A mighty army is required to defend a great nation yet but one froward tongue can destroy it.
Due to the specious leadership in both the Democratic and Republican clans, America has cast itself into an existential struggle. It fights to seek which of its inferior selves will become the nation’s dominant visage. Withered, perhaps, gone is the best of America, orphaned by the decision of the nation’s modern leaders to sell themselves to venal special interests that seek a powerful nation populated by a weak, debt-subservient populace. The contradiction is obvious yet lost on those engineering this asymmetry.
Since the era that terminated with the Civil Rights Movement, America’s national leaders have increasingly shunned the pursuit of economic justice and reform. They have accepted a growing inequality as if the inevitable order of things. Their policy has been to fool the poor, accommodate the wealthy and personally advance as far as Machiavellian ambition and lack of principle can take a career operative. The sole difference between Republican and Democrat is the pace and fashion of implementing the barren policy.
As with all empires, America’s greatest danger is of the homespun variety. Maintenance of an empire built on military prowess and far-flung holdings is not conducive to the long-term governance of the nation at the core of imperial project. Geographic expansion beyond its close proximity does not enhance a nation. Such expansion is purchased at the exorbitant cost of internal improvement and social justice. No land has ever managed to be fairly governed at home yet perpetually expansive in its conquests and military reach.
By the 1930’s, the British empire was being torn both inside and out. Colonies, with India at the forefront, clamored to break old shackles. The British working class seethed with unrest at the austere reply of their government to the exigencies created by the Great Depression. The British elite saw communists everywhere, under their beds, in their closets, drawing crowds in Hyde Park and leading independence movements in distant but dear colonies.
Due to this fear, the British ruling class fraternized with the authoritarian lunatic enthroned in Berlin until he finally turned on them. Had he not done so, they might be siding with him still. The appetite of the rich and powerful conceals them from the poignant lesson. All they see is domestic and foreign conquest. They see not the danger of their ways. Both military conquest abroad and financial conquest of the home population depart from the democratic openness and vitality that helped prosper the nation. At such a point, the nation flirts with decay only to marries decline.
Today, this historic phenomenon regarding the self evisceration of empires is coupled with the modern debt peonage affecting most Americans due to the rapid conversion of the national economy from mean capitalism to carnassial financialism. Only the financial sector and big corporations allied to it profit. All others must take on ever increasing debt to maintain a modest standard of living. The harder an American works, the more indebted he becomes. He works not for the good of his family or community; he works to remain one step ahead of the bill collectors who seek to torment him and extract his last dollar in payment of some obligation he is convinced to bear in order to be possessed of the American way of life. He has been deceived to acquire real debt to purchase false prosperity.
Car, television and home, all are mostly borrowed, not owned. With so much debt placed upon him, the borrower belongs to his creditors. America is not a nation of the free. Despite its great abundance, America is the land of modern day sharecroppers and debt serfs. Such economic feudalism is not the basis for greatness. Any person who seeks to lead but not reform this iniquity cannot be trusted with the welfare of the average person. Sadly, both Republican and Democratic elites are wedded to this profound unfairness.
America borrowed much from ancient Rome. Like Rome at its zenith, its military prowess is unrivaled. Rome was also the first major society from the Mediterranean/Mesopotamian outcrop of civilizations to dispense with the curative of periodic debt forgiveness for the poor debtor, even the slave. In Rome, money lenders and the military took undue control, corrupting the political class and the important institutions of the political economy; all was slowly drained of vitality; then all was lost. Clownish and ghoulish dictators came to rule where august figures once led. The lesson America seems to have learned from its remarkable ignorance of history is that, in the case of empire, it is best to do as the Romans did. The outcome will be the same.
Because the American political elite treated the populace with such cool disdain for such a long time, enough people revolted to elect Donald Trump. He came about not so much because people wanted him. They wanted to signal to the smug establishment that something profound was missing from governance and from their lives. A vote for Trump was an act of desperate rebellion, of mindless defiance. Sadly, this symbolic gesture brought to power an actor fixed on doing the opposite of what most of his voters had in their hearts. They voted for Trump because he was new and they had their fill of the old establishment. That he chucked stones at parts of the establishment deceived them into believing he was for them. Yet, the enemy of your enemy is not always your friend. You need to carefully study the basis for their disagreement. Their dispute may be limited to a difference in how to carve and cook you then who shall dine on your choicest morsels.
