IT'S MORE SIMPLE THAN IT APPEARS

It's not complicated; it's corrupt

A letter from my father

What did I learn running for President?

What I learned is that in the midst of a complicated drama involving money, power, and their relationship to politics, lies a fundamental basic theme. The major political parties are shills for the corporate matrix whose financial interests control this country.

The Republicans are worse, given that they are controlled through the auspices of one man, but being better than the Republicans on this issue is a very low bar.

In order to ensure no one gets past the velvet ropes to run as a challenge to the corporate control of this country, the DNC acts like a barker at the door. The party - along with its media minions and an assortment of “useful idiots” in the form of petty political operatives - is ready to beat up and throw to the sidewalk anyone who dares seek entrance to the inner sanctum from whence flows corporate power over Washington.

And we should not be fooled. The will of the people cannot exist in an amicable marriage with the purveyors of corporate tyranny. Either power lies in the hands of the people, or it lies in the hands of corporate lobbyists. When corporate money controls the way a party operates, the way mainstream media filters information and the way social media manipulates public opinion, we the people become quaint and powerless bystanders to the swirling forces that rule our lives.

The greatest challenge of our generation is to break the back of the soulless corporate behemoth that now holds Washington hostage, for it has weaponized the US government against the people of the United States. The acquiescence of so many to the DNC’s shadowy, Wizard of Oz-like directive that no challenge will be tolerated to its decision that Biden is the chosen one and that’s it - in some cases in the naïve belief that if Biden is reelected and the Democrats get two more seats in the Senate, then they could pass a version of Build Back Better and all will be well! - tells us everything we need to know about our ability to stage the peaceful revolution from within the party.

We must break the corporate duopoly and 2024 is the time to do it.

Even now, the President cannot remember that Macron is alive and Mitterrand is dead, Helmut Kohl was not Angela Merkel, and President Sisi governs Egypt and not Mexico. But I assure you, the corporate machine will pay no heed. It will, if necessary, replace one playing card with another like a magician well-practiced in his or her trickery.

The Republican and Democratic parties of my youth no longer exist. They have been hollowed out from within by the undue influence of corporate money, leaving America with two major categories of disturbed citizens. One is a majority now shackled by invisible chains of economic insecurity. Translation: “That should be enough to shut them up.” The other is a minority of decent Americans on both Left and Right who are ourselves economically unshackled, yet aware it’s a serious problem that so many are. Translation: “Keep them distracted by meaningless preoccupations, and punish severely anyone who dares question what’s happening.” Both are flummoxed in disbelief that things have gotten this bad. Some of us are numb, and some of us are about to blow.

Hundreds of millions of people live lives at risk of irredeemable damage because the juggernaut of privatization views their well-being, indeed their lives, as essentially dispensable. One way or the other, this will not stand. In the words of John F. Kennedy, “Those who make peaceful revolution impossible make violent revolution inevitable.” Whether that revolution is peaceful or violent is up to us.

As a candidate for the Democratic nomination for President, I tried to wage that peaceful revolution. There is no doubt in my mind that the desire to break the chains of corporate tyranny is a desire shared by millions of Americans. Our opponent is a wily one, audacious and even cruel. But the desire for freedom that lives in our hearts - freedom from the controlling hand of corporate dictates over our health care, our food, our safety, our education, our environment, indeed over the avenues to either war or peace - is a power that has illumined this country since its inception. Such power right now is inadequately harnessed for political purposes, but the story of America is in no way over. A sleeping giant is about to awaken and all of us must be its awakeners.

Let us not be defeated; let us be creative. While some have suggested I “go rest” now, I have little desire to do so beyond enjoying the luxury of sleeping in my own bed for longer than two days in a row. There is no time to lose. And while I don’t at this point have a formal role in staging the peaceful revolution, I still have the power of the pen at my command and I intend to use it.

Photo outside the zodiac of Dendera, by Jimmy Demers