May 29, 2008 - Issue 279
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U.S. Empire: The Republicrats and Their Deadly Contradictions
Keeping it Real
By Larry Pinkney
B
lackCommentator.com Editorial Board

Hypocrisy and the 21st century United States of America are one and the same. The more the verbal snakes of the Democratic and Republican Parties [i.e. the Republicrats] prattle on about “freedom, justice, and democracy,” the more apparent it becomes to discerning people that the U.S. Empire is the ultimate contradiction of and for human progress, nationally and globally.

The Achilles heel of the so-called “American dream” continues to be the nightmare of its own hypocrisy. As the late, world-renowned activist, anti-colonialist, and author, Frantz Fanon, correctly noted, “Two centuries ago, a former European colony decided to catch up with Europe. It succeeded so well that the United States of America became a monster, in which the taints, the sickness and the inhumanity of Europe have grown to appalling dimensions.” [Reference: Frantz Fanon’s, book titled, The Wretched of the Earth.]

In this year of 2008, as the U.S. Presidential “fox and wolf” candidates of the Democratic and Republican Parties continue to ceaselessly weave their rhetorical webs of deception in an effort to ensnare the peoples of the United States and the world, the reality of social and economic conditions steadily worsens for the masses of people both inside and outside of this nation’s political borders. The blood drenched, avaricious corporate / military / and prison apparatus which supports these Republicrat [i.e. Democratic and Republican Party] presidential candidates has stepped up the campaign of hypocrisy, deception, and disinformation. This campaign relies upon keeping the masses in a state of controlled consciousness, or more accurately unconsciousness, wherein the proverbial “Joshua” is really “Judas,” and being blissfully ahistorical, is perpetuated and promoted by the corporate media. This is the United States of America in the year 2008, where among the ruling elite, the “badge of honor” is conspicuously absent. [Reference: Absent the Badge of Honor] The honor and uncompromising necessity of struggling for economic, social, and political justice has now been subverted and portrayed by the U.S. power elite - through its corporate media of disinformation - as being somehow unnecessary and certainly unwanted. The fact is that more than ever, the struggle for economic, social, and political justice, both inside and outside of the U.S., is of paramount importance; the United States of America remains as the single most dangerous and hypocritical obstacle to world peace and real democracy.

The U.S. corporate media of disinformation would have Black, Brown, Red, Yellow, and White peoples believe that the United States is built and maintained upon justice and democracy when in fact, it is built and perilously maintained upon the slippery pillars of subterfuge, injustice, and enormous hypocrisy. There are those who would have us believe that genocide, slavery, and economic exploitation are somehow simply all in the past and not an integral and ongoing part of this nation’s existence. There are those who would also have us believe that, for example, “to be Black” means to be de facto sell outs of our culture and our principles in the name of expediency and capitalistic greed. In point of fact, “To be Black, beyond mere color… is first and foremost a conscious political, social, and economic commitment to the struggle for the collective betterment of the descendants of the Black slavery holocaust in what has now become the United States of America, in conjunction with other people of color and humanity as a whole.” [Reference: To Be Black in America: an Unflinching Necessity]

Blackness is the very essence of our humanity. It stands in strong contrast to expediency and capitalistic greed. It stands in strong contrast to the ongoing, ever-present injustice and hypocritical policies of the United States of America, including all of the Democratic and Republican Party [i.e. Republicrat] U.S. Presidential candidates.

The hypocrisy, cynical racism, and greed of the U.S. power elite are at the root of this nation’s internal and external quagmires. Even now, the elite of the U.S. corporate / military / prison apparatus is greedily eyeing Cuba, Venezuela, Bolivia, and Peru - to name a few - with a view toward neutralizing and smashing the legitimate people’s struggles there that oppose U.S. intervention, domination, and control. The U.S., working in conjunction with certain sell-outs of the African peoples, is in the process of enlarging its bloody military presence, control, and exploitation on that continent. The name of the game for the U.S. power elite remains, maximum economic exploitation and control, at all costs.