Instead of a hero, the people selected a buffoonish impostor with an ill temper and a dictator’s heart. He is a bloated caricature of America gone wrong in much the same way Nero personified the felony that Rome had become unto its citizens. While one must blame Trump for what he does, the blame for his presence in the White House lies with establishment Democrats. In the smug comfort of their inflated intellectual prowess and false moral superiority, they were blind to the travesty they had made of themselves. In truly imperial style, Obama treated the party as subservient to his ambitions. During his years in office, he soaked up all the sunlight, allowing the party to desiccate as an organization. Structures at the state and local levels atrophied. His concern stretched no farther than the Oval Office. Rarely has a two-year incumbent left his party organization in such tatters.
Compounding this error, the Democrats ran perhaps the only candidate who could lose to Trump. Clinton deepened the ditch into the party would fall by embarking on one of the most insipid campaigns in the annals of American national elections. It was as if the Democrats tried to lose. The sad truth is that, for establishment Democrats, losing to the Republicans is not much of a defeat. Over the years, the parties have become increasingly combative over social issues. The feuds over abortion, gun control, gay marriage are intense.
This veils a deeper truth, deceiving the innocent into believing the parties are far apart. The parties spend more time battering each other over these few issues because they stand in general accord on the order of things economic and financial. Regarding core economic and national security issues that really dictate the trajectory of a nation, the leadership of the two parties are kissing cousins. The incessant partisan battle over these other emotional issues is but a mirage to cover the profane unity between the parties on how the bread is cut and who gets most of the slices.
Be not distracted by the theatrics surrounding Trump’s presidency. He sees himself as a man of action, In fact, he is a child of privilege who has the scornful disposition to prove it. He is prone to say what comes to mind notwithstanding the quality of the idea. The media has frenzied over this. Yet, most of what they focus on is but straw in the wind. The media has feasted for days over the spurious claim that Obama wiretapped Trump’s phones. This is silly confusion. The media conveniently forgets to remind people the NSA illegally eavesdrops on every phone call in America. Obama needn’t specially tap any phone. Trump’s calls were already captured in the NSA universal dragnet. In a manner, Trump is both right and wrong in claiming his conversations were surveilled.
But this skips the larger issue. After NSA illegal operations have been disclosed, they have not been ended. America has blatantly gone from a nation of laws into one where government can flagrantly break the law by rationalizing the illegal excess as necessary to battle terrorism and protect national security. This is not the hallmark of a mature democracy. It is in the manner of a police state where weak leaders feign strength by scaring people into the forfeiture of their rights. The people are told they are being kept safe from a wicked and omnipresent enemy. Yet, these enemies are neither numerous nor strong enough to harm but a handful of the 300 million people who are America. It is more likely an American will be struck by lighting than by a terrorist. To complement his proposed southern wall, perhaps Trump will build a ceiling over the nation to protect people from the terror of a chance lighting strike.
Establishment Democrats, Republicans and media obsess that Russia “hacked” the election to favor Trump. That there is no proof of this seems not to bother those spewing the tale. They can’t even prove Russia hacked the Democratic Party’s computers. There is no sign of Russia tampering with election machines or tabulations. Consequently, there is no evidence that Russia influenced one single vote. That such nonsense and non-proof are paraded as sure evidence of Russian perfidy can mean but one thing. The establishment wants confrontation with Russia for reasons they dare not disclose. They will not allow facts to obstruct such designs. Thus, they must beat Trump into submission. Trump’s position toward Russia is the wisest tree in his thicket of folly. Yet, it is the thing for which he has drawn the most ire. He is not used to pressure and to standing alone. Eventually, he will succumb to the dictates of the establishment, that powerful state within a state.
We dare not think Trump a pacifist. He merely thinks clashing with Russia is bad business. Like the rest of the establishment, he remains in need of foreign monsters to kill and foes to maim. He would just rather bully a less powerful Iran. Overcoming Iran and taking its oil is a less troublesome venture than confronting Russia. There is no true restraint in American leadership. They all seek to subdue some nation and exterminate some false enemy. Trump’s problem is not that he has the concept wrong; he simply prioritized the wrong foe as public enemy number one.
Even Trump’s travel ban is a relatively minor infraction. At most, a few thousand people in a world of 7 billion are touched. More concern is placed on the ban than on why America bombs the lands from whence these people come. Halting the bombing would be a humane act toward stemming the flow of refugees. Should not the death of thousands of innocents concern us more than whether a few are lucky enough to escape the carnage.
