ERIC ZUESSE -- Why does no other writer refer to “the U.S. regime”?

Why does no other writer refer to “the U.S. regime”?

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Eric Zuesse

November 10, 2019Comment

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Eric Zuesse

I was shocked to find that a Google search of the phrase “the U.S. regime” indicates that I am the only writer who refers to “the U.S. regime.” Is the United States really more democratic than this description of the political reality in the UK (which doesn’t appear to be at all democratic)? Apparently, the universal presupposition (other than by this writer) is that the mere formalisms of democracy assure that a government is democratic, and that therefore the U.S. is automatically a democracy — its Government is democratic (because its Constitution is), not a dictatorship. However, ever since the pathbreaking Gilens and Page study in 2014 (the first-ever scientific analysis of whether or not the U.S. is a democracy), that presupposition is clearly false regarding the U.S. Government. That study (superbly summarized here) showed the U.S. Government doesn’t represent its nation’s public, “the people.” The opening three words of the document that is the very embodiment of this nation’s formalisms, the U.S. Constitution, are “We the People …”  making unequivocally clear whom this nation’s Government must represent and serve. However, the Gilens and Page study proves that the U.S. Constitution is fundamentally violated, in practice, by today’s U.S. Government, which instead represents and serves only the few wealthiest: America’s aristocracy. Furthermore, a study by Jason Barabas, published two years later, found that the situation has been getting worse — not better — ever since World War II ended in 1945. Moreover, even as early as 2005, Martin Gilens of Princeton was able to publish a paper documenting (just to use his own words, here):

Looking across the columns in row 6 of table 1, we see that the strength of the relationship between [the public’s] [policy] preferences and [the U.S. Government’s] policy outcomes not only increases with each step up the income ladder but, in fact, does so at an increasing rate: the difference in the 90/10 ratio in row 6 of table 1 is about half as great between the 10th and 50th income percentiles as it is between the 50th and 90th percentiles.6 … For those at the top of the income distribution, the probability of policy change rises somewhat more dramatically, from .14 to .49 (a factor of 3.6). …

The lack of responsiveness to the preferences of the 10th and 50th income percentiles [is] illustrated in figure 2. … The complete lack of government responsiveness to the preferences of the poor [regarding what governmental policies should be instituted] is disturbing. … Government policy is uniquely responsive to the preferences of affluent Americans.

All of the data that I have seen indicate that the reality in America is a dictatorship by the rich, and especially by the richest, at the very top of which are America’s 607 billionaires, who not only hire our Presidents, but, essentially, hire, in one way or another (some as being outside agents instead of as full-time salaried workers who are on the payrolls of the corporations and think thanks that those 607 individuals control), perhaps a majority of Americans, in order for those workers to execute the tasks that those 607 individuals want (or actually demand) to be carried out (in order to receive money from the operations that those individuals control).

Thus, in reality, America is a one-dollar-one-vote country, not a one-person-one-vote country. Money rules here — rules not only the economy, but also the government. That’s nothing like what America’s Founders wanted, but it is today’s America, regardless of what the Constitution says. And this is the case not only in the U.S. federal Government but also in at least some of our state Governments.

So: why isn’t it routine for writers to refer to “the U.S. regime”? Shouldn’t it be routine?

The U.S. has a higher percentage of its population in prison than does any other country in the entire world. Furthermore, almost all of the Americans who are in prison are poor, though one can’t accurately allege that almost all Americans are poor — most Americans aren’t poor. This is entirely consistent with what one would expect to find if America is a dictatorship by the rich. There are also many other ways in which today’s U.S. resembles far more the traditional image of a “dictatorship” than of a democracy.

Consequently, all of the most significant evidence justifies referring to “the U.S. regime”; and the fact that this isn’t routinely being done raises the serious question as to whether perhaps massive mind-control over writers — an extraordinarily effective systemic propaganda-operation by the dictators, in order to hide the existence of America’s dictatorship — is the reason why it isn’t. I believe that this possibility ought to be publicly discussed, not continue to be buried by referring unthinkingly to America as a democracy. For example: would a democracy be stealing Syria’s oil? Aren’t questions, like that, worthy of being publicly debated?

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Investigative historian Eric Zuesse is the author, most recently, of  They’re Not Even Close: The Democratic vs. Republican Economic Records, 1910-2010, and of CHRIST’S VENTRILOQUISTS: The Event that Created Christianity.