Cowardice

Misanthropic Boomer

The current shameful episode is a direct result of the cowardice which is in the nation’s DNA. Whenever anything has threatened the status quo the nation’s shepherds have chosen  the path creating the least conflict. It began when the founders, brave enough to rebel against the Crown, feared the same failure that accompanied the Articles of the Confederation. The result was that the men who put into writing that, “All men are created equal...” allowed the disenfranchisement of women, and the Three-Fifths Compromise in order to avoid possible civil conflict.

The resultant conflict came seventy-four years later...The Civil war. Following the war of secession the government again acted in its comfortable cowardly fashion when, during “Reconstruction,” the Southern states were allowed to create barriers to persons of color for the same opportunities that the White minority enjoyed.

This cowardice has continued throughout the nation’s history: always in support of White Privilege. It created a schism between women seeking the right to vote and people of color on the same mission. Persons of color were granted the right to vote because they were concentrated, for the most part, in the South and would be controlled through a varity of disenfranchisement  techniques, e.g. Poll taxes, literacy requirements, etc. Women would not be so easy to control.

The industrial Revolution once again allowed the nation’s cowardly nature to come to the fore. Large corporations were being created, having large sums of money and influence. Elected officials began  allowing these corporations to write their own laws out of fear of losing their support.

The fear of losing White Privilege drove Manifest Destiny, laws restricting the rights of Persons of Color and Indigenous Persons.  That same cowardly approach to life allowed the justification of the incarceration of Japanese Americans during the Second World War. It also prompted Congress to create the Taft-Hartley legislation to prevent unions from having complete autonomy: in essence the validation of spying.

The national affliction allowed Joe McCarthy to ruin lives with near impunity. It supported our excursions into interfering with the sovereignty of other nations. And now, we have Republican Congress Persons supporting a coup because they fear the influence Trump has over Right Wing voters.

A revolution of sorts is the only way to alter our National DNA and cure ourselves. Our immediate goals should be to force term limit restrictions on Congress...as long as there are no term limits Congress Person is a profession, and as such supports the fear of losing one’s job...it was never meant to be more than a part time job. 

Congress Persons must also be subject to the same laws and accountability as are all citizens. They must also participate in Social Security and Medicare...they will then protect not abuse those programs. Lobbying must also have restrictions put in place; and finally corporate money must be removed from politics entirely.

I am not completely certain how to force these changes. Perhaps something similar to Iceland’s “Pots and Pans Rebellion” could work as a start. What I am certain of is that unless the reforms I have delineated are carried out we will remain a nation of cowards. 

The Right is Wrong

Misanthropic Boomer

The Supreme Court’s decision to allow the state of Texas to “legally” violate the civil rights of women by upholding the recently enacted SB-8 legislation, is akin to overturning Roe. That is, after all the Right’s openly stated goal. The Republicans, champions of small government want Big Brother to control the life of every pregnant woman in America. The really frightening thing is that this is just the beginning. Next will be voting restrictions, followed by another attempted palace coup in 2024.

It must be recognized that the Right has been stacking the courts and doing all of the nasty political grunt work necessary to accomplish their goals for more than fifty years. They have been following the playbook of far Right Wing Professor of Economics, James McGill Buchanan, who began his assault upon th U.S. Constitution in 1956, following the Supreme Court’s landmark decision in Brown vs. The Board of Education.

Buchanan was a student of the methods of Henry Clay, the wealthiest Congressman and Slave owner in the nation’s history. Professor Buchanan, like Clay, believed the propertied few should not be affected by the people’s desires for social change, regardless of morality or the fact that the majority of theelectorate supported such change.

Buchanan garnered the support of billionaire Libertarian, Charles Koch. Their main goal was to neuter the U.S. Constitution by putting States Rights above the needs of the people and the laws as laid out in the Constitution. They began using the same techniques in which Buchanan schooled Pinochet of Chile. He and his minions stacked the Chilean courts, gradually amending the Chilean Constitution until it

provided no authority to anyone other than El Presidente and his cabinet.

While the  Right has been marching in lock-step toward their goal, the Progressives have been locked in an ever expanding internecine struggle over the good not being good enough. Someone once said that getting the Democrats to agree on anything and to get them to come together to implement it is akin to attempting to herd cats. That, I am afraid, is a far too optimistic view.

I am just as angry and frustrated as anyone over the seeming inevitability of the reversal of Roe as well as the probability of an attempted coup in 2024. I am fairly certain that this is coming. I have raised the red flag time and again: begged people to share my predictions to no avail. My words have fallen on ears that refuse to hear and eyes that would rather not see. My predictions have all come to pass. I’m not proud of that…I’m angry as hell.

