If Americans were actually in charge, there would be some option available to them to end the Israeli genocide in Gaza. But when it comes to matters of such importance, they never get a vote.
Polling station in 2020. (Alachua County, Flickr, Public domain)
By Caitlin Johnstone
CaitlinJohnstone.com.au
Listen to Tim Foley reading this article.
The Biden administration has reportedly approved an Israeli assault on Rafah, the last slightly safe city in the Gaza Strip, and is openly preparing to work with Congress to punish the International Criminal Court for seeking arrest warrants of Israeli officials for war crimes.
President Joe Biden is a monster who belongs in a cell at The Hague.
I talk about Biden’s criminality a lot, but I should probably clarify that I don’t do so because I believe Donald Trump or even Robert F. Kennedy Jr. would be acting with any more kindness toward the people of Gaza if they were president.
All three of the arguably viable U.S. presidential candidates are virulent Zionists who have all made it clear that they would back Israel’s genocidal atrocities with adamant fervor.
A lot of fuss gets made over the West’s brand of democracy. Wars of aggression have been waged under the banner of spreading it throughout the world and allowing the people to control what their government will do.
But what you very seldom see discussed in mainstream discourse is the fact that there are a great many issues that this form of so-called democracy never allows the people to vote on.
Biden with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Tel Aviv on Oct. 18, 2023. (The White House, Public domain)
The genocide in Gaza is arguably the single most urgent matter in the world right now — partly for how horrific it is in and of itself, and partly for its potential to explode into wars which would bring far greater devastation to the region.
But nobody’s allowed a vote on whether this will continue or not, even in the heart of the U.S. empire which is making it all possible.
The only candidates who stand any chance of getting elected are all committed to making sure this mass atrocity continues, because if you ever want to get anywhere near the presidency you have to make a whole lot of deals with powerful forces who were never elected by anybody.
And this just says so much about the nature of this “democracy” — a word which literally means “rule by the people.”
Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. at a campaign rally in Phoenix in December 2023. (Gage Skidmore, Flickr, CC BY-SA 2.0)
If the people were actually in charge, there would be some option available to them to end the worst thing happening in the world right now. But the people are not in charge. When it comes to matters of the most importance, they never get a vote.
Americans don’t get a vote on whether or not vast fortunes should be poured into funding a war machine which stretches around the globe; the option is never on the ballot.
They don’t get to vote on whether or not the drastic action needed to prevent environmental collapse should be taken.
They don’t get to vote on whether or not the U.S. empire should be escalating against nuclear-armed nations such as Russia and China with ever-increasing aggression.
They don’t get to vote on whether the wealthy should be getting richer and richer while the poor have to struggle harder and harder to survive.
They don’t get to vote on whether the wealthy should be allowed to use their wealth to influence political affairs in a way that gives them more and more wealth and power.
They don’t get to vote on whether they should have their minds pummeled with empire propaganda 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year by rich and powerful people who are invested in manipulating the way they think, act, vote, shop and work.
Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Jan. 28, 2020, in Washington for the unveiling of the Trump administration’s Middle East Peace Plan. (White House, Shealah Craighead)
They don’t get to vote on whether their police force should be getting more and more militarized, or whether the surveillance practices of the U.S. intelligence cartel should be getting more and more intrusive.
They don’t get to vote on whether the U.S. should have the highest incarceration rate in the world and the profoundly unjust legal system which gives rise to it.
They don’t get to vote on whether the internet should be getting more and more consolidated and censorship-heavy as Silicon Valley megacorporations move into more and more collaborative relationships with the U.S. government.
They don’t get to vote on whether there should be billionaires when there are people living on the streets.
They don’t get to vote on whether their government should be encircling the planet with hundreds of military bases and working to destroy any nation which disobeys it while their own people struggle and suffer at home.
If you want to vote on something the powerful don’t care about, there’s a possibility that your vote might have some sway. You might have some tiny degree of influence over women’s reproductive rights, for example, or whether or not gay people can get married.
