Throughout American history, small groups, I term Capitalist Power Elites (CPEs), have had the decisive influence on all aspects of society, especially governments and politics.
America’s national politics has two major power groups: elected officials and the wealthy who want to expand and protect the benefits bestowed upon them by the governments.
American Racism is a vile American social, governmental and political reality. Commonplace racists normally have specific targets for their ire, i.e., Black Americans; but “99%” of them have no power to harm their targets directly. Certainly, Blackness and poverty augur a spiritual or physical death sentence for many descendants of slaves. However, America’s CPEs, plutocrats today, as a group, are not fundamentally racists – they are far worse for America and, thus, Black Americans, than are racists.
CPEs will exploit racism, or any other negative societal factor for their own benefit. Racism, contrary to the popular view, is not the principal driving force in the CPE philosophy – profit-making, intensified by greed, is! Elites want people, irrespective of race, color, creed, gender, immigration status or other distinctions, to be interchangeable components in the financial equations they control that generate greater profits and other advantages for the wealthy. Elite actions do relentlessly worsen harm to groups that are already suffering from various disadvantages.
The Jim Crows Laws pit poor whites against poor Blacks and helped poor whites justify their hatred of freed slaves and overrode their capacity to understand that America’s rulers were exploiting poor whites also. Note that white women, originally a non-elite and but exploited grouping, got the universal right to vote 50 years after Freed Slaves. Consider also that the people who paid minimal wages to “illegal immigrants,” which fueled immigration and Mexican-xenophobia, were not blacks or other minorities; instead, they were white owners of the businesses and homes that profited from lower labor costs.
A handful of rapacious citizens came to control all that was worth controlling in America. Honest, industrious, peaceful citizens were classed as bloodsuckers, if they asked to be paid a living wage. The American Dream turned belly up, turned green, bobbed to the scummy surface of cupidity unlimited, filled with gas, went bang in the noonday sun. (Kurt Vonnegut)
CPEs have an intricate and vast set of overlapping cliques that cannot be limited to elected and appointed officials. These real rulers own, control and manipulate the formal entities that make up local, state and national governments. America’s rulers constitute a smaller group than ever and have more in common with rulers in other nations than they do with their “Fellow Americans” so frequently touted in campaign speeches. Only 2% of America’s lawmakers hail from the working class, a huge change over the past few decades and an anathema to the founders.
In 1941, President Roosevelt said: We must especially beware of that small group of selfish men who would clip the power of America in order to increase their own wealth.
Greed is stronger than compassion and patriotism. During one of the worst economic downturns since the Great Depression, the Koch brother’s wealth increased by more than $33 billion in just three years.
Current and aspirant leaders who assert themselves as examples of virtue and national salvation, yet live decadent, self-serving lives, are especially loathsome, for they are then prepared for every other crime against humanity. They are true traitors to the American Creed and detrimental to civic responsibility. Ordinary citizens have proven to be relatively powerless subjects of manipulation by those entities. The longer frauds live such hypocrisy and the more benefits, cheers and “honors” deceived citizens heap on them, the less probable it is that they will ever change.
We have become like sheep, because “honor” them we certainly do! In 2016, only 9% percent of Americans expressed “a great deal” or “quite a lot” of confidence in Congress. Nevertheless, that year in the general election, the incumbent reelection rates were 98% for house members and 93% for senators.
Rulers of the nation who lack human sentiment and, thus, are devoid of authentic nationalism, represent the lowest rung in civilized society. Whether they wear bibbed overalls, white hoods, judicial cloaks, sheriff uniforms, business attire, religious mantles, or legislative garb, when they do wrong, however sincerely they express their sentiments, and no matter how popular their cause may be in certain circles, real Americans should stand up in opposition. Authentic Americanism, bastardized now, must be redefined as those who do not support, ignore, or pander to anyone who would fragment “We The People” into hostile factions and retard the development of our sense of a national community. I especially loathe that national power has become a corrupting, constraining influence on the effectiveness of the most local community leadership, the only hope for national survival.
