The Government Teardown

INTERNET — If there’s one thing you shouldn’t trust, it’s a pervasive and simple narrative. Certain recent events have been framed as a so-called government shutdown. But is this really what’s happening? Is congress, the judicial branch, or the executive lounging off and kicking back? Certainly not. They’re wound up tight, running around like the sky is falling, holding repeated press conferences and distorting the views of the other party as hard and fast as possible. Obama’s sending out highly risky raids on Islamic Terrorists, just to show how strong he is on defense to answer all the Secret Muslim fan theorists who think “Government Shutdown” means we’re slacking on defense. Petty drug smokers are still being locked up. The government, most certainly, has not shut down. It is running lean and mean as the Corporate Raiders have always hoped.

The more corporations can privatize government functions, the more markets open up for corporations. The less regulations and taxes, the more of these profits the businesses keep. Traditional methods like lobbying and public advocacy have been successful in pressing this neoliberal agenda, exaggerating corporate power and placing the US in a situation where sprawling multinational corporations are underwritten or guaranteed (frame-up “bail outs”) by the government and sometimes not taxed at all. This leaves us now in an unstable state where either government must rein business in or be entirely eclipsed by it. The simplified narrative posing the contending parties as the Republican and Democrat factions is surely true enough on a superficial level, but it is clear both parties are losing face from the continued bad press. Neither party has much to gain from the intentional budget gridlock which has suspiciously been framed as a total government shutdown. The strain of capitalist, neoliberal, and libertarian thought encapsulated by the Tea Party may be able to generate a third party separate from the Republican establishment, all framed as a great victory over the failed shutdown, but it is more likely the Tea Party will lose the most face.

This is not a shutdown but a teardown that started after World War 2. The government teardown is continuing at a greater pace as capitalism marshals increasing popular support in addition to its now calcifying influence over the legislature and the bureaucracy. Citizens may find themselves soon freed from the shackles of the oppressive government and transformed into mere employees.