Even as we enjoy the bittersweet days
of late northern California Indian summer it's difficult to continue
to ignore all that is hanging fire. The list is long and awful: an
incompetent loose cannon in the presidency busting everything in
sight with one of his (little) fingers now on the nuke button, the
hard right controlling 2/3's of the state legislatures, both houses
of Congress and the Supreme Court with a “conservative” majority
(with more to come in the judiciary), and operationally what parts of the government
that once worked (EPA, State Dept, DHHS) being eviscerated. And
all this while the impact of climate change relentlessly and
permanently damages our planet's biosphere, the very environment that
we as humans and all the living things round us evolved in (that is
if you accept carbon dating, glacial geology, climatology, biology and so on).
Throughout my life I have watched Republican
politicians manipulate the darker side of human nature to acquire and misuse power (Nixon, Reagan, Bush). And in others times
watched through ineptitude, blindness or just plain bad luck the
Democrats lose power and allow another round of retrenchment
(i.e. Carter's losing his 2nd term, Obama losing both houses of Congress). And then there were those Democrats who blurred the line
between the two Party's traditional values for temporary political
gain as Bill Clinton did. When Democrats opportunistically
commandeer their opponent's positions (rabid 'anti-communism'
or ideological hostility to the so-called 'welfare state') they effectively drive
the Repubs further into heartless hard right whacko-land (where they
are today). The Democratic Party, in trying from the center left to keep
the huge US imperialistic monopoly capitalist apparatus on track by borrowing positions from the right, they often open the door to their more evil twin – the Repubs. The Repubs don't have the disadvantage of trying to do or appear to do the right thing, they just do what works for them to acquire and hold power.The Demos lose identity and credibility when they turn right (Clinton's 'triangulation', Obama's drones) the Repubs gain credibility and respectability when they turn left (Nixon's opening to China, Reagan and SALT).
This dynamic first revealed itself
back in tumultuous 1960s when for whatever reason Cold War warrior
liberal and Democrat Party golden boy President Jack Kennedy suddenly
got assassinated. Who did it remains a mystery – Oswald, the Deep
State, the Mafia. In any case Lyndon B. Johnson, a steely eyed and
ruthless Texas Democrat of the old school (they don't make em like
that anymore), inherited the throne. While steering through Congress
socially progressive and now popular programs like Medicare (over the
abject resistance of the Repubs) he also embraced anti-Communist and Cold
War domino theory ideology, thus managing to sink us into the hellish
quagmire of Viet Nam. Consequently most of my generation would never
see the Democratic Party as a totally progressive entity again and many would become too alienated to ever vote for Democrats again, others
became permanently apolitical while others even metamorphosed into
Republicans. In fact in the presidential election of 1968 most of us couldn't even
hold our noses and vote for Democrat Hubert Humphrey thus allowing
the reptilian Republican Richard Nixon to win almost by default. And
to make matters worse in the next election, as reviled as many were
by Nixon, the Democratic Party (allied with the Washington
establishment and the mainstream media) essentially sabotaged their own
candidate, George McGovern, because of his strong center-left
position. This allowed Nixon to again waltz back in by a landslide.
This even as the Watergate scandal was already emerging from the
muck.
And now the Democrats want us to
believe they are on the side of the angels because they, too, find
Donald J. Trump patently loathsome. What thinking person wouldn't as
he as sits on his golden throne with his weird yellow hair trying to
rule like some Louis XIV wannabe? The Demos have a lot of
nerve after foisting their worse presidential candidate on us his
since Fritz Mondale ran against St. Ronnie in '84. With shitty choices like
that what can we expect from poorly educated, working class
seat-of-their-pants voters (who's economic situation now seems to be in
permanent decline). And then there is “the entertainment industry
for liberals”: NY Times, Washington Post, CNN and CSNBC. CNN and
CSNBC which both made a bundle giving candidate Trump unwarranted publicity and free airtime (and now endlessly lambaste the Orange
One). Then he was both provocative and ridiculous – easy to make
fun of (and money off of). Now it's not so funny as everything good
is turned into a filthy vortex of fecal matter and spins down into
the sewer.
Bernie Sanders may not have been the
perfect candidate – too old, too easy to red-bait, too strident,
too much ranting and raving. But he was honest and earnest, and most
importantly not taking big bucks from the robber barons on Wall
Street as was her highness HRC. Also he had a progressive
agenda that was easy to understand, that wasn't all
mush and happy talk. Hadn't the Clintons had their day in the
sun? People wanted change. Was the Demo bench is so shallow that
they had to look to creating a ruling dynasty to stay in power? The
Repubs had the good sense (and internal party democracy) to early on
eject their dynastic heir apparent, Jeb, even as their big money boys
loved him. Of course the Repubs got theirs as the neophyte pol, the
Orange Ogre, blasted his way to the finish line leaving the other
GOP stable of irksome candidates looking like horse turds on the barn floor.
As we know from Virginia's recent
election the tide may be turning. Trump and his mischief has
apparently come to the belated attention of people who usually never bother to
vote. That must be why, while Trump's ratings are at a historical low,
most mainstream Repubs are reportedly still standing by him despite their embarrassment at his crudity. Yet in Virginia the Repubs still got trounced. The non-voters
must have come out of the woodwork. But in addition to waking up to
Trump, they seem also to realize that the Republican Party is not
their friend. The GOP agenda is both morally
and pragmatically wrong. With or without Trump the GOP is a
supreme menace to the average Joe be his income lower, middle or upper middle.
The Demos on the other hand still want
to keep the whole banker run capitalist order in good working order but
also allow for a modicum of social and economic justice. Managing
that is, of course, always a problem. But the Repubs don't have that worry. They could give a shit about
anything but their short term goal of satisfying the donor class.
They always, despite what they say, want to redirect as much wealth
as possible to the top tiers who already own and control
everything in sight - all the global corporations, financial
institutions, prestigious colleges and universities, foundations and
so on. 'Tax cuts 'n small government', is their perennial mantra and hobby
horse. But in terms of managing the economy responsibly, sending more money to the top income tiers does nothing for
what economists call 'aggregate demand' as the rich already have
everything they need - materially anyway. So all the tax cuts do is
make the rich a little richer while further increasing the national
debt which already is like 16 trillion! At least the Demos try to
keep things in line capitalism-wise by making sure the money goes to
things (social services, supplementary payments, infrastructure
spending) that will wind up as disposable income and enhance
aggregate demand – the only thing will lead to more investment and
thus economic growth (if that's even good). The Repubs really need to
go back and take Econ 101 again.
With only a craven pack of self serving
opportunists (and a few generals – a bad sign) surrounding him
along with his loyal nub of hard core true believers still drinking
their Trumpian kool aid, while Mueller's army of legal beagles nosing
in every nook and cranny of his sordid financial affairs and Ruskkie assistance to his campaign, it may be only be a matter of time
before Humpty Dumpty falls off his wall. But be careful what you
wish for. Without the Orange Ogre in the way, the Repubs will have a
more streamlined (and blog free) time machine to take us all the way
back to the good old the 1890s.
