Tuesday, August 02, 2005

17. So the current state of legal corruption, is really supported by both political parties, the Democrats and the Republicans together?

Yes, sadly this is overall true, though there are some variances, and some USA politicians who 'break the mould' and are a bit different, able to speak some of the radical truths their colleagues never said.

It used to be harder for USA people to accept and digest this, given how it was common for many people to imagine that one of these two parties really 'represented' them or their views.

American legal corruption has become so entrenched, because there have been a lot of political fakery and illusions helping to hold it up.

As you look for help for your situation in being a victim of America's crooked legal system, you run smack into another ugly truth about American life. Not only does America have a basically fake legal system, pretending to be fair while really working for big corporations; America also has long had a basically fake political system - two big 'political parties' that pretend to be different, but they are really 'two wings on the same airplane', despite their ability to excite public emotions based on the different 'sales image' each party has developed.

This is already known, subconsciously, by a large segment of the American people. It's why so few people vote in America, why sometimes even the majority of people don't vote. Many people feel, down deep, that the two big parties are really the same, and that little changes regardless of which party is in the White House or Congress.

And regarding the other, smaller, third parties, or independent candidates, it seems that they rarely have any realistic chance or hope of winning, as corporate media hides the existence of these parties, and even obscures after elections, how many votes the various small parties and independent candidates receive. Corporate media tries to do very little news reporting about this, because otherwise people might vote for the alternatives and one of them might even win.

Plus for some decades now, US citizens have had much basis to suspect vote fraud in various places and ways, ranging from mis-counted or destroyed paper ballots to hacked voting machines.

So many people feel better not voting at all. Not voting is a way to deny the legitimacy of elected politicians, whom people sense do not care about common folks.

 Differences between the two parties, have often largely been smoke and illusion. Both parties really agree on most all issues that are important to the rich people and big corporations. That's why you often see certain pieces of legislation get passed on near-unanimous votes, if it affects big corporations and wealthy investors. This particularly applies to the military industry, the war machine, and some foreign policy matters.

On the other hand, there is a certain game being played, a game of illusion about certain issues which excite a lot of emotion with some voters, but where the big corporations either don't really care, or in which the results are pre-managed despite the heated debate. A typical issue in this line is firearms, the set of alternatives ranging from gun restrictions to increasing the rights to carry concealed weapons.

Such issues inflame the passions of millions of people, and make them vote passionately for either Republicans or Democrats. Such issues help people to imagine that one of the two big parties 'represents' them. But such issues are in part smoke and mirrors, designed to deflect and detour the average person's mind, from the bread-and-butter issues, and the issues of government surveillance and control and budget, that are important to the profits of the big corporations.

Another thing that happens is that - in what seems to be a betrayal of the original US Constitution - politicians let the courts be the deciding branch of government. Politicians often like being able to throw up their hands and say, 'Well, the courts decided, and we can't do anything about it just yet . . .' Since leading politicians claim they are helpless before the courts, of course the average person feels even more helpless. The US Congress does not like to be reminded that in fact they have unlimited power to toss out federal or Supreme Court judges who have been twisting around or ignoring the Constitution, inventing law from the judicial bench.

For decades, the same powers keep running America: The big corporations, using judges and legislators, get what they want. And not much is said by most politicians about the dominance of big companies and wealthy political donors, and the crimes of judges and lawyers, but most especially the latter is a forbidden topic.

Although there are ways the two major political parties are somewhat different, in that they are vehicles for disagreements in strategy amongst the billionaires. Much like your high school sports teams would have a rivalry with the high school on the other side of town, the two political parties serve as forums for different kinds of thinking and social experiments that rich people are running. Different policies can be tried in different states, and the oligarchs can see what works out. The two parties also let the rich people have a little variety in what lies are told to the common people via the media, and which lies seem to be more effective. Oligarchs can learn over time, what kind of political manipulations work better.

