Democracy's Last Kabuki Show

There are 'moderate' Republicans who have done their duty for America by bleating, belching, burbling and otherwise registering their disapproval for the radical, immoral, extreme actions taken by the Bush administration in its fighting of the War on Terr-- sorry: the War for Oil.



Torture, wiretapping, re-jigging the justice department for purely partisan purposes. These have earned the fleeting disapproval of 'moderates' like Warner, Arlen Specter, John McCain.



The disapproval is fleeting, since these mavericks always reconsider and decide that just about anything Bush/Cheney/Rove does is essential for country's future.



Their feinting in the direction of dissent is mere window-dressing, kabuki theatre to make people think that if these wise 'moderate' independent thinkers feel that the outrageous actions of the Bush gov't are okay - after long, sceptical, judicious consideration, of course - why then the radical policies can't be that far-out, right? After all, these guys all are their own men, right?



Thus, these 'moderates' perform an essential duty for the extremists in power. They give the cover of reason and dignity to the rabid, foaming-at-the-mouth policies of Cheney, the foul, amoral propositions of Bush and Rove - in the same way that the dignified prudence of Powell and Petraeus have provided a sheen of illusory respectability for the nefarious plans of the regime.



This is all pretty much known and recognized. What doesn't seem to be as known - or is perhaps now sinking into public consciousness - is that this same Kabuki production also exists on an entirely different level, performed by an entirely different troupe.



The name of that troupe is the Democratic Party.



Like Specter, McCain, Warner, and Powell, they make noises of dissent. But again and again, they roll over for the regime.



They speak up just enough to give the impression that there may be an opposition party. But it is only theater.



The war continues because they have tacitly agreed to let it continue. They've made it exceedingly clear that there is only one party in America. The millionaire's party. And as long as the millionaire's party wants the war it will continue.

There is simply too much to be lost by letting the oil fields of Iraq fall into someone else's hands. A few bold or incautious voices have let this truth slip out. There is simply too much money to be made from the war for it ever to end.

It doesn't matter that the vast majority of Americans want the war to end. The vast majority of Americans aren't millionaires. The same media corporations who cheerleaded the war into existence now cheerlead for its continuation.

After all the media isn't owned by poor people. It's owned by millionaires. And if they want their war they shall have it.

The Bush regime's foreign policy is precisely the same as its domestic policy. Its purpose is to further concentrate wealth into the upper ten percent of the population. There is simply no way they will end their war, a war which is the regime's main reason for existence.

As Bush himself is the front man for the millionaire's party, so are the 'moderate' Republicans front men for him - they are 'reasonable' facades masking a relentless program of thievery and pillage.

As the 'moderates' cover for Bush, the Democrats cover for the Republicans, helpfully providing the illusion of opposition, of an alternative - an illusion of democracy itself.

It really is a show. The millionaires have decided the war will go on, and so it will. They have pulled up their gangplank and are progressing full steam ahead. The people at large are kindly advised to go shopping and watch more television - or head to the nearest recruitment office.

Really, they should be grateful to the powers that be for going to the trouble of putting on any type of kabuki show at all. Quite rightly, the regime will soon likely recognize how unnecessary such performances are, and dispense of them....making the pathetic contemporary 'debate' over the war democracy's last kabuki show.

By that time, it will be widely accepted that democracy itself has become a kabuki show.