Washington plays good cop-bad cop

 

 

Conservative journalist Tucker Carlson breaks down South Carolina Republican Senator Lindsey Graham's Afghanistan resume.

In this case Carlson (intentionally or not) shows how political hacks from both parties justify and promote endless war. 

The clip in the video has Sen. Graham sitting next to a self-righteous Obama while declaring his support for a 35,000 troops surge in Afghanistan soon after the new president came into office. It is a moment to remember.

Carlson doesn't say this - but I will - the game in Washington is largely political theater. They play good cop-bad cop and usually disagree on social issues like abortion, school prayer, Covid masks or not, and the like.

But when it comes to the big money - $1 trillion a year for endless war - you see the two parties miraculously reaching 'bi-partisan consensus'. 

It's virtually the same with domestic economic policy - both parties stick together. They won't even allow a vote on Medicare for All, they let the rich hide from paying their fair share in taxes, Dems and Repubs hand-out massive corporate welfare, and they talk big about dealing with climate crisis but then do little to punish the corporate polluters or recognize the problem from the Pentagon's huge carbon bootprint.

In the end, to quote the great comedian (and social critic) George Carlin, 'It's a rigged game'. 

I like to think of Congress (and the White House) as a Hollywood TV series that you'd find on Netflix. The Dems and Repubs have their scripts and talking points. They know their job is to divide the public against itself in order to protect corporate oligarchic power. They get paid to carry out that mission and have been doing a damn good job of it for a long time - all the while maintaining the illusion that we have 'Democracy' in America.

For me the way out of this dark tunnel is to acknowledge the truth. Sort of like AA's 12-step program. They begin each meeting with, 'Hello, my name is so-and-so and I am an alcoholic'.

The American people need to learn to say, 'Hello, I'm an American and our nation is addicted to deceit, endless war, control and domination at home and abroad, and the feeling that we are the greatest nation in the history of planet Earth. We are not'.

Cough, cough..... 

Bruce