The Movement Pimps: Blaming Republicans for Being Republicans

Published in Issue 476 of The Black Commentator on June 14, 2012
By Larry Pinkney

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

“Never be deceived that the rich will allow you to vote away their wealth.”
-Lucy Parsons

As the economic and social contradictions of the corporate controlled U.S. political system deepen, the terrible pain of everyday Black, White, Brown, Red, and Yellow people is, and will continue, to concomitantly increase.

Even so, there are those so-called ‘progressives’ and/or ‘leftists’ who are making a comfortable living from the very pain of everyday people. Many of these pundits write, push, and sell their seemingly endless stream of books – books in which we ordinary people are given their allegedly profound observations – which observations our common sense and daily suffering have already made abundantly clear to us. These people are the ‘movement pimps.’ They pontificate from positions of privilege. No names need to be mentioned as it is not difficult to extrapolate as to who they are.

These are the people who always stop just short of calling for absolute and unequivocal systemic change. They are, in real terms, wedded to the system, not its abolition. In these increasingly perilous and horrendous times for everyday people; these individuals are, as the expression goes, ‘having their cake and eating it too’ at the expense of ordinary folks and the people’s movement that they claim to support.

These individuals are adroit at distracting everyday people by pointing out certain injustices of this political system while invariably finding a way to avoid naming, for example, the leaders of both the Democrats and the Republicans for the culprit foxes and wolves that they actually are. These ‘movement pimps’ are in fact the fifth column of the so-called ‘Democratic’ Party.

These pontificating pundits unceasingly blame the Republican Party wolves for being what they are – wolves! Yet, they neglect to consistently and vigorously expose the Democratic Party foxes for being what they are – foxes! These pundits play on the pain and frustration of ordinary people. Thus, their name – ‘movement pimps.’ They know full well that the Democrats and Republicans are simply two sides of exactly the same dirty, filthy systemic coin.

Blaming the Republicans for being Republicans is tantamount to accusingly blaming a tarantula for painfully biting you. That’s what tarantulas do! No surprise there. And that’s also precisely what the Democrats do, but they almost always first apply a bit of numbing Novocain on their hapless victims – before painfully biting the hell out of them. These ‘movement pimps’ are well aware of this euphemistic reality, and they play it for all it’s worth. They are cynical political opportunists.

A recent example of the afore-described scenario was the recent Scott Walker electoral recall debacle in the state of Wisconsin, U.S.A.

Wisconsin – Can You Hear Me Now?!

Both the Democratic and Republican Party leadership are terrified of a genuine groundswell people’s movement. Why? Because they cannot control such a movement, and such a movement would insist upon actualized accountability from them. Heaven forbid!!!

What occurred in Wisconsin should be viewed as neither a defeat nor a victory. Rather, it should be viewed and understood as an important object lesson for and by everyday people.

The leadership of the Democratic Party deliberately and cynically sacrificed the everyday struggling people, who had worked so hard for it in Wisconsin, to the Republican machine. It was no mere coincidence that Barack Obama did not bother to go to, and vigorously support, the groundswell of ordinary people in that state. Why should he? After all, he and the DNC (Democratic National Committee) had bigger fish to fry, which did not include the needs, pains, hopes, and aspirations of the everyday people. Moreover, a groundswell of hard working grassroots organizers are too unruly to manipulate and control – so off with their heads! It was, in a sense, Wisconsin’s own ‘Jeremiah Wright moment.’ Betrayal, lies, and more betrayal.

Additionally, the leadership (or more accurately misleadership) of the unions in Wisconsin were overwhelmingly beholden to the Democratic Party, not to their rank and file membership. Long before ‘election’ day arrived in Wisconsin, the political dice had been cast and the game had been rigged – so off with the heads of the ordinary, everyday people!

There is no sacrifice too great – of and by the ordinary people – when it comes to fulfilling the power whims of the leadership of both the Democrats and Republicans. This is the well-honed politics of cynicism in the United States, and the ‘movement pimps’ who are blaming the Republicans for what occurred in Wisconsin are full of nonsense. What occurred in Wisconsin was simply par for the course in the ongoing cynical con game of Democratic and Republican Party electoral politics, not only in Wisconsin, but nationwide.

Lessons Learned

It should be crystal clear that everyday ordinary people will be repeatedly betrayed in less than a heartbeat by Democrats and Republicans alike, for that is the nature and structure of the corporate-controlled U.S. political system.

Mr. ‘hope and change’- predator drone missile-NDAA-’Kill List’ Barack Obama, will not serve or save the everyday ordinary people of this nation and neither will Mitt ‘the glitch’ Romney, or any other systemic politician. Only everyday people can do this. We must begin by recognizing that this system must be totally changed in favor of ordinary people. Do not be distracted or swayed by the ‘movement pimps’ and pundits, for they, too, are making quite a comfortable living from the pain, suffering, and misery of the people.

We must look to the collective creative abilities of us ordinary, struggling, everyday people. Yes, of ourselves, and to each other. This is not a Hollywood movie. This is real life, and the struggle is, and will be, long and hard, full of obstacles and challenges. Yet, for ourselves, our posterity, and our precious Mother Earth – we must carry on, and we shall ultimately succeed!

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. 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), 107Cowgate (Ireland and Scotland), and Mayihlome News (Azania/South Africa). 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.)