It is not merely in the so-called Middle East where the U.S. is supporting apartheid Zionists against the Palestinian people, in addition to wreaking havoc on the peoples of Iraq and elsewhere geographically. It is throughout the world, including the brave peoples of the tiny nation of Haiti.

Meanwhile, back in the United States, Democratic and Republican [Republicrat] U.S. Presidential candidates heap praise upon assorted de facto U.S.-backed terrorists (in Miami) against the people of Cuba, etc., while simultaneously and hypocritically daring to speak, in the same breath of, “justice and democracy.”

Moreover, the U.S. policy of containment regarding nuclear development, vis-à-vis Iran, while ignoring Israel’s nuclear arsenal, further flies in the face of the fact that the United States of America, continues to be the only nation on earth to have unleashed the unspeakable horror of nuclear weapons against two civilian populations in Japan, all in the name of justice and democracy. To this very day, people in that country continue to suffer from its affects. The U.S. has no moral right whatsoever to even begin mouthing anything but an apology to the peoples of the world, regarding nuclear weaponry. To reiterate: Hypocrisy and the United States of America are one and the same.

As an enormous amount of people inside the United States lose their homes, their jobs, and ultimately their lives to internal U.S. corporate greed, the corporately-backed candidates of the Democratic and Republican Parties dare to speak of “hope” when they themselves are responsible for the misery of the people. The U.S. continues to be the only major industrialized nation not to provide universal health care for its peoples. It is no coincidence or surprise that the Democrats and Republicans do not support single payer health care, for this would cut into the profits of their greedy, blood-sucking corporate backers. Heaven forbid!!!

Notwithstanding a so-called Black U.S. Presidential candidate in the politically and ethically bankrupt Democratic Party, racism and racial profiling against people of color and massive economic exploitation against all persons in this nation is steadily increasing. We must regain our young people while there is still time. We must regain their minds and their hearts, imbuing in them knowledge and a deep love and respect for themselves and humanity. We must give them the timeless gift of people’s struggle, that “badge of honor.” We must remember our many political prisoners and political exiles including (though not limited to) Assata Shakur, Leonard Peltier, and Mumia Abu-Jamal. Their struggle is also our struggle.

In this struggle let us remember that the pressing political, economic, cultural and social concerns of the majority of our Indigenous sisters and brothers (the so-called “Indians”) are still not being seriously addressed by the Republicrats [i.e. the Democratic and Republican Parties]. Indeed, even more “Indian land” is being encroached upon and being wrongfully and outrageously exploited. This is unacceptable, and we Black, Brown, Yellow, and White peoples of good will must remember that what continues to be done to them (our Red sisters and brothers) is despicable and cannot be allowed. We have an obligation to our own humanity in this regard.

This is no time for nonsense. It is time to seriously organize. Yes, organize outside of the hypocritical and politically bankrupt Democratic and Republican [Republicrat] Parties.

For the sake of this nation and humanity as a whole, the U.S. Empire must be exposed for what it really is - and dismantled. This will only be accomplished through perseverance, uncompromising organizing and struggle, coupled with an undying love for humanity.

In the spirit of Nat Turner, Harriet Tubman, John Brown, Crazy Horse, Jose Marti, Pancho Villa, Mary McLeod Bethune, Ernesto “Che” Guevara, Malcolm X, Martin Luther King, Jr., and Huey P. Newton, let us build the New Person. Let us build a different and better world. Onward comrade sisters and brothers. Onward…!

BlackCommentator.com Editorial Board member, Larry Pinkney, is a veteran of the Black Panther Party, the former Minister of Interior of the Republic of New Africa, a former political prisoner and the only American to have successfully self-authored his civil/political rights case to the United Nations under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. In connection with his political organizing activities in opposition to voter suppression, etc., Pinkney was interviewed in 1988 on the nationally televised PBS NewsHour, formerly known as The MacNeil/Lehrer NewsHour. For more about Larry Pinkney see the book, Saying No to Power: Autobiography of a 20th Century Activist and Thinker, by William Mandel [Introduction by Howard Zinn]. (Click here to read excerpts from the book). Click here to contact Mr. Pinkney.

 

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