A 9/30/l8 Washington Post article revealed that the Trump Administration, in a 500-page environmental impact statement said: “On its current course, the planet will warm a disastrous 7 degrees by [2100].”  This ensures a major earth catastrophe.  But, incredibly, this wasn’t an effort to stop this disaster; “Just the opposite: The analysis assumes the planet’s fate is already sealed;” and therefore we don’t need to do anything to prevent it from happening!!!  All os this was in a statement by the National Highway Traffic Administration Safety Administration – and – “was written to justify President Donald Trump’s decision to freeze federal fuel efficiency standards for cars and light trucks built after 2020.”  Because…the resulting greenhouse gases would “add just a very small drop to a very big bucket!!!’

We are sinking deeper into the rabbit hole of “Alice in Wonderland.  Things might have been different if we had other examples of defeatism:  in 1940, with the Nazis winning WWII decisively, with most hope lost, Winston Churchill should have faced this reality and surrendered;  the 1980 U.S. Olympic hockey team, having just been decisively destroyed, 10-3, by the best hockey team in the world, should have admitted the Russians would easily beat them again; the pathetic American “army” at Valley Forge should have given up and sought warmth ay home, knowing the world’s #1 power would easily defeat them; we should have admitted it would be too difficult to put a man on the moon, and save the money;  the 1950’s-1960’s civil rights workers should have admitted their cause was hopeless in the face of violent resistance, and accepted their lot as second class citizens; all of our brave Medal of Honor winners should have stayed safe in their foxholes……………Given this “logic” by the Trump Administration, it is now imperative that we rewrite ‘The Star Spangled Banner.”  At the very least, the line “O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave?” will need to be changed to drop “And the home of the brave?”  In addition to greed and willful stupidity, climate denial forces cab now add cowardice.

Naomi Klein, in “No is Not Enough,” raised another interesting angle on climate change denial:  “What I found is that when hard-core conservatives deny climate change, they are not just protecting the trillions in wealth that are threatened by climate action.  They are also defending something even more precious to them: an entire ideological project – neoliberalism – which holds that the market is always right, regulation is always wrong, private is good and public is bad, and taxes that support public services are the worst of all.”

As Klein relates, neoliberalism that “since the 1990’s has been the reigning ideology of the world’s elites,” and “its strictest and most dogmatic adherents remain where the movement started: on the U.S. right.”  They believe “governments exist in order to create the optimal conditions for private interests to maximize their profits and wealth.” {for a different perspective on this, see the Constitution’s Preamble’s “promote the general Welfare.”]  Following the “trickle down” theory, some benefits will reach lesser people, but if that doesn’t happen it’s because of their own failings!  The primary neoliberal tools are the familiar: privatizing of the public sphere {check how wonderful this worked out in Putin’s Russia!], deregulation [see crash of 2008 for “proof” how good this is!], tax cuts for the rich {see exploding U.S. national debt after Reagan-Bush II tax cuts, added to by Trump cuts], corporate friendly trade deals {see secret corp-friendly courts].

Knowing what Klein has identified [as have many others], now the Trump strategy makes sense.  Government exists to maximize corporate profits – therefore regulations which cut profits [mileage requirements] must end; following any global warming reducing efforts would also cut corporate profits – therefore we don’t do that.

In neoliberal economics – damage to the earth and people’s health and livelihood is “collateral damage.”  Corporate profits must be protected at all costs – even the destruction of the earth itself.  By some coincidence, the destruction of the earth is also another feature of the American right  wing – the religious side.  All the “moral” people who have been “born again,” or follow strict Biblical literalism tenets will be saved – so dying is part of their guaranteed future in heaven.  Those people who deny the “truth”   of these beliefs deserve to die, so global warming catastrophe is their just fate.

Those of you who have such a difficult time understanding the “why” of global warming denial now have your answer.  As you reflect back on climate warming denial since Exxon Mobil”s own scientists     told them global warming was happening in the 1970’s – now you can see the “why.”  It was/is mostly about greed, with fundamentalist religious support added.  The oil millionaires/billionaires weren’t rich enough.  If need be, Jane Mayer’s splendid “Dark Money” exposes a primary source of climate change denial money and influence – the infamous Koch brothers and their vast network of accomplices.  Not content with global warming denial, the elderly Koch brothers are determined to remake America into a theocratic oligarchy.  When that is accomplished, public information attempts like this web site will not exist.  No more “fake news” from anybody raising any questions about anything that threatens corporate profits.  The top 1% owns the U.S. Congress, they are about to own the U.S. Supreme Court.

The final changes in the First Amendment will have been made.  Not only will corporate “persons” have the right to bribe whatever “government” still exists [see “Citizens United” ruling], they’ll have the right not to have their profits threatened by any “fake news” criticism of their methods.  Their “speech” will be privileged and protected, yours will be restricted, maybe even banned.   Anti-corporate street demonstrations will, of course, either be restricted to Bush II type “free speech zones” totally out of sight, or be banned as “terrorist” demonstrations.

Some of you might be inclined to say “hysteria run amuck;” “he’s got no right to link all these things together,” etc.  If so, I ask you to look at the pattern of rhetoric, laws, intent from the American Right since l98l.  Who benefitted from the Reagan-Bush II tax cuts?  Who benefitted from the anti-labor union war [see declining wages since1973]?  Who benefitted from the infamous “Citizens United Supreme Court ruling [see state efforts to restrict corporate bribery}?  Who benefits from “de-regulation” [see 2008 crash, grandma dying from bad peanut butter]?  Who benefits from “privatization” of U.S. freeways, bridges, parking meters, prisons?  Who benefits from the prolonged right wing attack on government itself {see public opinion changes in last 30 years]?  Who has benefitted from “globalization” [see world-wide middle class stress in advanced nations, see explosive corporate profit growth]?

One more challenge: where do you get your information?  If you have a hostile reaction to this post, why?  What have you been told is the “truth?”  Are you repeatedly listening to the well-documented right wing “echo chamber” of repeated stories and misinformation: Fox TV, right wing talk radio, some “Christian radio, crazy internet blogs?  The kind of story that led a listener to show up at a NYC pizza store looking for Hilary”s “prostitution ring” with his gun?  Or the infamous “Shirley Sherrod story;” a woman was taped talking with an audience, the tape then edited to have her say 180 degrees opposite of what she did say – got her fired.  Or the infamous Terri Schaivo mess – a brain-dead woman [which an autopsy proved  her to have been for some time] became the center of an attempt to “keep her alive,” when that was impossible.

Consider Pew Research Center reports discussed in Mark Bauerlein’s “The Dumbest Generation.”  Bauerlein,  a college English professor, relates how the “cyberculture” “is turning us into a society of Know-Nothings.”  Bauerlein describes experiences he’s had, like 22% of college seniors recognize a line from the Gettysburg Address, and 99% of them identified Beavis and Butt-Head.  Bauerlein mentions 6 other books written about various aspects of “The Age of American Unreason.”  In 1991, Steve Allen wrote “Dumbth” – relating such items as a 1982 poll found 25% of American high school students felt the 1969 moon landing was a faked propaganda stunt; 26% of graduates couldn’t identify Mexico as bordering America; 24% of Americans believed Delaware was a city.  In 1981-82, Proctor & Gamble employees and their children were harassed by religious zealots who believed a rumor that the company logo was an indication of a connection with Satan worship.

One of my favorite “tribal” stories is this:  a famous Canadian climate change expert has just finished her presentation on global warming.  A woman from the audience approaches her and says this: “It all seems so logical.  I wish I could support you, but i can’t, because that would mean I’d agree with Al Gore.”

When America is in the grip of this kind of “thinking,” we’re obviously in big trouble.  If we determine what we believe on the basis of who said it, we’re in big trouble.  If Newton had been a Democrat, does this mean Republicans can’t accept the theory of gravity?  If Galileo had been a Republican, does this mean Democrats can’t accept the sun is the center of our universe?  We adults send our children to school to learn how to reason – and we refuse to practice what we demand our children learn.  Would you bet if your odds were 95% favorable?  Probably.  The odds on climate change deniers are about 5-95% against, with more evidence discovered every day.  Your grandchildren are going to ask you why you not only did nothing, but even worse supported cynical politicians and corrupt businessmen who destroyed the earth.

One night a man had a dream.  He dreamed that he was walking along a beach with the Lord.  Across the sky flashed scenes from his life.  From each scene he noticed two sets of footprints in the sand—- one belonging to the Lord and the other one to him..

When the last scene had flashed before him he looked back at the footprints and noticed that many times along the path there was only one set of footprints in the sand.  He also noted that this happened during the lowest and saddest times in his life.  This really bothered him and he questioned the Lord, “Lord, you said that once I decided to follow You, You would walk all the way with me, but I noticed that during the most troublesome times in my life, there was only one set of footprints.  I don’t understand why, when I needed you most, You deserted me.”

