DEMOCRACY DINER

By Dmytri Kleiner (Idiosyntactix)

The US election is dominating the press and airwaves worldwide, but what is
the real relevance of this spectacle?

Neither McCain nor Obama nor Palin nor Biden will have any more control of
America Inc than the Revlon Spokesmodel has over Revlon Inc, or the
Playmate of the Month has over Playboy Inc, or Ronald McDonald has
over McDonald's Inc.

The candidates are competing for the job of representing government policy
to the public, not the job of deciding it. The job of deciding policy is
not an elected position, but rather is a ruthless, cut-throat, back alley,
no-holds-barred cage match of raw power. Any candidate who is not already
vetted as being willing and able, nay, eager, to serve the powerful never
raises above school trustee, if they make it that far.

The candidates are selling themselves to the power elite, what they are
selling is an ability to gain compliance from the American people. What
they will gain compliance for, exactly, is not up to them, but rather
decided by full-contact conflicts among the rivalrous, and internationally
involved, power elite. And whatever campaign platforms they take or
promises they make in selling themselves, including policy promises, are
not binding, but rather a screen-test of their ability to represent a
certain policy, and a market research project to help the elite understand
exactly what sort of masses they need compliance from.

The candidates are competing for the job of legitimizing the interests of
the elite, not for representing the people. A head of state is no more
chosen by the people than a Pope or a King is chosen by god, the public
spectacle of the choice is only needed as a means of creating legitimacy.
Each time a new leader is chosen, the crimes and failings of the nation's
elite are washed away. No matter how much legitimacy was squandered during
the last administration, a brand new celebrity spokesmodel is an
absolution, the very act of the previous administration's end of term
is celebrated as a victory for it's victims and discontents. The Holly King
kills the Oak King, yet the two are one and the same.

The individual presidential candidates and their parties fight just as
bitterly for the job as the mothers of juvenile beauty queens fight for
their daughter's crown, but that the job is quite important to those that
seek it should not lead anyone to conclude that it makes a difference to
anybody not involved in the contest.

Democracy is like going to a restaurant with only one thing on the menu and
being given the choice of which waiter of the two waiters on staff serves it.


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