Special to WorldTribune.com, June 14, 2021
Corporate WATCH
Commentary by Joe SchaefferThe phrase “Defending Democracy" was used to justify the endless wars of the Ruling Establishment some 20 years ago. It is now being re-purposed to serve as a blunt weapon against anyone in America itself who would dare to question that ruling establishment in 2021.
The word “democracy” here quite simply means the ruling class. By employing the term, disruptors like Donald Trump and other dissidents become enemies of democracy. With all that this implies, deplorables could be scorned but enemies of the State and of Democracy must be destroyed.
Unsurprisingly, the man helping to foment this hostile stance toward some 75 million Americans is Barack Obama.
The news came out earlier this month. “The University of Virginia plans to invest $100 million in the study, teaching and promotion of democracy – a defining institutional ambition for the 21st century." So reads a June 4 statement on the founding of the Democracy Initiative.
The "nonpartisan institute" will be headed up by an Obama administration alum who served for years as Ted Kennedy's chief counsel on the Senate Judiciary committee. Melody Barnes is also a former vice president at the John Podesta-founded Center for American Progress who currently serves on the Board of Directors for Swamp defense contracting behemoth Booz Allen Hamilton and is an official at the globalist think tank the Aspen Institute.
Democracy will not die for lack of Deep State progressive connections.
Here’s what Barnes says of the Jan. 6 unrest on Capitol Hill:
And I don't think that you can look at the tape, look at that security footage... and not refer to this as a mob or as a riot or as an insurrection. Insurrection is the enemy of democracy. For Barnes, defending democracy means defending institutional federal power (bold added throughout this column):
I think the debate about federalism is another important issue. There has always been a level of distrust in the federal government. Over time – not just the last four years, but the last 50 years – that distrust has grown, leading some to abandon our democratic institutions, the architecture of our democracy. That is an important element of what we saw on Jan. 6 [in the insurrection at the U.S. Capitol].
Now, I think it is important to build or rebuild trust in those institutions, and trust that those institutions can work for Americans. Citizens need to believe that while they may not get the exact outcome they want, the process was fair.
Barnes sees elites as playing a vital role in buttressing belief in “democratic institutions” via the utilization of higher education. A June 5 op-ed she co-wrote for USA Today states:
The challenges facing our democracy demand that we place a big bet on the work that higher education can – and must – do to help solve them. That requires that we continue the pursuit of new knowledge and translate what we learn so it can be used by policymakers, practitioners, private sector leaders and the public.
The University of Virginia announcement of the new Democracy Initiative reveals that funder Bruce Karsh is a globalist financier and part owner of the NBA’s Golden State Warriors:
The Karshes are both UVA alumni and met as students at the School of Law. Bruce Karsh, a 1980 UVA Law graduate, is the co-founder and co-chairman of Oaktree Capital Management, a global asset management firm with assets under management of $150 billion.... He also serves on the executive board of the NBA’s Golden State Warriors, of which he and Martha are co-owners.
It’s not hard to figure out Karsh’s underlying motives for seeing status quo institutions preserved, which he explicitly states is a goal of the new initiative:
“For a healthy democracy to thrive, its core principles, institutions and processes must not only be studied and understood, but also vigilantly protected and strengthened,” the Karshes said in a statement. “We believe higher education is ideally suited for this responsibility, and we’re delighted to support the University of Virginia’s ambitious effort to lead in this work.”
And now consider this. At the same time that this mammoth $100 million seed investment is being rolled out, Barack Obama appears on CNN and his lapdog Anderson Cooper gives him a friendly platform to wag his finger at a Republican Party that has become an enemy of... "democracy.”
"We have to worry," Obama told Cooper in an interview that aired June 7, "when one of our major political parties is willing to embrace a way of thinking about our democracy that would be unrecognizable and unacceptable even five years ago or a decade ago."
But what sounds like criticism of a rival party was nothing of the sort. Obama was lamenting that a Republican establishment was unable to stave off the deep-seated demand for change within the GOP grassroots ranks and continue to serve as a valued wing of the D.C. Uniparty:
“I thought that there were enough guardrails institutionally that even after [former President Donald] Trump was elected that you would have the so-called Republican establishment who would say, ‘Ok, you know, it’s a problem if the White House doesn’t seem to be concerned about Russian meddling,’ or, ‘It’s a problem if we have a president who’s saying that Neo-Nazis marching in Charlottesville, there’s good people on both sides.' ”
In case there is any doubt on this score, Obama specifically pointed his sermonizing finger at Trump supporters within the GOP base:
"Now, the reason for that is because the base believed it and the base believed it because this had been told to them not just by the President, but by the media that they watch," Obama said. He later added: "My hope is that the tides will turn. But that does require each of us to understand that this experiment in democracy is not self-executing. It doesn't happen just automatically."
