We now face another prime
time over-hyped boring spectacle with a capital S (see Society
of the Spectacle). This time it features the ever blue pants
suited Hillary Rodam Clinton starring as Queen Bee in yet another
official party convention - yawn. As loathsome as the orange haired
orangutan Donald Trump is, Queen Hillary gives him a run for his
money. Many mornings of recent her smiling countenance has beamed down at me
above the masthead of the NY Times online edition in another paid
political ad. This does not help her or me. Someone should tell her
that people who read the NY Times have long sense made up their mind
and most will vote for her in November - but many with nostrils firmly
pinched shut.
There is almost totally
unanimity among the chattering classes and MSM regarding Mr Trump's
patent unfitness for the presidency. Also there is much wailing and
gnashing of teeth over the surreal aspects of Trump's candidacy among
the conservative apologist Repub-friendly pundits like David Brooks,
Ross Douthat, George Will and their ilk. Even among them Trump's
name is now Donald Mudd .
Yet the weakness of the
Democratic Party's offering is being overlooked. With the Repubs you
can blame their awful candidate on their over reliance on mining
redneckian, reactionary and the south-will-rise-again voters. As
many have noted with Trump the Repubs are finally reaping a
stunted ugly plant from one of their malevolent tainted seeds that
has ripened and burst forth. The Repubs have been masters at tapping
into deep seated discord in the American lower middle class, a sector
they has long since been marinated, in the myth of a forever growth
in their material well being - gas gobbling SUVs, ever bigger pickup
trucks, palatial size tract homes, steak dinners twice a week, motorboats, motor homes, Vegas vacations, etc. etc. Ever
more materialistic goodies, these are their God given rights as Americans.
Now all that has slowed, and for some it's totally stopped -
and it's all Obama's fault.
The basic problem is that
our two corporate sponsored parties have led to kind break down in
democracy. There is no party to really represents the working class.
Both parties represent the corporations and upper classes. Both
parties have allowed global corporations to call the shots for far
too long . A number of interlocking seemingly intractable problems
have emerged, and many Americans are extremely dissatisfied.
Sometimes as with the white working class these grievances area
diffuse and generalized. Right wing media helps to define them. 70%
is often cited as the percentage of those who say the country is
'headed in the wrong direction' whatever that means. This 70% are not
all potential Trump voters, many are liberal Sanders Democrats. And
no amount of citing numbers that tell us how good things are getting
by HRC, Obama and Demo bigwigs is going help. However this will be
the prime objective of the unfolding Demo Party
Convention/Propaganda-fest.
What really drives this
malaise? Could it be the decades long spiking in wealth inequality
and its problems for the global economy in general (see Thomas
Pikitty)? Global aggregate demand which is the mainspring of
capitalism is sagging and much of the problem is that too much wealth
(potential capital) is sitting idle. This is the unintended side
effect of a long global one-sided class war by the 1% against the 99%
(with many in top 10% aiding and abetting the 1%). And in many cases
it was US led (see US tax policy and malfeasance of the deregulated
financial industry). To make matters worse for labor in the wealthy
industrialized West, impersonal forces of capitalism dictated that
capital (read investment in factories) flow to low wage countries,
this in turn leading to their rapid industrialization. Corporate
designed trade pacts of course fostered the process. These countries
have no labor unions (or environmental protections) to speak of so
exploitation (and pollution) can be maximized. And everybody likes
the cheap commodities that flow forth including un and under employed
US workers. For US workers it will never be 1955 again. The US
came out of WWII as a intact industrial hegemonic giant, unmatched,
and the US working class was able to join ranks of the lower
bourgeoisie thanks in no small part to a strong labor movement - now
gone. Those days are over and no empty promises by orange haired
demagogues or blue suited queen bees can turn back them clock.
Discord on the left
includes the awareness one of the two parties (probably
tactically) refuses to cooperate even on a common sense level like
maintaining the infrastructure as it rots out from under us. This
even when such a practical investment would put many back to work in
decent paying jobs. But even more existentially serious is that this
same Neolithic party refuse to even acknowledge the existence of the
inexorable world historical catastrophe of climate change. Of
course both parties pay blind obedience to major industries that are
incestuously integrated into the government that they are elected to
run- such as the defense industry, the medical insurance/pharmaceutical
industry and many others as privatization of the public sector
proceeds. Underpinning all of this is an unspoken acceptance by
both parties (with HRC as a perfect example) of neoliberal
economic ideology.
As Trump rises in the
polls from a bounce from his absurd Leni Rafinstal Nuremberg Rally
style Republican Convention extravaganza, the Demos prepare for
theirs. Will the Demos rue the day they let the corrupt DNC shepherd
in “status quo annie”, Hillary Clinton, and pulled out all stops
to block a truly viable candidate who represented a real departure
from the status quo, Bernie Sanders?
We shall see.
