Back at the beginning of the elongated presidential campaign in April, 2019, @SkepticalVet Danny Sjursen wrote about the invariant character of US imperial behavior under both right wings of our two party system (h/t Anti-Empire).
As bitterness sets in today with Establishment defusement of Bernie Sanders' populist threat from the left (and Tulsi Gabbard's endorsement of Joe Biden), it's worth recalling how little practical difference we find between the puppet on the left and the puppet on the right. I particularly liked Sjursen's formulation of owners:
As the 2020 presidential election approaches and candidate after candidate throws his or her hat in the ring, its important to keep bipartisan imperialism in mind and accept an inconvenient truth about the last hundred years: you've had no real choices. You have owners; a corporate, political, and media elite charged with maintaining the military-industrial behemoth. And your owners have only allowed you the illusion of choice, of democracy. For at least a century, Americans have only been exposed to candidates falling within the narrow bounds of a very imperial political spectrum.
The consequences are written in blood:
As a personal anecdote, consider this too: three of my soldiers were killed and one committed suicide under Bush II; three more were killed and two more took their own lives under Obama — now there's a balanced scorecard!