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America’s Two-Headed One Party System

"Ralph Nader occasionally shares an anecdote about the time he told his father that what America needs is a good third party.
'I’ll settle for a second,' his father replied."https://t.co/iwicX8CPwR

— Caitlin Johnstone (@caitoz) December 14, 2019

America’s “Two”-Party System Is Like Bill Cosby’s Routine About Beating His Children

Today I just want to make the simple observation that America’s two-headed one-party political system is a lot like an old stand-up bit Bill Cosby once did about beating his children.

After painting a scene in which his children bicker and fight in defiance of their mother’s instructions, Cosby said the following:

“My wife turns around, grabs a yardstick. She holds it like a samurai warrior. She then makes an announcement that the beatings will now begin by saying, ‘I have had enough of this!’ Now these three brain-damaged people have the nerve to look surprised. My wife is… [imitates yardstick being thrown]. Children run everywhere.

“Now my job is, I am the goalie. The children come at me, I kick ’em back into play. Now the beatings are over, not because I see my wife, but because I hear all of upstairs going: [Imitates sobbing.]

“Now here’s the funny part: my wife comes downstairs with the broken stick, throws it on the table, sits down and begins to talk out loud to nobody: ‘Gonna tell me that you’re not going to do something when I tell you to do something. I mean, you move when I say move. Think I carried you in my body for nine months so you can roll your eyes at me? I’ll roll that little head of yours down on the floor. You don’t know who you’re fooling with. I’ll beat you until you can’t grow anymore.’ “
....
“Now my job is, I am the goalie. The children come at me, I kick ’em back into play.”

Does this sound familiar?
Does it sound kind of like the Democratic Party?
Does it sound like the party which draws in voters who are looking to escape from the abusive, violent, warmongering, climate-killing, oligarch-coddling Republican Party, only to “kick ’em back into play”?

That’s the Democratic Party’s job. The Democratic Party is the goalie. Whenever the victims of America’s corrupt status quo start looking for an exit from the abuse, the Democratic Party’s job is to block that exit. It blocks that exit by offering up the promise of social justice, economic justice, advocacy for the working class and progressive reform, and then it actively neuters all attempts to make that happen. Attempts such as electing a progressive candidate to lead the party in a direction that actually reflects the will and interests of the people, for example.

Democrats sometimes accuse me of claiming that both parties are exactly the same, but that’s not true at all. The parties fulfill two very distinct roles in the administration of the beating: one wields the actual yardstick, while the other one acts as the goalie. One openly advances warmongering, ecocidal agendas of the billionaire class, while the other advances all those agendas more slyly while nullifying any attempt by the populace to thwart them.

A refresher of why the democrats won't let Tulsi into the debate. We owe her so much for taking down Harris. She tried going after Warren, but the media cut her off. And when she finally qualified for the next one the DNC changed the rules on her. It's not just Bernie who should speak out about this, but Biden should also say that it's not fair to exclude her. Bernie has pivoted to talking about the only two people left out of all the candidates and totally overlooking that there is a true woman of color still running. Come on Bernie. Step up.