But when it comes to the mechanisms of the imperial machine like war, militarism, propaganda, oligarchy, capitalism or authoritarianism, your hand will get smacked away the instant you move to touch them.
So it’s not really democracy then, is it? It’s not really rule by the people if all the most important and consequential decisions are made by forces with no accountability to the electorate, while the people are confined to a toddler’s playpen in the corner arguing about pronouns and fatphobia.
And what really sucks is that so many people believe this is freedom and democracy. The people will never know freedom until they first understand how profoundly unfree they really are.
Caitlin Johnstone’s work is entirely reader-supported, so if you enjoyed this piece please consider sharing it around, following her on Facebook, Twitter, Soundcloud, YouTube, or throwing some money into her tip jar on Ko-fi, Patreon or Paypal. If you want to read more you can buy her books. The best way to make sure you see the stuff she publishes is to subscribe to the mailing list at her website or on Substack, which will get you an email notification for everything she publishes. For more info on who she is, where she stands and what she’s trying to do with her platform, click here. All works are co-authored with her American husband Tim Foley.
This article is from CaitlinJohnstone.com.au and re-published with permission.
The views expressed are solely those of the author and may or may not reflect those of Consortium News.
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The two major parties in the U.S. (and similarly in Eur, Oz) are run by a cabal of econopath encouraging neolibs and Empire supporting neocons. Thus we have political choices that run the whole gamut, as was said by Dorothy Parker about an actress, from A to B.
We live in a system that considers human and natural resources as externalities, things to be used up for corporate profit, remains tossed aside as an acceptable economic collateral damage. Where war is profitable for the few, as Gen. Smedley Butler and Pres. Eisenhower warned us, democracy is in peril. Especially when the elite isn’t personally affected by the use of the young as cannon fodder to preserve privilege. We’re kept away from revelations how this destroys the foundation of a common good. And from actual democracy because we the demos would vote “NO!”
But I VEHEMENTLY DISAGREE with the nasty portrayal of struggles about personal image and identity issues as “a toddler’s playpen.” Such phrases help keep the gate locked!!! I actively oppose right wing white men who expect conformity to what they they want us to consider natural–their superiority. I also reject white male armchair leftist theoreticians who consider it their right to tell us lessers what to do. They who have never had to fight for decades to be acknowledged for what they are. Unlike we who are BIPOC. Or LGBTQ. And who have never held a tool in their lives, unlike people like me who have decades of experience as a blue collar worker. Those letter designations do not preclude aligning with issues of class. It’s not a simplistic and politically clumsy either/or, with us/against us, our group all good/so opponents by definition must be wrong, bad, evil. I know as all of the above there are bridges, not barriers. As did MLK about his alliance of Black and working class.
“They don’t get to vote on whether or not the U.S. empire should be escalating against nuclear-armed nations such as Russia and China with ever-increasing aggression. They don’t get to vote on whether their government should be encircling the planet with hundreds of military bases and working to destroy any nation which disobeys it while their own people struggle and suffer at home”
The U.S. has been infiltrated and is controlled by a foreign power—International Jewry/Zionism and its vanity project, Israel! The Zionist Jews are the ones controlling and using the U.S. as their muscle (and as their personal piggy bank to fund their military endeavors in Gaza and Ukraine) to help them attain their goal of bringing the entire world under the control of their globe-spanning criminal enterprise in order to satisfy the supremacist cravings of their diseased minds. The U.S. has not been in control of its own destiny for over a century (since Woodrow Wilson signed the Federal Reserve act in 1913), and virtually all of the atrocities it has committed since then are a reflection of the will of its conquerors—the Zionist Jews!!!
Unfortunately, the vast majority of Americans have their heads firmly planted where the sun doesn’t shine, therefore, they are completely oblivious to just how unfree they really are and equally oblivious to the very dark, dystopian future that awaits them if our present trajectory remains unaltered. I sincerely hope that Russia, China and the rest of the BRICS alliance are up to the challenge of reestablishing a multipolar world; if they are not, the world is doomed. And, even if we manage to avoid nuclear annihilation, from where I stand, a unipolar world under Zionist/U.S. control (as we have seen for the past thirty years), will not be a world worth living in. Under their totalitarian rule, what little freedom we have left will die on the vine and they will use their zombie military to brutally crush any resistance—needless to say, you will not get to vote on that!!!
