The Government of the People: But "Which" People is the Point

The right wingers and the Tea Party crowd go on about the power of the Unions and "special interest" groups. For the Tea Party crowd, the nation is run by socialists---Obama the socialist---quite comical really.

The capitalist class doesn't really need a special interest label as the state itself is their representative; it is a capitalist state. Yesterday's verdict in the trial of the cop that murdered Oscar Grant shows whose interests the state serves. The police are an official arm of the capitalist state and are there to ensure the interests of the capitalist class are protected. The fact that there was any trial at all is historic in a sense and due only to the fear that the state had of increasing anger and emboldening any movement from below.

Look at television.   The massive amount of time and talent spent on getting us to buy, to consume products and liberate the commodity of the surplus value contained within it.  One of the favorite targets for the capitalist class is children.  Madison Avenue refers to the level of success marketing to children as "pester power".*  How much it can encourage the child to pester the already over worked and stressed out parent.

It is hard to imagine that were television and the media not controlled by the corporations that we would have all these ads for  drugs for new diseases we've never heard of.  Or that we would have ads at all.  One doctor friend of mine told me that she got calls from patients asking about a disease she was not familiar with; they'd heard about it on TV and were told to "call their doctor". Restless Leg Syndrome, Excessive Shyness Syndrome, Baldness, Erectile Dysfunction; there's cures for it all--- for a price.

Now, the capitalists that market food and junk to our children are putting a hold on any state regulation that might infringe on their rights to sell garbage to our kids.  A report from a "working group" composed of individuals from various federal agencies issued proposals that would restrict the marketing of certain foods and beverages that contain significant amounts of sugar, sodium and saturated fat to our children.  The standards were supposed to be made public and then presented to Congress this month.

But, the proposed standards are "too strict".says Elaine Kolish, Vice President of the Children's Food and Beverage Advertising Initiative.  Others in the industry are also opposed to them as they are too restrictive on their rights to advertise to children. So the release of the report has been put on hold.

But get this; the restrictions are voluntary. But the industry is so concerned that the public hear or read about these proposals that they are getting their political representatives to delay their publication.

How about speed limits being voluntary?  Maybe pay cuts and cuts in social services too.The draconian cuts in public services from assistance to the disabled to the cuts in education are "too restrictive" aren't they?

The building of a political alternative to the two  big business parties, the Democrats and Republicans, is a necessary and important step in changing this situation, of breaking the political monopoly the corporations have over our lives.  The public's faith in politicians, bankers and big business in general is extremely low; there is a crying need for something to fill the vacuum that this creates.