The progressives have a year to accomplish something of note, otherwise they will lose both the House and the Senate. If that happens all will be lost. Perhaps the saddest part of this coming tragedy is that it will embolden bad actors worldwide; democracies will be attacked from all sides and there will be no shining city on the hill to come to their rescue.

So spake the Atheist

MORE OF THE SAME

Misanthropic Boomer

THE REPUBLICANS TRIED TO BURY US…WITH THE HELP OF THE DEMOCRATS THEY MAY SUCCEED.

I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again, the only difference between the Republicans and the Democrats is Republicans wear Brown suits while Democrats sport Navy Blue suits. Both parties are corrupt and care little for the American electorate. Their sole purpose in life seems to be to get re-elected. The Republicans seem to be corrupt on purpose, while their brethren across the aisle achieve their corruption through sheer stupidity.

Since Joseph Robinette Biden took office in January most of his agenda has been slowed to a near stop due to the refusal by Senators Krysten Sinema and Joe Manchin to vote with their fellow Democrats; be it on Climate legislation, Infrastructure, Elimination of the filibuster, or Biden’s desire to boost the middle class by trying to partially reform the tax system; getting the wealthy to pay their fair share.

Then too there are the likes of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Ilhan Omar, Ayanna Pressley, Rashida Tlaib, Jamaal Bowman, and Cori Bush; collectively known as “the squad.” As Manchin and Sinema refuse to side with the rest of the Senate Democrats to pass sorely needed legislation, the squad are determined to refuse the give and take required in politics to create compromise with their opposite numbers on the Republican side. They would apparently rather be “true” to themselves and fail than to look for compromise solutions which would help their American constituents. Their lack of good sense will probably cost us the House because they are getting nothing done.

As if things aren’t bad enough the Senate Majority leader has decided in his infinite wisdom to slip the  Democrats and the nation a “political Mickey.” Chuck Schummer has just rewarded the traitorous actions of Coal Baron, Climate Denier Manchin by making him the head of the Senate Energy Committe. Manchin has received millions of dollars from big coal and oil, as well as from the Republicans. He is now in a position to secure his retirement nest-egg by giving away the store.

I recommend calling Senator Schummer’s office at (202) 224-6542, or writing to him at 322 Hart Senate Office Building, Washington D.C. 20510, and voicing displeasure at Schummer’s rewarding Manchin with this choice assignment.

 After four years of the Grifter in Chief robbing the nation blind, and giving what he couldn’t steal to his billionaire friends I was certain it could get no worse. I didn’t take into account that apparently in D.C, Democrat is just a different way of spelling Republican.

IRONY OF IRONIES

Misanthropic Boomer

IRONY OF IRONIES

In what may be the ultimate political irony the United States Supreme Court has upheld Arizona’s new restrictive voting rights laws just as Chile is about to rewrite its Constitution. The irony comes from the fact that Chile’s Constitution was altered by the Pinochet dictatorship in order to restrict voting rights and to prevent the people from any meaningful redress: accomplished with the aid of the Chilean Supreme Court. So as Chile, once one of the harshest dictatorships in modern history is moving toward a free, democratic society, the nation that began modern democracy is moving toward societal feudalism based upon the desires of the propertied few.

In writing for the Supreme Court majority position Samuel Alito, no friend of minorities or the People in general (a true elitest), leans upon the tired and still unsubstantiated Republican complaint of voter fraud. The only fraud being perpetrated here is that by the six Conservative justices.

In addition they have made it clear that they will support restrictive voting rights laws as well as politically motivated gerrymandering in the future: further weakening our democracy. At this point SCOTUS is as guilty of seditious activity as are the insurrectionists of January 6th.

The bottom line is that it appears that as the sun is rising on a new democratic era in Chile, it is simultaneously setting in America. This is in large part due to the efforts of two men of whom I have written about previously, James McGill Buchanan (deceased), Political Economist and Charles Koch, billionaire Libertarian. It is of note that Buchanan, the architect of Conservative court stacking was also an advisor to Pinochet and his Supreme Court. Thank you gentlemen for killing the dream of freedom and equality for the majority of the citizens of our disintegrating democratic nation.

Misanthropic Boomer

The Stalking Horse

A great deal of attention is being paid to what media pundits are calling “The Big Lie:” Donald Trump’s baseless assertion that he, not Joe Biden won the 2020 Presidential election. First it must be recognized that Donald Trump is little more than a bloviating megalomaniac and is not the problem, merely a symptom: nothing more than an egomaniacal buffoon. He is not that politically astute, and his election was as big a surprise to the power brokers on the Right as it was to the rest of the nation. And while Trump and his “base” may seem to be a threat, they are merely a distraction; window dressing.