The Lord replied, “My precious child, I love you and I would never leave you.  During your times of trial and suffering when you saw only one set of footprints, it was then that I carried you.” [author unknown]

We’ve all been “carried,” if not by the Lord, then by our parents, siblings, relatives, friends neighbors, employers, colleagues; the person who gave us money when we were short; the person who gave us the benefit of the doubt; the person who hired us when there was no reason for him/her to do it; the landlord who gave us another week to pay the rent; the teacher who gave us more help; the merchant who gave us credit; the banker who gave us money for our dream project; taxpayers who financed our education; the men and women who died during military service that we might be free.   Whatever success we’ve had in this world – we didn’t do it by ourselves.  People who say and believe they did are people who really scare me.

 

This is a summary of John W. Dean’s book, “Broken Government, How Republican Rule Destroyed the Legislature, Executive, and Judicial Branches.”  This is the third book reflecting Dean”s concern over what is happened to American government.  The first two were “Worse Than Watergate: The Secret Presidency of George W. Bush,” and “Conservatives Without Conscience.”  Dean provides much detail showing how Republicans have ignored honored political processes established by rules, traditions, laws and constitutional mandates.  He, and others, have noted how the simple acts of running a democracy have been turned into deliberate 24/7 never ending warfare.

Let us start with the conclusion.  Dean, looking for a way to close his book, talked with “A lifelong Republican who told me he voted for Bush and Cheney twice, because he knows them both personally….He explained that he constantly has to bite his tongue, and the reason he does not speak out more is that one of his sons is in an important [non-political] government post, and we both know that Republicans will seek revenge wherever they can find it.  How about an off-the-record comment…That he agreed to.”

“Just tell your readers that you have a source who knows a lot about the Republican Party from long experience…knows all the key movers and shakers, and he has a bit of advice: “People should not vote for any Republicans, because they’re dangerous, dishonest, and self-serving…I have come to realize the Democrats really do care about people who most need help from government; Republicans care most about those who will only get richer because of government help.  The government is truly broken, particularly in dealing with national security, and another four years, and heaven forbid not eight years, under the Republicans, and our grandchildren will have to build a new government, because the one we have will be unrecognizable and unworkable.”

Those words were written in 2006-07.  Ask yourself, based simply on what you heard for the eight years of the Obama presidency, and what went on in states taken over by Republicans during that span – can you now connect the dots and see the pattern this man TOLD you was going to happen?  Ask yourself, based on what has already happened in 2016-18, can you see the truth of what this Washington insider TOLD you was going to happen?  Just an easy one: remember the death of Supreme Court Justice Scalia, and Obama’s appointment of a well-respected moderate judge.  What was the Republican response?  Refused to hold any hearings, wanting to deny a non-reactionary judge on the Supreme Court.  Not only that, Republicans said if Hillary Clinton won the presidency, they’d refuse to allow her to appoint a judge either – if necessary hold a U.S. Supreme Court seat vacant for the next 4 years.  Is this how you expect “your” American government to be run?  By this very public, evil action, the Republicans proved every word of the “lifelong” Republican insider’s prescient warning.  And……this is only one example from a 40 year PATTERN of deliberate broken government.

Dean: “Once elected, Republicans are extremely inclined toward opposing Democratic programs, not only because their philosophy is inherently anti-government but because they are instinctively contrarian to anything liberal or progressive…..Republicans are unmatched in modern politics for their willingness to play dirty, to go negative and nasty, and to play hardball, a ruthlessness….. Today’s conservative-based Republican Party in fact excels at everything in modern politics except governing the nation.”  If you doubt this, just remember the recent tragic murder of a young woman jogging in Iowa.  The Republicans immediately jumped on this unspeakable tragedy to use it in an ideological manner.  This, over the objections of her family, who said the Republican position was contrary to the young woman’s beliefs.  “unmatched….willingness to play dirty..ruthlessness…” proven to America.

Dean offers the following passage by political scientist Alan Wolfe as a “succinct explanation of the quintessence of modern Republicanism: ‘Liberals, while enjoying the perquisites of office, also want to be in a position to use government to solve problems.  But conservatives have different motives for wanting power.  One is to prevent liberals from doing so; if government cannot be made to disappear, at least it can be prevented from doing any good.  The other is to build a political machine in which business and the Republican Party can exchange mutual favors; business will lavish cash on politicians [called campaign contributions] while politicians will throw money back at business [called public policy[.” So…..how does this line up with the 2017-18 Republican rule so far – like say, the big Republican “win” – i.e., the 2017 tax cuts for corporations?   Case closed.

Dean devotes a chapter to each branch of government.  These are the sub-chapter headings for Congress:  ‘Consensus Analysis of Failed Republican Congressional Rule;”  “Step One: Rule By Cabal;”  “Step Two: Work as Little as Possible – and Screw Up What Little You Do;”  “Step Three: Let the President Whatever He Wants;”  “Step Four: Spend, Spend, Spend;”  “Step Five: Line Your Own Pockets;”  Politics of Polarization: The GOP’s Wedge-Driving Legacy.”

Dean: “Bush and Cheney have taken this institution [presidency]           to a place the Founders of this nation, and the Framers of the Constitution, so clearly sought to avoid.”  Chapter sub-titles: “Bush/Cheney Presidency as the Worst Ever;” “Cheney’s Vice Presidential Mission:   Neo-Nixonian Government:” “Cheney’s Legacy: Beyond the Imperial Presidency.”  “Bush is an ideologue remote from fact, he has failed comprehensively and surely is the worst president in American history – indeed, in the damage he has caused the nation, without rival in the race to the bottom.”  “Cheney has “…reinvigorated..efforts of conservative Republicans that began in the Reagan years to ignore, nullify, or simply violate the efforts of post-Watergate Congresses to check and balance the executive branch, and then to expand presidential powers far beyond those of even the imperial presidency.”

 

Dean on the Supreme Court: “Few people are aware how Republican presidents have spent the last four decades remaking the judiciary in their own image, and in so doing have politicized – and diminished – the nonpolitical branch.”  Chapter sub-headings: “Nixon’s Politicization of Supreme Court Appointments;” “Reagan’s Hard Right Push While Perfecting Nixon’s Politicized Process;” “Appointing the First Fundamentalists: Rehnquist and Scalia;” “Slouching Toward Extremism With Robert Bork [conservative senators opposed; Reagan’s staff told him Bork unqualified]; “Bush I & II: Continuing Reagan’s Push to the Right;” “American Law Radicalized by a Fundamentalist Supreme Court.”

 

Dean makes several possible predictions of a U.S. Supreme Court dominated by right wing fundamentalists: unilateral and Unitary Presidentialism; elimination of campaign finance restrictions [done by “Citizens United”]; restricting congressional powers; business will have   a friendly court [Roberts & Alito among all-time most business friendly justices; “Citizens United;” “Janus’]; direct impact on individuals [weaken & limit “Roe; affirmative action; Bill of Rights; – 3 current justices oppose applying Amendments to states; cruel & unusual punishment; environmental protection; gay rights; guns – “Heller” overturns 5 previous rulings]; habeas corpus; religion [small decisions already made to give churches tax money]; sex; standing to sue [narrow people’s rights against corporations] voting [already gutted 1965 Voting law].  Several big decisions already – the U.S. Supreme Court is on its way toward being the bastion of privilege – like it was over a century ago; and a big club to be used against ordinary people.

 

So – is all this “old news?”  Ten years have passed, let’s move on?  NO – this ISN’T old news.  John W. Dean has been in big demand, 2016-2018.  Many people want to hear his take on what is now occurring.  Dean had talked about the violation of sound governmental processes.  He, and others, talked about the risks to American democracy from the authoritarians that were taking over the Republican Party.  He, and others, have talked about the “take-no-prisoners” Republican philosophy.  He, and others, have lamented the purging of the Republican Party of moderates and liberals.

 

Here is why this book and Dean’s other books are relevant.  Quoting from Dean’s “Conservatives Without Conscience: “Conservatism is not inherently moralistic, negative, arrogant, condescending, and self-righteous.  Nor is it authoritarian.  Yet all of these are adjectives that best describe the political outlook of contemporary conservatism…..Conservatism has been co-opted by authoritarians, a most dangerous type of political animal….the behavior of both authoritarian leaders and their credulous followers constitute a hazardous way for politics and governing.  In fact, these people cannot be trusted to exercise the powers of government responsibly.”

