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Monday, November 10, 2014

Fooled again...

Mitch McConnell Makes It Official: "Fooled 'Em Again."

By Gary North


OK, McConnell didn’t actually say this. I am stealing this line from the greatest sports writer in American history, Jim Murray.

Murray wrote for the Los Angeles Times. If he had been a political columnist, he would be legendary.

He had no time to polish his stories. After a game, he had to phone in his column to the paper before the next day’s print run. He wrote it off the top of his head, typed it, and phoned it in. He won the award as the nation’s leading sports writer 16 times, 12 in a row.

Every time he finished a column, he leaned back in his chair and uttered this line: “Fooled ‘em again.

This line should be the epitaph of American national politics. But, like a zombie, it keeps coming back, walking the streets, and eating people’s brains.

SAVED FROM THE BRINK! (AGAIN)

Senator Mitch McConnell has articulated the irrelevance of voting as no previous national political figure has in American history. He has raised the bar.

On the website of a local CBS affiliate station, this headline was run on November 4, 2014, the day of the mid-term Congressional elections: McConnell: ‘This Is A Chance To Begin To Save This Country’. McConnell had announced this the day before at a political rally. The statement was reported across the nation’s media.

McConnell is the nation’s leading Republican spokesman. He was the minority leader of the Senate on November 4, and he will be the majority leader when the new Senate takes over on January 2. November 4 made this a reality.

On November 5, after a sweeping victory of Republicans across the nation on November 4, McConnell said this: “We are not going to be shutting down the government or defaulting on the national debt. I think we ought to start with the view that maybe there are things we can agree on to make progress in this country.”

In just one day, America had moved off the railroad track to the burning trestle, and onto the excursion track, where everyone gets back safely in the afternoon. Mitch McConnell is the friendly conductor. “Tickets, please. Have your tickets ready.”

I see this as the most representative statement in the history of modern American national politics on the nature of the futility of national politics. Some people have said that politics is a choice between Tweedledum and Tweedledee. I have long quoted Susan Huck: national politics is a contest between Council on Foreign Relations Team A and Council on Foreign Relations Team B. McConnell has made it official.

In the rhetorical contrast between the professed magnitude of the issues on the day before a national election vs. the promise of bipartisan cooperation on the day after, I challenge anyone to find a more striking example. McConnell has articulated the reality of American national politics in these two statements.

Here is what impressed me: not merely the contrast, but the speed of the reversal. What was life-and-death for the nation on November 3 was water under the bridge on November 5. It was “let bygones be bygones.” It was “a new day dawns.” In fact, the election was “a new day yawns.”

The game goes on. So does the federal deficit. So does American foreign policy.

The NSA’s budget will not be cut — or even officially admitted. Neither will the budgets of the CIA and other intelligence agencies: $53 billion in 2013. The Federal Register will publish 75,000+ pages of fine-print rules in 2015, just as it did in 2013.

“I made a difference,” says the average voter. “My vote counted.” Yes, it did. But it did not matter. Not nationally.

What is the primary function of voting? To keep voters pacified. It’s cheap insurance for Washington.

The country is now saved. But it will be threatened again in two years. Mark my words!


Link:
http://www.lewrockwell.com/2014/11/gary-north/fooled-em-again/

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