It was the seventies, a much maligned decade. Popular resistance to the Viet Nam War ended that war.
That was the last time popular resistance ended an American war. And as you should know, there's been plenty of those in the last fifty years.
While "democracy" in America has always had its challenges, it sort of used to work. By and large, people believed it to work. Confidence is everything. The American people believed democracy was a real thing that worked for them.
Once Ronnie and Maggie ushered in the union-bashing and smashing era, things began to change. As taxation protocols were adapted to neocon standards, a billionaire class began to emerge. Suddenly you saw people with incomprehensible sums of money taking an interest in politics.
The "Stonewall Moment" for the billionaires was the SCOTUS Citizens United decision of 2010. That was the result of years of billionaire funding of lobby groups, as documented in the book Dark Money. Not surprisingly, democracy has been paying the price ever since.
As have the American people. Billionaires run the show now. Billionaires own the global information infrastructure. You're only going to see what the billionaires want you to see, and good luck finding anything else.
And once firmly having the levers of power in their hands, the billionaires have been delighted to take charge of foreign policy. It can't possibly be coincidence that billionaire owned energy conglomerates are invested in all those countries targeted by US sanctions, can it?
But here we are. America is facing some tough decisions. The billionaires are all in to make sure you make the right ones.
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