The Senate passed a bill calling for the removal of Confederate names from the names of American military bases, but I think it would be fairer if they continue to be named after racists, murderers and oppressors - the embodiment of the values of the US military machine.
BREAKING NEWS: Senate Adopts $ 740 Billion Defense Bill - Removing Confederate Names from Military Base Names, was the headline seen on digital news outlet Mediaite. And this is an excellent diagnosis of all diseases of the prevailing liberal attitudes.
The bill was voted on both in the House of Representatives, which is controlled by Democrats, and in the Senate, where the majority belongs to the Republicans. The document allocates three-quarters of a trillion dollars for US military spending (for one single year) - with the condition that military bases cease to be named after the Confederate military leaders during the Civil War. In both chambers, he was accepted by an overwhelming majority of votes from both parties.
Unsurprisingly, Stephen Semler of the Institute for Security Policy Reform has found a direct link between how much money the Democratic congressman received from the military industry and how likely he was to vote on a bloated defense budget that, among other things, discourages any attempt to cut the military presence in Afghanistan.
I recorded how much each House Democrat took from the defense industry so far in the 2020 election cycle and compared it to how they voted on the #NDAA and @ repmarkpocan's amendment.
Results are unsurprising and yes it's about class (warfare): https://t.co/fGWz4PGiFk
“I was capturing how much money each Democratic congressman received from the defense industry so far in the 2020 campaign, and compared that to how he voted on the Defense Appropriations Act and the Mark Pokan Amendment,” Steven tweeted Semler.
The attached table says the following:
the amount of money a congressman receives from the defense industry - the likelihood that the congressman will let us down
less than $ 3000 - 70%
$ 3000-9999 - 77%
$ 10,000-29,999 - 84%
more than $ 30,000 - more than 98%
There is everything that is vile, which is in the Democratic Party and the ideological position of the mainstream liberals. Their leaders found a way to bargain tangible things for empty rhetoric. Seek people's consent to theft, murder and exploitation in almost unlimited quantities in exchange for words and stories.
They will remove the Confederates from the names of the bases, but they will not in the least reduce the amount of funds that are stealing from impoverished citizens and pouring into carnage and oppression around the world. They will kneel, wearing African kente scarves, but they will not even consider dismantling the police state in the United States. They will say: "I can hear you, and we are working on this issue now!" - but in no case will they prevent plutocrats from diverting streams of funds from those who need them and replenishing their already untold wealth. They are ready to use any pronoun in relation to you, but they will not cause the slightest inconvenience to the oligarchs and militarists.
And for every pointless concession, they will make you fight furiously - otherwise, the empty imaginary currency for which they get the specific things they need will be devalued. But in the end, there is not that volume of rhetoric that those in power are not ready to give in return for real and significant changes in policy, because rhetoric itself has no value. For manipulators, the difference is crystal clear. But not for their victims.
In reality, the picture will be much more honest and truthful if the bases of the American military machine retain the names of racists, murderers and oppressors, since they symbolize the values of this machine itself much better than names that are more pleasing to the ear.
While you are robbing the American people in order to kill the dark-skinned population of foreign countries for the sake of corporate interests and control over geostrategic resources, it's time to assign names to your military structures that correspond to such values.
So, I urge to keep the names of the Confederates for the bases. It would be even worse: while the policy remains the same, you can add the names of Nazis, genocidal dictators, and serial killers. The fort, named after the cannibal Jeffrey Dahmer, would have looked more appropriate in an American killing machine than if it had been named after Colin Kapernik.
War is the ugliest thing in the world. It is far ahead of any human activity in malice, madness, counterproductiveness, ruinousness, damage, accompanying theft, and how unstable such a model is. If Americans could break through the veils of propaganda and state secrecy and realize what horrors the very war machine on which their money and resources is being created, they would collapse to their knees with a cry of desperate rage. They would take to the streets and immediately put an end to such unforgivable savagery. That is why there is so much secrecy and propaganda in America.
If the perception of the Americans had not been manipulated and they could look at things soberly, the news that the sociopathic killing machine would steal from them $ 740 billion, instead of removing the names of the Confederates from the names of the bases, would not have been greeted with enthusiasm (“How good! Maybe we have the fort will be named after Harriet Tubman! ”), but anger. Unbridled, merciless anger. Which the current situation deserves. And for the sake of which the US Democratic Party exists.
Other materials by the author can be found on caitlinjohnstone.com or on her Twitter @caitoz.
The author's point of view may not coincide with the position of the editorial board.