Democracy is Dead

The Muller report was the last gasp of democracy in the United States. It laid out the evidence for corruption, self-dealing, and general criminality that should have been enough to remove the President of the United States from office. But Congress failed to act.

Since then, the rotting corpse has only become stinkier. Even the allegation that Trump tried to recruit the president of Ukraine to help him to slander a political opponent has not been sufficient to move Speaker Pelosi.

The fact that Democratic leaders are content to wait until the election only testifies to the impossibility of impeachment. If not Trump, who? To what level of criminality and incompetence does a President have to rise to be impeached.

Democracy is dead and partisanship killed it.

While it's true that impeachment may fail to be successful, as the Republicans hold a majority in the Senate, which must vote to remove the President after articles of impeachment are passed by the House, if any Senator can vote for acquittal after a public airing of the facts, then truely the system is permanently broken.

That fewer Republicans have publicly disavowed this President astounds me. I can't imagine standing by any party leader who does the kinds of things that Trump does.

What's worse is that any future President must know that he (she) will have full reign to indulge their worst instincts when in office. There are no checks and balances as long as the President's party holds one of the chambers of Congress.

Further, the packing of the courts by ideologues can only block the possibility of progressive legislation coming from the legislative branch in the future. However, the worse possibility is that the courts will permit the erosion of rights as in Citizens United that gives money an even bigger voice in policy decisions affecting the actual human citizens.

If Republicans came out and said that what they really fear is a President Pence, then I might have some sympathy, but this continued fawning over a truly mad leader is just unbearable.

Kavanagh's Appointment to Supreme Court a Sad Day for Democracy

Picture: SAUL LOEB/AFP Via the Independent

Fifty-one senators representing a minority of US citizens have appointed a 53-year-old justice to the Supreme Court, where he may influence decisions for the rest of his life. With a solid conservative majority, the Supreme Court can now prevent progressive legislation from moving forward no matter what happens in the electoral bodies for the foreseeable future.

The legacy of Donald Trump is, as much as it is chaos, a legacy of moving forward the agendas of various factions who have supported his presidency. Trump is surrounded by sycophants and opportunists. He is enabled by those who claim to "curb his worst impulses" but permit the wholesale deconstruction of protections that represent the work of the last half century of public administration.

I wondered why any rational person would stand by and let this clown continue to operate.

It's exactly because he's a fool that that he attracts carpet-baggers who can spot an opportunity to personally enrich themselves or push some right-wing agenda. Thus, we get the ideologically-driven Betsy deVos or Scott Pruit busily dismantling the legacies of their departments while enriching themselves. In addition, there are the political rewards given to such incompetents as Ben Carson, and Rick Perry ("winning against climate scientists").

Kavanagh comes courtesy of the Federalist Society, a conservative group dedicated to infiltrating and placing like-minded individuals on the nation's highest courts. Just as the Koch network supports and promotes conservative candidates in elected capacities, so too the Federalist Society uses these allies to appoint judges.

Not since the dismantling of the Soviet Union have so few benefited so much from destroying the public assets of so many.

The last hope for Republicans is to rig the electoral system to disenfranchise minorities and young people. The Kavanagh appointment makes the Supreme Court clearly a political body that will prevent future legislative wins from being incorporated into law. Watch for regressive decisions on voting rights, healthcare, women's rights, and immigration. It's a sad day for democracy.

Trump is the leader we've been waiting for

The rise of Donald Trump has been a long time coming. His ascension in 2016 has roots going back decades, and is the perfect storm of the growth of anti-intellectualism, an economy that disproportionately rewards the upper classes, mistrust of government, and the growth of celebrity culture.

Donald Trump loves the poorly educated. His support is greatest among those with high school diplomas or less. Pundits assume this is because his incoherent policies are not critically analyzed by people not trained on New York Times rhetoric. In fact, his attacks on political correctness resonate with people who don't understand why it's inappropriate to call a 30-year-old woman a "girl." They resonate with people who are confused as our language is undergoing a series of rapid shifts away from the language that reinforced social, racial and sexist stereotypes. And they resonate with people who have vaguely racist feelings that they no longer have words to express.

It's a complex world. Politics are complex because the interests of many different groups of citizens must be negotiated. Countries around the world have different interests and goals, and (sorry U.S.A., you are only one of many) countries must compromise. What Trump promises is simple solutions to complex problems (without details). Sounds great, but on analysis not workable. However, too many people lack the skills to really understand why not.

But our culture has been catering to the poorly educated for decades. We disparage college professors as "eggheads." We mythologize successful people who "drop out" of some college and then become successful. Richard Branson dropped out of high school. Now he's a multi-billionaire. Therefore high school is not necessary. The truth is that Richard Branson dropped out because he had a successful business going already. I'm sure he's also highly intelligent and a quick learner.

