Democracy doesn’t exist in the United States: Chris Hedges | UpFront

The US has been an aristocratic enterprise from its beginning (1776), when the elite decided to form a federal government over the provinces. Cleverly they left these in the form of artificially created States, giving the impression of each state’s control over and responsibility towards its citizens and with a fleeting freedom of thought. Like in France after its revolution, the bourgeoisie (Directoire) ruled the roost. And from its beginning propaganda was a strong instrument in gathering the crowds that fled Old Europe. The autocratic “ancient regime” in France before 1789 would never have financed an American “Revolution” if it had not been a political move against a colonial Britain and instead been a liberation of the hoi polloi. The need for workers for the US Industrial Revolution was realized early on and there was plenty of land was if one exterminated the American Indians. All the subsequent US governments and even the Civil War (a cruel aristocratic infighting between landed gentry and the industrial powers) were a continuation of the system put in place in 1776. All that remained inland (except for the US influence over South America and the Pacific) till the two world wars where the US elite realized their power over the Western world. At first when there was no need to openly exercise it (neo-liberalism) the obfuscation in the US remained but with the Internet (a powerful revolutionary agent) everything became visible and with ‘dangerous’ competition from the Eastern world, the machinations of the oligarchic elite recognized. That is where we are now, and the unfortunate Mr. Trump is its scapegoat. He was/is vehemently distrusted by the elite and ferociously tries to prove himself, after the elite’s propaganda mills tried to make mincemeat out of him. Maybe this administration will cause the resistance that Hedges hopes for, he certainly has all the correct details.