I agree that the war loving establishment pretty much has a lock on government at this time. However there will be another candidate on the November ballot: Jill Stein. Her poll numbers are significant and her anti-genocide position is making her increasing popular. Several other green party candidates are also running for federal office.
About sixty years ago I came home from school to communicate to my father the need to vote for a school bond initiative being lobbied by our teachers. The only thing I remember my father explaining to me was that in the United States the only tax the people get to vote on is whether or not they want their kids educated.
“So it’s not really democracy then, is it? It’s not really rule by the people if all the most important and consequential decisions are made by forces with no accountability to the electorate, while the people are confined to a toddler’s playpen in the corner arguing about pronouns and fatphobia.”
So let’s call it “masked fascism”, an evolution of authoritarianism, rather than oppressing people it gives the idea people are in control. Clever.
I doubt, however, that if people are given the right to decide over military and security issues it would change anything; just a tiny minority seems to oppose US/EU security decisions in Ukraine and Gaza; perhaps, if you give those same people the power to decide over life-and-dead situation without all the information the elite has they would make even worse decisions.
We cannot always blame the elite if people don’t speak up, people have the chance if they want to, if they want to they could make the anti-war movement so big that no elite in this world could ignore, denigrate or silenced; reality is, in a materialistic society, most just don’t care and they become complicit in genocide and any crimes their leaders commit.
A materialistic society fulfills the most basic evolutionary needs of humans (security, abundance, etc) to care for the outgroups requires to move beyond the “animalistic and rudimentary way to perceive reality”. Very few things distinguish us from animals, one being the ability to feel empathy for our “enemies”.
In a dictatorship people cannot be held responsible for the crimes of their leaders, but in a democracy the people are responsible of their leaders’ crimes, and the elite knows it.
We kick, we scream as we see our “paradise” melting as it is engulfed in flames, but today at the expenses of hundred of thousands that are suffering, we are getting a glimpse of what reality is, a better distinction between illusion and reality
You might consider that “animals” do not have enemies. They may face predators, but that does not fulfill the human definition of enemy. One of the things I despise about the Old Testament is the continual yapping about enemies.
What distinguishes us from other animals is that NO animal lives in its head, ignoring material reality. We are not the only species to use tools, we are not the only species to use symbolic language, and we are not the only species to feel empathy. All that differentiates us is our profound ability to lie to ourselves. So gifted at self-deception as an anthropologist put it.
Hope you don’t mind if I disagree in some points: animals (even insects) deceive (and self-deceive), lie, have enemies and engage in wars, particularly against the same specie (for resources, etc), for example chimpanzee with war lasting even years, killing without mercy; we do everything animals do, but we do it better and brought it to a new level. Very few things separate us from animals, empathy towards our enemies or people that potentially might hurt us (animals do?), planning way ahead into the future (but perhaps animals do to to some extent), transcendence (but who can prove animals do not transcend naturally their existence) I remember prof Sapolsky was a celebrity in that field.
I need to rewrite a little better my comment, it is awful how I write in English and somewhat disrespectful, but I wish they had the edit tool:
“So it’s not really democracy then, is it? It’s not really rule by the people if all the most important and consequential decisions are made by forces with no accountability to the electorate, while the people are confined to a toddler’s playpen in the corner arguing about pronouns and fatphobia.”
So let’s call it “masked fascism”, an evolution of authoritarianism, rather than oppressing people it gives the illusion people are in control. Clever adaptation, like a parasitic-aggressive mimicry.
I doubt, however, that if people are given the right to decide over military and security issues it would change anything; just a minority seems to truly oppose US/EU security decisions in Ukraine and Gaza. Perhaps, if you give to population the power to decide over life-and-dead situation, without all the information the elite possesses, they could end up making much worse decisions.
