US Politics: The Regime Question

 

US Politics: The Regime Question

Peter Schultz

 

            According to Aristotle, the most important political phenomenon was something he called “the regime.” There were, basically, six regimes, three healthy ones and three diseased ones. The healthy ones were monarchy, aristocracy, and polity, while the diseased ones were tyranny, oligarchy, and democracy. Now, if that sounds simplistic, it appears that Aristotle agrees because in several books on his Politics, he delineates many more regimes as they come in all kinds of shapes and sizes.

 

            Nonetheless, Aristotle never retracted his original scheme and, so, it would seem worthwhile to wonder how the US could be characterized. And in a moment of clarity, I realized that the best description of the US regime is that it is a murderous oligarchy. I leave to the side whether this description best fits the US political order only recently or whether it is a description that fits the US political order since at least the ratification and implementation of the Constitution of 1787. The Anti-Federalists, those who opposed the ratification of that constitution, proved some ammunition for saying that the Constitution created if not a murderous oligarchy than it certainly established a violent oligarchy. How could a political order founded on slavery and extermination be otherwise described?

 

            What this means is that our regime, our murderous oligarchy colors our way of life, and most importantly is embraced by our political and social elites. So, for example, religion in the US takes on the hues provided by our regime. “Kill a Commie for Christ,” a mantra common in the 50s and 60s, was one illustration of such a phenomenon. And, of course, that President Bush spoke of “a crusade” after 9/11 is another illustration, along with his creation of what he called “an axis of evil.” The evil of terrorism, meaning everyone knew Islamic terrorism, was to be wiped from the face of the earth.

 

            The glamorization of the military and the militarization of our domestic police forces are other illustrations of how our regime, our murderous oligarchy, pervades and influences our lives on a daily basis.  Fighter planes, that is, killing machines fly over our social celebrations like the World Series and the Super Bowl, as a matter of course. People “ooh and aah” as they do and almost no one would say, “Bet they don’t ooh and aah in Baghdad when those planes fly over.”

 

            Since the end of World War II, US elites have been involved directly or indirectly in the deaths of between 20 million and 30 million people in the world. No other nation comes close to that death toll. And, yet, Americans, even those who vote for elites who have taken pride in their capacity to kill people, continue to “pray for peace,” while thinking we are a peaceful people. It would seem, however, that in this regard the American people are delusional. Of course, it would not be the first time a people have been delusional; it would not even be the first time the American people have been delusional.

The Secret of American Politics

 

The Secret of American Politics

Peter Schultz

 

            Here’s the secret of American politics that can’t be expressed without undermining the legitimacy of our governing elites and even the legitimacy of our allegedly exceptional way of life: The American political and social orders have functioned and are functioning as well as they do only by relying on force, deception, deceit, and cunning. To the contrary, it must be assumed and propagated that the American way of life is naturally stable, just, free, and prosperous,  and that these characteristics do not depend on force, deception, deceit, or cunning. As noted, the secret  - that in fact the American way of life depends on force, deception, deceit, and cunning – must be kept secret at all costs because once that secret is out, then the “American dream” will be recognized for what it really is, the American nightmare.

 

            So, some of the most important events in American history are to be seen as aberrations, e.g., crazy, lone gunmen murdering powerful public figures who were rebelling against, challenging the established order, the reigning elite, the oligarchy. Other events, like the Vietnam War, become “quagmires” that the nation was sucked into, not wars of choice undertaken for the sake of creating, preserving, fortifying the stability “the homeland,” the naturally peaceful, stable, prosperous, free, and just “homeland.”

Pete Buttigieg Is Full of Shit

 

Buttigieg Is Full of Shit

Peter Schultz

 

      Pete Buttigieg: ‘A lot of the mistrust in our country right now is the result of policy failure.’ [See the link below.]

            Actually, in this regard Buttigieg is full of shit. He’s dead wrong about why people mistrust “the government.” In fact, they don’t mistrust the government but they do distrust the elites that control the government. And they don’t mistrust those elites because of policy failures, but rather because of policy successes. Among those successes are our endless but optional wars in Iraq, Iran, Yemen, Afghanistan, and Korea. Also among the policy successes is the ever-increasing gap between the wealthy and the rest of us, a policy that lowers the status of the middle and lower classes while raising the economic status of the wealthy.

 

            These policies must be labeled successful because they have, as they were intended to do, kept our oligarchic imperialists in power. In fact, they have fortified the power of those elites, and at the expense of the rest of us and of the nation. It is important to call out Buttigieg’s propaganda, because that’s what it is but also because if we don’t know why and how our elites govern, we cannot change our situation. Electing someone like Biden, who has never shown the least bit of anxiety over the oligarchic imperialism that controls the US, illustrates the problem. Joe cannot possibly correct what’s wrong in the US because he has spent decades endorsing those policies. To think otherwise is to prove one’s naiveté, one’s political ignorance. And, of course, to think otherwise is to ratify, fortify the existing situation.

 

https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/magazine/pete-buttigieg-a-lot-of-the-mistrust-in-our-country-right-now-is-the-result-of-policy-failure/2021/03/26/ec4769b4-7acd-11eb-b3d1-9e5aa3d5220c_story.html