Don't Be Fooled: The 2020 Election Has Already Been Decided
Voting booths have already been hijacked by a political elite comprised of
Republicans and Democrats who are determined to retain power at all costs.
The outcome is a foregone conclusion: the Deep State will win and "we the
people" will lose.
by John Whitehead
September 29th, 2020
By John Whitehead
Republicans and Democrats alike fear that the other party will attempt to
hijack this election. President Trump is convinced that mail-in ballots are
a scam except in Florida, where it's safe to vote by mail because of its
"great Republican governor." The FBI is worried about foreign hackers
continuing to target and exploit vulnerabilities in the nation's electoral
system, sowing distrust about the parties, the process, and the outcome.
I, on the other hand, am not overly worried: after all, the voting booths
have already been hijacked by a political elite comprised of Republicans and
Democrats who are determined to retain power at all costs.
The outcome is a foregone conclusion: the Deep State will win and "we the
people" will lose.
The damage has already been done.
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS), which has been tasked with
helping to "secure" the elections and protect the nation against
cyberattacks, is not exactly an agency known for its adherence to freedom
principles.
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After all, this is the agency largely responsible for turning the American
republic into a police state. Since its creation, the DHS has ushered in the
domestic use of surveillance drones, expanded the reach of fusion centers,
stockpiled an alarming amount of ammunition (including hollow point
bullets), urged Americans to become snitches through a "see something, say
something" campaign, overseen the fumbling antics of TSA agents everywhere,
militarized the nation's police, spied on activists and veterans,
distributed license plate readers and cell phone trackers to law enforcement
agencies, contracted to build detention camps, carried out military drills
and lockdowns in American cities, conducted virtual strip searches of
airline passengers, established Constitution-free border zones, funded
city-wide surveillance cameras, and undermined the Fourth Amendment at every
turn.
So, no, I'm not losing a night's sleep over the thought that this election
might by any more rigged than it already is.
And I'm not holding my breath in the hopes that the winner of this year's
popularity contest will save us from government surveillance, weaponized
drones, militarized police, endless wars, SWAT team raids, asset forfeiture
schemes, overcriminalization, profit-driven private prisons, graft and
corruption, or any of the other evils that masquerade as official government
business these days.
You see, after years of trying to wake Americans up to the reality that
there is no political savior who will save us from the police state, I've
come to realize that Americans want to engage in the reassurance ritual of
voting.
They want to believe the fantasy that politics matter.
They want to be persuaded that there's a difference between the Republicans
and Democrats (there's not).
Some will swear that Donald Trump has been an improvement on Barack Obama
(he is not).
Others are convinced that Joe Biden's values are different from Donald
Trump's (with both of them, money talks).
Most of all, voters want to buy into the fantasy that when they elect a
president, they're getting someone who truly represents the citizenry rather
than the Deep State (in fact, in the oligarchy that is the American police
state, an elite group of wealthy donors is calling the shots in cooperation
with a political elite).
The sad truth is that it doesn't matter who wins the White House, because
they all work for the same boss: Corporate America. Understanding this, many
corporations hedge their bets on who will win the White House by splitting
their donations between Democratic and Republican candidates.
Politics is a game, a joke, a hustle, a con, a distraction, a spectacle, a
sport, and for many devout Americans, a religion. It is a political illusion
aimed at persuading the citizenry that we are free, that our vote counts,
and that we actually have some control over the government when in fact, we
are prisoners of a Corporate Elite.
In other words, it's a sophisticated ruse aimed at keeping us divided and
fighting over two parties whose priorities, more often than not, are exactly
the same so that we don't join forces and do what the Declaration of
Independence suggests, which is to throw the whole lot out and start over.
It's no secret that both parties support endless war, engage in
out-of-control spending, ignore the citizenry's basic rights, have no
respect for the rule of law, are bought and paid for by Big Business, care
most about their own power, and have a long record of expanding government
and shrinking liberty. Most of all, both parties enjoy an intimate,
incestuous history with each other and with the moneyed elite that rule this
country.
Despite the jabs the candidates volley at each other for the benefit of the
cameras, they're a relatively chummy bunch away from the spotlight.
Moreover, despite Congress' so-called political gridlock, our elected
officials seem to have no trouble finding common ground when it's time to
collectively kowtow to the megacorporations, lobbyists, defense contractors
and other special interest groups to whom they have pledged their true
allegiance.
So don't be fooled by the smear campaigns and name-calling or drawn into
their divide-and-conquer politics of hate. They're just useful tactics that
have been proven to engage voters and increase voter turnout while keeping
the citizenry at each other's throats.
It's all a grand illusion.
It used to be that the cogs, wheels and gear shifts in the government
machinery worked to keep the republic running smoothly. However, without our
fully realizing it, the mechanism has changed. Its purpose is no longer to
keep our republic running smoothly. To the contrary, this particular
contraption's purpose is to keep the Deep State in power. Its various parts
are already a corrupt part of the whole.
Just consider how insidious, incestuous and beholden to the corporate elite
the various "parts" of the mechanism have become.