 

In “Conservatives Without Conscience,” Dean relates the work of the 1986 American Academy for the Advancement of Science prize-winning researcher, Bob Altemeyer for his essay, “Authoritarian Aggression.”  Here are some research-backed profiles of authoritarian leaders: typically men, dominating, oppose equality, desirous of personal power, amoral, intimidating and bullying, faintly hedonistic, vengeful, pitiless, exploitive, manipulative, dishonest, cheats to win, highly prejudiced [racist, sexist, homophobic], mean-spirited, militant, nationalistic, tells others what they want to hear, takes advantage of “suckers,” specializes in creating false images to sell self, may or may not be religious, usually politically and economically conservative/Republican.  With very little imagination, it should be very easy for readers to pick out a person or two in the news!

 

This goes back decades.  Consider the PATTERN of Republicans in power, not just an incident or two, but the 40 year PATTERN, and more.  Why was Nixon going to be impeached?  Why could Reagan have been impeached [for sound Constitutional reasons]?  Why was Bush II despised around the world?  Which party has threatened, multiple times, to shut down the government if it didn’t get its way?  Which party has passed several immoral tax cuts for the rich – all of which have dangerously raised the national debt?  Which party has threatened to use the national debt crisis [which it created] as a club to cut Social Security and Medicare?  Which party changed the entire atmosphere in the U.S.House to one of “open warfare?”  Which party looks at the very idea of compromise as disdainful?  Which party set up the infamous “K Street Project” mechanism, and told people give us money or don’t bother to call?  Which party wants to destroy public education?  Which party refuses to accept almost any scientific evidence if it doesn’t fit their ideology?  Which party was in power when both the 1929 Crash and the 2008 Crash occurred?   Which party, according to eyewitness testimony politicized the U.S. judicial system – and now accuses opponents   of reactionary judges of doing the same?  Which party is openly trying to subvert the environmental protection of the air you breathe and the water you drink?  Why do people say that Lincoln, Teddy Roosevelt and Eisenhower couldn’t be nominated by the current Republican Party?   And, the crime that will be worst of all – assuming people are still around – which party is opposing massive evidence that “global warming is occurring and man has himself to blame?

 

All these questions, and dozens more, are why John W. Dean’s books are relevant today.  For those too young, Dean was Nixon’s Watergate lawyer, the man who told Congress there was a cancer on the presidency.  He went to jail for Nixon.  Dean was also a friend of conservative icon, Barry Goldwater.  The original plan was the two men would collaborate on any books.  But Goldwater died.  Late in life, Goldwater, a man of great principle and integrity {haven’ t we just heard this again in 2018?], became very concerned about the direction in which the Republican Party was moving [haven’t we just heard this again in 2018?] .  Among other things, Goldwater said the Republicans has sold their soul to win elections {haven’t we just heard something similar again in 2018]?  Many of the details of that “sale’ are in Dean’s books.  Every patriotic American should be reading Dean’s books.  Like Goldwater and McCain, he tells it like it is/was.  Can you handle the truth?  And – what will you do with the truth?

 

 

 

Amid all the stories of Senator John McCain’s death, and people’s reaction to that, I was stunned to read that he’d been booed multiple times by Republican voters.  One reason was McCain’s response to questions about his opponent in the 2008 election.  McCain told people his opponent was a decent family man, and was booed by fellow Republicans.

Then there was a 8/27/l8 article, “In McCain’s Arizona, he’s not a hero to all.” these anti-McCain people weren’t Democrats, they’re Republicans – some of whom are hoping to be elected Senator.  One possible U.S. Senator’s comments were gross trash talk insults.

When this abuse first occurred, John McCain had been a faithful public servant and military officer for over 40 years.  He’d been tortured for 5 years.  He’d refused to be released early from this torture.  He was known for telling the truth, regardless of what others thought.  He was/is admired by members of both parties.  He always held the interests of America first, regardless..  Not good enough for some.

I can see disagreeing with McCain, being critical of him, perhaps reacting with silence to his response…..But, booing this man.  Seriously?  For asking people to treat his opponent with respect?

In 2008, John McCain was no ordinary American, whether he ran for president or not.  He had a long track record – matched by few Americans in this nation’s 229 year history.  In his 2000 run for president, McCain said: “I will not take the low road to the highest office in this land.  I want the presidency in the best way, not the worst way.”  When the Senate later released a report on the CIA’s “harsh” interrogation techniques [torture by most international standards], McCain said: this “wasn’t about our enemies.  It’s about us.  It’s about who we were, who we are, and who we aspire to be.”

So – why was John McCain booed?  How did a 75-year old woman from southern Minnesota “learn” that Barack Obama was an “Arab?”  How did a married couple “learn” that they should be “scared, scared of an Obama presidency?”

Former President George W. Bush: “John McCain was a man of deep conviction and a patriot of the highest order.”  Senator Chuck Schumer: “As you go through life, you meet few truly great people.  JohnMcCain was one of them.”John McCain:  “It’s about us…who we are…”

So….who are we?       Who have we been?       Who are we now?

One possible thought:  the Russians are winning the “Vocal Poison” war…….and they’re laughing at us.  They created discord in the 2016 election….using our own demons and devils against us.  They’ve already started in 2018.  Americans disrespecting one of our greatest men, in public.  They aren’t starting from scratch, they’re using our own falsehoods.

So…..how do Americans think they’ve “learned” some of these base falsehoods?  An entire P.R. industry exists to spew out this poison.  This is no secret.  Why are people so ready and willing to believe the worst about fellow Americans,  “the Big Lie?”  Because they want to.  Because they hear it often.  Because it “sounds good.”

Various analysts are trying to establish why 1980-2018 America has evolved into what it is – why so vulnerable to poison.  Lilliana Mason, in “Uncivil Agreement,” says “a reasonable consensus seems to be that, first, partisan polarization is at record-high levels; second, it exists not only among elites, but also among the mass public; third, it is increasingly driven by negative partisanship – dislike for the other party – rather than substantive issue-based differences; and fourth, it is the end product of a half century of geographic and demographic sorting.”

The last two items are the most alarming – not  issues, but dislike for the other guy because he is the other guy, and the geographic/demographic sorting.  For students of American history, this looks like the 1850’s prelude to the Civil War.  And, of course, we’ve had a version of civil war – “the cultural war.”  The Russians merely build off our “cultural war” to feed us lies we want to believe, which we then act on.  And they won in 2016.  They’ll win again – but only if we let them.

Mason talks about the social psychology of “identity,’ and belonging to a group – religion, race, class, occupation, home town, which provides an “us and a them,” two tribes.  “When partisan opponents have less and less in common, politics becomes more of a zero-sum game: I see any political gain for you as a loss for me.  Being right becomes more important than getting it right, since our sense of self worth is on the line.”  For John McCain, mostly “getting it right” was the goal.  That’s why he was so respected by his Senate colleagues – and for that he was booed.

Consider the following real situation.  A Canadian climate change expert has just finished her talk on global warming.  A woman approaches her and says: “It all sounds  so logical.  I wish I could support you.  But I can’t.  It would mean agreeing with Al Gore.”  Logic says one thing, but she’d violate her political identity, and therefore “lose.”

So…again…..how do good Americans “learn” to dislike/hate somebody/something?  Where do they get this “information?”  And…..crucially, why do they believe obvious falsehoods?  And often, violently believe the Big Lie, adamantly claiming they are not misinformed?One answer is “the echo chamber” that daily puts these lies out.  It consists of one TV station, many talk radio programs,various internet sources, books, newspaper columns, and think tanks.  Many “fact checks” have been done.  The results are always the same – falsehoods are put out by one part of “the echo chamber,” then other parts pick it up, it gets quoted, often even the mainstream media repeat it.  And…..you keep doing this.

One consistent message: “LIberals are responsible for racism, slavery, and the Ku Klux Klan.  They admire Mussolini and Hitler, and modern  liberalism is little different from fascism or, even worse, communism.  The mainstream media and academia cannot be trusted because of the pervasive, totalitarian nature of the liberal culture.”  And, as David A. Walsh reports in “In Their Right Mind,” from Washington Monthly’s July/August issue, the above ‘liberal conspiracy’ “often is used to justify similar behavior on the right.  The Russia investigation is not just a witch hunt, it’s a product of the real scandal, which is the Hilary-Russia-Obama-Fbi collusion, so we must investigate that.”  Any one with a rudimentary knowledge of history, the above claims are 180 degrees reversed from the truth of what actually happened.

In 1980, televangelist James Robison said he was “sick and tired of hearing about all the radicals, and the perverts, and the liberals, and the leftists, and the communists coming out of the closet,” and called for “God’s people” to fight back.  Walsh relates Pat Buchanan’s 1992 National Convention speech in which Buchanan segued from the Cold War right into the “cultural war,” the “religious war…for the soul of America,” suggesting the fight against liberalism, feminism, and the “gay agenda” was a continuation of the Cold War.  Do you “need” enemies?  Do you “need” somebody to hate?

