EXTRA: Forceful Obama Bests Romney in Debate

BITTERLY CONSCIOUS OF the narrow range of political options allowed the U.S. by its capitalist masters, I twice noted that President Barack Obama's unspeakably wretched performance in the first presidential debate two weeks ago might indicate he has been ordered to throw the election.

But after witnessing Obama's eloquent, Tai-Chi-like mastery of the verbal bullying attempted by Republican Presidential Candidate Mitt Romney last night, I am delighted to report I have been cleansed of all such suspicions.

For those who were unable to watch the fireworks of the debate live, here thanks to Politico is a transcript and video. 

Despite my cheers and applause for this seemingly re-energized Obama, I remain acutely conscious of the fact he and Romney are each candidates of the Ruling Class. Save on the familial and socioeconomic issues of women's rights and marriage equality – where Romney/Ryan misogyny and homophobia demonstrate the Republicans' enthusiastic collaboration in the Christofascist effort to replace constitutional governance with biblical law – the two candidates' policies differ mainly by degree. 

Neither dares admit the driving ethos of capitalism – elevation of infinite greed to maximum virtue – demands the overthrow of every humanitarian principle our species has ever formulated. 

And each plans to slash Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid and food stamps, thereby producing gargantuan windfalls for the One Percent while forcing the rest of us, the 99 Percent, the (formerly) Working Class, ever deeper into hopeless poverty. 

But the Republicans would abolish the entire social safety net almost overnight, while the Democrats will do it more gradually – or so they say. 

Hence another part of my 13 October essay remains undeniably true: “With terminal climate change accelerating beyond all projections, the One Percent is racing to protect itself by converting the United States into the de facto Fourth Reich: absolute power and unlimited profit for the Ruling Class, total subjugation and genocidal poverty (including mass poisoning by genetically modified foods) for all the rest of us, the entire system increasingly sustained by Ayn Rand indoctrination, Christian prosperity gospel and the Big Business variant of rule by divine right.” 

What this means is that regardless of who wins the election, those of us who live below the salt, as I do, will be allowed nothing more than crumbs from the capitalist table. 

But I have no doubt we'll get many more of those crumbs if we vote to retain Obama in the White House for another four years. 

Which leaves me, at age 72, with the one last realistic hope of my lifetime: that an Obama victory will allow me to die of natural causes before I am murdered by the Ruling Class policy of genocidal abandonment – extermination of elderly, disabled and chronically poor people by the termination of the stipends and services that now keep us alive.

LB/16 October 2012

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