One or Three Butlers?

The polls tell us that Mr. Romney’s strongest support is among low-income white men and high-income white men. In other words: the pissed-off jobless dude and the boss-man who outsourced his job. Go figure.

Similarly ironic are the political preferences of Tea Party enthusiasts, who claim to detest reckless spending, and the government — the same government their candidate is spending recklessly to join.

There is nothing subtle about Uranus  — governor of the shocking and outrageous – when up against Pluto – the planet that pushes things to extremes, the better to expose their toxicity. The shenanigans that have characterized American politics this summer have been as blatant as a slugfest in the schoolyard. One can only imagine how crazy things will get in 2014-15, when the Uranus-Pluto square meets up with the natal square in the chart of the USA (whose Sun-Saturn reside at the 13th and 14th degrees respectively of Cancer and Libra) to form a Grand Cross.

In a country considered by most of its citizens to be the greatest democracy in the world, the electoral system took another step into dark parody in recent weeks with the passing of a new rash of voting restrictions. Florida, Ohio and Pennsylvania have now joined the game of exclusion, coming up with polling-station tricks reminiscent of the Jim Crow South. The I.D. requirements to be demanded of elderly, black, poor and student voters are intended, of course, to keep the voices of the have-nots from being fully counted.

In a way, it is almost refreshing to see the voting process manipulated with such crude blatancy; given the carpet of deniability that covers the far more all-encompassing chicanery at the root of the whole system: that is, the conceit that there are appreciable differences between the two ruling parties.

Were Americans to turn off their TVs and instead actually consider their candidates’ policies, they would see in an instant how closely aligned Democrats and Republicans are. Both support keeping the financial industry unregulated; both advocate for “free trade”. Both have sung the praises of corporate bailouts and would push for more if their man wins. And, for all the hay made by the Obama camp out of Romney’s secret tax returns, both are committed to reducing rich people’s taxes.

Obama’s tax plan (price tag: $150 billion) would give a one-year tax cut of $20,130, on average, to the top 1 % income earners. Romney’s ($210 billion) would give those same aristocrats $70,790. As journalist David Sirota puts it, the dispute here is over a tax code that would give each of those households the equivalent of the annual salary of one butler (Obama’s plan) or three butlers (Romney’s plan).

Perhaps the qualitative difference between these scenarios strikes you as less than staggering.

Such fundamental similarities would seem, at the very least, an interesting point for discussion. But the dominant red-vs-blue narrative, perpetuated by the kingmaker class and maintained by its cohorts in the mass media, precludes any intelligent analysis of the US system (see “pretend politics”). I have suggested that there is a concerted attempt here, on the part of the public opinion manipulators, to rivet voters’ attention upon personalities and People Magazine-style details, and away from what really matters.

Such as the continued machinations of Wall Street, whose high-rollers’ tricks with “synthetic credit products” gamed the global economy to within an inch of its life. These guys know which side of their bread is buttered, and it has nothing to do with partisan allegiances. They’ve benefited handsomely from deregulation under both “red” and “blue” administrations, and they know that, as long as the left-vs.-right narrative continues to obfuscate the 1%-vs-99% reality, they’ll never see a day of jail time.