Election 2010: Oligarchy in America

Another story in the New York Times focuses on another front group for GOPer corporate attempts to buy the upcoming election, this time with the typically ironic name of American Future Fund.

But perhaps even more striking is the extremely blunt column by E.J. Dionne in the Washington Post which begins: "The 2010 election is turning into a class war. The wealthy and the powerful started it.

This is a strange development. President Obama, after all, has been working overtime to save capitalism. Wall Street is doing just fine, and the rich are getting richer again. The financial reform bill passed by Congress was moderate, not radical.

Nonetheless, corporations and affluent individuals are pouring tens of millions of dollars into attack ads aimed almost exclusively at Democrats. One of the biggest political players, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, accepts money from foreign sources."

He concludes: "The country doesn't need this class war, and it is irrational in any case. Practically no one, least of all Obama, is questioning the basics of the market system or proposing anything more than somewhat tighter economic regulations -- after the biggest financial collapse since the Great Depression -- and rather modest tax increases on the wealthy. But even these steps are apparently too much for those financing all the television ads, which should lead voters to ask themselves: Who is paying for this? What do they really want? And who gave them the right to buy an election?"


Well, the who is generally clear: the oligarchy is seizing its opportunity to tighten its grip on power. The only question I have is: are they just recently taking advantage of certain opportunities--like the Supreme Court decision Dionne explains as a result of naivete or arrogance, and the successes of the Tea Party movement? Or has this been designed since November 2008?

I wouldn't be surprised if it's some combination. Somebody saw the opportunity that the Citizens United gave the Bushwhacked Court--kind of like Bush v. Gore II, only this time the intent is to steal all elections, not just one.

And Fox came all the way out of the closet, no longer trying to pass as an objective news channel, especially once it created Glenn Beck. But the Tea Party freak shows were probably just political theatre until they helped take Ted Kennedy's Senate seat and won some primaries. Then once Karl Rove got involved, the oligarchy was deep into regime change. After all, the oligarchy and the poor saps who worship Fox and wave their guns and Tea Party banners have at least one thing in common: they're old white racists.

Still, could it really have been an accident that two extremely wealthy ex-corporate execs decided at the same time to try to buy California--and that both are women in this huge and economically crucial state that has a lot of women voters and two women Senators? The oligarchy's ambition might have been to simply get a foothold here. And then suddenly the rest of the country opened up.

Whatever level of conspiracy existed, it's clearly big now. But sorry, Tea Party chumps: you're just plantation labor for the rich. The endgame is the oligarchy.