By Henry McRandall
WRISEUP.COM
The desperate and rapidly declining circumstances of so many in the Other 99 Percent — in both the U.S. and Canada — gives rock-hard testimony to the urgent need for a truly leftist alternative on both sides of the longest “undefended” border in the world.
While the corporate mainstream media, the captive public education systems and the jack-in-the-pulpit Kochsuckers of “Christian” conservativism like to portray the Democratic Party in the U.S. as “leftist” or “liberal,” the simple truth of the matter is that it has never been a “leftist” party and “liberals” have never been anything more than an ineffective minority in the party.
And with the gangster banksters and the corporate robber barons — the psychopathic millionaires and billionaires who make up the Top One Percent — now free — thanks to SCOTUS’ Citizens United decision — to spend as many tax-deductible dollars as they wish buying politicians, there is little hope that there will ever again be any real difference between the Democrats and the Republican Teabaggers, except in rhetoric.
While the rhetoric of the Republican Teabaggers may be harsh and savage, the rhetoric of the Democrats aims at being more soothing to the ears of the poor, the working class and even much of the middle class. But actions speak louder than words. And the history of the last 36 years shows that while Democrats talk the talk of a working-class hero — especially when out of power — they invariably fail to walk the walk of the working-class hero once they have gained power. True, they might not be as gleeful or as vindictive as the Republican Teabaggers toward the beleaguered masses but a Three Dressed Up As A Nine is still a Three. The prettier words fail to compensate for the destructive content of their deeds.
Amerikkka has never really had a viable leftist party; and on the last occasion — more than half a century ago — when the mass impetus existed that might have led to the evolution of a viable leftist party, the power of the right-wing Establishment elite was unleashed with such force as to possibly permanently preclude such an eventuality from ever arising again. It was the early 1950s and demagogic, extreme-right-wing psychopath Wisconsin Republican Senator Joseph McCarthy led a witch-hunt against alleged “communists” that led to the illegal blacklisting, the destruction of the lives and even the imprisonment of thousands of innocent Americans — primarily in government, in the entertainment industry (former U.S. president Ronald Reagan — then the B-grade president of the Screen Actors’ Guild — personally destroyed the lives of hundreds of innocent people in the entertainment industry), in the education system and in organized labour.
The wrath of the psychopathic corporate capitalist elite — brought to bear upon the masses by their puppet political prostitutes — was expressed with such lethal violence that the aftershocks may yet prevent any political party from ever popping up in Amerikkka that might put the legitimate needs and rights of the Other 99 Percent — the Americans — ahead of the illegitimate and immoral greed and incessant, illegitimate demands of the Top One Percent — the Amerikkkans.
Similarly, Canada does not have a real leftist political party. True, it does have a couple of parties — the NDP (New Democratic Party) nationally and the sovereignist Bloc Quebecois/Parti Quebecois in Quebec — that claim to be “social democratic.” But are they really?
In the U.S., while the Republican Teabaggers are committed to ensuring that the poor and the working class never get more than five crumbs collectively off the banquet table of the socioeconomic elite, the Democrats promise to give them 10 crumbs, and insist that’s the best deal in town. In Canada, the Conservatives promise to hold the poor and the working class to just five crumbs collectively; the Liberals promise 10 crumbs; the NDP and the BQ/PQ one-up to 11 crumbs. And while the Republicans Teabaggers and their Canadian sister Republicans always manage to keep the allotment at five crumbs or less when in power, the Democrats in the U.S. and the Liberals, NDP and BQ/PQ in Canada never quite manage to get that allotment any higher than six or seven crumbs. Because, like the so-called Socialist Parties in western Europe, North America’s supposedly “progressive” parties have already made their peace with Reaganomics — with Neoliberalism/Neoconservatisism — with so-called “supply-side” economics — with so-called “trickle-down” economics. Like their right-wing brethren, so-called “progressive” North American politicians have also been bought and paid for.
What none of these parties are willing and able to understand and to accept is that the poor and the working class deserve and demand more than just a few crumbs. The poor and the working class have just as legitimate a moral claim to a seat at the banquet table as the almost unanimously criminal and psychopathic Top One Percent.
But they will never get a seat at the banquet table until they have the option of electing a government that will put the need of the masses ahead of the greed of the elite — a leftist government. And they will never have that option until all private money — from banks and corporations, from unions, and even from individuals — is banned from the political arena and Americans and Canadians have true democracy — the right to choose from among legitimate leftist, centrist or moderate, and rightist options, all equally and entirely funded out of general tax revenues.