The Twisted Paradigm of ‘Hope and Change’ in the U.S.

Published in Issue 518 of The Black Commentator on May 23, 2013
Republished in Moorbey’z Blog on May 23, 2013
Republished in thepeoplesvoice.org on June 4, 2013
By Larry Pinkney

“…the two parties have combined against us to nullify our power by a ‘gentlemen’s agreement’ of non-recognition, no matter how we vote…May God write us down as asses if ever again we are found putting our trust in either Republican or the Democratic parties.”
–W.E.B. Du Bois

“What better way to enslave a man than to give him a vote and tell him he’s free.”
–Albert Camus

Many men and women in the U.S. have, in the main, repeatedly allowed ourselves to be hoodwinked and bamboozled by a power elite that has consistently been diametrically opposed to the interests, serious needs, and human rights of everyday ordinary Black, White, Brown, Red, and Yellow people nationally and globally.

The Democrat and Republican parties are the active tools of the callous, calculating, and parasitic national and global corporate / military power elite. Time and time again we everyday people have fallen prey to the distortions, obfuscations, distractions, and outright lies of this power elite. Time and time again we have been relegated to playing the role of being the victims of the vicious systemic game of ‘rope-a-dope.’ Time and time again we ask ourselves: How did this happen? How were so many of us so thoroughly fooled yet again?

In this year of 2013, the U.S. power elite continues the policies of hypocrisy, systemic terror (both at home and abroad), perpetual wars, incessant disinformation, covert and overt corporate domination, and the economic, political, and social emaciation of everyday ordinary people.

So how did this happen and how are so many so thoroughly fooled yet again? The establishment’s power elite, through its corporate-stream media and ‘educational’ institutions, has force fed and continues to force feed everyday people in this nation (and throughout the world) a steady diet of unmitigated systemic vomit designed to confuse, control, and dis-empower ordinary people. Mr. ‘hope and change’ Barack Obama has now openly demonstrated that he is none other than drone man, ‘Kill List’ Barack Obama. But to discerning persons, this comes as no surprise, as the study of history combined with common sense amply warned us that his ‘hope and change’ was nothing more than a cover for the system’s ongoing ‘ropes and chains.’ The systemic murders of our babies and young people, be they Black, White, Brown, Red, or Yellow, continues unabated both here and abroad. This, and so much more, represents the horribly twisted paradigm of ‘hope and change’ in the U.S. in this year of 2013.

Instead of there being ‘transparency’ in government, the Barack Obama regime has engaged in, and continues to engage in, a systematic pattern of stripping away the constitutional and human rights of the people of this nation, flagrantly violating the sovereignty of nations and international law around the world, imprisoning people (without due process) at the U.S. gulag torture chamber at Guantanamo, and continuing the ongoing brutal imprisonment of U.S. political prisoners – all in the fallacious name of ‘hope and change’ and supposedly fighting ‘terrorism’ under the guise of unending deceit.

On May 21, 2013, Coleen Rowley, the former FBI special agent and division counsel who was named as one of Time Magazine’s “Persons of the Year” in 2002, publicly stated in relevant part,

Despite long-time warnings that the Obama administration’s ‘war on whistleblowers’ had become a ‘war on journalists,’ and the government’s admitting, in the course of the Bradley Manning court martial, that it would treat the New York Times the same as WikiLeaks — given the fact that WikiLeaks has been secretly indicted for publishing information pertaining to the U.S. government — the U.S. media has obviously not taken the full First Amendment implications seriously enough. The jarring wake-up call only comes with news of the FBI dragnet investigation targeting several AP reporters’ and editors’ communications in connection with a story about a foiled terrorist plot in Yemen and the revelation that FOX News chief Washington correspondent James Rosen was himself considered a co-conspirator for having aided and abetted a leak of information about North Korea…It seems the U.S. has nearly regressed to the Nixon mentality when his Department of Justice sought court orders to stop the printing presses upon 19 different newspapers’ successive attempts to publish the “Pentagon Papers.” In some cases governmental secrecy shields illegal actions and there are numerous examples but in other cases, the drive to ‘shape the message’ through its own tightly controlled press releases, high-level spokespersons and sometimes even through its own system of ‘leaking’ to favored reporters, is simply more secrecy for secrecy’s sake. …For instance, the increasing secrecy being employed by the Obama administration to prevent scholarly and judicial review of the Office of Legal Counsel memos that purport to ‘legalize’ its “lethal targeting policies” along with his administration’s creation of due process-free ‘kill lists’ on a global battlefield works in much the same way as the Bush administration’s once hidden series of OLC ‘torture memos.’ Once those OLC ‘torture memos’ were finally made public, they were then used as officials’ ‘golden shield’ to prevent accountability under the notion that officials were just following ‘legal advice.’

