This is what happens when you tolerate usurpers

george dubya bush stole the 2000 US presidential election. he also stole the 2004 election. Therefore, all his policies and all of his appointments are null and void. Alas, there's a scene in the film about Al Jazeera's reportage on the US invasion of Iraq where one fellow from that news agency said words to the effect of "Only the American people can stop the American people." And he had faith that the American voters would see through the lies and corruption of the politicians who started the war and turf them out.

Well, no. The American people put in Democrats to stop the war, but to no surprise to people on the left who follow these sorts of things, the Democrats betrayed any aspirations that the war could be ended through official politics. Then the Democrats won Congress and the Presidency and now progressives fixate on the stupidity of the Tea Party and make apologies for the murderous inclinations and slavish devotion to Wall Street oligarchs of Barack Obama.

And, as a result of tolerating these abominations, the American people find themselves faced with this:

With McCutcheon Ruling, An Activist Court Opts for Full-On Plutocracy

With the ruling in the McCutcheon case—where the court was actively encouraged to intervene on behalf of big-money politics by Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Kentucky—a 5-4 court majority (signing on to various opinions) has ruled that caps on the total amount of money an individual donor can give to political candidates, parties and political action committees are unconstitutional. In so doing, says U.S. Senator Tammy Baldwin, D-Wisconsin, says the court has further tipped the balance of power toward those who did not need any more influence over the affairs of state.

"It is far too often the case in Washington that powerful corporate interests, the wealthy, and the well-connected get to write the rules," says Baldwin, "and now the Supreme Court has given them more power to rule the ballot box by creating an uneven playing field where big money matters more than the voice of ordinary citizens.”

The think-tank Demos says the high court's ruling has "overturned nearly forty years of campaign finance law," which is certainly true. But the court has done much more than that. By going to the next extreme when it comes to questions of money in politics, the justices who make up the court's activist majority have opted for full-on plutocracy—and it is unimaginable that this week's ruling will be the last assault by the justices who make up that majority upon the underpinnings of democracy.

Ah! Uncontrolled money in politics! Naked plutocracy!

This is what happens when you tolerate usurpers.With no accountability, corporate criminals become even bolder. They become brazen. Democracy becomes more and more abused. What does this mean; "Democracy becomes more and more abused"? Democracy is rule by the people. When the people abdicate, then other forces rule in their stead. The more we show that we're unconcerned with ruling ourselves, the more non-democratic forces assert themselves.

Since the Canadian right-wing tends to import the latest right-wing US-American innovations generally after a two-year delay, we can look forward to the increased role of money in our increasingly debased electoral process. Then we can look forward to the bulk of Canadian progressives welcoming Justin Trudeau as our saviour, only to be disappointed as he retains all of harper's cuts to the welfare state and to environmental regulations, and maintains the Tar Sands and the surveillance state.

All this time, useless anarchist fuckwits will maintain that sitting at home and doing nothing is more "radical" than foolish engagement with the real world.