A collaborating big-box media will tell you that Democrats are accusing Republican politicians of subverting “democracy” via electoral integrity laws, election audits and what have you. But Obama and his former charge who has just been handed $100 million by a globalist money man are really going after the populist insurgency that the institution known as the Republican Party no longer can safely contain. It sees this populist revolt as its greatest threat.
It’s very interesting to see Obama become so publicly a part of an orchestrated party line here. He used to be more subtle about these things. But after Nov. 3, 2020, the ruling establishment doesn't seem to feel a need to cover its tracks and conceal the network anymore.
"Defending Democracy" inside America has become a cottage industry in the progressive establishment ranks. Examples are too numerous to list here so we’ll focus on just one that will hopefully help illuminate the larger network at play.
The hugely influential Biden-aligned Brennan Center For Justice posted a Jan. 20 Q&A titled "How to Fix American Democracy."
It starts out by immediately demonizing the opponents of Washington, D.C.'s ruling establishment:
The violent attack in the U.S. Capitol was an attack on American democracy. It was the culmination of efforts by President Trump and his allies to overturn the results of the November election, fueled by repeated lies about widespread voter fraud. Had they been successful, these efforts would have disenfranchised millions of Americans, especially targeting Black and brown voters.
Wendy Weiser, a Brennan "expert," is one of those featured in the Q&A. Her bio is ludicrous, speaking to embedded university power and big-box media partners working to push the "democracy" buzzword:
She is a frequent public speaker and media commentator on democracy issues. She has appeared on CBS News, CNN, Fox News, MSNBC, PBS, ABC News, and NPR, among others; her commentary has been published in the New York Times, the Washington Post, USA Today, and elsewhere; and she is frequently quoted by the New York Times, the Washington Post, National Journal, Politico, and other news outlets across the country. She has also served as an adjunct professor at NYU School of Law.
One wonders whether Professor Weiser has “defender of democracy” embossed on a business card. The countless “mainstream” media outlets who tout her as such certainly aren’t questioning her “expert” role on the matter.
Naturally, the Brennan Center that employs her is heavily funded by progressive globalist billionaire George Soros. As we have reported, the activist legal organization received over $1 million from Soros in 2018 alone.
Here’s the Official Statement made by Soros's Open Society Foundations on the Nov. 3 presidential election. It was posted Nov. 7. “Democracy” was the word of choice for Team Soros as it rejoiced at the fraud-riddled results:
The 2020 elections marked one of the greatest tests of America’s democracy since its founding more than two and a half centuries ago. The joyful crowds celebrating in the streets today show the collective relief that every vote will be counted and that the will of the people prevails. We had confidence that the country would hold a safe and secure vote; despite the many challenges at hand—a pandemic, a blizzard of disinformation, and active efforts to suppress and undermine the legitimacy of the elections — democracy held. It is a sign of the health of our system that so many Americans turned out to vote — not just for president, but for the myriad state and local offices which are increasingly reflective of the breadth and depth of our multiracial, inclusive democracy, as is the election, for the first time ever, of a woman of color as vice president.
Obama used the word "enemy" to describe his political opponents way back in 2010:
If Latinos sit out the election instead of saying, 'We're gonna punish our enemies, and we're gonna reward our friends who stand with us on issues that are important to us' -- if they don't see that kind of upsurge in voting in this election -- then I think it's going to be harder.
His current emphasis on the word "democracy" entirely aims to frame opponents of the ruling establishment as enemies once again. Enemies that must be punished.
The "we're not a democracy, we're a constitutional republic" answer, good as it is, simply does not apply here. This isn't a civics debate. These folks are not coming from an honest attempt at defining good government. This is an oligarchy seeking to provide a fig leaf of justification for its hostile and illegitimate control apparatus over the American people.
Joe Schaeffer is the former Managing Editor of The Washington Times National Weekly Edition. His columns appear at WorldTribune.com and FreePressInternational.org.
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