The American Ruling Class--Same Old, Same Old

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Announcement and description of movie
"The American Ruling Class," a portion
of which is below.
Whole article can be read here:
http://tinyurl.com/26a7re


"And if that wasn’t bad enough, should they [two
yale college students--heroes of the movie]
participate in a domestic economic war the
cover for which is the constant preparation for and
execution of foreign wars?

"Since President McKinley and the Spanish-American War,
overseas adventures have been the oligarchy’s response
to the public’s demand for reform. Whether it was Populists
or Progressives, rank-and-file Republicans or Democrats
leading the charge for domestic change,the major party
bosses and their partners on Wall Street have worked
together in “collusive harmony,” in the words of political
historian Walter Karp, to divert the country from
its just demands by embroiling them in deadly foreign
entanglements.

"Reform movements are an ever-present worry for both
parties’ bosses, because any successful reform put
forward by regular citizens and insurgents in
Congress tends to excite the electorate with the
possibility of actually controlling their own
government. The ruling class well understands
that as the engagement of the citizenry waxes,
their own power wanes. And it is war and the
threat of war that provide the best excuse
for not passing social-welfare legislation,
and calling anyone who demands it “unpatriotic.”

"The tactic of imperial expansion as domestic
diversion, begun in Cuba and the Philippines
a century ago, has achieved its ultimate
expression in the “War on Terror” and the
over 130 countries where our military
presence is felt.

"The cost to Americans is not just measured
in our thousands of dead and wounded child soldiers,
but in the persistent lack of national
health care, decent schools, adequate housing,
fair wages and a livable environment.

"Our dear old republic, the hope of a New World
free of aristocracy and injustice, has now fallen
so low into the muck of corrupt privilege and
imperial pretension that it rivals the excesses of the
worst European autocracies. Though we posses powers
and riches undreamed of by the Sun King himself,
as of the early 21st Century our rulers have done
virtually nothing to raise the great mass of
Americans out of ignorance and poverty, and much
to ensure that they
stay there.

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