On Friday, the US Congress endeavored to decide whether American democracy has irretrievably broken down because the representatives of the Billionaires refused to compromise with the representatives of the People (“cutting spending” while “cutting taxes” means “shifting the cost of running society to the middle class from the filthy rich”). The answer was that it had not, as long as the representatives of the People showed sufficient deference to the Billionaires, shuffling, keeping their eyes down, and obediently emptying their pockets. The middle class, successfully distracted by racial and religious hatreds and by attempts to impose patriarchal fundamentalism, was wreathed in vapid smiles as the billionaires sent movers to their homes to pick up the belongings they had just fleeced from them via their enforcers, the tea baggers.
Emphasis Mine
Cole is wrong to assume that there is only party of Billionaires in the USA. Both the Democrats and Republicans both serve the super-rich 1% of the USA. All of this nonsense about the budget showdown is just a horse and pony show to distract people's attention from the huge waste of money spent of the wars that protect the interests of the super-rich.
And, yet, Cole is right to point to the role that racism and religion plays in keeping the people (not just the Middle Class) quiet and distracted. These are masterful in postponing the social crisis that is now developing in the USA. This social crisis revolves around the breaking of the social contract between the petty bourgeoisie and labour aristocracy with the Capitalists: they would subordinate their interests in return for a share of the loot exploited from others.
The rise of the Tea-Baggers as a social protest spans the proto-fascism needed to keep the workers in check to a cry from the down-trodden against the system. This drama is playing out. I think the Tea-Baggers will be subverted into a Fascist organisation to keep the super-rich in power.
