The Party Is Over

On Amtrak in North Dakota a guy in the lounge bar was having a drink. He wore a tee shirt with the image of a red star, hammer, sickle and slogan The Party Is Over. Was he a radical Bernie Sanders? I walked up to him and said, Hi comrade are you a Bolshevik or Trotskiite? He replied, Hell no I’m either a Bushkivic or Clintonite. That knocked me off balance, so I just laughed and asked to take a photo. This is where his satirical humour led as he explained.  The Bolsheviks and Trotskiites were two versions of communism, the Clintoniites and Bushkivics are two versions of capitalism, controlled by a small group of old boys manipluted by ideological propaganda and hammer in one, by money and advertising propaganda in the other. But in America the powerful decided to take turns in dominance instead of liquidating the other. Hence the peace when Bush robbed the election from Al Gore. Even foreign interference in a federal election is only an offside foul. For a price, higher than we know, we get no choice but we do get a winner take all.  It’s American football politics, with cheer leaders, tight ends, quarter backs and paid operatives: for the rich by the rich. He was an American cousin and kindred spirit. He fervently plead emotionally for the hope in Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address, “… that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth. “