Mumia Abu Jamal: Boorish and Boring
A commentary from Mumia Abu Jamal on the presidential campaign currently underway in the United States.
Boorish and boring. Watching political debates is not my thing. First of all, they’re hardly really debates. They are, more often than not, a series of soundbytes, often of promises that both speakers and listeners know won’t be kept. It reminds me of the classic Peanuts comics, where Charlie Brown runs at a football to kick it and Lucy promises to hold the ball. We all know she won’t.
Politics in America ain’t about the vote. It’s about the money. It’s about corporate power, not people’s power. And the recent case of Citizen’s United has only exacerbated that trend. Ultimately, Americans adore and fear the rich. Devoid of princes and earls, they bow their peasant heads to the wealthy, as if their very blood compels them.
What else can explain the emergence of GOP frontrunner Donald Trump? Or the prominence of Democratic frontrunner Hillary Clinton? It ain’t policies. And with Hilary it certainly ain’t either policy or personality. Two rich people, a billionaire and a millionaire. What have they got in common with average people?
Republicans are running on rudeness and nastiness. Democrats are running on niceness, except for those in the Middle East, of course, and promises of jobs. Well, after NAFTA, those days are over. Both are for corporate power and corporate interests. The middle class is shrinking like seaweed on a seashore. It’s embarrassing to even mention the working class. And no one mentions the State’s war against black Americans. It’s like a gentleman’s agreement, not to be discussed, not to be touched, lest it frighten white voters.
We are in the midst of the biggest, most diverse, broadest human rights movement since the 1960s. And the political response is a cynical silence. Surely it’s so, because they have no response, for the system rests on repression. It can’t exist without exploitation, racism, state violence. So the choice remains: boorish, or boring?
From Imprisoned Nation, this is Mumia Abu Jamal.
These commentaries are recorded by Noelle Hanrahan of Prison Radio.
