In Washington, the State of the Union projected an elaborate show — a conclave of the powerful, acting out an impressive ceremony. From the POV of an anthropologist — say, from the planet Xenon — I’m wondering: What is fair analysis of the big meeting in Washington last Wednesday night?
The Xenonian anthropologist, I’m thinking, in observing the State of the Union crowd, would try to understand: Why, in a great nation of 300 million, does this particular tiny group of individuals have the reigns of power? A brief investigation would reveal that in this tribe everything seems to have to do with something called money. The Xenonian anthropologist would want to know: Why, in this society, do some individuals have a lot of money, others a moderate amount of money, and the vast majority not nearly enough money?
In our society what is hard to see, with all the focus on partisan political differences and partisan bickering, is that, in actuality, there is great consensus within our ruling political elite. Our Xenonian anthropologist would learn that the impressive State of the Union ceremony, for the most part, was a gathering of vassals. The actual lords of the realm were elsewhere, out of public eye, pulling the strings.
The ruling elite are the Party of Money. This Party has the actual power and it transcends and controls both the Republican and Democratic Parties. Over the years, this Party of Money has gained the upper hand in the corridors of power, via campaign finance laws, via gerrymandering, via sophisticated and very effective propaganda, via corrupt political parties.
Many who worked to elect Obama, thinking he would act to represent the interest of average people and bring “change,” now are bitterly disappointed. This could be a transforming moment in our nation when, because of their great disappointment with Obama and the Democratic Party, millions begin to have their eyes open and begin to realize our democracy is ineffectual, and begin to see that the Democratic Party is part of the problem. Millions are concluding that the Democratic Party, in large part, is simply another front for the Money Party.
As I explain here, the local Party has been taken over by special interests and acts antidemocratically. An antidemocratic Democratic Party is easy pickings for the Money Party, and the Montgomery County Democratic Party organization, I imagine, is typical of the entire Democratic Party.
Those Democrats disgusted with the Democratic Party need to begin to work hard to reform the Party to make it the Party of democracy, the Party of the people. Where better to start than here in Montgomery County?
