But I've been reading a lot of Chomsky lately and one of his major themes is that corporations see democracy as a serious problem, as it gives regular people power over the elite. This can potentially cut into profits and otherwise screw with their plans for global domination. For instance, when democratic countries elect leaders that are not business-friendly, such as Jacobo Arbenz or Mohammed Mossadeq, who threatened the profits of United Fruit and British Petroleum respectively, they are removed, and pro-business leaders are installed. There are several other ways of stopping governments that threaten corporate profits and power. For instance, the USA (read: Big Oil) encouraged Iraq to invade Iran (not exactly democracies, but Khomeini, and to a lesser extent Saddam, were nationalists who wanted a percentage of oil profits to be re-invested in their countries) in order to weaken both nations.
Now, Chomsky often talks about how easily the US government (not to mention the population) is manipulated by Big Business. So there'd be no reason to assassinate a leader or try to bleed the nation dry with an unwinnable war - according to Noam. But the fact remains, the USA is the largest, most powerful, oldest, and strongest democracy on the planet. Though it is usually pro-business, there will always be nationalist/populist leaders who can't be bought. This may well be seen as a problem. Because the USA is probably the only human organization on the planet (because the EU is still so fractured, and UN so impotent) with the ability to stand up to Big Business and Big Oil.
I'm not saying Obama is the guy, but clearly, there are lots of voters who want him to be.
If the USA is strong and democratic, with the potential to elect an anti-business leader, then it is in the interest of Big Business to undermine either the nation's democracy or our strength. Assassinating leaders and fixing elections is useful, but are short-term solutions. So keep in mind that the USA's strength is in our unity - United We Stand, Divided We Fall. Both democrat and republican leaders and pundits have expended a huge amount of resources in recent years to keep us divided. Though the average democrat and average republican are usually in agreement that they want the USA to be strong and healthy, we are now willing, eager, to fight about stupid things (gay marriage, for example). Even though we know that Divided We Fall. And, sure enough, we are falling.
Moreover, as history shows, the best way to undermine a nation's strength is by expending resources on a protracted, unwinnable war. Because (1) it turns the most productive workers, young men, into a drain on the tax base, a liability rather than an asset to the economy; (2) war makes people less democratic, as efficiency is more important than fairness when you are being attacked; (3) it puts the democracy into debt to non-democratic entities, such as the IMF, World Bank, China, Saudi Arabia, etc - and money is power; and (4) it drains the military, making them less capable of dealing with actual threats.
Now, if you could collapse that powerful nation's currency by printing money and fucking with interest rates, combined with an expensive war and divided populace, then it wouldn't matter who was president. Without power, money, unity, and a military, even President Noam Chomsky couldn't take on Big Oil.
"I can't believe they were stupid enough to pay for the cameras we use to spy on them *chortle*
themselves, and yet they think they should have the right to choose their own leader! We're
saving them from themselves. They'll like being a third world country, anyway, more time to
watch American Idol and eat Big Macs, or whatever those revolting poor people do.
So my new conspiracy theory is this: We the people of the United States of America are having our democracy sabotaged by Big Oil and other corporate entities, because we are the only threat to their absolute sovereignty.
