'Plutocrats steer US elections to stave off deepening crisis'

The American Empire has struck back against Donald Trump because it does not want an “insurgent” candidate to get elected president of the United States, an American writer and political analyst says.

Daniel Patrick Welch made the remarks in an interview with Press TV on Thursday after US presidential candidate Donald Trump accused his Republican rival Ted Cruz of cheating to win in Iowa, and demanded a new vote in the state.

Trump blamed the Cruz campaign on Wednesday for spreading false rumors shortly before the Iowa vote that Republican presidential contender Ben Carson had dropped out of the race.

Meanwhile, according to a new poll, Trump holds a solid lead over the Republican presidential field in New Hampshire, but Senator Marco Rubio has surged into second place.

The poll is especially important as the candidates are barreling toward New Hampshire, which will hold the election's first primary on Tuesday.

Whole US system is rigged

Welch said billionaires are buying US elections. “The whole system is rigged like a charade. He is doing this to move into New Hampshire. Now Rubio is surging into second into New Hampshire. This is the Empire striking back. The traditional establishment does not want an insurgent candidate; they want something they can control.”

“They would push either Cruz or Rubio over Trump. But the plain fact is that the agenda is basically the same,” he added.

Dress rehearsal for war crimes tribunal

“As I said before, the Republican debates look like a dress rehearsal for a war crimes tribunal.  And they say such horrific things, especially about immigration – this nativist and proto-fascist racism,” the analyst stated.

“Even though both of those candidates are Cubans, they still have this immigrant bashing platform that is just completely reactionary,” he noted.

“New Hampshire, like Iowa, is largely rural, largely white, fairly conservative – it’s not a good way to start to choose this generally elected person to run the country. But then again it’s a farce,” he stated.

“We’re doing this thing over and over again. It’s like a Kabuki theatre, like a play to show that there really is a democracy going on here,” the commentator said.

 Why Rubio or Cruz

Welch said that “if Clinton is the eventual Democratic nominee, then I think the Republicans have a shot, that may mean that the Empire has decided to give it over to the Republicans, because Rubio and Cruz have a much better chance of peeling away some of the large Latino base of the Democratic voters – so that means California, Florida and Texas, which have large Latino populations and large electoral prizes are more in play.”

“If Sanders is the nominee, then, like I said before, Empire can live with that, and it may breathe some new life into the democratic process in this country nominally. He is the gatekeeper – kind of a sheep dog – but it will bring younger voters back into the fold and stave off a systematic collapse and massive unrest which is on the horizon if the anger of people earning say less than $100,000 a year is not addressed,” he pointed out.

80% of Americans still in recession

“The plutocrats have to come to term with this, because the fact is for 80 percent of us there is a permanent recession – nothing has changed since 2008 among the lower fourth quintile. And usually the ruling class only cares about the top 20 [percent] because that’s where most of the voters come from, that’s where all the money is, that’s where all the power is, and the ability to mobilize,” Welch said.

“But if gets worse and you have a genuine populist kind of insurgent, then you have to throw people a bone. That’s why I’ve said before that it’s possible that they would choose Sanders. I still stick by that. I think that is quite likely,” he stated.

“If he [Sanders] wins heavily in New Hampshire and then actually Clinton’s invincibility is pierced, and then maybe if he wins in South Carolina, then the nomination is his -- I say that right now – but we’ll just have to see what happens,” he noted.

“It’s a toss, it’s a coin toss basically, let’s say that. You flip it six times and you get a better chance of choosing a president than this insane system that we call democracy,” the analyst concluded.

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