If you grow up  in a home that believes this, or you constantly hear these messages over TV-radio-internet, then, for at least some people, you might discover why John McCain could get booed.  Because, in any way, to compromise with the evil “them” would undermine the crusade.  To defend “them” would be to weaken the crusade to defeat “them” and “bring America back” again.  It might also explain why 2 plus 2 equals 4 facts are irrelevant, and “alternative facts” are ‘true.’  It might explain why, if a politician is on “the right side” of your issues, then you can allow him/her to have obvious personal failings and troubling history.

That might bring you up against John McCain: “We live in a land made of ideals, not blood and soil.  We are the custodians of those ideals at home, and their champions abroad.  We have done great good in the world.  That leadership has had its costs, but we have become incomparably powerful and wealthy as we did.  We have a moral obligation to continue in our just cause, and we would bring more than shame on ourselves if we don’t.  We will not thrive in a world where our leadership and ideals are absent.   We wouldn’t deserve to.” [10/17/2017]

McCain again: “Its about us.  Its about..who we are..”  So – who are we?  Do we follow “our better angels”…or our demons?  If we can boo John McCain, who are we?  Republican Senator Ben Sasse: “Our nation aches for truth-tellers.  This man will be greatly missed.”  Can we handle the truth?

What is “the truth?”  Would we know the truth if we heard it?  In an environment of “alternative facts,” have we already entered the realm of “Big Brother?”  If so who/what is “Big Brother?”  Perhaps Big Brother is somebody we listen to often.  Perhaps he is somebody who cleverly tells us what we want to hear, and makes millions so doing.

Perhaps Big Brother has been slowly poisoning our collective minds.  If Big Brother can convince one that liberals were responsible for slavery and the KKK, then he can convince you of anything – like a man who endured 5 years of torture isn’t really a hero.  Maybe He can convince you that global warming is a hoax.  Maybe He can convince you that cutting taxes for billionaires will actually help YOU?  Maybe He can convince you that the solution for 30,000 annual gunshot deaths can be solved by more guns?  Maybe He can convince you that “the government of the people, by the people, for the people” is really your enemy.  Maybe He can convince you that black is really white?

On the streets of Philadelphia, September, 1787, delegates to the Constitutional Convention left Independence Hall.  A woman approached Benjamin Franklin with  a question: “Well, Doctor, what have we got, a republic or a monarchy?”  Franklin’s answer: “A republic, if you can keep it.”Have we “Kept the republic,” or have we lapsed into a “monarchy”….a “monarchy” where the “king” is a collective group of billionaires?  John McCain tried to prevent this, he was sabotaged.  He tried to tell us the truth, but now he’s gone.  Do we want, can we handle, the truth?

In the last 40 years, we have listened to charlatans who sold us snake oil, and we booed the truth teller.  And we believed the Russian trolls.  America was the hero of the world in 1945.  Are we still the hero of the world in 2018?  America still holds the hopes of the world – the question is, will we honor those hopes?   Can we honor those hopes if we continue to accept the flagrant lies Big Brother pours into our ears each day?  Can we continue as a democratic republic if we willingly accept the lie that half of us are traitors?   If we continue to only vote against something, what are we for?  Do we build a stronger country on love and hope, or on fear and hatred?  Who are we?

 

The drive to create American plutocracy knows no limits, and no shame.  In a never ceasing effort to “privatize” all aspects of American government, a smear campaign has been launched against the Veterans Administration.  The supposed story is the incompetence of the VA medical system.  The goal is to shut down the VA’s hospitals and direct traffic to private hospitals.  The “theory” is that private American hospitals – part of the world’s 37th best health care system – will provide superior health care for America’s veterans.  This is another example of the “market based” theory – the false idea that private is always superior to government.

The “Big Lie is well documented for you in a July/August, 2018, article in “Washington Monthly” magazine, “Unhealthy Skepticism,” by Suzanne Gordon and Jasper Craven.  They start by relating the nonprofit RAND organization’s study showing “gross inadequacies of New York State’s health care system to effectively treat veteran patients.  A month later, RAND found that the quality of VA care was generally better than private care.  These were just the latest of scores of studies that have come to the same conclusion foe nearly two decades now.”

Gordon and Jasper wonder how can this be?  20 years of reports saying VA care better than private, ignored.  Why?  “The answer is that studies like the RAND report are virtually ignored by the press”  So – why is that?  A good part of that is conservatives pushing “free market” solutions…for nearly everything….. privatizing Social Security……privatizing public schools…..privatizing prisons…..privatizing government itself.  And, of course, the gold standard of “free market solutions” is….America’s #37 best private health care system itself!

The real issue, for some, is that the VA is a successful example of socialized medicine.  If the “usual suspects” can discredit and demonize the VA, then they can use that to discredit and defeat something like “Medicare for All,” the “radical” [only for America] idea that the world’s richest nation ought to provide decent medical care for all its people.  Some might say where does that come from?  Well, perhaps, if one took the Constitution seriously, its Preamble says: “promote the general Welfare.”  If we can assume that a progressive middle class-oriented government might consider a healthy population as “Promoting the general Welfare,” then not so “radical.”

Unravelling the sensational Phoenix VA story, it is established that not 40, but 6 veterans died waiting for care – and it wasn’t clear delays caused the deaths.  They could have died while waiting, not BECAUSE of waiting.  Gordon and Jasper point out people die all the time in the private sector waiting to see a doctor.  So – part of the problem is the failure of media to compare the VA, accurately, with the #37 best private health care system.  For comparison, American “private hospitals and physicians kill more than 250,000 patients a year [and seriously injure 1.5 million] due to preventable medical errors.”  This includes some of America’s top rated hospitals.  When is the last…or perhaps the first time…you heard those statistics?  And, as the authors state: “no one suggests that these hospitals should be socialized.”

Perhaps the veterans would be referred to a private hospital under these circumstances: 84 million Americans live in a federally designated primary care shortage area; or perhaps try to find a psychiatrist or social worker in the 77% of U.S. counties that have acute shortages; or perhaps in the 55% of U.S. counties, all rural, that have no mental health care professionals at all?  So, or veterans would be driving just how far???  “Without the VA, these numbers would be even worse.”

The authors point out the VA scandal occurred because the VA reported problems – and got negative press.  The other side of that coin is: “the other healthcare providers were routinely covering them up.”  Most private companies don’t even attempt to collect such data, much less make it public.  So – we have a different set of rules.  “There are no inspectors general or standing congressional committees for private health care..”  But there is advertising!  Private hospitals “typically” invest $1 million in advertising; one prominent private hospital spent $l19 million in 2015 advertising.  And this: “When “Time” magazine named neuroscientist Ann McKee to it 2018 list of the world’s 100 most influential people, it DIDN’T even mention her position as chief neuropathologist for the Boston VA.”

And, of course, “Things have only gotten worse under Trump.”  The current VA national press secretary [surprise!] worked for a Republican congressman who pushed “drastic” privatization measures, and [surprise!] the press secretary is a “longtime VA skeptic” [something like the EPA Secretary is a climate denier, the Education Secretary a public school privatizer, etc]  And the current interim Secretary, “has highlighted negative news stories reported on “Fox & Friends,” urging Congress to outsource more VA care>”  YOU CAN’T MAKE THIS STUFF UP!!!  But then, its a repeat of the 1980-2009 playbook: appoint enemies of a department, let them sabotage it – and call that “government.”  Imagine an NFL defensive coordinator who was a former 3rd string QB who hates the defense!

And then, as the authors mention, all the supposed VA “failures” come “as with other federal agencies, red tape and dysfunction is brought to you by Congress.  Considering that for the last 40 years, Republicans have controlled Congress much of the time; and considering the post-1980 anti-government ideology of the Republicans, are you surprised that Congress would deliberately sabotage government?  It is Congress that forced the VA to “adjudicate impossibly difficult eligibility standards,” forcing the VA to deny benefits.  Also “its members of Congress, not VA employees, who decide how much money to allocate to the VA, as well as where and how to spend it.” [saddling the VA with billions in expenses for operating obsolete facilities].  Then also, “VA hospitals and clinics have become strapped for cash because Congress..passed the CHOICE Act, which required that the VA divert more resources to paying private doctors for the treatment of VA patients.”  Does the word “sabotage” begin to wander through your mind here?

Informed readers will remember the last 40 years of Republican attempts to divert public taxpayer money [unconstitutionally] to private schools.  This has been a double win for them.  They subsidize private schools [again with little accountability], and by taking this money from the public schools, they make the public schools’ job more difficult – thus aiding that Big Lie – “failing public schools.”  Same playbook, just a different opportunity.  Just like American industry has used “the tobacco defense” playbook to justify all sorts of misconduct – the most recent and deadly – climate change denial.

