Ruled By The Walking Dead: We Won't Vote Our Way Out Of This Mess
Our 'skin suit' system of corruption and institutional betrayal is far beyond our control or influence
Cartoon by Mark Taylor / DeMOCKracy.ink
Are politics dead in the United States? I think so.
This column is based on a morning online back-and-forth with someone I respect and have worked with on recent reform efforts. He agreed the American civic state is sick, poisoned by corruption; a kind of faltering Frankenstein, but there was, he felt, still the eventual possibility of revival.
My view is American politics as we have known it is dead and done. We are a land of spectacle, spineless guru fealty, massive corruption, silly, whiny complaint and distraction in a thoroughly bought, paid and auctioned off brutal corporate state. A land where two-thirds of Americans want a ceasefire in the Middle East but we instead will be thrust into war, at the expense of the public supports like healthcare and basic child care assistance the vast majority of Americans need, deserve and support.
Politics is when there is some level of meaningful ideas, debate, exchange, reciprocal compromise, coalition building, progress and process for civil discourse and rule. We have none of that. And the corruption is thoroughly bipartisan. The comatose House of Representatives & Twisted Egos is but one fetid example.
Frankenstein is the appropriate metaphor for our politics. He was stitched and stapled together from parts and pieces of the dead and energized and animated by a non-life force. As such, he is the perfect metaphor for the walking dead politics of America and symbolic of our mentally deficient, morally empty, walking-dead ruling corporate class.
Rule of the ‘skin suits’
Heather Heying -- Brett Weinstein's wife -- described in a recent DarkHorse podcast how the institutions we could once trust and rely on are now just "skin suits" for dark actors -- such a perfect Frankenstein-like metaphor.
The shiny dome of the Capitol still defines the DC horizon and the imposing stone columns still frame the front entrance of the Supreme Court ... but those institutions are not the same. They have been taken over for the goals and boundless greed of unseen actors, following an agenda we are not privy to. They may look the same, but they are mere skin suits.
We're seeing the skin suits of our State Dept and military in Israel and Biden's scripted cringy TV interviews and speeches and "love-ya-bro" embrace of the fascist ghoul Netanyahu.
Have we been crippled by venal government corruption before? Absolutely. Have we been on the edge of a fascist coup before? You bet. But with what we have seen since the brutal October 7th massacre of innocents, and the global stakes now on the line, we are in a very different world that is moving fast ... sprinting toward a cliff edge.
Trying to breathe life into a bloated, dead political system of corrupt parties is not dealing with reality. A whole new brand of civic action is required, beginning with building social and labor movements and creating the means of mutual aid to help pull each other through what is about to envelop us all.
Mark Taylor
DeMOCKracy.ink