The very fact that many in this nation of the United States of America, are so superficially excited about the possibility of a so-called “Black” U.S. President of the “American’ Empire” is a manifestation of precisely how racist and utterly hypocritical this nation remains. Barack Obama and John McCain are two sides of the same dangerous and waning Empire. They are both Republicrats [i.e. Democratic and Republican Party loyalists] whose de facto vested interests are in maintaining the system, not in bringing about systemic change.

Currently, the buzz swirling around the deplorable state of the U.S. economy should not be surprising. The fact is that exploitation and denigration of people, be they Black, Red, Brown, Yellow, or White, by a small elite has always been fundamentally based upon economic hegemony and manipulation. To reiterate: This is not new or surprising, but the cycle can be broken.

The lack of single-payer, affordable health care, enormous unemployment, the loss of homes and / or decent housing, the skyrocketing costs of attaining a college or university education, an increasingly corrupt and unjust judicial system, a nationally bloated and brutal prison system, and last but certainly not least - never ending U.S. military adventurism and wars in other parts of the world are all indicators which point to the internally decaying and externally waning U.S. Empire. These indicators are not mere blips on the political and economic screens; they are in reality seismic in scale. However, it should be clearly understood that as the U.S. Empire wanes, it will become increasingly more vicious and hypocritical both within its own borders and around the globe.

The media hype pertaining to Barack Obama’s alleged campaign to bring about “change” is just that - hype; for neither Barack Obama nor John McCain represent systemic change. They are both clones of the Empire: one being glittery, “of color,” and a quintessential & extremely dangerous political opportunist, and the other being a robot of mediocrity and nothingness. These vultures of the Democratic and Republican Parties are Republicrats plain and simple; whose loyalty is not to the masses of Black, Brown, Red, White, and Yellow peoples, but to Wall Street and the corporate and military elite of the Empire.

A huge portion of the left and so-called “progressives” in this nation have shamefully and hypocritically capitulated and shed their supposed political principles by supporting the candidacy of the Empire’s Barack Obama. Whether Barack Obama becomes President of the U.S. or not, this capitulation and collaboration with the U.S. Empire will historically go down in infamy.

Economics is, and has always been, at the heart of how political / social systems interact and/or control and dominate people internally and externally. Capitalism (and most especially corporate capitalism) plays and preys upon the fears and weaknesses of everyday people. It (capitalism) is in reality, sugar coated systemic terrorism against the poor - the masses of people. Economics is not in and of itself evil nor does it necessarily have to be negative. It is how economics is systemically practiced that determines whether its impact is positive (i.e. humane for the majority of people) or negative (i.e. inhumane for the majority of people). Corporate capitalism in the United States means nothing short of manipulating the masses of people while ensuring that the elite rich get richer and the majority of people get poorer. Corporate welfare (i.e. financial government bail-outs of big corporations who are systematically economically emaciating and eliminating their own employees) continues to be the order of the day. This is a component of what economic exploitation is all about and how it avariciously destroys the lives and dreams of the vast majority of people while making a small elite filthy rich. This is what the Democratic and Republican Parties (i.e. the Republicrats) have been, and are, really all about, regardless of their superficial rhetoric.

We the people do have alternatives outside the Democratic and Republican Parties. But such alternatives are of no use to us unless we recognize and support them. Presently, one such important alternative can be found in the national “All Power To The People Campaign” of Cynthia McKinney and Rosa Clemente. The so-called main stream “news” media in this nation can be expected to continue to ignore or denigrate the McKinney/Clemente campaign because it is about building a genuine ongoing grass root people’s movement of every day folks - Black, White, Red, Brown, and Yellow - throughout the United States. This is a serious threat to the continuing death grip / stranglehold by the Republicrats (Democratic and Republican Parties).

Yes, we must organize outside of the Democratic and Republican Parties, for in point of fact these aforementioned parties are not two different political parties - they are one political party with two superficial wings. Thus, we are not referring to building a so-called “third party,” we must build viable second, third, and fourth political parties in this nation. Until we do so, political, social, and economic democracy is but a verbose and meaningless myth.

The “election cycle/s” of the Democratic/Republican Republicrats is a farce. Our task is to nurture and build a people’s movement well beyond the main stream news media electoral farce and circus of the year 2008.

Onward brothers and sisters! Onward…

BlackCommentator.com Editorial Board Member, Larry Pinkney, is a veteran of the Black Panther Party, the former Minister of Interior of the Republic of New Africa, a former political prisoner and the only American to have successfully self-authored his civil/political rights case to the United Nations under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. In connection with his political organizing activities in opposition to voter suppression, etc., Pinkney was interviewed in 1988 on the nationally televised PBS NewsHour, formerly known as The MacNeil/Lehrer NewsHour. For more about Larry Pinkney see the book, Saying No to Power: Autobiography of a 20th Century Activist and Thinker, by William Mandel [Introduction by Howard Zinn]. (Click here to read excerpts from the book). Click here to contact Mr. Pinkney.