We’ve spent the last 30 years losing every battle with kleptocracy and government support of corporations so enthusiastic it has become a merging. Political protest is a Potemkin village, and everyone knows it. It is pure spectacle, free of real world consequence. It can be safely ignored or marginalized on the edges of real American politics, as long as it doesn’t interfere with the kleptocracy. If it does, or even threatens to talk about the kleptocracy, it will be violently put down.