The American Spring

By fits and starts, the American Spring is aborning.

The first significant milestone was the election of Barack Obama in 2008. In retrospect, it appears that BHO's role in the incipient re-invention of American politics has been to allay the fears of the power elite: by abandoning universal health care and getting quickly into lock-step with the military-industrial complex, he managed to satisfy the elite that they had not lost control of the process. They let down their guard.

The second milestone was the initiation of the Occupy movement on September 17, 2011--subsequently crushed with the cooperation of President Obama. In 2012, seeing no need to replace him with anyone more congenial, many plutocrats supported Obama's re-election.

The third milestone was Obama's decline into Lame Duck status in 2014. Now rendered completely "harmless," he began to pursue a mildly progressive agenda and, as a courtesy for six years of faithful service, the elite left him alone to create his "legacy." In so doing, however, he has allowed some on the Left to fill their lungs with freer air. Some of the youth have begun to imagine heretofore unimaginable political possibilities.

The fourth milestone (April 30, 2015), Senator Bernie Sanders announced his candidacy for President of the United States. The plutocrats, perceiving no threat, smiled indulgently upon his campaign and continued to pour money into the coffers of their favored shill, Hillary Rodham Clinton.

But there's something happening here and you don't know what it is, do you, Mr. Jones?