And, given the current corrupt American political scene, would this issue be complete without “Dark Money?”  Readers in the know remember Jane Mayer’s book, “Dark Money” [how billionaires subvert American democracy]  So… Surprise!!! – guess what? – the Dark Money in the VA smear effort can be traced back to…..the Koch brothers!  It turns out t5hat a prominent corporate-sponsored “veterans group” is “Concern Veterans for America,” which regularly attacks the VA.  “Yet, unlike the VFW, the American Legion…CVA is not accountable to dues-paying, rank-and-file veterans.  Rather, it is largely financed by the Koch brothers and their network of wealthy funders and led by a narrow band of media-savvy professional advocates.”  One might ask why groups of billionaires are instead of doing every patriotic thing possible to aid the people who protected their fortunes, are doing everything they can to undermine the medical care the veterans earned with their blood on the battlefield.  Strange world.  There is another “Astroturf organization,” the “Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America,” harshly critical of the VA.  The IAVA website claims 425,000 members, “but membership merely entails a mouse click; no dues required, nor proof of veteran status….funding..comes from “partners” who include major corporations that stand to gain directly from VA privatization.”  One of these contributed $500,000 “not long before becoming a major beneficiary of legislation that forces the VA to outsource more care..”  One might think that an administration that came to power by saying it would “drain the swamp in Washington” would be leaving no stone unturned to ferret what playground logic says sounds very much like corruption.

So, gentle readers, where is the real scandal involving the VA?  Is it what what a relentless smear campaign says it is?  Or, is it what the RAND nonprofit research organization determined, based on real facts, not “alternative facts” – that the VA was providing superior care over private care?  And then, you might be asking why we’re having all these “discussions?”  All of which supposedly concern government groups who are “incompetent?”  Who stands to benefit from undermining civil servants, police, public school teachers, government in general.

The real “privatization scandal isn’t limited to the VA.  The July/August “Washington Monthly” has another article by Paul Glastris dealing with this: “…focus on where some of the most egregious waste and fraud is really happening: private contracting…the biggest profligacy in government contracting is in ‘service contracting’: that is outsourcing to private consulting firms quotidian work..that could be, and often was, done in-house.  “Walk into any federal agency office and you’ll see service contractors and civil servants sitting side by side, doing the same work…The only difference is that service contractors cost the government [that’s you, taxpayer], on average, nearly twice as much…with typically no improvement in outcomes..the costly rise of outsourcing government work that began under Ronald Reagan.”

One of the definitive studies of “privatization” is by Naomi Klein, “The Shock Doctrine.”  It documents “privatization” around the world, with almost 100% negative results for democracy and citizen control of their own government.  From pages 363-400, Klein tells how the Bush II regime’s “central tenet” was not to govern but to subcontract work to “privatization.”  Credit is due also to the Clinton and Bush I administrations which enlarged the Reagan effort.  In what “can only be described as a privatized police state.” Cheney, Rumsfeld and Bush II applied “market logic” to the U.S. military.  For corroboration, find fact-based audits of the Iraq war and occupation.  Beginning on page 376, Klein details the Bush II “corporate new deal.”  Also, the ‘war on terror’ was largely a privatized concept from the begging.  The result?  An explosion of the U.S. national debt.  Mr. & Mrs. Lower 95% – you’ve been paying, are paying, will be paying, and so will your children – trillions for this “privatization.”

We’ve come far from “the Greatest Generation,” the generation of people who believed in government, believed that together they could improve America.  Now, for the last 40 years, you’ve been fed a steady diet of “government is the problem” lies.  People, purporting to be patriots, have been instead following the totalitarian handbook of the “Big Lie” and steadily authoritarian regimes.  Just like infamous 20th century dictatorships, their Big Lies are, often daily, repeated in a massive, coordinated “echo chamber” of TV, talk radio, the internet.  Just like in the 20th century, false scapegoats are “identified” for you to hate, to distract your attention from the real perps – them.  Here we are in 2018, in the climate of “alternative facts.”  Bit by bit, we slide down toward Orwoll’s  scenario – governing the world’s most powerful “democracy” on the basis of grossly false lies.  I’m glad Mom and Dad aren’t here to see this.

 

Every lover of democracy should read Pulitzer Prize-winner David C. Johnston’s “Divided, the Perils of Our Growing Inequality.”  The book’s 311 pages detail and document the many parts of people’s lives adversely affected by income inequality.  Others have mentioned the current cost of raising a child [$233,000] inhibits the parent’s lives – and they may not have children because they can’t afford them… THEY MAY NOT HAVE CHILDREN BECAUSE THEY CAN’T AFFORD THEM…… Which means American society is writing its own obituary.  The perils of inequality are ancient:

“Any city, however small, is in fact divided into two, one city of the poor, the other of the rich; these are at war with one another.”  Plato

“An imbalance between rich and poor is the oldest and most fatal ailment of all republics.”  Plutarch

Consider the numbers.  Trade rules destroyed factory jobs – more than 50,000 factories and 2,8 million jobs offshored to China.  [WHO wrote the rules?]  The real cost must include the “multiplier” effect of factory jobs – 2.4.  The total number of jobs lost was 2.8 million, plus 6.72 million more jobs.  By 2012, the majority’s average income had shrunk 13% from 1973 [$35,584 to $30, 997 in 2012 dollars].  Almost 1/3 of Americans with any kind of job in 2012 made less than $15,000.  Since 1980, nearly 2/3 of households [32 of l00 million] have declared bankruptcy.

“The disposition to admire,  and almost to worship, the rich and powerful, and to despise, or at least, to neglect persons of poor and mean condition is the great and almost universal cause of the corruption of our moral sentiments.”  Adam Smith, “The Theory of Moral Sentiments”

In 2012, people whose jobs paid cash wages of $5 million grew by 27%.  Very highly paid jobs grew so fast, the Social Security Administration changed its top comp rate in 1994 from “more than $5 million” to “more than $20 million.”  And, in 1997, raised the top to “more than $50 million.”  The top 1% saw their income increase by 153% between 1973 and 2012.  At the very top, top 1% of top 1%, their income skyrocketed from $5.4 million in 1966 to $30.8 million in 2012.

“Verily I say unto you, That a rich man shall hardly enter into the kingdom of heaven….It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God.”  Jesus Christ, Matthew 19

After the top 1% caused the “Great 2008 Recession,” between 2009-2012, just 16,000 U>S> households took 31% of all increased income of America’s 315 million people.  Analysis of tax returns revealed the bottom 90% income shrank by 15.7%.

“We can either have a democracy in this country or we can have great wealth concentrated in the hands of a few, but we can’t have both.”  Justice Louis Brandeis

Between 1961 – 2011, the U.S’s top 400 taxpayers tax burden fell by 60%.  The total tax burden for the bottom 90% actually slightly increased.  The burden of government has been shifted to the lower 90%.   add to this, attacks in Congress on child labor laws, on unions of all kinds, on environmental laws of all kinds – which are actually attacks on the quality of life.”

“The man of great wealth owes a peculiar obligation to the state because he derives special advantages from the mere existence of the government.”  President Theodore Roosevelt

Part of the cost for inequality is less spending on what used to be considered essential public goods: 50% of roads/highways in “Backlog” – not maintained on time, so costs 2-5 times more & add minimum vehicle damage of $120 annually]; inspections of food imports are down 75% from 1981 [200-500 deaths]; slow upgrades in water supply systems [45 million endangered]; opposition to cleaner air [15,000 lives, 140,000 affected]; falling educational support [declining SAT teacher scores & bigger classes]; slashed funding for many social net services.

“Some people continue to defend trickle-down theories – which assume that economic growth, encouraged by a free market, will inevitably succeed in bringing about greater justice and inclusiveness in the world. This opinion, which has never been confirmed by the facts, expresses a crude and naive trust in the goodness of those wielding economic power and in the sacrilized workings of the prevailing economic system.”  Pope Francis I

October, 2012, the “Economist” magazine stated that the magnitude and nature of America’s inequality represented a serious threat to the country.  The International Monetary Fund noted a systematic relationship between inequality and economic instability.

Pulitzer Prize-winner Joseph Stiglitz noted that inequality means many children will never live up to their potential.  More than 20% of American kids live in poverty.  Children in other rich countries – Canada, France, Germany, Sweden – have a better chance of doing better than their parents than American children do.  And – this is before the skyrocketing college tuition cost, and debt that follows.  This inhibits marriage, home buying, and even having children.

“American inequality didn’t just happen.  It was created.”  Joseph Stiglitz”

“…a sophisticated multimillion-dollar industry has developed to consult and advise employers on how to oppose unions and frighten workers…No other industrialized nation has such a powerful union-busting industry or weaker labor protections.”