Contributing to the distraction that is “The Big Lie,” is the additional denial by the Republicans that the January 6, 2021 attack upon the Capitol was an organized act of sedition. These two issues have become the Stalking Horse for the radical Right’s true agenda which has a far more sinister goal...the subversion of the U.S. Constitution to the point where it will allow for the establishment and permanent support of a Constitutionally supported oligarchy; rule by a select few wealthy, powerful individuals. Recovery from such a reinterpretation of the Constitution once established, will be nearly impossible. This is not a new goal. Its genesis goes all the way back to the nation’s founding.

When the Founders initiated the task of establishing the “rules of governance,” the United States Constitution, those on the political Right from the Southern states had significantly more economic power than the more liberal leaning North. The South had a pre-established institutional advantage: slavery. The representation from the South fought extremely hard to establish a foundation of support for what they knew would be the basis for the continuation of their political and economic power; personal liberty over and above the rights of the collective societal needs and desires.

The establishment of the Senate, the Three Fifths Compromise and the wording of the Tenth Amendment to the Constitution, delineating States Rights, were the South’s three most important constitutional victories. Having two Senators from each state meant that the less populated states were on equal terms with the more densely populated parts of the nation; especially since the Senate became the final arbiter of the Congress. The Three-fifths compromise gave the slave states greater Congressional representation, meaning a disproportionately larger share of tax revenues. Finally, the Tenth Amendment, delineating what and how the individual states could determine what would be decided locally as opposed to by Washington was purposely vague, providing the states a good deal of leeway. This specifically was used by John C. Calhoun to usurp the power of the Federal government.

Even after the Constitution was ratified, the champions of anti-Madisonian “checks and balances” continued fighting for the rights of the individual over the needs of the collective. Southern plantation owners were extremely resentful that they had to pay taxes for the good of the nation. They groused over their money being spent by the “Northern Elites” to improve the lot of those they saw as their economic, intellectual, and social inferiors. John C. Calhoun was one such Southern champion.

Calhoun, who had been Andrew Jackson’s Vice President, was a wealthy plantation owner and United States Senator from South Carolina who vehemently opposed sharing freedom with his inferiors. He was, in his own words, a political scientist: as such, he used every tool in his political kit-bag to subvert the will of the people. After all, what right did they have to share his good fortune; they had done nothing to earn it. He had, or to be more accurate, his slaves had secured his wealth and so he saw no reason to share.

Fast forward one hundred twenty-four years to 1954. The United States Supreme Court ruled in Brown versus the Board of Education that “separate but equal,” was not good enough to maintain the just delivery of education to all children. Enter today’s villain: the man, who exactly like John C. Calhoun would champion the perceived rights of the few, the “special” and elite over the needs and rights of the collective: the majority. Meet Democracy’s nemesis, the oligarch’s champion. Meet, Professor of Political Economics at the University of Virginia, James McGill Buchanan.

James McGill Buchanan was a student of the Chicago School, who like his mentor Frank Knight, and fellow economist and Chicago School disciple Milton Friedman believed in unrestrained Capitalism. Buchanan however, took his Free Market philosophy one step further: to economic theory he added political theory. Buchanan’s application of Political Economics was an updated version of what John C. Calhoun was preaching on the floor of the United States Senate in 1830. The most significant differences were that communications had vastly improved, and that there were now powerful monied supporters who had the resources to play the”long game.” One such powerful benefactor was billionaire Charles de Ganahl Koch.

When the Brown decision was handed down James McGill Buchanan was outraged. He recognized that the court’s decision in Brown was so much larger than school integration. Brown was a bell weather decision, supported by the underlying philosophy that the court could, and probably would expand the rights of the collective whenever appropriate and  supported by the Constitution. The Brown decision. Had immense implications. The realization  of the potential impact of Brown greatly upset Buchanan and so he proposed to President Colgate Darden of the University of Virginia that a political action think tank be established with the specific intent of thwarting the Federal government’s intentions. He was clever enough to suggest to Darden that his new organ dedicated to resisting what  was anathema to the Pols of Old Dominion be given a neutral name; The Thomas Jefferson Center for Political Economy and Social Philosophy...its true purpose to be kept covert. Buchanan promised Darden to keep political purveyors of Roosevelt’s New Deal from participating and that its true purpose be kept covert. Moreover Buchanan began what would be his main life’s goal, to wrest control of the Federal government from the hands of the masses, the “great unwashed,” and place it where he believed it belonged; in the hands of the significantly more affluent, propertied individuals whose rights he believed were being violated by a government “...of the people, by the people, and for the people.”