Mercy dictates that safe haven be granted to those fortunate in escaping the hellish bombing. Yet, it would be better to end the wanton destruction and have no refugees than to ignore the bombing yet encourage refugees. The latter is but a hallow consolation to genuine humanitarian concern. Pandering always to the lesser truth, the American media berates Trump for the bigoted travel ban. However, the media mentions not a word that the new administration has escalated the pace of bombing these African and Middle Eastern nations in excess of Obama’s already high levels. Seems that it is fine to kill multitudes as long as you don’t treat rudely the handful that make it to your border. The morality of this position is curious and could not be more perverse.
Fortunately, the courts have nullified Trump’s travel order. Yet, Trump has a sobering trump card of his own to play. The way his administration will mince the lives of poor and working class Americans may answer his refugee problem. America will become such a harsh place to its own that only the most intrepid foreigner will seek respite there.
The bitter truth is that for all of Trump’s foolery, there is little difference between him and the united Democratic/Republican establishment. Elite Democrats are no longer liberals or leftists. They are the Republicans of the thirty years ago. Today’s Republicans are yesterday’s reactionaries. Republicans have defined the American political economy since 1980. Instead of fighting this, the Clintons and Obama joined the choir. On the economic issue which most people vote, the difference between Clinton and Trump was minor. In fact, Trump was more left-leaning on trade and job creation than Clinton. Thus, the election boiled down to a choice between a wild but real Republican and Democrat who acted like a Republican. In such a contest, the Republican usually wins. Democrats immolated themselves with the losing strategy of being Republicans in Democratic dressing. Not only did Clinton lose, Democrats were decimated in all elections from president to town crier.
Stylistically, Clinton/Obama and Trump are worlds apart. Trump is a disheveled waste bin while Obama and Clinton cut the accustomed figure of a political leader, albeit in different ways. Yet, in terms of where they want to take America, this unlikely trio occupies the same room. They sit side by side. They seek to further institutionalize an economy tilted in favor to those who need no favors. These people want to turn Social Security into a private pension so Wall Street can profit in multiple billions of dollars from the fees and commission that would newly arise from such wrongful engineering.
They seek to turn public education into a private, for profit enterprise as well. They call this freedom of choice. In reality, is will give poor people less opportunity to overcome the education gap, assuring their status as a permanent underclass with no social mobility, accentuated by no social services due to the massive budget cuts that will imminently ensue. The choice this really gives to the people who need help is but one: abject failure.
Democrats and Republicans spar over the health insurance law. This shadowboxing has little to do with actual health care. Any insurance law Trump may pass will closely resemble Obama’s, except the new version will exacerbate the flaws of the prior one. With Obamacare, the gigantic insurance firms did a public relations masterpiece. They publicly complained about Obamacare but privately profited due to the measure’s lax cost controls. They will profit even more under whatever careless remedy Trump may concoct. The people will suffer a great hidden cost, that of a lost vision for something profoundly better. Burdened by Trump’s monstrous repair, they will dream of returning to the flawed Obamacare instead of hoping for something better like the cheaper, more efficient universal health care extant in other Western nations.
Perhaps Obama is more at ease with a Trump victory that we dare believe. Conventional wisdom was that Obama wanted Clinton to preserve his legacy. However, his tenure was one of heady oratory but policy in the miniature. The best way to preserve such a meager legacy may be to destroy it, then institute something worse in its place. The glass barely full is only better than no glass at all. A slave who moves from a master that beats him once weekly to one where beating is a daily affair starts to view the prior warden more favorably. Freedom stops being the option most considered. In this way, the slave becomes an unwitting accomplice in his own servitude. Such is the way of America.
American leadership is now a choice between wrong and wronger. What is right is no longer part of the bidding. Greatness recedes. Mediocrity and compromise take hold. Leaders who are smaller than the issues confronting them are selected because the power behind the power bristle at change. They want a government that functions to secure their dominate position. It is as if the rich and powerful hold a mortgage on the rest of the nation. The sons of debtor families are sent to war in distant nations for reasons they barely understand. They fight a thousand miles away from their shores but are told they protect the homeland. Becoming comfortable with such lies, a nation steals its own greatness. Decay scribes its name on all institutions, great and small. Evil readily enters. Not long afterwards, so does someone like Trump.
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