Confusion! (Part 2)

Since 1980, status quo has been dominating the political climate of the United States, in an upward trend, with a sharp upswing at each presidential election of both parties. There are various ways for the State (establishment) to ensure the selected few stay in power. In addition to control of the media, keeping votes in the hands of the supporters of such nominees has been the policy of the government from the beginning. We know that the constitution excluded majority of people from voting, keeping the ballots excluded to male Anglo-Saxon landowners. People’s struggles against this discriminatory law for more than hundred years, from 1868 to 1972 forced legislators to pass amendments 14, 15, 19, 23, 26, and to call the Poll Tax unconstitutional. However, the establishment found other ways to keep economically disadvantaged people excluded from the voting process. It may help to consider voter turnout in US presidential elections since 1828:

1828             Andrew Jackson       57.60%

  1832                Andrew Jackson      55.40%

    1836                Martin Van Buren      57.80%

      1840           William Henry Harrison     80.20%

 1844                   James K. Polk      78.90%

 1848                   Zachary Taylor     72.70%

1852                  Franklin Pierce     69.60%

     1856                  James Buchanan      78.90%

    1860                  Abraham Lincoln     81.20%

    1864                  Abraham Lincoln     73.80%

    1868             Ulysses S. Grant         78.10%

    1872                Ulysses S. Grant      71.30%

      1876             Rutherford B. Hayes      81.80%

    1880               James A. Garfield      79.40%

    1884                Grover Cleveland      77.50%

    1888                Benjamin Harrison     79.30%

    1892                Grover Cleveland      74.70%

    1896                William McKinley      79.30%

    1900                William McKinley      73.20%

       1904             Theodore Roosevelt       65.20%

     1908             William Howard Taft      65.40%

     1912                  Woodrow Wilson      58.80%

     1916                  Woodrow Wilson      61.60%

     1920               Warren G. Harding      49.20%

   1924                 Calvin Coolidge      48.90%

  1928             Herbert Hoover         56.90%

      1932          Franklin D. Roosevelt       52.60%

      1936          Franklin D. Roosevelt       56.90%

     1940          Franklin D. Roosevelt       58.80%

     1944           Franklin D. Roosevelt      56.10%

   1948              Harry S. Truman         51.10%

       1952           Dwight D. Eisenhower       61.60%

      1956           Dwight D. Eisenhower       59.30%

   1960               John F. Kennedy        62.80%

    1964              Lyndon B. Johnson       61.40%

 1968                 Richard Nixon        60.70%

 1972                 Richard Nixon        55.10%

 1976                   Jimmy Carter       53.60%

    1980                   Ronald Reagan      52.80%

    1984                   Ronald Reagan      53.30%

      1988             George H. W. Bush        50.30%

1992                       Bill Clinton      55.20%

1996                      Bill Clinton       49.00%

    2000                  George W. Bush      50.30%

    2004                 George W. Bush       55.70%

    2008                 Barack Obama         57.10%

    2012                  Barack Obama        57.50%

(Source: wikipedia)

 

As the table shows, at any given time about 20% of qualified voters never participated in elections at any given time (since the above statistics were available). In addition, in most of the presidential elections, close to half of qualified voters did not participate in presidential elections! If we are satisfied with these ratios, then we should attack militarily weaker countries and export our democracy. If we are not, we may read Richard Wolff’s “Democracy At Work” and Noam Chomsky’s “Manufacturing Consent” to find a reason for this trend! A comparison of voter turnout rate with four other “democracies” paints a sadder picture for the US, as the country with the lowest rates among the five:

(source: wikipedia) 

 

It is evident from the graph that the trend of voters participation has declined in each country (except India), which reflects recent voters apathy worldwide, due to many factors, including austerity measures. It can be discerned from the above chart and graph that political apathy in the US is more than any other industrial country. This lack of appetite in voting is not only by choice, but also by design. A government is a product of the system, regime, or state. In some dictatorial countries, the dictator is both the state and the government. In some others, such as in Iran, the dictator is not the government, but it may install the government (at least in most cases).