Buchanan proposed the same approach that Calhoun had used to fight the Federal government one hundred twenty-six years in the past...the support of States Rights as a method to weaken Washington. The irony in Buchanan’s game was that he decried the power of a central Federal government over the states yet used the power of central state government to achieve his ends. His Political Economic theories attracted many like-minded supporters, who were in agreement with Buchanan, resented the actions of the Federal government in its ever increasing role in promoting the needs of the masses. Collective bargaining by the people, be it through Unions or the natural instinct for people to band together for the common good became anathema. Underneath it all was the desire of Southerners to prevent integration.

One of those attracted to Buchanan’s ideas was, as was previously indicated, Charles de Ganahl Koch, at that time merely a multi-millionaire industrialist. Thus began a covert, long term Right-wing effort to weaken a government seen as redistributing the nation’s wealth and resources to the body collective.

Through the years since he discovered Buchanan’s philosophy, Charles Koch has spent millions of dollars for the creation and in support of like minded Right-wing groups. Koch’s money helped create many so-called Conservative think-tanks such as the CATO Institute, Americans for Prosperity, Citizens for a Sound Economy, The Leadership Institute, and of course the Charles Koch Foundation. The common goal of all of these groups is to use the Constitution against itself. They all seek ways to pervert the U.S. Constitution in support of the individual rights of the prosperous over those of the majority of the nation’s citizenry.

While the media turns its attention to the perceived threat of Trump and his base the real threat to democracy is hiding in plain sight. It is no coincidence that Republicans throughout the nation are, at every opportunity, attempting to legislate voter suppression into effect. In addition, Congress are doing their level best to ensure that nothing gets done to improve the lot of the people: a tactic initiated when Newt Gingrich was House Speaker and delivered his “Contract with America,” which ultimately strengthened Congress’ role in governance while weakening that of the President and did little for the people.

Evidence that this move toward oligarchy is working is made obvious by Senator Mitch McConnell’s actions over the last thirteen years. When President Barack Obama was elected McConnell’s first public act was to proclaim that he would do everything in his power to ensure that Obama was only a one term, lame duck, President. He has acted to obstruct any and all Democratic legislation ever since. Why he has been allowed to get away with his obstructionism is a mystery. What isn’t a mystery is that he has been successful. From preventing Merrick Garland’s ascension to the Supreme Court to his role in support of the 2017 tax restructure which further insulated the wealthy while weakening the middle class and the poor, he has with impunity done more to harm to democracy than all of his predecessors combined.

In addition to the obstruction being directly perpetrated by the Republican members of Congress, there is also the purposeful lies and divisive propaganda being spread. While it is amazing that there are those who believe the followers of Q-Anon and the outrageously unbelievable atrocities they describe it must be understood that they achieve some credibility through their association with the Republicans in Congress: power seeking members like Ted Cruz, Jim Jordan, Josh Hawley. Men who seek the aphrodisiac of power over all else. Men and women who would see the nation destroyed as long as they are able to hold on to power. Power may not necessarily corrupt, but it is a sad fact that it attracts the corrupt.

If our democracy is to survive, action must be taken now. Pressure must be brought to bear on every elected official from the local city council member all the way up to the President of the United States to follow the Constitution and work for the collective good. The idea of personal liberty trumping the good of the people must be recognized and Constitutional protections realized and utilized. Never has there been a more important time for the people to participate in their own governance. The prejudices dividing the people must be recognized as the distractions they are, else the “will of the people,”will become the “will of the few.”

The representatives elected to run the very complex machine that is the United States must once, and for all time be held accountable for their actions or inactions, as the case may be. Since the Founding, accountability has consisted only of the election cycle; there isn’t anything to indicate the veracity of the candidates claims: lying seems to be permissible. In order for accountability to work the citizenry must get more involved: “you get what you inspect, not what you expect.” One such method of participation in the governance of the nation could be the use of petitions in support of referendums of the people. This could be accomplished through petitions to the federal government. The subject of such a redress could be 1) Term Limits, 1) Campaign Finance Reform, 3) Accountability of Congress, 4) National Systemic Racism, 5) Investigation of the Seditious Acts of January 6, 6) Infrastructure subjects, 7) and Health Care. These items merely touch upon a few of the needs of the people. Such petitions to have any impact at all they would need to be simple, straightforward and contain the signatures of enough of the voting population to get the attention of the body politic. It would not be an easy task. It would require organizing a great many people; those to write the petitions, produce them physically, people to acquire signatures, and staff to assemble and get the petitions into the hands of the representatives in Washington.

Such an undertaking would also require media coordination: television, radio, news outlets and social media, via the internet in order to ensure that elected officials would not just throw the petitions into the trash. This would be a very labor intensive process, however, the alternative is to sit and wait for the rule of law to be usurped and the subsequent disintegration of our democracy...the end of the grand experiment.