“Our political class does not govern. It entertains. It plays its assigned role in our fictitious democracy, howling with outrage to constituents and selling them out. The squad and the Progressive Caucus have no more intention of fighting for universal healthcare, worker’s rights or defying the war machine than the Freedom Caucus fights for freedom.” Chris Hedges
There was an obscure wedding years ago. The heirs of today’s institutional Republicans and Democrats pledged, to each other, to forsake all others. It probably happened while The Old Schoolhouse Bur Oak was a sapling emerging from the Lexington Limestone of the inner bluegrass. The South Elkhorn ran nearby at today’s Harrodsburg Road and Military Pike. Hedges speaks to achieving neo-liberal domestic policy; the same techniques are needed to gather domestic support for a globalized Washington consensus.
The differences in our two major political parties, with a few exceptions, remain cosmetic. There’s enough bread to keep us fed and plenty of circuses to keep us entertained while some nasty business ensues, at home in the Sixth District, and around the world. Who decides the national interest of the United States is a parochial and insular crowd whose concerns are alien and counter to those of the average American citizen. Foreign and domestic policy aligns with the desires of major political donors. The repeal of Glass-Steagall and the invasion of Iraq are but two of an extended family of cousins.