The New Normal is Creepy

A lot of creepy people want to get into politics or return to politics, even if this means airing the dirtiest, smelliest laundry from the dank recesses of their closets.

Anthony Weiner. What to say? The media probe the connection between Weiner’s suffering spouse, Huma Abedin, and Hillary Clinton, breathlessly wonder if Hillary is giving Huma advice and counsel. Hillary knows a thing or two about philanderers. Her Bill was the undisputed champion of the game – no skulking around cheap motels for Bill, oh no, he got himself sucked off by an intern right in the Oval Office.

Bob Filner, mayor of San Diego, is a seasoned groper of women. But not to worry, San Diego! Filner is going to change his wicked ways in only two intensive weeks of therapy; he promises to rise from the therapist’s couch a new, improved man.

Meanwhile, President Obama has woken from his dream of a bipartisan orgy and re-discovered the Economy and the middle-class. In a speech the other day, Obama said that since 2009 the richest Americans have sucked up 40% of income gains. This can’t continue, Obama said, because it’s tearing America’s social fabric. Tearing? Mr. President, dude, the Levi’s of the American body politic are in tatters, and your administration bears culpability – not as much culpability as John Boehner’s jihadist GOP – but, man, your hands are covered in the blood of the expiring middle class.

Of course the elites are partying hard, and why shouldn’t they? Everything is pretty much as it was when the economy tanked in 2008. CEO’s are raking in huge salaries and bonuses, the stock market is ticking along, private sector honchos move effortlessly between boardrooms and the hallways of regulatory agencies, corporations are still considered “people” for purposes of campaign donations, and Big Media still reports the Talking Points of the powerful like gospel truth. What’s changed?

Jobs and wages? Too boring for prime time. Help the poor? That’s socialism, and in America we only do socialism for the wealthy; for the poor and needy it’s tough love, self-reliance, moral hazard. Besides, we need a permanent underclass to provide clients for our for-profit prison-industrial complex. Gotta’ feed the money machine what it needs.

The hour is too late for Obama to find his long lost inner populist or to score a major legislative victory. The U.S. Congress is gerrymandered and captive; Obama may honestly wish to move forward, but the GOP is determined to move back to the 18^th century, no matter how citizens suffer. Power matters, people don’t. In case you haven’t noticed, this is government of the elite, by the elite and for the elite. Before we know it, Larry Summers will likely be the Fed chairman. Welcome back to one of the primary architects of our one-sided economy. The gilded revolving door keeps turning.

Maybe this explains why twisted personalities like Anthony Weiner and Bob Filner subject themselves to the media rack; for a place at the golden trough, they will sacrifice everyone around them and endure any indignity.

Sick, twisted, and creepy. Welcome to the new normal.