The shadow government that controls both parties makes equal use of Democrats and Republicans. They need to continue to show some small degree of difference between the parties, to maintain the illusion of choice on election day. These small differences are played up as much as possible, while the huge areas of agreement are ignored.
People with a conscience generally see the Dems as the good guys and the Repubs as the bad guys. This is a particularly useful fiction at this point in history because so many progressives were distraught to the point of despair about the Bush administration. Some reason needed to be held out for hope, and indeed Obama's main theme was hope.
Millions of deluded Obama supporters wasted their energy on insuring Obama's election rather than working for true change at the top (that layer over the visible government). Millions more were pacified that change was on its way, and thus took no meaningful action. If throngs of citizens had descended upon Washington to protest:
- the bailout,
- or the shredding of the Constitution,
- or illegal spying,
- or torture,
- or the members of the Bush administration ignoring congressional subpeonas to appear and answer questions,
- or the obvious snow job from the FBI and DOJ framing Bruce Ivins for the anthrax attacks,
- or the stationing of military troops in the US in violation of posse comitatus, a law prohibiting US military troops being used for domestic law enforcement--
If all that had happened, than even the corrrupt and complicit mainstream media might have a hard time keeping it a secret. So better all around (from the point of view of the shadow government) to give Americans reason to believe that once Bush exited office, all would be coming up roses once again and that Obama was on his way to victory. A surprise victory would not have been nearly as valuable. It was necessary to see, way off, that Obama was going to win, or else the desired pacification effect would not have occurred. Once he triumphed over Hillary in the primaries, back in early 2008, it was clear he was sailing unobstructed towards the White House, and well meaning progressives everywhere could breathe a sigh of relief--or so they thought.
But there's another reason it was time for the "good cop" to take office. Historically, Repubs specialize in foreign tyranny and the Dems specialize in domestic tyranny. Since our foreign wars of aggression are now well established and no longer need to be sold to the American people (take note of how rarely our occupation of Iraq is in the headlines anymore), it's time for a changing of the guard and a new era of domestic tyranny. This will come, of course, in the guise of protecting us, just as did the foreign tyranny.
Why must there alway be an enemy? Why does our government do all it can to scare us about various threats? It's basic problem-reaction-solution. If you can convince the population that a serial killer is on the loose, voters will not hesitate to beef up funding for the local police force. If you can convince them that bearded men in caves, seven thousand miles away, hate them for their freedoms and want to kill them, the people will not hesitate to increase funding for wars and might even passively consent to the creation of a police state at home. Meanwhile, anyone questioning the rush to war or the destruction of the Constitution will be vilified by the shadow government's functionaries as "soft on terrorism."
With a complicit media, this is not hard to do. The New York Times, CNN, and hundreds of other outlets are little more than propaganda arms of the shadow government.
If you find this hard to believe, answer this:
Why, indeed, are we in Iraq?
