Entrenched Oligarchy

Chicago is a city that is openly hostile to the Bush administration.

They are overwhelmingly Democrat. They passed a resolution in opposition to invading Iraq. White Sox coach Ozzie Guillen refused a meeting at the White House after they won the World Series (he said it was because of a family conflict, but I find it hard to believe that Bush's anti-Chavez rhetoric had nothing to do with it, as Guillen is from Venezuela). Bush is so despised that in running for governor, the worst thing that Blagojevich can say about his opponent is that she is a Bush supporter.

And yet, for some reason, Bush is welcomed here with open arms. Where are the massive demonstrations that have greeted Bush in European visits?

My theory is that it's for the same reason that the Democrats in congress don't really attack Bush on his great many illegal abuses of power. It's that at least on some level, they realize that they are all members of an entrenched oligarchy, deeply dependent on the survival of the status quo.* While they may disagree on many more trivial issues, they all agree that their power depends on keeping the discourse "civil," i.e. no one can call into question the legitimacy of the system as a whole. Political enemies are not real enemies because they all support the American way - global hegemony.



*The phrase "entrenched oligarchy, deeply dependent on the survival of the status quo" was paraphrased from a piece on the Daily Show a few years ago about the White House Correspondents Dinner. In that case, the entrenched oligarchy was not the Democratic and Republican parties, but rather the government and the mainstream news media as a whole.