United States Co... from Nixon to George Bush

United States is a huge Corporation. Her foreign policy is the best example of this. It does not matter if Democrats or Republicans are on power, foreign policy is the same. There are no Presidents, but CEOs. Only profit matters. War is The Business.

Cold War? Some theorists say it never existed, it was just the excuse then for producing weapons. As a Corporation, United States needs to mantain the employees (population) under control, giving them some little concessions, certain liberties to keep them shut up. However, after Vietnam War, under Nixon’s administration, social movements were starting to get some consciousness of the situation, the conditions of exploitation they lived, and they started demanding more and more, being aware of ecology, international injustice and some other issues, consciousness which the elites of United States Co did not like at all. By then, civil rights movements had achieved the recognition of black people as equals, but only rhetorically, because in reality they were still segregated and government expenditures were focused on defeating the Soviet “threat”.

The Watergate scandal 

The first “big” crisis of this system became evident when some employees of White House published information involving President Nixon with large companies giving him money to pay his campaign to reelection. He denied it. Also it was published that he was responsible for sabotage against his opponent. He denied it too. There was big revolt on media reporting Nixon’s lies, but coverage was superficial because they only wrote about a few rotten apples. If that was the problem, solution would have been to throw them away, as it indeed happened. But, even though there were some rotten apples, the problem went beyond: if they were bad apples, it was because system was rotten. When Nixon finally resigned in 1974, the whole structure of power kept untouched, so the image of auto-regulation of system stayed clean and could go on as it had been going on before. Nixon was not even punished. He received a nice pension and he retired quietly, with no disturbance nor further request for explanations even. Media had their circus exposing Nixon’s failures, but it was such an insignificant information they published that nobody thought system could be wrong, nobody asked why Gerald Ford continued the same policies used by the outgoing President. 

Illegality was an ordinary practice: if the President (now Ford) could order the attack over Cambodia just to show the world who rules, without Congress permission, why would he be worried about public opinion and social distrust in government? And if he had the support from those who really care in the system (Corporations and Media), what can he be afraid of? The validation of his power and his decisions is more than enough if these groups agree, legitimacy comes, then, from Media manipulation and money based support. An Establishment for power. An Establishment allowing him to do whatever he wants. However, Government desired some popular support to his rule, and with occasion of the two hundred years anniversary of American Revolution, they organized a lot of nationalistic events. The answer was not the one they wanted. There were counterdemonstrations calling for freedom and rejection to corporative power. 

In the elections people did not vote. It is symptomatic that in the nation proclaiming to be leading the world to democracy, only fifty per cent of people in conditions to vote uses this civil right. 

In Television, people avoided any politics because there was no difference of opinions, they were all the same, all following the same line. The way marked by the interests of Corporations. Like David Rockefeller did when he created a “Trilateral Commission” to unify capitalist powers against social movements in the world. 

Jimmy Carter followed the same way chosen even before Ford, for the pleasure of elites as the Trilateral Commission. 

Outsourcing 

Profit increases if a Corporation pays another one for the dirty job, cheap labor, choosing somebody who can provide certain services or resources. Internationally it works the same. United States supports totalitarian governments because they offer more benefits than real democracies. South Vietnam, Chile, el Salvador, Honduras, Panamá, Nicaragua, Philippines and other countries were illegally supported by U. S. Government, whether providing them weapons, training or money to maintain dictatorships in the power. U. S. paid for outsourcing. Carter supported strongly this kind of policies. And then Reagan. 

People were having hard times inside the country and all the government could think was to increase military budged, reducing social security, wealth and education. Instead of helping African American people to live in conditions enough to keep them out the crime, more prisons were built. Workers rights did not care. Only business. 

US is back 

After being defeated in Vietnam, people did not want another lose, so for years they opposed to any war action. But under Bush’s administration, and the falling of Soviet power, therefore, no enemy left to fight against, the temptation was too big and economic interests even bigger (reduction of military budget was imminent) to not go to war somewhere. Like a little boy playing with powder. First was a little country, Grenada. The excuse was absurd. Does not matter. 

Then the Gulf War came, excellent opportunity to test new toys with lasers and stuff. Evil Saddam had invaded Kuwait, and America felt the call for justice, to protect the unprotected people. Yeah, there was oil, and influence, but they did not know. The old story. So, George Bush succeeded in bringing back America into action. Victory was astonishing, and quick (the most important). Overwhelming.