Opinion | The Second American Revolution
The Second American Revolution
©2022 by Vernon Miles Kerr and VernonMilesKerr.com
America, (even as a group of 13 colonies) has always been an experiment in #Capitalism.
Each of those projects to colonize a part of North America’s Eastern edge—whether ostensibly for religious purposes of not—was funded as a speculative collaboration between the merchant class and monarchy. And, each speculation proved to be an unqualified success for both— from a business standpoint.
Unfortunately, one of the two partners (or both) became greedy and wanted a greater share of profits. The royal side had the power of the military, the merchant-class, not yet—but soon would.
After that conflict was resolved, at least South of the St. Lawrence, the partnership between the monied and the ruling authority remained the same—except: American Oligarchy made absolutely sure that their newly created collaboration, in every manner, was dominated by the merchant-class. Royalty, (read, government) was to be subservient to the people, (read oligarchs).
What about the real _“people”? An oligarchy needs laborers and, to extract labor from real people, one knows (if one is _not a complete moron) that one must convince them to labor willingly. And if one is beyond moronic and actually, intelligent, one knows that money alone is insufficient to get more than uninspired labor which is eked out parsimoniously, on a quid pro dollar basis. To get “super-bowl-winning” effort, the serf must believe that he or she has a piece of the action.
So, whether reluctantly or not, the majority of America’s oligarchy created a virtual democracy wherein the real people were convinced that _they _had the final word on all governmental matters, via the ballot box.
And that concocted-ruse has largely worked, and it is why that battle to control the ballot box, currently being acted out before our eyes is so engaging. We are ready to gouge each others eyes out over it, while the Oligarchs are probably winking and nodding, knowingly, over cigars and Port.
But even though we, the real people, have been gamed, who’s to say we haven’t benefited materially from Capitalism? This miracle-machine upon which I now bloviate, connected by a mycelium-like network of glass fibers to every nook and cranny on Planet Earth, giving me instant access to the sum total of all human knowledge with the click of a mouse, being only one example. Or, consider the New World’s highway system and our amazing, privately owned motorized chariots of fire. A recent television offering showed a group of adventurers successfully riding electric motorcycles from the tip of Tierra Del Fuego to Los Angeles.
Yes, the serfs do have the perks, (materially, anyway) but they also have an awakening-inkling of something not being as-advertised in the “democracy” department. To wit: choices are meaningless if limited to two, and if both of those are controlled, behind the scenes, by the merchant-class.
That “inkling” may be rather vague at the moment, given the successful pitting of Americans against each other, as a distracting tactic, but thanks to two things it is coming into focus: first, the recent extreme over-reaching by oligarchy in the form of the “Citizens United v. FEC” ruling by America’s Supreme Court, and second the verifiable accumulation of a vast slice of America’s wealth into the pockets of one percent of her population.
Once the democracy scam is fully in focus, by a majority of both “Left” and “Right,” what do we do? Do we go after Capitalism, like those idiots went after King Kong in that old movie, killing all the material benefits of Capitalism? Or do we tame the creature by turning the tables of governance — making the real people the real power, and making Capitalism do what it does best, but under constraints—to keep it from overreaching even more, committing absolute suicide in the process. Our present political system has proven useless toward that end, concocted as it is.
The Second American Revolution (pray that it happens) will be a revolution in our politics. Perhaps a house-cleaning in the “central committees” of both parties would help. Perhaps even a third political party would help. Once the real people are empowered with the knowledge of the real problem, I am confident that _they _will come up with the solution—and I suspect it won’t be throwing the baby of Capitalism out with the putrid ages-long bad water of oligarchic greed.