Bill Gates dropped out of Harvard. Ha! Who needs Harvard? Actually Bill Gates scored 1590 out of 1600 on the SAT. Before entering Harvard he attended a prestigious prep school. At Harvard he won a prize for a computing algorithm. Maybe he didn't need Harvard, but there's no doubt this is a highly educated, intellectual man.

Our anti-intellectual bias is also shown in the growth of the anti-education sector. I'm talking about buying essays, cheating on exams and selling education as a ticket to economic success. When education is not valued for its own sake--to have a deeper understanding of the world--it becomes a commodity, no different from real estate. The decline in liberal arts education and the rise of job-oriented education--business, STEM and vocational--explain why Trump's appeal even extends into many of the college-educated population. They didn't go to college to learn how to think better; they went to get a bigger income.

Teachers are no longer respected. Teachers' unions are blamed for declining education. But without respect for teachers, classrooms are unmanageable and education is impossible.

But the path of education to wealth is a scam, too. Yes, a good education from a quality university can open the doors to better jobs, but the American class system is rigged against the concept of meritocracy. Too many people borrow too much money and end up in poorly regulated private colleges that are churning out degrees not worth the paper they are printed on. All college diplomas are not equal. The statistics that show a college diploma is worth much more than a high school diploma are inflated by the effect of the top-tier colleges.

The biggest factor that fuels the rise of the "anti-establishment" candidate in 2016 is the economy. Wages have been stagnant for the majority of people for decades, while the top earners have grown in wealth by a phenomenal factor. People are struggling. Even people who are not currently in poverty know that a turn in the economy could cost them everything. Some of these people support Bernie Saunders (42.5% of Democrats in a poll I just looked at). And some support Donald Trump (39% nationally according to Real Clear Politics). If nothing else changes after this election, the fact that so many people have been so clear about the fact that they are being shut out of the benefits of economic growth, must mean a big shift is happening.

What's happened to the economy over the last few decades is that it's become global. Despite the US having the largest economy in the world, it is subject to global forces like never before. This is not due to bad trade deals (although the deals could be much better, taking into account working conditions, environmental concerns and political freedom). It's because human labor in the US can't compete with human labor in developing countries. As long as there is an imbalance in economies, Americans are going to see job stagnation. What the US really needs is more taxes at the top to fund infrastructure, public works, public education, public health, and other projects. If this sounds a bit like socialism, well it probably is. It's not taxation for handouts, but taxation to create jobs and redistribute wealth. Oh yeah, and everybody benefits from better roads, bridges, schools and healthcare.

Since the Reagan years, there has been a growing distrust of government. The Republicans, in particular have pushed the idea that government is inefficient. Public employees are lazy and in particular, public sector unions are sucking the taxpayer dry with gold-plated contracts and pension schemes. This has fuelled a distrust of government in all areas and ultimately resulted in several government shut-downs. However, reduction in government regulation resulted in the housing crisis in which tens of thousands of middle-class families lost their life savings. Throughout the US, public schools have been underfunded, resulting in the rise of the quasi-private charter school. In many ways, the inherent racism of the economic system has caused the pain to be felt more by people of color, but throughout the country, people are suffering because government is the people's voice and the people are being silenced.

Many pundits have remarked on how this Republican tactic has come full circle to deny the Republican establishment its chosen candidate, Jeb Bush. But I worry that it's a lot deeper than that. Yes, Trump has tapped into a great vein of unrest. But when (if) he is defeated, will this mass go back under the rocks whence they came? Or will there be a new movement of rabble to contend with? An armed, pissed off, and nothing to lose rabble.

Finally, Trump's rise is, though not due to, but lubricated by, celebrity culture. What Trump has achieved masterfully is to turn the Presidential election into a reality TV show episode. I thought he would collapse at one of the early debates, lacking policy substance and fundamentally incoherent.
How wrong I was. Trump weathered all attacks. The look on his face said it all. He treated it exactly as a reality show performance. Everybody else in the Republican field was treating it like a Presidential election. Only Trump treated it like an entertainment spectacle. But because there has been a shift from real news to entertainment over the last few decades, Trump was able to pull it off. People can't tell the difference between news and entertainment anymore.

This is why I really fear what will happen in the general election. Although polls right now favor Clinton (or even Saunders) over Trump, Trump hasn't even begun to campaign for the general. Clinton has said she doesn't feel like a natural politician; how is she as a reality show contestant? She must avoid a debate at all costs. Getting on a stage with Trump would be humiliating for her. Clinton's only hope is to get on the high road and stay as far away from Trump as possible, focusing on policy. That is, if she doesn't get indicted on the way.

Is 2016 an anomaly? I think it's more like a tipping point. The path to the Presidency is no longer through the political ranks; it's through the media. Celebrity counts more than policy. Be afraid my friend, be very afraid.