By Thomas Neuburger. Originally published at God’s Spies
Weekend murder in Rafah (source)
The rich don’t rule in anyone’s names but their own.
—Yours truly
The Bipartisan Consensus Runs America
The Bipartisan Consensus on most matters rules America. For example, the Bipartisan Consensus controls support for our wars. On April 20:
The United States House of Representatives approved a $95 billion legislative package on Saturday, aimed at providing assistance to Ukraine, Israel, and Taiwan. … Both Democratic President Joe Biden and top Senate Republican Mitch McConnell had urged Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson to bring the bill to a vote.
And on April 27:
The US Senate has approved a $95bn bill to deliver security aid to Ukraine, Israel and the Indo-Pacific region with overwhelming bipartisan support, in a boost to President Joe Biden’s top foreign policy priorities.
This is true despite a lack of public support for both wars, and active opposition to the ongoing genocide in Gaza.
The same is true for health care in America. Majorities have favored national Medicare for All plans for years. Yet the Bipartisan Consensus opposes it. Biden has said he would veto a Medicare for All bill, and Republicans, of course, want a Medicare for No One plan, despite majority support for a public option even among their base.
I guarantee, even Republican voters, if once they had it, would kill to keep an expanded Medicare for All. Nobody thinks South Park is wrong about the U.S. medical system. We just haven’t reached critical mass in active opposition, and media helps keep it that way.
It’s the Princeton Study All Over Again
We could go on and on, but what’s the point? This is the Princeton Study all over again. “Major Study Finds The US Is An Oligarchy” sang one headline. We all know that statement’s not wrong.
This is not about Left versus Right. There are Left vs. Right issues, but Endless War (to enrich the war suppliers) and Endless Wealth Flows to the Top (to enrich our true rulers and impoverish everyone else) aren’t among them.
This about the Rich and the Rest. More specifically, it’s about how do we stop the rich from ruling the rest? How do we break their vice-grip on politics?
Could Israel Support Divide the Rich from the Rest?
Which brings me to Israel, and my main point.
Gazans are being relentlessly murdered. In response, here at home, there’s a surprisingly strong rebellion — students against money-soaked universities; the ruled against their rulers, like the billionaire Robert Kraft — and the issue that sparked it all is a foreign war, Israel’s genocide, and its broad and determined elite and media support.
Where could this end?
Outcomes
The very best outcome would be for Israel to stop murdering people. That would end the deaths and end the revolt against our leaders’ complicity. After all, the George Floyd protests left barely a trace. Torture of Gazans would continue, just as murder-by-cop continues, but drained of its driver — mass murder — this opposition would likely fade into the wings.
But what if Israel is intent on genuine ethnic cleansing, either by murdering most Gazans, or by mass expulsion, or both. John Mearsheimer certainly thinks this is the most likely of his four options. Israelis don’t want a one-state solution. They don’t want a two-state solution. They’re left either driving all Arabs from Palestine, or murder of those that are left.
So what happens then, if Israel never stops?
- Biden withholds support for Israel in a meaningful way, and meaningful protests cease.
- Biden maintains support and protests accelerate, in parallel with unstoppable murder.
I think that’s it for choices.
If Biden and the Bipartisan Gang insist on arming the slaughter of what could end up being a million or innocent souls, the U.S. bottom — its people — could rise against the top — its money-fed leaders — in a way that tells everyone who participates this unavoidable truth: The rich don’t rule us in anyone’s names but their own.
The Unfinished Revolution
And that would return the U.S. to the ’60s and ’70s, another time of critical-mass revolt. Back then a number of themes — civil rights, women’s rights, environmentalism (called “greening”), and others — each were united around one live-and-death core, the refusal of the mass of young men to be sent off to die.
As long as the draft was in place, the revolt (“the Movement”) was strong, a solid threat to the authority of the State. As soon as the draft ended, the Movement began to decline. The separate “movements” remained, but lost critical mass. We live in a post-Movement world, built by Carter (the proto-neoliberal), Reagan, Clinton, Bush and all the rest.
What Will End American’s Servitude?
As before, today there are many issues that threaten our lives — economic and racial justice, the rape of the people for wealth, our man-killing climate — but none alone has united the people to rebel, and none has sparked critical mass.
Until now, that is, with the horror of Israeli genocide and our rulers’ determination to see it continued.
So my own bottom line is this:
If Israel keeps murdering Gazans, and our leaders keep forcing complicity down our throats, the revolt could light a flame that could reach critical mass — and burn till the Israelis give up, or Biden does, or our leaders lose control of the country.
Will Israel succeed in taking this nation apart? After all, something has to end American servitude. It’s not going to end by itself. It may as well be by the hand of our leaders’ best friend.