This too, represents the twisted paradigm of ‘hope and change’ in the U.S.

The Right/Left Systemic Trap

Notwithstanding their endless staged rhetoric, the fact is that most of the leadership of the so-called right and left in this nation do NOT seriously want everyday people in this nation to substantively unite with one another in order to bring about real systemic change that benefits all ordinary people. In fact, this ‘leadership’ does not want ordinary Black, White, Brown, Red, and Yellow people to communicate directly with each other sharing our common experiences and common needs. It’s all about keeping us separated and distrustful of one another within the narrow confines of the power elite’s enslaving Democrat and Republican parties and their crony corporate-stream media propagandists. This is how everyday people are bamboozled and kept controlled and ultimately powerless.

Moreover, the Democrat and Republican parties do not, in reality, represent anything other than slightly varying versions of the same blood sucking systemic slime. In this regard there is absolutely no such thing as the ‘lesser of the evils,’ as they are both systemically evil and need to be consciously relegated to the dustbin of history by everyday people.

The twisted paradigm of ‘hope and change’ is actually a well-honed systemic model of perpetual deceit and hypocrisy, and it matters not who the power elite’s male or female figure-head is. The end game is always the same and will remain so until the system itself is changed by we everyday ordinary people.

The Fake Left and the Reactionary Right

For the most part presently, even the leadership (which is really the misleadership) of both the so-called left and right in this nation, who claim that they are not beholden to the Democrats or the Republican parties, act as systemic tools. Like their counterparts in the Democrat and Republican parties, they fear the potential and power of ordinary everyday people actually uniting in and for their common interests.

While the misleadership of the reactionary right plays upon the systemically ingrained fears of ordinary people, the misleadership of the left (including many so-called ‘progressives’ with their endless books) talk down to the people – instead of talking with the people – fearing perhaps that they will somehow lose their self-perceived status of being supposed ‘intellectuals’ and/or ‘leaders’ if they dare to communicate in the powerful and plain language of everyday ordinary people.

The misleadership of much of the left is particularly notorious in this regard. They relish their ability to use high-sounding ideological terms which everyday people generally do not use. They write and speak using a vocabulary that is essentially alien to everyday people. The more high-sounding their ideological rhetoric the more many everyday people are alienated from them. While this might be gratifying to their own egos it certainly does not empower or serve the needs of everyday ordinary people. Most of the people of this nation are not graduates of Harvard, Princeton, MIT, or Stanford and the like. We are simply ordinary struggling people – ‘the salt of the earth.’ And if real systemic change is to be brought about in the U.S. it will overwhelmingly be as a result of the consciousness, collective leadership, and sacrifices of just such ordinary everyday persons – not the other way round!

The fear mongering by the misleadership of the reactionary right and the de facto snobbery and elitism by much of the misleadership of the so-called left, serve to reinforce the perpetuation of this corrupt and vile U.S. political system. Moreover, it virtually goes without saying, that the obscene support by many ‘progressives’ and much of the so-called left, of drone man, ‘Kill List’ Barack Obama is an obscenity and serves to perpetuate the power elite’s system of the Democrat and Republican party’s economic and political stranglehold on everyday people in this nation.

Breaking Free From the Chains of Our Own Systemic Oppression

The bitter irony of being held captive in this perpetual cycle of systemic oppression in this nation is – that it is we everyday ordinary people ourselves who are the only ones who can break free from it.

The politicians of the Democrat and Republican parties, the corporate-stream media, and even much of the so-called ‘progressive’ alternative media are tools of the U.S. power elite. They do not serve the legitimate needs, hopes, and aspirations of everyday Black, White, Brown, Red, and Yellow people. Nor do they want genuine systemic change.

It is time for everyday people to strategically submerge our differences, collectively band together, and struggle to bring about real systemic change that improves the lives and well-being of ordinary people in this nation and throughout our precious Mother Earth. This is, and will be, a long, hard, and protracted struggle – but it is absolutely essential.

Each one, reach one. Each one, teach one. Onward, then, my sisters and brothers. Onward…!

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