All Politics Is Local

A perfect example of this is the near sanctification of George Floyd, who died while being arrested in Minneapolis in 2020.

As we watch the massive US federal government deteriorate into chaos, it has demonstrated it can no longer function as a constitutional, publicly driven inverted pyramid. The concept of three columns of counterbalancing, equally powerful branches of governing institutions has crumbled. What the public is seeing is that the system has devolved into a corporatocracy.

We should have seen it coming.

French cultural critic and renown government analyst Alexis de Tocqueville wrote extensively, over 150 years ago, that America's system of open competition for elected offices would someday fall under the influence of financial interests to the exclusion of the common citizen. He warned that that kind of outside economic pressure would lead to a form of institutional fascism or authoritarian corporatism.

"The surface of American society is covered with a layer of democratic paint, 

but from time to time one can see the old aristocratic colors breaking through."

It is becoming increasingly apparent that a relatively small number of very wealthy, influential, and control oriented groups are imposing their entirely self centered rules and regulations down through the courts and the legislative bodies. And as a result, most broadly elected officials are becoming more and more dependent on the contributions coming from those corporate groups to sustain their positions in the hallways of power.

Isn't it obvious that there are literally no people in elected positions in the federal government, that aren't in the upper 3% of wealth in America? That even with their individual economic freedom, they cannot attain office without the help of massive corporate support or national party funds, or both?

Recognize how important it is to have celebrity name recognition to even think about running for the House or the Senate. And normally it is true that people with "name recognition" typically have at least millionaire status! Either way, it takes enormous amounts of money to purchase enough public relations media 'currency' to build a following sufficient to be competitive in significant local, state and federal elections.

In the early days after the American Revolution, the same elements of electability were true. You needed some financial durability to try to enter elected office because the campaigns and the job itself required a lot of travel, and a certain sense of gravitas to adequately claim to represent a geographical area in the relatively enormous areas of the young collection of states. So only wealthy land or business owners had much of a chance. Also, at that time, most public servants worked voluntarily.

The difference then versus now is they did it out of a sense of altruism.

They worked in government because they wanted to be a part of the building of an idea and contributing to the realization of a dream. They were parenting! They didn't need more power, they actually believed in bringing power back to their constituents so they could determine their own futures. They did what they could to help the young country to grow.

Now, folks that want to get into Federal Office typically want to expand their own legacy, to influence the direction of legislation, not to build a dream, but to enhance their resume, to participate in a larger Game of Thrones.

The construction of an Ideological Wonderland is long ago accomplished: What's left now is the exercise in self aggrandizement, in pushing the limits of indulgence and coming home to wallow in the admiration of your constituents who are rewarded with wealth building government contracts and community enhancements. It is the sharing of wealth amongst a relatively few supporters, not the redistribution of power to the people at large.

Of all of the thousands of elected officials in Washington DC, most of whom were rich before they obtained office, only a few donated the majority of their salary to charity. Presidents Hoover, Kennedy and Trump gave most of their compensation to charities, but otherwise it is extremely rare for officeholders to pay it forward.

In the meantime, an alliance of interconnected transnational corporations, owned by a small cadre of investment fund managers (BlackRock, Vanguard, State Street, etc.), spend billions to influence the outcome of our elections. They do it in a variety of ways, not just with direct contributions. They do it by influencing their employees ( of which there are millions) and their union affiliates ( hundreds of millions more ), by influencing the operational policies of their businesses, and by coordinating those rules and regulations among all of those unaffiliated corporations they do business with.

Since most huge fund managers incorporate giant media operations in their portfolios, they then also have massive influence on what and how the general public view and experience major events. They can shape the culture by simply homogenizing the narrative. 

A perfect example of this is the near sanctification of George Floyd, who died while being arrested in Minneapolis in 2020. Mr. Floyd had a long record of arrests and interaction with the local police. Police officers knew him well. When a local retail business reported that Floyd had passed counterfeit money, he was soon confronted in his parked car and told to get out of the car with his hands exposed. He refused and began to go postal claiming the police would kill him. This commotion drew a large crowd, and so the police tried to deescalate the situation and reassured him he was not going to be hurt. They just needed to talk to him, to be certain he wasn't armed, and to detain him for further questioning. They spoke calmly to him, because the officer involved knew Mr. Floyd. He suspected he was high on drugs, and could see he was getting extremely agitated, so he talked in a very soft and reasoned tone, "please, just do what I ask, and everything will be OK!"

As the world watched, long after the initial confrontation, it seemed like the officers were getting too aggressive and impatient. But that was all out of context. Eventually the officers wrestled Floyd to the ground, handcuffed him and, per officer training protocol in such situations, one officer put his knee on the back of Floyds neck, pressing his head to the ground. The crowd watching was going berserk, and Floyd continued to writhe around and resist. The arresting officer pressed harder to get him under control. As the crowd approached, it was nearing an all out brawl. After nearly seven minutes, waiting for a paddy wagon, Floyd had passed out.

He eventually died while in custody, and the arresting officer was convicted of murder! Only weeks later did the then released autopsy report Floyd had enormous amounts of drugs in his system, that the cumulative effects were to repress his breathing and depress his heart function.

For weeks the news was filled with sympathetic stories about how the community loved Mr. Floyd. How the cops overreacted, and killed a Black Man. We saw tributes all around the country including one featuring Democrat leaders kneeling, heads bowed, in a moment of silence, for a symbol of Black Victimhood and White Racial Discrimination.

So the idea that all politics is local is fine, until something like this occurs which quickly escalates what would, or should have been, a routine investigation of a relatively minor violation of the law that suddenly turns into an international political fiasco involving white police terrorizing poor black men, violations of civil rights, and white-on -black murder. New laws get passed and police departments rewrite their protocols.

The international narrative on race relations is changed forever. Socialist and Communist nations with black citizens blanketed their state owned media with anti American propaganda focused on the white police mistreating and murdering an innocent black person.

The perfect concoction to spin a front page story that would eventually infect an upcoming national election and further divide an already volatile culture of racial hatred and suspicion. And based on what the majority of media provided as evidence to the public at large, it looked pretty open and shut, and the mantra of "He can't breathe!" would resonate all around the world.

Over time the public has become even more suspicious that the whole truth was never actually exposed. And that is almost always true. But the political impact, by the time the truth emerges, has already left a deep scar. And that is almost always true too.

The George Floyd incident would rival the OJ Simpson Crime of the Century story as the most influential race narrative since Rosa Parks was arrested for refusing to give up her seat to a white man on a transit bus in Montgomery Alabama in 1955. The resentments and suspicions of how the Simpson trial was conducted and how he seemingly walked away from the murder of his estranged wife continue to this day.

Each of these stories illustrate a microcosm of life in America, with respect to how we create laws, try to enforce them, and then eventually discover that it is impossible to please everybody. Politics, whether local or national, or even international, reflect the interests, the fears, and the ambitions of the neighbors, the citizens and the authorities in each of those realms. And the common denominator is the overwhelming influence exerted by the massive media complex, who has abandoned the ideal of covering the news to become a much more partisan and activist participant in the news.

If you are the Average Joe outsider, watching and listening, or reading about the various incendiary news events, you must be suspicious of what you actually know. You can't know what you don't know, so it is impossible to be sure you have enough data to know enough to make an intelligent decision. But that absence of the whole story never stops people from joining the newest social justice parade. Even when what they know may not be so…