to stuff the ballot box. One little 'if' statement in the programming for every electronic voting machine in the country suffices. However, it is unclear if the Republicans are going to be able to hold on to their nifty little ballot-stuffing machines past the current election. The oligarchy has started to take steps ("verified voting", paper trail requirements, etc.) that render that null and void.

As for democracy, no such thing exists in America. We get to vote for candidate A or candidate B, both of whom are candidates due to their ability to gain financial support from the oligarchy. We vote for candidates that the oligarchs choose for us, rather than for the best person for the job. Instances of true democracy in America are very rare, and typically happen only in unimportant local elections in small towns where candidates can individually meet every single voter. This nation was founded by men of wealth and means who revolted against their rightful government because said government wished to take back rule of the colonies from the wealthy and powerful men who ran them, and its government was deliberately set up so that the oligarchs who created and funded the American Revolution could retain their wealth and power into perpetuity.

For the most part, they succeeded, thanks to a propaganda effort astounding in its thoroughness and thanks to their willingness to allow the "little people" the illusion of freedom. This is how it has always been, and how it will always be. Us little people have about as much power as ants to change this, as long as the majority believe the propaganda that tells them that they are free -- despite all evidence to the contrary.

-- Badtux the non-oligarchical Penguin