"Our economy is broken. Our politics are broken. Even our relationships with each other feel broken. That’s because the most powerful people in the world want it that way. The biggest divide in this country is not left vs. right. It’s top vs. bottom. Billionaires want us looking left and right at each other instead of looking up at them."

To anyone tuned into the traditional rhythms of American political discourse, these words carry a rare, seismic resonance. They do not belong to a 'dimaagi naxal' addressing empty chairs outside Jadavpur University; they are the triumphant words of James Talarico, a Texas middle school teacher turned political force, delivered in the wake of a stunning victory in the United States mid-term elections.

Talarico’s diagnostic of a modern malaise cuts straight to the bone of contemporary global politics: 'The people at the top work so hard to keep us angry and divided because our unity is a threat to their wealth and power. So, their cable news networks and their social media algorithms tear us apart. They divide us by party, by race, by gender, by religion so we don’t notice they’re defunding our schools, gutting our healthcare, and cutting taxes for themselves and their rich friends. It’s the oldest strategy in the world: divide and conquer.'

This fiery populist left rhetoric striking a chord in the heartland of American capitalism is not an isolated local phenomenon. It is part of a sweeping, interconnected global mosaic. Talarico’s electoral victory within the very cradle of uber-oligarchy and crony capitalism must be read alongside parallel political earthquakes across the planet. From Brazil and Israel to Serbia, popular surges and democratic resistance have begun, systematically forcing entrenched oligarchic interests out of power. Even in nations weakly plugged into global oligarchic syndicates, such as Bangladesh and Nepal, profound mass........

© National Herald