I fell behind on some of my political reading — grading papers and doing other work — but there is a quotation from Chris Hedges’ Truthdig column last week worth passing along:
The menace we face does not come from the insane wing of the Republican Party, which may make huge inroads in the coming elections, but the institutions tasked with protecting democratic participation. Do not fear Glenn Beck or Sarah Palin. Do not fear the tea party movement, the birthers, the legions of conspiracy theorists or the militias. Fear the underlying corporate power structure, which no one, from Barack Obama to the right-wing nut cases who pollute the airwaves, can alter. If the hegemony of the corporate state is not soon broken we will descend into a technologically enhanced age of barbarism.
A scary thought, to be sure. I want to add, by the way, that I agree for the most part — we face a daunting situation. Our elections have lost their democratic luster and become little more than entertainment side shows. Little changes aside from the faces.
(I disagree with Mr. Hedges in his complete abandonment of the system. Like him, I believe we need a third party and have voted for the Greens and other at the national and state level numerous times in the past. There is a danger when doing so, however, of creating an environment in which the worst can come to power. There was a difference between Obama and McCain in 2008, though not as great a difference as we pretend. It is a rhetorical one, to be sure, but at least Obama talks about some of the issues I care about as a populist lefty.)
The election of Barack Obama did not and could not bring change — nor did I expect it to — any more than Al Gore would have given us a better America than George W. Bush. The Bush years were not an aberration and the difference between Bush and Gore was just a matter of degree.
The Iraq War may not have occurred under Gore, but all other things being equal, Afghanistan would have — and it was a series of ill-fated procorporate reforms passed by the Clinton-Gore administration that gave us the financial meltdown from which we continue to dig out.
Hedges’ dismissal of electoral politics notwithstanding, he is correct when he advocates for a radical break with the formal structures of American society,” by which he means corporate-fueled growth and corporate-controlled media and food production.
We must cut as many ties with consumer society and corporations as possible. We must build a new political and economic consciousness centered on the tangible issues of sustainable agriculture, self-sufficiency and radical environmental reform. The democratic system, and the liberal institutions that once made piecemeal reform possible, is dead. It exists only in name. It is no longer a viable mechanism for change. And the longer we play our scripted and absurd role in this charade the worse it will get.
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- Suburban Pastoral, a chapbook by Hank Kalet, available here.
Hank Kalet 
Wow, I think that there would have been a massive difference between a President Gore and the war criminal Bush. For starters, Gore would have taken seriously those warnings about an imminent attack on the USA, 9/11 might not have even happened under Gore. Gore would not have chosen radical right wing corporatists for the supreme court, there's a big difference. As Hank stated, Gore would not have gone to war with Iraq, another huge difference, war with Iraq was not some minor thing. Gore would not have started out with tax cuts for the rich, Bush's tax cuts for the billionaires lead to about a $1.6 trillion dollar deficit. Gore would have been much more fiscally responsible than Bush. Gore would not have gutted all the regulatory agencies, Gore would not have gutted FEMA and the mine regulatory agency, for example. So Gore would have had a better track record dealing with the Katrina disaster. There would have been no scheming Karl Rove, no Darth Vader vice president. Valerie Plame would not have been outed. Gore would not have invited in corporate America (into the government) to the extent that Bush and Cheney did. Gore was not an oil man, another big difference. There would have been a huge difference between a Gore and a Bush presidency. If we had had President Gore, we would be in much better shape today.
I like Chris Hedges and agree with most of the things he says but sometimes I want to slit my wrists after reading some of his more dark articles. Yes, the corporate fascists, like the libertarian Koch brothers, the libertarian Pete Peterson, all the right wing, mostly libertarian stink tanks, (Cato, AEI, Heritage) are throwing huge sums of money MOSTLY at the GOP. The GOP is getting maybe about 80% of corporate money in this election cycle. The corporate thugs have too much control, they stand in the way of any progressive legislation from universal health care to environmental concerns. They are a road block to enlightened governance. FDR was not afraid to take them on nose to nose, face to face. FDR welcomed their hatred and called them economic royalists. I am sick of this crap about third parties. There are no viable third parties, end of story. We have to deal with reality, the reality is either D or R with an occasional Independent. Bernie Sanders (I) is the gold standard, I wish we could clone him and have 99 more of him in the Senate. The GOP has become this radical right wing crazy party and it is getting more radically right wing every day. I will vote Democratic until further notice. There is a big difference between the parties because the GOP is so God awful disgusting to an alarming extent. Of course I am disappointed with Obama and the Democrats but I am absolutely appalled at the Republicans, they are a horror and they will stop at nothing to hand everything over to the billionaire b*st*rds. Bush talked like a blithering moron, at least Al Gore could string a few sentences together in a coherent and presentable manner. That alone would have been worth having a Gore presidency instead of the Bush presiduncy.