But overall, though the two parties cultivate images that are different, basic policies over decades are yet more similar than the images suggest. To a degree, both parties try to be somewhat like blank computer screens for their voters, so that people can imagine whatever they like on the screen. For a century now if not longer, many people have judged that the two parties 'are both playing the same crooked game', but don't know what to do about it.

Every political season in the USA, sees the start or promotion of little third parties, many of them with good ideas, but these parties hardly get off the ground. Such parties typically don't get money from the big corporations, they don't get media coverage, and they get attacked by the big parties with all sorts of legal challenges, so they have to spend whatever little money they have in the courts, fighting lawsuits just so they can get on the ballot. And the voters are regularly reminded that voting for anyone except the two big parties is a 'wasted' vote. So voters, just like many victims of the USA courts, are made to feel helpless and hopeless, unless they imagine that one of the two big political parties 'represents' them.

It is very different in Europe, for example, where there are often many distinctive political parties, and because of proportional voting in most European countries, even a small political party can get seats in a parliament, and become a part of government or at least parliamentary debates. But that's not allowed in the USA, where the two big parties control everything, and third parties or candidates will not get represented even if they get huge percentages of the vote.

And then there is the problem of trying to work 'within' the two big parties. For millions of Americans who try to get involved in politics, they may spend their entire lives trying to make either the Republicans or the Democrats a little different, trying to influence the policies of the big party a little bit on some issue. But much of this energy is sadly ineffective. In the end, most legislators of the two big parties vote in the way that the lobbyists for the big corporations tell them to vote.

People in America cling desperately to one of the two big parties, despite the evidence, because otherwise they may feel really hopeless and depressed. It is a comfort to imagine that one of the political parties really does care about you. But when you become a victim of judicial or legal corruption, you will find out how much the big parties really don't care, about corruption, about injustice, or about you.

Despite some national politcians breaking through the barriers, the USA has long been a country with only one political party, but a party that has two factions or branches, the Democratic branch and the Republican branch. As populist Huey Long said nearly a century ago, it is like being in a restaurant with only one kitchen, but two different troupes of waiters to serve you. The big corporations pay for both political parties, to keep the show and the illusion going. But the two parties mostly represent the same big corporations and the same policies.

At times there are opinion polls in America showing that people are 30 or 50 per cent or even 70 per cent in favour of something, but yet that policy has 'no support' in either the Democratic or Republic party in Congress. It is all too obvious at times, that the two mainstream US parties are at odds with the American people.

And the subject of judicial and legal corruption, with millions of victims, is one of those issues where the two big parties basically won't do anything.

That's why you usually hit the brick wall when you go to your politicians with clear-cut evidence and total proof of felony crimes that have been committed, by some lawyer or judge. Usually, the politicians won't touch it, they won't help you. They just refer you right back to lawyers and judges.

But, you tell the politicians, you already went to the lawyers and judges, and the judges are ignoring you and no lawyer will help you.

Too bad, say the politicians, they never 'interfere with the courts'. And then they might play the dishonest game of saying that, because no lawyer is brave enough to help you, it must be because you don't deserve to get help. So the politicians become one more group signalling to you that you are alone and abandoned. Politicians and their staffs get a lot of practice in ignoring legal system victims, and that is why they can seem outright bored as they ignore you, just like they ignore the many other victims who approached them before.

There's no effective opposition to the judges in America, because there's no effective grass-roots political opposition for the common people against the system. The two supposed 'political parties' are really factions of one party, a party that belongs to big corporations and the wealthiest investors, who are the powers behind the judges and lawyers who are serving those rich people, but abusing you.

In any country with only one political party, the judges end up being a tool for servicing that one party, and maintaining its power over the people. And that can be said to be what has gone wrong in the USA. The USA needs more than reform of its judges and legal system. The USA republic needs more political democracy, so that there is real political opposition, not just the fake 'battle' between two parties that get their money from an inter-linked mafia of oligarchs, and which basically have the same policies in terms of serving those oligarchs.

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