OFF THE WIRE
Gangster State America
Where Is America’s Democracy?
Paul Craig Roberts
Anyone who looks carefully behind the veil of words cannot find
democracy in America. For years I have been writing that the US
government is no longer accountable to law or to the people (see, for
example, my book, How America Was Lost). The Constitution has been set aside, and the executive branch is degenerating into Caesarism.
Government is used to impose agendas that result from the symbiotic
relationship between the neoconservative ideology of US world hegemony
and the economic interests of powerful private interest groups, such as
Wall Street, the military/security complex, the Israel Lobby,
agribusiness, and extractive industries (energy, mining, and timber).
Dollar imperialism, threats, bribes, and wars are means by which US
hegemony is extended. These agendas are pursued without the knowledge
or approval of the American people and in spite of their opposition.
Professor Martin Gilens at Princeton University and Professor
Benjamin Page of Northwestern University have examined American
governance and have concluded that the US is an oligarchy ruled by
powerful rich private interest groups and that the US government has
only a superficial resemblance to a democracy. Their analysis is
forthcoming in publication in the journal, Perspectives on Politics.
Their conclusions are striking:
“The central point that emerges from our research is that economic
elites and organized groups representing business interests have
substantial independent impacts on US government policy, while
mass-based interest groups and average citizens have little or no
independent influence.”
“When a majority of citizens disagrees with economic elites and/or with organized interests, they generally lose.”
“In the United States, our findings indicate that the majority does
not rule–at least not in the causal sense of actually determining policy
outcomes.”
“The preferences of the average American appear to have only a
minuscule, near-zero, statistically non-significant impact upon public
policy.”
A number of factors have contributed to the demise of democracy and
accountable government in the US. One factor is the concentration of the
US media in a few hands. During the last years of the Clinton regime, a
formerly diverse media with significant independence was concentrated
in five mega-corporations. The value of these corporations consists
largely of their federal broadcast licenses. To insure the renewal of
these licenses, the media avoids challenging the government on
significant issues.
Another factor is the offshoring of US industrial and manufacturing
jobs. This development destroyed the manufacturing and industrial
unions, which were the backbone of the Democratic Party’s financial
support. Now the Democrats have to appeal to the same interest groups
as the Republicans–Wall Street, the military/security complex, and the
polluting industries that despoil the environment. As both political
parties are now financed by the same private interests, both political
parties serve the same masters. There is no longer any countervailing
power. The Obama regime is simply a continuation of the George W. Bush
regime.
Two recent rulings by the Republican majority on the US Supreme Court
are another decisive factor. The court ruled that it is merely an
exercise of free speech for oligarchs to purchase the US government
(Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission and McCutcheon v.
Federal Election Commission). A corrupt Supreme Court has invented a
“constitutional right” for corporations and oligarchs to use their vast
financial resources to form a government of their choosing.
Private interest groups in the US are so powerful that they can
purchase immunity from law. On March 27 a retiring Securities and
Exchange Commission prosecutor, James Kidney, said that his prosecutions
of financial criminals at Goldman Sachs and other giant US banks were
blocked by SEC political appointees who “were focused on getting
high-paying jobs after their government service.”
In a recent test to ascertain the responsiveness of members of
Congress to monied interests in comparison to voters, two letters were
sent to congressional offices. One letter asked for the representative
to meet with community groups in his district. The other letter asked
for the representative to meet with a group of active donors. The
latter letter received by far the most responses from members of
Congress.
In the US and Europe there is constant propaganda about “gangster
state Russia.” According to this propaganda, President Putin is a tool
of oligarchs who use Putin to rule Russia and loot the people. In my
opinion, this propaganda originates in the Washington-funded NGOs that
constitute a US fifth column inside Russia. The purpose of the
propaganda is to destroy Putin’s legitimacy and that of his government
in hopes of bringing to power a Washington-compliant government in
Moscow.
My impression is that the Russian government has curtailed activities
of some of the oligarchs who used the privatization era to seize
control of resources, but that the government’s actions are consistent
with the rule of law. In contrast, in the US oligarchs control the law
and use it to acquire immunity from law.
The real gangster state is the US. Every institution is corrupt.
Regulators sell protection from law for well-paying jobs in the
industries that they are supposed to regulate. The Supreme Court not
only permits money to purchase the government but also sells out the
Constitution to the police state. The Supreme Court has just refused to
hear the case against indefinite detention of US citizens in the absence
of due process. This is an unambiguous unconstitutional law, yet the
Supreme Court refuses to even hear the case, thus granting unchecked
police power to the gangster state. http://rt.com/usa/156172-scotus-ndaa-hedges-obama/
Another defining characteristic of a gangster state is the
criminalization of dissent and truth tellers. Washington has done
everything in its power to criminalize Julian Assange and Edward Snowden
for revealing the US government’s illegal, unconstitutional, and
criminal actions. Washington reeks of hypocrisy. On April 26 the State
Department announced its third annual Free The Press campaign, a
propaganda exercise directed at foreign countries that are not
Washington’s puppets. The very same day the Justice Department told the
Supreme Court to reject the protection US journalists have under the
Constitution against being forced to reveal their confidential sources
so that James Risen can be imprisoned for reporting a government
misdeed. https://pressfreedomfoundation.org/blog/2014/04/state-dept-launches-free-press-campaign-while-doj-supreme-court-force-reporter
In the 21st century Washington has squandered trillions of dollars on
wars that have destroyed countries and killed, maimed, and displaced
millions of people in seven or eight countries. Declaring its war
crimes to be a “war on terror,” Washington has used the state of war
that it created to destroy US civil liberty.
In the 21st century it is difficult to find a significant statement
made by Washington that is not a lie. Obamacare is a lie. Saddam
Hussein’s weapons of mass destruction is a lie. Assad’s use of chemical
weapons is a lie. Iranian nukes are a lie. Russia’s invasion and
annexation of Crimea is a lie. No fly zones are a lie. Russian
aggression against Georgia is a lie. 9/11, the basis for Washington’s
destruction of civil liberty and illegal military attacks, is itself a
lie. The fantastic story that a few Saudi Arabians without government
or intelligence agency backing outwitted the entire national security
apparatus of the Western world is unbelievable. It is simply not
credible that every institution of the national security state
simultaneously failed. That Washington would tell such a fantastic lie
shows that Washington has no respect for the intelligence of the
American people and no respect for the integrity of the American media.
It shows also that Washington has no respect for the intelligence and
integrity of its European and Asian allies.
Washington won’t even tell the truth about little things in
comparison–jobs, unemployment, inflation, GDP growth, economic recovery.
Washington rigs the markets in order to cover up its sacrifice of the
economy for the benefit of a few special interests. In the name of
“privatization,” Washington hands over public assets and government
responsibilities to rapacious private interests.
The conclusion is inescapable that the US is a gangster state.
Indeed, the US is worse than a mere gangster state. The US is a
shameless exploitative tyranny.