All politics is viciously choreographed. So how do we get an honest dance?

The short answer is, we don’t.  But that does not mean we leave the hop or stay at home. 

It is very important for the life and health of our crumbling and mostly artificial democracy that all American voters participate in civil life actively and aggressively, I might even say viciously. This is regardless of the superficial nature of American politics. 

Why? 

Because even if and when we have huge voter turnouts, the rich, connected and powerful turn the dials on the machinery of government to get what they want any way. 

To some extent, elections are theater, no matter who wins or loses.  The rich, the powerful, the connected and the entire Patrician class understand this dynamic intimately.  They always have.  They always will.  Their knowledge of how power works gives them a lifetime of staying above the fray that the rest of us are destined to suffer.

Elections, no matter what they are about or what issues are involved are public salve on private wounds that will never completely heal.  The powerful will always be the powerful and to some extent they will always be above the will of the people. 

Lots of money and lots of “position” power allow Patricians to literally live in a different world than you and I.  They know this and that is why money and social connections are so important.  These things can literally buy citizenship in an Amerika that you and I know very little about; it is the Amerika of the elites.

It is Skull and Bones, it is Harvard and Princeton and Penn and Vassar and Smith College and Stanford and Yale.  It is elite country clubs, membership in the best social groups, teenage sons and daughters of the elites “summering” overseas to get “enculturated”.

It is an MBA from the Wharton School of Business or Yale or Harvard and then a high paying job on Wall Street after graduation.  It is learning how to manipulate federal regulations and oversite of financial dealings.  It is learning how to hide money in overseas accounts so as not to pay a fair share of taxes. 

It is not serving in the Armed Forces (it would be beneath a Patrician to do that) and at the same time insisting that the U.S. Armed Forces be continually used as a thug or a heavy in overseas protections of Patrician holdings and emerging market deals.  Let working class kids fight and die, let working class kids become disabled veterans.  Patricians do not do such things.

It is the complete domination of all government agencies and structures by these “special”  people. 

They make belonging to the Republican or Democratic Party a joke.  Neither Party runs anything.  The elites in both Parties run everything.  That is the sad truth of how things work in Amerika, which is actually much more real than America.

There are no real rules of any substantive nature for these people.  It has been that way for them since childhood. They count on that to get what they want.  Money can buy anything.  They know that too.

So where does that leave you and me; out in the cold?  Not exactly.  The people can stage bloodless revolutions too.  It is not simply the aristocracy that can arrange a silent coup.  Dubya came close but he got caught.  We won’t. 

Lets take a look at the news and see what I am saying here.

First off, let me say that I grew up in Republican politics in Philadelphia, PA.  My grandfather was a  Republican ward leader in that city for decades.  My family is still involved in GOP politics in that city.

I am actively involved in Democratic Party politics where I live now, in Northern Virginia.  But Party affiliation aside, you need to know that American politics really has little to do with party politics.  It really has to do with money and connections.  It has more to do with bloodlines and school affiliation and other such things than you could ever imagine. It really is that simple.

In our first story taken from the New York Times today entitled The Great Tea Party Rip-Off we read that the Tea Party Movement, the darling of right wing Republicans in the ranks, is being ripped off and manipulated by Party leadership. In essence, highly conservative Americans are having their movement hijacked by party leaders for their own benefit.  I bet you are not surprised.

On the Democratic Party side of this national phoniness we have an article entitled A Truncated Term for the Democrats’ 60th Vote which attempts to show what we are all going to lose if the Republicans on Tuesday win the seat formerly held in the Senate by Ted Kennedy of Massachusetts.  But is that really true?  I doubt it.

You have to understand, the Democrats are just as infected with Blue Bloods as the Republicans are.  Although it is true that the GOP is the party of no government and the Democrats may very well be the party of too much government on a much more basic level, neither party represents anything other than its own leadership and their personal and political interests.

Once you understand that, you understand everything.

I am 57 years old.  My family was in politics in Pennsylvania long before I was born.  I am actively involved in Democratic Party politics here in VA.  I am telling  you from a lifetime of personal experience, you don’t matter to these people unless you force them to take you into account.

So how does that happen? 

It happens by threatening to take away the power of the Blue Bloods and then actually doing it whenever you can force the opportunity to present itself.  It is a stark lesson in reality for all of them.  Believe me, they pay attention to lost power.  But to damned little else.

Regardless of what Party affiliation you may have, please work hard in the 2010 election cycle to put real people in office.  Place people in office that have real lives, among real people and who never had the money or the connections or the social position to side-step the vagaries of life.

If you do that this year, we may very well get our country back and break the stranglehold on America’s leadership that the Patrician class now exercises upon all of us.

What I have just laid out here for you is the basic reason why Obama and his backers look so much like the elitists that came before him.

He is either one of them or he is a wannabe.

Don’t ever forget that.  It explains everything about his eratic political positions, the odd nature of Democratic Party leadership, the extreme right swing of the GOP in the last few decades and the continuing decay of populist government which is being continually replaced by highly choreographed and tightly controlled Partician interests.

You don’t matter.  Ever.  And once you understand that, you start assuming tremendous power onto yourself.

Remember, people who have nothing to lose have nothing to fear.

Take our country back this year. Vote. And vote for real people who have actually suffered what you have suffered in life. They are the only leaders you can trust.

Word to the wise.

CWO3 Tom Barnes, USCG (Ret.)