“In the general course of human nature,  a power over a man’s subsistence amounts to a power over his will.”  Alexander Hamilton, The Federalist

It was estimated that in 2010,  Federal subsidies to corporations – loopholes, direct cash transfers, etc. totaled $170 billion.   State and local corporate subsidies were in the $700 billion range.  But “we can’t afford subsidized child care.”   RIGHT?

“Great wealth always supports the party in power, no matter how corrupt it may be.  It never exerts itself for reform, for it instinctively fears change.”  Henry George,  1884

sean f. reardon’s “No Rich Child Left Behind” documents one of the main consequences of income inequality: rich kids entering kindergarten much better prepared.  From 1972-2006, the rich increased amounts spent on their children’s enrichment activities by 150%.  This leads to a growing educational gap between rich and middle class children; and false culprits like “failing schools.”  Solution: do what the rich do, invest in children from the day they are born.

“communism is a hateful thing and a menace to peace and organized government; but the communism of combined wealth and capital, the out-growth of overweening cupidity and selfishness, which insidiously undermines justice and integrity of free institutions, is not less dangerous than the communism of oppressed poverty and toil.”  President Grover Cleveland,  12/3/1888

Mike Rose says America cannot afford to ignore the 10 million community college students, many also working; nor can we ignore “tens of millions of young, marginally educated people who drift in and out of low-paying, dead-end jobs.”  And –  again, America spends “much less as a share of GDP than almost any other rich country” on these same people.  And – after the 2008 Crash, America started cutting back on public library services [only free internet sources in 2/3 of communities].

An estimated 22-100,000 people die annually in the USA – no access to health care.  Half of US emergency rooms report daily overcrowding; 500,000 ambulances are diverted each year.  Our overcrowded and underfunded emergency care system is ill prepared to respond to any major disaster – natural, disease, terrorist.

“What do I care about the law?  Hain’t I got the power?”  Cornelius Vanderbilt

In 2010, about 48.8 million Americans lived in food-insecure households.  40% had to choose between paying rent/mortgage and buying food.  America’s “Hunger Bill” is $167.5 billion yearly for lost productivity, compensation for low educational achievement, poor health, depression, suicides and charity cost.  A 2007 study, “The Economic Costs of Domestic Hunger,” said: “The nation pays far more by letting hunger exist than it would if our leaders took steps to eliminate it.”

“The children who go to bed hungry in a Harlem slum or a West Virginia mining town are not being deprived because no food can be found to give them; they are going to bed hungry because, despite all our miracles of invention and production, we have not yet found a way to make the necessities of life available to all our citizens – including those whose failure is not of personal industry or initiative, but only the unwise choice of parents.”  Senator J.William Fulbright,  1964

The $60 billion-a-year U.S. prison system is a “second line of defense” against people not helped by other social institutions:  welfare, education, employment and job training, mental health programs.  America is #1 for locking people up.  Inequality and punishment “are intimately linked.”  The U.S. jailed population rapidly escalated from 250,000 to 2.3 million by 2009; over 30 million have been affected in the last 30 years.  These people are usually negatively affected for life – a consequence inflicted upon their families and communities.  “Few doubt this system works.”

“We hold that the moral obligation of providing for old age, helpless infancy, and poverty, is far superior to that of supplying invented wants of courtly extravagance, ambition, and intrigue.”  Thomas Paine,  1791

There will be future costs.  A 1/30/2015 report said 47% of Americans spend all their income, go into debt, or use savings to exist.   TO EXIST   A major future consequence is well known: poverty in old age.  Old age medical bills will rise for Medicare.  Destitute seniors will be living on the taxpayers’ dime in nursing homes [as many already are].  Not only loss of old age dignity, but massive taxpayer expense will happen.  Another consequence of the skyrocketing 1980-2018 income inequality crisis.  The gains of American wealth have been “privatized;” the pains are/will be socialized.

And – we haven’t even discussed the coming robot-takes-your-job crisis.  People with money and power, and knowledge of the future, are already planning and investing in AI and robotics.  Without significant ideological changes, America could become a very unpleasant place to live.  Perhaps this will be the final consequence of the current  obscene income inequality.  Plutarch and Justice Brandeis will have been proven correct.

“God gave me my money.”  John D. Rockefeller, Sr.

 

There is considerable concern about the ability of American government to solve basic problems.  Sometimes reference is made to “gridlock” or “partisanship.”  Two long-time analysts of American politics, Thomas Mann {Brookings Institute} and Norman Ornstein {AmericanEnterprise Institute} studied this, and produced a book,”It’s Even Worse Than It Looks.”  They criticized media for seeking “safe ground by giving equal time to opposing sides and arguments and crafting news stories that convey the impression that the two sides are equally implicated.”  They emphatically state this is not the case.  They blame the Republican Party.  Summary of their argument follows.

“In every chapter of this book, we have documented the ways in which the Republican Party has become the insurgent outlier in American politics and as such contributes disproportionally to its dysfunction….The contemporary [2012] GOP, to the horror of many of its longtime stalwarts and leaders like former senators John Danforth of Missouri and Alan Simpson of Wyoming, has veered toward tolerance of extreme ideological beliefs and policies and embrace of cynical and destructive means to advance political ends over problem solving.  These tendencies have led to disdain for negotiation and compromise unless forced into them…”

“…the Republican Party of old – the party of moderates like Ray LaHood, David Durenberger, and John Danforth, and of conservatives like Alan Simpson, Mickey Edwards, and Bob Bennett – is no longer present in our political debates or governing dynamic….Republicans in office have driven both the widening of the ideological gap between the parties and the strategic hyperpartisanship on such crucial issues as financial stabilization, economic recovery, deficits and debt, health-care reform, and climate change….their leaders have embraced fanciful policies on taxes and spending and kowtowed to the most strident voices within their party.”  In the past, both parties would seek out nonpartisan technical, economic, and scientific advice.  “Republicans in the new era have dismissed nonpartisan analysis and conclusions about the nature of problems and impact of policies when they don’t fit their own ideology or policy prescription.

Even “respected inside commentators including National Review’s Ramesh Ponnuru and American Enterprise Institute’s Steven F. Hayward, have challenged the destructive, take-no-prisoners approach of the movement within the Republican Party.”  Ponnuru: “…the real mistakes of the Bush years keep being made.  Republicans had nothing to say about wage stagnation then and are saying nothing about it now.  The real cost of Republicans fixation on ideological purity is that it distracts them from their real problems and the nation’s”  Hayward: “..notes that the ‘no tax increase’ mania…and its corollary… ‘starve the beast,’ has been proven empirically not to work.”

So – two of the main Republican pillars, by their own words – proven not to work.  And then – consider this:  David Broder’s 3/29/07 column about Reagan’s budget advisor, David Stockman.   It discusses the famous Stockman interview with Bill Greider, which appeared the “Atlantic” magazine article, “The Education of David Stockman: Stockman “told Greider that the Reagan budget was built on false premises, that it employed a ‘magic asterisk’ to conceal the size of its inevitable deficits, and that the tax cuts he had championed were really designed to benefit the wealthy.”

So, fellow Americans, add it up.  Two of the nation’s most respected and thoughtful analysts [they’re not alone] have documented – DOCUMENTED – the evidence for their case that Republicans are deliberately destroying the ability of American government to function.  Insiders from the right wing establishment are telling you that the very ideas Republicans are pushing as ‘solutions’ are ‘proven empirically’ not to work.

I urge every thoughtful American to read this book: “It’s Even Worse Than It Looks.”  They tell you when things really got worse, 1995 and later.  They provide exact dates of congressional votes.  They give you quotes.  They tell you how the culture of the U.S. House was deliberately changed to a climate of hostility.  They tell you that former major Republicans such as Eisenhower, Nixon, Dirksen, Ford are “unimaginable” for the current Republican Party.  They – and others – have also said Reagan, Bush I and II might not be acceptable now.  Some things presented are just stunning in the cynicism involved.  For those puzzled and concerned about America in the last ten years, many of the answers lie in this book.

The United States of America is a place on the map.  But, it has always been much more than that.  Theodore Roosevelt said it was “the hope of the world.”  It has a “Statue of Liberty” in a harbor – a gift from another country.  It stands for an idea – the freedom and dignity of the individual.  Here are sentiments on that ideal.

