What characterized 2011 is the development of class consciousness, which created both the mood for a fight and set the pace for politics in the US and around the world.

Even Esquire gets it “There are some truths so hard to face, so ugly and so at odds with how we imagine the world should be, that nobody can accept them. Here’s one: It is obvious that a class system has arrived in America — a recent study of the thirty-four countries in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development found that only Italy and Great Britain have less social mobility. But nobody wants to admit: If your daddy was rich, you’re gonna stay rich, and if your daddy was poor, you’re gonna stay poor. Every instinct in the American gut, every institution, every national symbol, runs on the idea that anybody can make it; the only limits are your own limits. Which is an amazing idea, a gift to the world — just no longer true. Culturally, and in their daily lives, Americans continue to glide through a ghostly land of opportunity they can’t bear to tell themselves isn’t real. It’s the most dangerous lie the country tells itself.”

The US is now facing a class war, and the difference is that now both sides know it. There can only be one winner in this huge struggle and history, particularly the history of Germany from 1933 to 1945, tells us we’d best prepare to win it.

We’ll get no help from the White House, where Obama has demonstrated over and over his status as lap dog of the rich, and only a simpleton would look to Congress for help. This is from Political Wire, quoting the NY Times “In an effort to gauge how directly the country’s economic problems affected lawmakers, the New York Times contacted the offices of the 534 current members (one seat is vacant) for an informal survey. It asked if they had close friends or family members who had lost jobs or homes since the 2008 downturn. Only 18 members responded.”

Perhaps that explains why USA Today stays that “More than 2.5 million voters have left the Democratic and Republican parties since the 2008 elections, while the number of independent voters continues to grow… registered Democrats declined in 25 of the 28 states that register voters by party. Republicans dipped in 21 states, while independents increased in 18 states. The trend is acute in states that are key to next year’s presidential race. In the eight swing states that register voters by party, Democrats’ registration is down by 800,000 and Republicans’ by 350,000. Independents have gained 325,000. ”

It’s not at all important which of the gangs of political prostitutes wins in 2012. What is important is that the Democrats and Republicans are political dinosaurs and that the comet will be along shortly. This comet, unlike the one that zapped the dinosaurs during the KT extinction event, has a name. This comets name is class consciousness. It’s on the rise and will shortly produce a new, and for the rich, dangerous period of increasingly desperate and well fought strikes, including general strikes and a trend towards independent labor political action. That may take the form of a Labor Party with teeth or if that’s stymied by the Democrats and the AFL-CIO, the transformation of today’s small socialist and overtly revolutionary parties into mass parties.

In any case, welcome to 2012, The Year of the Union.