Another Election Sham in Police-State ‘America’

Published in Issue 493 of The Black Commentator on November 9, 2012
By Larry Pinkney

“The pretense in disputed elections is that the great conflict is between the two major parties. The reality is that there is a much bigger conflict that the two major parties jointly wage against large numbers of Americans who are represented by neither party and against powerless millions around the world.”
-Howard Zinn

“…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

The November 6, 2012 election sham in this NDAA, police-state, ‘America’ amply demonstrated 1) the insidious two-party dictatorship and stranglehold of and by the corporate owned, symbiotically-joined, Democratic and Republican parties; and 2) it highlighted, to the discerning observer, the enormous (almost evenly split) division and polarization in the so-called ‘popular vote’ on the part of those eligible voters that participated in this election farce. Keeping the people controlled, polarized, and divided is of course precisely how the Democratic and Republican parties maintain their political dictatorship.

Hideously, billions of dollars were spent by Barack Obama and Mitt Romney in this ‘election’ sham even as joblessness, home foreclosures, economic austerity, corporate hegemony, and perpetual U.S. wars continue – unabated. Yet again, the everyday ordinary Black, White, Brown, Red, and Yellow people of this nation have been shamelessly pimped and sucker punched. The corporate-stream media raked in many millions of dollars by propagating this election sham even as the ordinary people of this nation remain in the political and economic death-grip of corporate owned, war mongering Democratic and Republican parties.

Due, in very large measure to the U.S. corporate-stream media’s strategic omissions, diversions, obfuscation, and complicity, most U.S. citizens remain utterly unaware of, or even how, Barack Obama and the Democratic and Republican party misleadership of this nation have, in reality, made null and void our perceived civil liberties, and our constitutional, human and political rights. They remain unaware of the NDAA (National Defense Authorization Act of 2012), signed by Barack Obama on December 31, 2011, with its provision mandating that U.S. citizens, and anyone else in this nation, can be indefinitely imprisoned without charge, jury, judge, or legal defense. Moreover, they remain unaware of the bloody, unconscionable and horrific ramifications, for U.S. citizens and non-U.S. citizens alike, of Barack Obama’s despicable and unconstitutional ‘Kill List.’ They remain unaware of how this war mongering corporate Trojan horse Barack Obama, in the name of “hope,” “change,” and of moving “forward,” has shredded the U.S. Constitution and will soon seek to shred Social Security for the poor, the disabled, and the disenfranchised. Obama, and his Democratic and Republican cohorts and corporate-stream media allies, will pursue these actions in the very name of moving “forward,” through the repeated and incessant use of subterfuge, double-speak, and disinformation, just as he adroitly shredded the single-payer universal health care option, despite the expressed wishes of the huge majority of people in this nation.

Dancing in the blood of the people

The collaboration, by certain so-called “progressives” and “leftists,” with Barack Obama and the corporate owned U.S. Empire must never be forgotten, for theses persons are not covered, in the words of Jonathan Jackson, by “the mantle of ignorance.” They, like Obama and his Democratic and Republican cohorts, are the de facto purveyors of economic austerity, the U.S. police-state, and perpetual U.S. wars abroad. No doubt their motives may vary, but demonstratively, they have nothing whatever to do with serving the urgent legitimate needs and aspirations of ordinary people in this nation and throughout Mother Earth. The Empire must be ended at home and abroad – NOW!

As they celebrate Barack Obama’s systemic election sham victory, they are in fact dancing in the blood of the murdered peoples of Libya (North Africa), Somalia (East Africa), Pakistan, Syria, Bahrain, and Yemen, etc. They are also dancing in the blood and agony of the many political prisoners right here in this nation, even as they pretend to be so concerned about the economic and social well-being of the ordinary people of the United States!

Some of these so-called “progressives”/”leftists,” including much of the ‘black intelligentsia,’ in their unswerving and unprincipled support for re-installing Barack Obama as head of the U.S. Empire, astoundingly argued that “The 2012 Elections Have Little To Do With Obama’s Record…” In fact, Obama’s record as head of the U.S. Empire is one of war, corporate hegemony, the NDAA, the ‘Kill List,’ and constant hypocrisy and subterfuge. Thus, how could anyone in their right mind genuinely or seriously argue that “Obama’s record” is of “little” importance?!

Nevertheless, these so-called “progressives/leftists” urged that – Obama the Democrat – be re-installed, rather than calling for serious, real, and unequivocal systemic change NOW! Their actions indicate that they do not want to end the Empire – they want to join it. They cannot have their cake and eat it too. Either they support the U.S. Empire or they do not. There is no in-between. I reiterate, these persons “are not covered by the mantle of ignorance” and the blood of the peoples of this nation and world soaks them completely.

So, as they celebrate Obama’s sham ‘election’ victory – think of them and know who and what they really are, and what they have done by collaborating with the Empire! As each and every one of Barack Obama’s predator-drone missiles dismembers bodies and kills babies, women, old men, and entire families – be sure to remember these Obama supporters. With each and every victim of Barack Obama’s extrajudicial ‘Kill List’ – remember these so-called “progressives” and “leftists,” for there is no acceptable rationale on Mother Earth that can excuse their actions! As Obama’s police-state apparatus grows ever more insidious and stronger here in this nation – remember their betrayals. Do not forget it for even a moment. But also keep in your mind and heart that this is a long and protracted struggle, and that there have always been those betrayers of the aspirations, and of the foot soldiers of the everyday people’s struggle. Ultimately however, the struggle by everyday people of all colors will be triumphant!

With all the afore described corporate and fraudulent so-called “leftist” support, it was certainly no surprise that Barack Obama was re-installed. As I made clear in an October 26, 2012 interview, in all probability, the corporate-owned war president, Barack Obama, would be “re-installed” because he is (for the historical moment) “the perfect ghetto uprising insurance” and is an insidiously effective “Trojan horse” for the U.S. and global bloodsucking corporate elite.

Our task remains to stay principled and determined in this struggle. Do not become side-tracked or disheartened! We must intensify, for in some respects, this 21st century aspect of the people’s struggle has only just begun!

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

Larry Pinkney is a veteran of the Black Panther Party, the former Minister of Interior of the Republic of New Africa, a former political prisoner and the only American to have successfully self-authored his civil/political rights case to the United Nations under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. In connection with his political organizing activities, Pinkney was interviewed in 1988 on the nationally televised PBS News Hour, formerly known as The MacNeil/Lehrer News Hour, and more recently on the nationally syndicated Alex Jones Show. Pinkney is a former university instructor of political science and international relations, and his writings have been published in various places, including The Boston Globe, San Francisco BayView newspaper, Black Commentator, Intrepid Report, Global Research (Canada), LINKE ZEITUNG (Germany), 107 Cowgate (Ireland and Scotland), and Mayihlome News (Azania/South Africa). He is in the archives of Dr. Huey P. Newton (Stanford University, CA), cofounder of the Black Panther Party. For more about Larry Pinkney see the book, Saying No to Power: Autobiography of a 20th Century Activist and Thinker, by William Mandel [Introduction by Howard Zinn]. (Click here to read excerpts from the book.)