“but in my mind it was a tall, proud city built on rocks stronger than oceans, windswept, God-blessed, and teeming with people of all kinds living in harmony and peace; a city with free ports that hummed with commerce and creativity.  And if there had to be city walls, the walls had doors and the doors were open to anyone with the will and heart to get there.  That’s how I saw it, and see it still…And she’s still a beacon, still a magnet for all who must have freedom, for all the pilgrims from all the lost places who are hurling through the darkness toward home.”   R. Reagan. Farewell Address, January, 1989 – on America as “the city on the hill” [J.Meacham, “The Soul of America”]

“The preservation of the sacred fire of liberty and the destiny of the republican model of government are justly considered, perhaps, as deeply, as finally staked on the experiment entrusted to the hands of the American people.”   G.Washington,  4/30/1789

“No man can put a chain about the ankle of his fellow man without at last finding the other end fastened about his own neck.”  Frederick Douglass, 10/22/l883

“The governments of the past could fairly be characterized as devices for maintaining in perpetuity the place and position of certain privileged classes, without any ultimate protection for the rights of the people.  The Government of the United States is a device for maintaining in perpetuity the rights of the people, with the ultimate extinction of all privileged classes.”  C.Coolidge, 9/25/1924

“Poverty curtails individual freedom.  So do illiteracy, prejudice, lack of education, inability to obtain the basic needs of life.”  H.H.Humphrey, 1964

“What is freedom?  Freedom is the right to choose; the right to create for oneself the alternatives of choice.  Without possibility of choice and the exercise of choice a man is not a man but a member, an instrument, a thing.”  Archibald MacLeish

“The native American has been generally despised by his white conquerers for his poverty and simplicity….his religion forbade the accumulation of wealth and the enjoyment of luxury….it was a rule of his life to share the fruits of his skill and success with his less fortunate brothers….Every religion has its Holy Book, and ours was a mingling of history, poetry, and prophecy….the Spirit of God is not breathed into man alone….the whole created universe is a sharer in the immortal perfection of its Maker.”  C.A. Eastman,   “The Soul of the Indian”

“Attack another’s rights and you destroy your own.”  J.J.Chapman, 1897

“America is not just a power; it is a promise.  It is not enough for our country to be extraordinary in might; it must be exemplary in meaning.  Our honor and our role in the world finally depend on the living proof we are a just society.”  N.Rockefeller, 1968

“We must not confuse dissent with disloyalty.”  E.R.Murrow,  3/7/1954

“The problem that has no name – which is simply the fact that American women are kept from growing to their full human capacities – is taking a far greater toll on the physical and mental health of our country than any known disease.”  B.Friedan,  1963

“Americanism is a question of spirit, conviction, and purpose, not of creed or birthplace.  The politician who bids for the Irish or German vote, or the Irishman or German who votes as an Irishman or German, is despicable, for all the citizens of this commonwealth should vote solely as Americans; but he is not a whitt less despicable than the voter who votes against a good American, merely because that American happens to have been born in Ireland or Germany….A Scandinavian, a German, or an  Irishman who has really become an American has the right to stand on exactly the same footing as any native-born citizen in the land, and is just as much entitled to the friendship and support, social and political, of his neighbors,”    T.Roosevelt, 1894  [J.Meacham, “The Soul of America”]

“Privacy is absolutely essential to maintaining a free society.  The idea that is the foundation of the notion of privacy is the citizen is not the tool or the instrument of the government – but the reverse..”  B.C.Schmidt, Jr., 12/5/1986″

“I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slaveowners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood.”  M>L> King, Jr.,  8/28/1963

“Bear in mind this sacred principle, that though the will of the majority is in all cases to prevail, that will to be rightful must be reasonable; that the minority possess their equal rights, which equal law must protect, and to violate would be oppression.”  T. Jefferson,  3/4/1801

“Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty; power is ever stealing from the many to the few.”   W. Phillips,  1852

“No official, high or petty, can prescribe what shall be orthodox in politics, nationalism, religion, or other matters of opinion, or force citizens to confess by word or act their faith therein.”  Justice R.H. Jackson, 1943

“Democracy can thrive only when it enlists the devotion of those whom Lincoln called the common people.  Democracy can hold that devotion only when it adequately respects their dignity by so ordering society as to assure to the masses of men and women reasonable security and hope for themselves and for their children.”  F.D.Roosevelt, 7/19/1940

“The greatest dangers to liberty lurk in insidious encroachment by men of zeal, well-meaning but without understanding.”  Justice L.D. Brandeis, 1928

“They that can give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety.”  B. Franklin,  1759

“You inquire where I now stand…I think I am a Whig…others say…I am an Abolitionist….I am not a Know Nothing, that is certain.  How could I be?  How can anyone who abhors the oppression of negroes be in favor of degrading classes of white people?  Our progress in degeneracy appears to me to be pretty rapid.  As a nation we began by declaring that ‘All men are created equal.’  We now practically read it, ‘All men are created equal negroes.’  When the Know Nothings get control it will read, ‘All men are created equal except negroes and foreigners and Catholics.’  When it comes to this I shall prefer emigrating to some other country where they make no pretense of loving liberty.”  A. Lincoln, 1855  [A.Gross, “The Wit and Wisdom of Abraham Lincoln”]

This leaves us with some questions.  Do these sentiments hold true in 2018 America?  If these greats were alive today, would anyone listen to them?  If not, why not?  Are we still “the city on the hill?”  Would any nation give us a second “Statue of Liberty” now?  Are we “a just society?”  Has the richest nation in world history been “so ordered as to assure the masses..reasonable security and hope for themselves and their children?”  Is the “American Dream” still alive?  What do we as citizens need to do?  Democracy is not a spectator sport.  A million Americans have died from 1775 to 2018 – does this country, in 20l8, honor that sacrifice?

Note;  quotes not attributed are from G.Carruth & E.Ehrlich, “The Harper Book of American Quotations”

In 2009,Richard Wilkinson and Kate Pickett wrote the international bestseller,”The Spirit Level, Why Greater Equality Makes Societies Stronger.”  In the first 5 years after publishing, they spoke at 700 seminars and conferences; they talked to the UN, the WHO, OECD, the EU, and ILO.  Their work was corroborated both before and after they wrote the book.  Irrelevant!    They were attacked by some of “the usual suspects” from the right wing.  The second edition contained a 25 page postscript; ‘Research Meets Politics.”  They also set up a web site:  www.equalitytrust.org.uk.  Every person on earth should read this book.

 

To make their evaluation of the 23 “rich” states and the 50 American states, they used data for these metrics: level of trust in a society, mental illness [including drug and alcohol addiction]; life expectancy; infant mortality; obesity; children’s educational performance; teenage births; homicides; imprisonment rates; social mobility [not available for US states].  They spent over 50 “person years” research time on this project – why are some societies more healthy?  Obviously, attacks occurred because some people don’t want various publics to know this information – might raise questions!

The following is a summary of their findings with little commentary.

“..the truth is that the major changes in income distribution in any country are almost never attributable simply to market forces influencing wage rates.  What we see instead is the use of political power…”

Widening income differences, “with the exception of Canada..widened most rapidly in English speaking countries…accompanied in each case by a free-market ideology and by policies designed to create a more ‘flexible” labour force..English speaking countries caught the disease quickly from each other..”

For Britain, “the truth is that both the broken society and the broken economy [of post-2008] resulted from the growth of inequality.”

“as affluent societies have grown richer, there have been long-term rises in rates of anxiety, depression, and numerous other social problems.”

“..if a country wants higher average levels of educational achievement amoung its school children, it must address the underlying inequality which creates a steeper social gradient in educational achievement.”

“Increasingly, researchers are..recognizing that stress in early life, in the womb as well as infancy and early childhood..affects physical growth, emotional; social, and cognitive development.”

“More unequal countries and more unequal states have worse educational attainment – and these relationships are strong enough for us to be sure..they are not due to chance.”

A vivid contrast in trust following disasters can be seen in the American response to Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans and the Chinese response following a 2008 earthquake.  American “troops in New Orleans seemed to be used primarily to control the population [heavily armed & looking for looters], with the rapid deployment of unarmed soldiers in rescue and relief missions  in China..”

“America in the 1950s and 1960s was more egalitarian than it had been in more than a century.. those same decades were also the high point of social connectedness and civic engagement.. the last third of the twentieth century was a time of growing inequality and eroding social capital..Sometime around 1965-70 America reversed course and started becoming both less economically and less well connected socially and politically.”

“We also find that women’s status is significantly worse in more unequal states.:  “In the USA..over their lifetime more than half will suffer from a mental illness.”

“Low position in..social status..is painful to most people..the use of illegal drugs, is more common in more unequal societies.”

“In more unequal societies children experience more bullying, fights and conflict.”

“..more unequal countries have higher rates of imprisonment…people of lower class, income and education  much more likely to be sent to prison..”

“The harshness of the US prison systems at federal, state and county levels has led to repeated condemnations by..Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and the United Nations Committee against torture.”

In theory, imprisonment is for deterrence, retribution, incapacitation and rehabilitation; America’s prisons practice “three other purposes…class control…scapegoating…political gain.”  The Dutch and Japanese have far different principles [pg. 151].