Since 1980, when leaders of two most powerful countries of the world, one declining and the other flourishing empire, chose a path of irreversible right-wing politics, the world started turning for the worst. With the collapse of Soviet Union as a result of the famous perestroika and glasnost (which was destined for collapse, like any other dictatorship letting some fresh air in) a new world order started headed with the US hegemony. Many of the icons of the Left were either bought up by the rich and the powerful, or they gave up in despair. Some just threw their arms in defeat, and in order to sidetrack their setback, they heralded Capitalism as the best political and economic system. Many of them left behind their social equality beliefs after they tasted wealth and prosperity. Some accepted the theory of “The End of History” of Francis Fukuyama. No wonder that in May 2012 French election a Socialist party took the office, a party that seems to be more conservative than the governments of Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher combined! Past 33 years has been a blow to all democratic and liberal institutions. Needless to say that some Leftists have no ideology, training, or education in the cause they claim to spouse. Of course, they can easily be derailed or persuaded. It is still fashionable to quote from Marx and Lenin, without having read or understood any of their writings. It seems that carrying such epithet feigns an air of intellect. The main problem is that people no longer read! When wikileaks discloses atrocities of the governments, Assange becomes the target of a man hunt, and every news organization talks about him (or Snowden or Bradley Manning) in order to distract the public from the real issue of “The Big Brother”. This creates confusion among people and increases the wave of apathy or submission.
Eisenhower, a World War II army general, before becoming the 34^th US president, warned us about Military- Industrial Complex. Who knew that someday in addition to Military- Industrial Complex in terms of weapons, we would have more Army- Industrial Complex or shadow army (which benefit more when there is more wars), Health- Industrial Complex (that benefits more when there are more sick people), Prison- Industrial Complex (that benefits more when there is an increase in number of people jailed), Education- Industrial Complex (where only rich people can get education), and privatization with the eventual object of monopolizing of agriculture, media, communication, entertainment, and every aspect of one’s life, with the eventual outcome of replacing democracy with corporatocracy. When there is a military quo in Egypt replacing unpopular government of Moslem Brotherhood, it was not the will of people to have a military quo, but to replace that government with a secular one. The military quo creates the confusion of why people would select a military dictator to replace a religious dictator (such as the case of the Iranian revolution that a religious dictator replaced a Monarchial dictator, which turned out to be worse). Iranian election of a several weeks ago was another confusing moment since the elected president was the best of the candidates, but still far off from who people would wish to have as a president. The religious leader wisely decided not to rig that election this time around! Anyone who followed George Zimmerman’s trial realized that there was not any indication to connect his act to racism. Anyone who lives in the US however, can easily figure out that the murder of Trayvon Martin’s was racially motivated. If George Zimmerman walked in the more “white” and “affluent” neighborhood, he could be the target of a racial attack himself! Being fearful of talking about race, Obama blames 'guns' in Martin’s case. In the international scene, some wonder why every country in the Middle-East turns into a religious government after the toppling of a dictator. As far as the industrial West is concerned, enemy should be kept alive in order to received popular consent of the governments' aggressive and war mongering policies. "Home-grown Islamic Terrorists" should be aided to fight as a mercenary, against a government that is not bowing to the West's every wish; secular governments with  a disliked dictator such as Saddam Hussein or Gadhafi or Assad. That would also give the government a visa to go well beyond its borders and kill innocent people by drones. It is an old and working policy for governments to divide people by race, religion, sexual preference, ethnicity, and wealth, in order to conquer them. In addition, a certain naïve and "colored" nationalism that exists among less educated, as well as among those who share the majority of the wealth of the nation, produces a blind trust of the policies of the US government.  Therefore,  We need to search behind every news bit, and check responsible media for information related to everything that we hear from the established media. It is up to us to educate ourselves, turn to responsible websites, and keep our governments on check in order to clear confusions.