Very few people in Ireland will have heard of Rachel Maddow, a centre-left American journalist and author who presents a nightly news show on MSNBC, and who has become one of the more interesting commentators on contemporary US affairs (while simultaneously gaining the enmity of many on the Right, especially those working for cable-rival Fox News). This piece from a recent episode gives a good example of her style while also highlighting the increasingly plutocratic nature of politics in the United States. Are ordinary Americans aware of just how much parts of their democracy has become a play-thing for the denizens of the billionaire over-class?
Rachel Maddow On The Plutocratic Oversight
AN SIONNACH FIONN 
You may be a bit off base here, in America there is no difference between the Right and the Left. Billionaires on the right support the Right. Billionaires on the left support the Left. Regardless, both share a common interest, protecting their billions and getting more. Take what is said by the Left (or Right) in America with a grain of salt as it has little to do with traditional European understanding of Right/Left.
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There are no left-wing parties in the USA.
Democrats are a centre-right party and Republicans are right wing extremist nutjobs.
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I would say the vast majority are aware, and the level of cynicism is on par with the last days of the Roman empire, with new crisis cults springing up all the time. But when it comes to election time, the old tribal rivalries kick in and the minority of folks who actually vote do their civic duty to oppose their perceived “lesser evil”. And it is absolutely true that there are no Left wing parties in the US, per se, with the Greens only wanting more anti-corporate laws, and basking in the unholy light of “green capitalism.” There has been municipal electoral success for the Socialist Alternative (who would nationalize the Fortune 500) in my neck of the woods (Seattle, Portland) but these folks would be doused in napalm is they got anywhere near the District of Columbia. Actually, the popularity of some kind of Balkanization is remarkable, but fear of AGVSTVS and his (soon to be her?) Legions is just a fact of life. So we wait for the Fall, or just change the channel.
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