Knowledgeable Americans will recognize the basis for the “law and order” political campaigns of the last 50 years – and the massive irony of what those “law and order” governments did in office – in the 3 purposes listed above.

“Societies that imprison more people also spend less of their wealth on welfare for their citizens…since 1984…California built only one new college but 21 new prisons [to 1998].”

“If you fail to avoid high inequality, you will need more prisons and more police…in the USA during the period since 1980, when income inequality increased rapidly…public expenditure on prisons increased 6 times as fast as public expenditure on education…”

“…after slowly increasing from 1950 to 1980, social mobility in the USA declined rapidly, as income differences widened dramatically.”

“…increased income inequality is responsible for increasing the segregation of rich and poor…poor people in poor neighborhoods [are] the ‘truly disadvantaged.'”

“Inequality seems to make countries socially dysfunctional across a wide range of outcomes.”

“The truth is that the vast majority of the population is harmed by greater inequality…BECAUSE THE EFFECTS OF INEQUALITY ARE NOT CONFINED JUST TO THE LEAST WELL-OFF.”

“even the children of parents with the very highest levels of education did better in Finland and Belgium than they did in the more unequal UK or USA.”

“…greater equality can be gained either by using taxes and benefits to redistribute very unequal incomes or by greater equality in gross incomes before taxes and benefits…”

“…government may spend either to PREVENT SOCIAL PROBLEMS or, where income differences have widened, TO DEAL WITH THE CONSEQUENCES.”

“The scale of economic inequality which exists today is less an expression of freedom and democracy as of their DENIAL…THE TRUTH IS…modern inequality exists because  DEMOCRACY IS EXCLUDED from the economic sphere.”

“Robert Wade, professor of political economy at the London School of Economics, estimates that growing inequality meant in the years before the 2008 crash ABOUT 1.5 TRILLION DOLLARS PER YEAR WERE BEING SIPHONED FROM THE BOTTOM 90% OF THE US POPULATION TO THE TOP 10%.”

Warren Buffett: “There’s class warfare, all right, but it’s my class, the rich class, that’s making war, and we’re winning.”

“The Spirit Level” provides the results of what Buffett is talking about; the consequences of unprecedented greed; the consequences of deliberately hurting millions of people just to make another million or two; the consequences of corrupting the political and judicial systems to enrich the already obscenely rich.  Please read this book, and talk to your friends and neighbors.

A recent “Economist” magazine article, “How Democracy Dies,” discussed “How To Undermine A Democracy” in the context of newer world democracies.  It posited four stages of a democracy being dismantled: “First comes a genuine popular grievance with the status quo…Second, would -be strongmen identify enemies for angry voters to blame…Third, having won power by exploiting fear or discontent, strongmen chisel away at a free press, an impartial justice system and other institutions that form the ‘liberal’ part of liberal democracy – all in the name of thwarting enemies of the people…Eventually, in stage four, the erosion of liberal institutions leads to the death of democracy in all but name.”  The main lesson the “Economist” stressed was that “institutions matter.”  Other analysts have said that the basic process of government itself is extremely important.

President Grover Cleveland, 1894:  “the Ship of Democracy, which has weathered all storms, may sink through the mutiny of those on board..”

What would prompt this mutiny?  Once rebels take over the Ship of Democracy, what are they going to do with it?  What was their plan?  Once they’ve made the captain walk the plank, how do they propose to run the Ship?   Suppose the new leader turns out to be worse than the old captain?  What are the new rules?  Were they merely “cleaning house?”  Does the new strongman make up the rules on the fly?  Do the mutinous crew very quickly find themselves in “stage four?”  Whose head rolls now?

 

Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt are also concerned with what they have observed in recent years.  Their book, “How Democracies Die” is an examination of that.  They apply lessons learned studying European and Latin American democracies collapses.

“Over the past two years, we have watched politicians say and do things that are unprecedented in the United States..that we recognize as having been precursors of democratic crisis in other places….American politicians now treat their rivals as enemies, intimidate the free press, and threaten to reject the results of elections.”

Democracies work best..where constitutions are reinforced by unwritten democratic norms.”  Two big norms: mutual toleration and restraint.  “.. the guardrails of American democracy are weakening.  The erosion of our democratic norms began in the 1980s and 1990s and accelerated in the 2000s.. if one thing is clear from studying breakdowns throughout history, it’s that extreme polarization can kill democracies.”

Levitsky and Ziblatt offer four key indicators of authoritarian behavior:

1]  Rejection of {or weak commitment to} democratic rules of the game.

2]  Denial of the legitimacy of political opponents.

3] Toleration or encouragement of violence.

4] Readiness to curtail civili liberties of opponents, including media.

Readers can judge for themselves whether any of these four indicators have been broken recently [2018}.  In their experience, Levitsky and Ziblatt found that the undermining of democracy “often begins with words.”  Critics are attacked in harsh and provocative terms [so – on various media, have you observed this?…in the public sphere, has this happened?]  Journalists are attacked as “grave political enemy” of the people  [heard any recent claims that “the fake news” people have been accused of bad things?].  “The capture of the referees is done quietly by firing civil servants and other nonpartisan officials and replacing them with loyalists [ any chance you might have heard about this recently?].”  The courts are stacked by any means necessary [you haven’t been made aware of any highly unusual power plays to – say stack the U.S. Supreme Court, have you?]

Why do Levitsky and Ziblatt say “the guardrails of American democracy are weakening?”  What did they observe in the 1980-2018 period that frightened then?  Was the “mutiny” already becoming visible?   why are they and other analysts talking about “authoritarian behavior, ” not elsewhere, but in America?  What did the “Economist” magazine see?

Who would benefit if a “government of the people, by the people, for the people” did perish from the earth in America?  Who benefits from the current polarization?  Why didn’t we have this level of polarization and extremism before 1980?  We did have various craziness, but it was confined to the fringes and considered to be fringe, not mainstream, ideas.  The Russian attacks on American elections weren’t the first attacks on our system – the first came from within.  Who did that, and why?

STOP!      What’s missing here?   It’s  YOU.  What have you done?  What are you going to do?

Democracy is   NOT     a spectator sport.

The Constitution’s Preamble says:  “We the People….”   People have died – at Valley Forge, Gettysburg, Meuse-Argonne, Guadalcanal and Normandy, the “Frozen Chosin,’ in the Nam, Iraq and Afghanistan.  They’re still dying.  Others have died on America’s streets – fighting for economic justice and civil liberties.  The man who said: “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere,” died in Memphis, murdered, fighting for the rights of sanitation workers.

If we define American democracy by “government of the people, by the people, for the people”… FOR THE PEOPLE…          then it is clear that since 1980, and steadily escalating backwards – America is ceasing to be a democracy.  By many accounts and measurements – most notably rapidly worsening income inequality [and everything that comes with that] – America could now be called a plutocracy [“a class or group ruling or exercising power by virtue of its wealth”].  For confirmation, see billionaire Warren Buffett’s “class warfare” quote.

Robert M. Hutchins, 1954:  “The death of democracy is not likely to be an assassination from ambush.  It will be a slow extinction from apathy, indifference, and undernourishment.”  Slowly the heat in the frog’s boiling water is turned up.  Slowly “the guardrails of democracy” are violated and removed.  Slowly people accept wild accusations about “the Other,” about opposing politicians, about “the fake news” media, accept “alternative facts,” accept the claims that government is the problem [forgetting why “We the People” sacrificed and died for it].  The last 40 years is proving the if one tells “The Big Lie” often enough, some people begin to believe it.

by most numerical calculations, America as a middle class democracy peaked between 1947 and 1973.  America was the envy of the world – because ordinary people owned homes, cars, color TV sets, kitchen appliances.  One didn’t need a college education to accomplish all this – and usually, only one adult per home worked.  Before you vote in November 20l8 [2020], your task as a citizen is to establish why this is true.  Very importantly, to discover what government policies and citizen expectations did this.  Then, crucially, to discover how government policies changed to erode this world-class middle class achievement.  The downward change since 1980 is not an accident.

When families making between $100,000 and $150,000 are struggling, we need answers.  I recently talked with a small business owner.  She said that half her money was going to buy health insurance, with a $6,000 deductible – and no dental insurance.  This is why America is #37 in health care.  Why do we put up with this?   Why do we have so many “suicides of despair?”

 

We can, and should be better than this.  We deserve better than this.   We HAVE been better than this.  You’ve been lied to for 40 years.  Time to change this.  Insanity is voting for the same group that changed the envy of the world middle class democracy into just another country.  YOU can be a part of making American democracy real again – for all of us.  Please, do your homework – get past the propaganda, the hateful bluster, the outright lies – vote for an optimistic future America, not a fearful one that denies its own heritage, history, and heroes.