Congress. Perhaps the most notorious offenders and most obvious culprits in
the creation of the corporate-state, Congress has proven itself to be both
inept and avaricious, oblivious champions of an authoritarian system that is
systematically dismantling their constituents' fundamental rights. Long
before they're elected, Congressmen are trained to dance to the tune of
their wealthy benefactors, so much so that they spend two-thirds of their
time in office raising money. As Reuters reports, "For many lawmakers, the
daily routine in Washington involves fundraising as much as legislating. The
culture of nonstop political campaigning shapes the rhythms of daily life in
Congress, as well as the landscape around the Capitol. It also means that
lawmakers often spend more time listening to the concerns of the wealthy
than anyone else."
The President. What Americans want in a president and what they need are two
very different things. The making of a popular president is an exercise in
branding, marketing and creating alternate realities for the
consumer-a.k.a., the citizenry-that allows them to buy into a fantasy about
life in America that is utterly divorced from our increasingly grim reality.
Take President Trump, for instance, who got elected by promising to drain
the swamp in Washington DC. Instead of putting an end to the corruption,
however, Trump has paved the way for lobbyists, corporations, the military
industrial complex, and the rest of the Deep State (also referred to as "The
7th Floor Group") to feast on the carcass of the dying American republic.
The lesson: to be a successful president, it doesn't matter whether you keep
your campaign promises, sell the American people to the highest bidder, or
march in lockstep with the Corporate State as long as you keep telling
people what they most want to hear.
The Supreme Court. The U.S. Supreme Court-once the last refuge of justice,
the one governmental body really capable of rolling back the slowly emerging
tyranny enveloping America-has instead become the champion of the American
police state, absolving government and corporate officials of their crimes
while relentlessly punishing the average American for exercising his or her
rights. Like the rest of the government, the Court has routinely prioritized
profit, security, and convenience over the basic rights of the citizenry.
Indeed, law professor Erwin Chemerinsky makes a compelling case that the
Supreme Court, whose "justices have overwhelmingly come from positions of
privilege," almost unerringly throughout its history sides with the wealthy,
the privileged, and the powerful.
The Media. Of course, this triumvirate of total control would be completely
ineffective without a propaganda machine provided by the world's largest
corporations. Besides shoveling drivel down our throats at every possible
moment, the so-called news agencies which are supposed to act as bulwarks
against government propaganda have instead become the mouthpieces of the
state. The pundits which pollute our airwaves are at best court jesters and
at worst propagandists for the false reality created by the American
government. When you have internet and media giants such as Google, NBC
Universal, News Corporation, Turner Broadcasting, Thomson Reuters, Comcast,
Time Warner, Viacom, Public Radio International and The Washington Post
Company donating to political candidates, you no longer have an independent
media-what we used to refer to as the "fourth estate"-that can be trusted to
hold the government accountable.
The American People. "We the people" now belong to a permanent underclass in
America. It doesn't matter what you call us-chattel, slaves, worker bees,
it's all the same-what matters is that we are expected to march in lockstep
with and submit to the will of the state in all matters, public and private.
Unfortunately, through our complicity in matters large and small, we have
allowed an out-of-control corporate-state apparatus to take over every
element of American society.
We're playing against a stacked deck.
The game is rigged, and "we the people" keep getting dealt the same losing
hand. The people dealing the cards-the politicians, the corporations, the
judges, the prosecutors, the police, the bureaucrats, the military, the
media, etc.-have only one prevailing concern, and that is to maintain their
power and control over the citizenry, while milking us of our money and
possessions.
It really doesn't matter what you call them-Republicans, Democrats, the 1%,
the elite, the controllers, the masterminds, the shadow government, the
police state, the surveillance state, the military industrial complex-so
long as you understand that while they are dealing the cards, the deck will
always be stacked in their favor.
As I make clear in my book, Battlefield America: The War on the American
People, our failure to remain informed about what is taking place in our
government, to know and exercise our rights, to vocally protest, to demand
accountability on the part of our government representatives, and at a
minimum to care about the plight of our fellow Americans has been our
downfall.
Now we find ourselves once again caught up in the spectacle of another
presidential election, and once again the majority of Americans are acting
as if this election will make a difference and bring about change. As if the
new boss will be different from the old boss.
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When in doubt, just remember what the astute commentator George Carlin had
to say about the matter:
The politicians are put there to give you the idea that you have freedom of
choice. You don't. You have no choice. You have owners. They own you. They
own everything. They own all the important land. They own and control the
corporations. They've long since bought and paid for the Senate, the
Congress, the state houses, the city halls. They got the judges in their
back pockets and they own all the big media companies, so they control just
about all of the news and information you get to hear. They got you by the
balls. They spend billions of dollars every year lobbying. Lobbying to get
what they want. Well, we know what they want. They want more for themselves
and less for everybody else, but I'll tell you what they don't want. They
don't want a population of citizens capable of critical thinking. They don't
want well-informed, well-educated people capable of critical thinking.
They're not interested in that. That doesn't help them. That's against their
interests. They want obedient workers. Obedient workers, people who are just
smart enough to run the machines and do the paperwork.. It's a big club and
you ain't in it. You and I are not in the big club. .The table is tilted,
folks. The game is rigged and nobody seems to notice.. Nobody seems to care.
That's what the owners count on.. It's called the American Dream, 'cause you
have to be asleep to believe it.