We cannot always blame the elite if people don’t speak up; in a “democracy” the true power lies outside the establishment realm, the government offices, it is a bottom up process which grows on the streets, plazas, parks not at the voting booth. People have the chance to speak up if they want to, they could make the anti-war movement so big that no elite in this world could dare to ignore, denigrate or silence; reality is, in a materialistic society, most just don’t care and they become complicit in genocide and any crimes their leaders commit. Perhaps, they know it, and perhaps the cognitive dissonance makes it harder.
A materialistic society fulfills the most basic evolutionary needs of humans (security, abundance, etc), to care for the outgroups requires to move beyond the “animalistic” and rudimentary way to perceive the reality. Very few things distinguish us from animals, one being the ability to empathize with our “enemies”, to understand a part of ourselves we fear or hate the most.
In a dictatorship people cannot be held responsible for the crimes of their leaders, but in a democracy the people are responsible for their leaders’ crimes, and the elite knows it.
We kick, we scream as we see our “paradise” melting as it is engulfed in flames, but today at the expenses of hundred of thousands that are suffering, we are getting a glimpse of what reality is, a better distinction between illusion and reality
We do not live in a democracy in the United States. The government-controlled mainstream media spreads fundamental lies about the world through the corporate-controlled media and far too many people think they’re getting the truth about current events. They are not. They are completely brainwashed. We are not responsible for decisions made by people we either did not vote for, or — even worse — people who we were misled into voting for by lies. Your saying that we are “getting a glimpse” is pretty fatuous when this “glimpse” is nothing new. The “elite” have always hated the working class and even the middle class — a class that has pretty much disappeared in the United States and has definitely vanished in captive NATO Europe. Your lack of understanding of this fact aptly proves the point that the ruling class is the enemy of the majority of people. So stop apologizing for them. You are the problem.
I acknowledge my role in the problem; I long to be a part of the solution. Yet, engaging in online discussions across multiple platforms and conversing with friends about refraining from supporting Israel and Ukraine falls short of actively contributing to the solution.
Daily, in front of the financial institution where I work, there is a frumpish old man holding a Palestinian flag and a sign that reads “STOP THE GENOCIDE, BRING THE MURDERERS TO JUSTICE…” Sometimes, we bring him coffee, pastries, and occasionally some “extra rewards” (from a third party). We would be sacked if someone from our institutions does that. At times, I wish to join him, but if I do, I would most likely lose my privileged life… Having the system providing for me and my family is a strong incentive not to do the “right thing”.
What did you do to excuse yourself from “being part of the problem”?
What you have done to save Russians, Ukranians, Palestinians, how far did you go?
did you call your community to take the street? did you take the street?
did you join university students in their quest for peace?
What did you do?
US is a democracy, Biden has been lawfully elected, in a representative democracy power is at the top, and majority takes it all, the country is run according to the majority’s will; and the majority (and most “minority”) in US are anti-Russia, war mongers, and pro-Israel. What for you (the minority) is a lie, for the majority is the truth.
I agree in one thing, our style of democracy is flawed, as well as the perception of it. If the culture, the education, the social system is “dysfunctional”, inevitably the population in a democracy will elect “dysfunctional” leaders, who can do more evil than authoritarian regimes.
Democracy is not a solution, a cure, good or better than, it is just a tool that might, under certain circumstances, be better than other systems
The tragic part, for humanity, in general, is that Americans are actually in charge.
They make up the clandestine authority; they are the undecover regime; agents of the now globlal plutocratic oligarchy, and working solely in their interests.
It’s been obvious for a long time that voting in the USA is just ritual which never changes anything. Whether team D or team R puts someone in the White House or dominates Congress, we always have another war some place, homelessness always grows, rich people and giant corporation s get more privileges.
The wars are always murder campaigns, killing vast numbers of civilians (“collateral damage”P. That’s why our politicians cheep on the current Gaza Massacres: its nothing tghe US hasn’t annually.
Exactly the same in the UK, and I imagine the same throughout all the western regimes.