Polarization
and the Powder Keg
By
James Petras
July 23, 2016
"Information Clearing House"
- The constitutional order of the US, such as it exists, faces a profound
crisis of legitimacy, rooted in the multi polarity of US society. The US is
divided among
(1) a deeply entrenched police – judicial – presidential state
against civil society organized in community based Afro-American, Hispanic and
disinherited workers;
(2) a corrupt Federal police, Justice , State Department
and Presidential Office against a constitutional legal system upheld by the
vast majority of citizens; and
(3) a rigged Presidential electoral system
against the consent and approval of the majority of the electorate.
The divisions
in US society go far beyond the ‘opinions’ expressed in polls and surveys.
The
polarization has found expression in mass street protests, ‘rejectionist’ votes
and violent assaults. Are they heading toward a national uprising? Public
officials describe the situation as ‘a powder keg on the verge of exploding’.
The
Bazaar of Crooked Faces
The ruling
elites feign control of the polarization. President Obama engages in impotent
rhetorical appeals that impress nobody.
Corruption,
deception and betrayal in high places are so rampant that mutual impunity has
become the badge of collegiality. The most active citizens deny the legitimacy
of all politicians, dismissing them as ‘all corrupt’.
The electoral
system is a gigantic bazaar of crooked smiles, raucous inanities and vacuous
promises . . . broken before they’re spoken.
If the courts,
electoral process and police state act as a triumvirate beyond the reach of the
vast majority of American citizens, then the people will turn to other methods
and voices to challenge and change this tyranny of the elite.
*The
Power Keg is within the US
The US public
has suffered two decades of declining living standard and instability, while
the elite accumulated an immense concentration of wealth, privilege and power.
The passive wait and patience are ending – promises of a better future fall on
stone deaf ears and smiling inanities are met with grim faces.
The first sign
of ‘the powder keg’ started with a loud fire- cracker. The young and hopeful
had turned to support an in-house ‘democratic socialist’ and out-house
‘nationalist patriot’. The ‘crackers’ snapped, crackled and died! Promising to
bring his supporters into the Democratic corral, Sanders melted in the carnal
embrace of the ‘queen of chaos’, the candidate of decades of deceit and
deception. Meanwhile, Trump’s working class patriots were turning into doormen
for the bankers, Bible thumpers and Republican hucksters.
The electoral
charade has failed to dampen the powder keg. There are too many fires burning
across the land and too many resolute arsonists lighting the fuse.
The
False Prophets of Justice: Unmasked
Unlike the
electoral ‘explosion’ sputtering amid the voters’ rancor, black and brown
communities do not take marching orders from the political con artists, judges
and police chiefs. They do not follow the false prophets of electoral politics.
Growing numbers are taking to the streets to fight back.
For the past
eight years, President Obama has devastated black neighborhoods and schools,
unleashing highly militarized police state forces while praising the black
political officials (the ‘mis-leaders’) and black police who participate in
terrorizing black communities. It is no surprise that the heightened social
polarization has spread and deepened in the black neighborhoods. We are taken
back to the 1960’s and 70’s when racial violence emanating down from the Office
of the President to the courts to the police provoked reciprocal violence from
the bottom upward to the elite.
The
Lit Fuse
The revolt
begins with the Afro-Americans and will spread to the Latino-Americans and
beyond among the downwardly mobile white workers. The growing white working
class revolt against the kleptocrat Clinton Dynasty has spread to encompass the
popular rebellion against ‘the burn’ of renegade fake socialist ‘Bernie’ and
the rest of the billionaire owned political system. The political rebellion is
taking part throughout the American heartland.
A majority of
Americans are polarized because they are denied basic stability in their
everyday lives. They look back at their lost living standards and look forward
to a grim and unacceptable future – especially for their youth and children.
America’s
rebellion has diverse detonators: the plutocratic economy, the kleptocratic
electoral system and the dehumanizing militarized police state.
The
kleptocratic electoral system has brought together the greatest number of
hostile voices reaching across racial lines and penetrating deeply within class
divides.
The
police-race polarization is most immediate and explosive. It is most likely to
result in direct action.
The downwardly
mobile white working class is the largest rebellious group, but has been the
slowest to develop a class-consciousness and organize. Nevertheless, they have
the greatest potential to overturn the system.
The
disenchanted electoral rebels (the Bernie-supporters) are numerous and quick to
act, but they are also the most easily deceived by political charlatans and
con-artists.
Conclusion
The confluence
of militant blacks, activist voters and downwardly mobile whites is only
at the beginning of the great uprising. As yet, they do not ‘see each other’ in
life, work, neighborhood or language, even as they share a profound common
hostility to the police state tasked with protecting the political-economic
elite.
Under what
circumstances can they come together? At present there is no organization
capable of unifying these dynamic and critical forces.
Spontaneous
groups have emerged but they are transient and ‘single issue’.
Community-based
organizations have their limited strategic vision and remain rooted in
localities.
Alternative
political parties and personalities have promise but are engage in electoral
politics divorced from direct action, whether it involves the police, the
courts or the economic system.
A ‘charismatic
leader’ could emerge and bridge the different constituencies – downwardly
mobile workers, militant blacks and politically disenfranchised activists may
merge at some point around such a leader. But unless ‘the leader’ is harnessed
to a powerful organized movement and directed by activist communities the
threat of betrayal remains a real possibility.
We live in a
time when the existing system is rotten and collapsing and when mass
disaffection is growing. However, this is also a period when the ‘alternatives’
appear remote and intangible.
What is
abundantly clear is that mere collapse and decay will not by itself bring about
a mass popular rebellion to build a just society.
James
Petras is a Bartle Professor (Emeritus) of Sociology at Binghamton University,
New York.
*A powder keg = a situation that could suddenly become extremely dangerous
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