The Grand Charade of US Elections

It is time to awaken from this collective delusion and recognize the grand deception carried out for far too long.

By Karim Bettache

The curtains have swept open and the actors are in position, preparing to perform the latest installment of the spectacle known as the U.S. elections. Yet the exploited masses, both citizens and those abroad, have little true choice in this drama.

In the self-proclaimed land of liberty, the entrenched capitalist system—driven by an insatiable appetite for power and sustained by white supremacy—continues to dictate the narrative, regardless of the particular politician who sits in the Oval Office.

It scarcely matters which political puppet is selected to occupy the highest office when the system itself is rigged to ensure the capitalist exploitation of workers continues unabated. The so-called “American Dream” remains unattainable for most, who toil and suffer to enrich the few.

The imperialism that plagues foreign lands, perpetuating human rights violations in the name of Human Rights, mirrors the insidious militarization of domestic police forces. The desire to dominate reflects the inward turn of imperialism as the State asserts control over its populace. The militarized police have become foot soldiers upholding the brutal establishment, armed and ready to crush any dissent.

In this oppressive landscape, the racial divide festers. Racism serves as a tool of the ruling elite to sow division and maintain dominance, ensuring the oppressed remain fractured. The continued oppression of people of color is both a result and an instrument of the capitalist system that depends on inequality and human exploitation.

The predawn raid of the African People’s Socialist Party (APSP) exposes the depths of state repression unleashed against any who dare challenge imperial rule. The indictment of a Russian national served as pretext to ransack the homes of the APSP leadership, seeking to link anti-imperialists at home with foreign enemies abroad. Yet U.S. soft power continues to wane on the global stage as African nations spurn America’s demands to sanction Russia. This failure, coupled with capitalism’s terminal crisis, fuels the crazed search for internal enemies to vanquish.

The guns turned on Black radicals today will target all resistance tomorrow. The ruling elite deploy the language of national security to mask their naked drive for fascist control. They criminalize dissent, brand anti-imperialists as foreign stooges, and sanction state violence to quash opposition. But the thirst for justice will not be quenched. The repressive reflexes of a dying order only expose its decadence and hint at coming revolt.

The persecution of those who resist white supremacy and capitalist exploitation spans generations. The government that spied on and murdered Malcolm X, Martin Luther King and Black Panthers now trains its sights on a new generation of radicals. But the rulers can neither escape the crises they have created nor suppress the human impulse to throw off oppression. Their hysterical response to challenges of imperial rule reveals a system devoid of legitimacy, one that substitutes brute force for justice to maintain the rule of capital. While today they target APSP, their violence ultimately menaces all who believe another world is possible. Our only choice remains defiance. Resistance alone can redeem the promise of democracy and forge a future freed of exploitation and domination. The grand charade of US elections obscures the path ahead—the long fight for justice and an end to imperial pillage.

The degradation of our environment lays bare our broken system. The hunger for ceaseless profit and growth supplants any care for the planet's well-being. Looming environmental catastrophes, threatening not just prosperity but human existence, arise from this gluttony.

In the face of such crises, the social bonds connecting communities continue to unravel. Isolation and alienation take root as the marginalized struggle to navigate this crumbling social order. This erosion of community finds no clearer expression than in the tragic phenomenon of mass shootings, often carried out by disaffected white men who find perverse vindication for their violence.

Yet, despite overwhelming evidence of decay, the charade of elections marches on. We are told this spectacle represents our chance to shape the future, that the nation's destiny lies in our hands, that our votes will determine the course of history. But this illusion of choice disguises the sinister truth. As long as the capitalist juggernaut churns on, suffering and oppression will persist regardless of who occupies the Oval Office.

The performance of U.S. elections serves only to perpetuate myths of democracy and conceal the reality of a system dependent on oppression, inequality, and environmental ruin.

It is time to awaken from this collective delusion and recognize the grand deception carried out for far too long. The path to genuine change lies not in the ballot box but in dismantling the system that perpetuates misery. Until we rise up and demand an end to this cruel and unjust order, the great American farce will continue—with the poor, the vulnerable, and our planet paying the price.