- The current American Administration has handed over the running of the country to the big corporations, has lifted most oversight and has abandoned the old (Republican) policy of preventing monopolies. The huge financial crisis that is currently playing itself out is solely due to maladministration, incompetence, and simply bowing to the convenience and greed of the multinationals. In Washington D.C I pay significantly more than in London for my phone and DSL because a company called Verizon has been handed a virtual monopoly. At this very moment Rupert Murdoch is busy extending his media monopoly in New York and is turning the excellent news service offered by the Wall Street Journal into yet another source of right wing propaganda. I guarantee that nothing will be done. Microsoft is trying to take over Yahoo for a massive sum. No outrage detected. Nothing will be done about Iraq either – – too many well-connected people are making money out of it. If the public had a real say we would be planning to leave Iraq and letting them settle on their own method of government according to their tribal culture.And Robert Kagan, in the British journal “Prospect” has the gall to pontificate about democracy! You cannot have a thriving democracy without an educated population. You cannot have a democracy dominated by monopolies. You cannot allow special interests to pressure, cajole and (dare I say it) bribe your legislators. You have no business to call yourself a democracy when huge corporations control TV and media (Clear Channel, an extreme right-wing corporation) controls over 1000 radio stations. Look what happens when a giant corporation (Disney) puts on a “debate†in the current dismal Democratic primaries – what you get are inane questions about why a candidate fails to wear a flag lapel pin. And you want to export this? Only at the point of a gun, and even Kagan will admit that seems to have failed.
But of course the agenda is to divert the public’s attention from the catastrophic failure and incompetence of the government, the homeless of New Orleans, the two million in jail, the dismal life expectancy, the millions without medical insurance, the huge deficit and give the poor mutts “American Idol†and the blatherings of “personalitiesâ€.
I challenge Robert Kagan and Robert Cooper, the other author with whom Kagan was “debating” to address what is actually going on under their own noses and to categorically commit themselves to stop thrusting their noses into other people’s business and discuss the real world problems of the flesh and blood with whom they live side by side. If they are so purblind or ideological that they cannot address the issues, please find somebody who can.