Despair in the Time of Donald and Madam Clinton

“The current corrupt and dysfunctional state of American politics is about a growing authoritarianism tied to economic, political, and cultural formations that have hijacked democracy and put in place structural and ideological forces that constitute a new regime of politics, not simply a series of bad policies.” Henry A. Giroux

Journalist Robert Scheer was in Santa Barbara the other night, giving a lecture for the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation. In a career spanning more than four decades, Scheer has covered plenty of important events, penned a number of books, and founded the award-winning news website, Truthdig, which, among other things, provides a platform for the uncompromising work of Chris Hedges.

At one point in his talk, Scheer said, “The enemy is us.” Not ISIS or Iran or China. Us. We are the enemy because of our own stupidity and arrogance. Take military spending, for example. In fiscal year 2016, according to one report I read, 54%, or roughly $625 billion, of the discretionary federal budget is devoted to defense expenditures. More than half the entire discretionary budget. Education accounts for 6%, or about $74 billion of discretionary spending. The US, of course, outspends every other nation on the planet on armaments. We are bristling with weaponry, armed to the gills, ever ready to wage war on our enemy du jour.  

Our level of military spending and our boot print on the globe is grotesque and completely unsustainable, but our political leaders keep shoveling money at the Pentagon, despite ample evidence that all this insane spending isn’t making the US any safer or more secure. While America’s social and practical needs – like bridges, roads, water systems (think, Flint, Michigan), mass transit, solar power, wind power, care for the young and the elderly – are allowed to go to seed, or get sold off to private operators, the politicians continue to sink billions into hopeless causes like Afghanistan.  

Has the disconnect between the governed and the federal government ever been more pronounced? The system is now so perverted that the will of the people is ignored without consequence. Both parties are ruled by the same sources of money: Wall Street banks, insurance companies, resource extractors, and the military-intelligence-security complex. The corporate-owned media works in tandem with the power complex, feeding the public a steady diet of misinformation, spectacle, and trivia. It takes very little effort to hoodwink the electorate into supporting bogus military conflicts, not to mention economic policies that make the majority poorer, enslaves people in debt, and brings ruin, even death (again, think Flint) to communities. 

The regimes of Uncle Ronnie, Slick Willie, and Cowboy George went too far, created and unleashed a neo-liberal Frankenstein that today is beyond control. Obama maintained the beast. Sadly, too many citizens sat passively by as the American Dream was put to the sword. What happened to American working-class militancy? Who speaks for average working people now? Nobody. In its rightward march toward the political center and beyond, the Democratic Party abandoned the working class.  The only use the GOP has for working people – white ones, anyway – is to stir them up about abortion or gay marriage or gun control.

The prospect of a presidential contest between Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton fills me with despair. Forget choosing between the lesser of two evils. We face a choice between the lesser of two lessers. Standing on one side is Trump, a boorish demagogue, nearly a cartoon character, and quite possibly a fascist; on the other side is Hillary Clinton, an utterly corrupt opportunist with a track record of failure and mediocrity. This is not good, not good at all. I was reading something today that opined that people who support Trump honestly believe that he will restore order in the world. Why, because he’s rich and talks tough?

Yes, the enemy is us. The empire decays from within and is destined to totter and fall. The only question is when.

Walking in the Rain - Portland

“An economy run for a few only benefits the few, and the few, no matter how large their incomes, cannot consume enough to keep the economy growing.”  Paul Craig Roberts

My wife and I fly up to Portland to visit our son’s new school, the Pacific Northwest College of Art. We had planned to drive, but upon more sober consideration the thought of 30 hours on the road seemed too daunting and time consuming. The only reasonably priced tickets we could secure were on Spirit Air, described by a travel agent friend of ours as “a Greyhound bus with wings.” Spirit, it turns out, isn’t that awful though the airline gives meaning to the phrase, “no frills.” As one Spirit flight attendant put it, “Here at Spirit we charge you for everything except the air you breathe.” LAX – Las Vegas – Portland. Close quarters, uncomfortable seats.

Spend a few hours in any major airport and you confront humanity in all its varied beauty and horror. Vegas draws a particular crowd, what I would call, uncharitably perhaps, downscale, motley, common; not being at all interested in gambling, Vegas holds no attraction for me. I’ve been there enough times that I never need, or want, to go again. For me, Vegas is the symbol of what ails America: garish excess, faith in make-believe and spectacle, riches for a few, poverty for many. Vegas also makes me think of water, that most precious resource that is in such short supply in California, and thinking of water leads me to think about Flint, Michigan, and the crime that has happened with the water supply there. I’m reading Nobody Knows My Name by James Baldwin on this trip and my sense of injustice is heightened.  

Parenting is a hard gig in this hyperactive modern era; I don’t know if kids now grow up quicker or remain in adolescence longer. Our 19-year-old son is a complicated, somewhat tortured soul, who spent a miserable semester at Southern Oregon University in Ashland – not a terrible school or town – but not the place for him. Completely on his own accord, our son applied to and was accepted at PNCA. The kid writes poetry and draws and is happiest when he is engaged in making art. Poor bugger. I wonder if he is doomed to a lifetime of struggle and penury; by the time he leaves PNCA, he will be mired in debt that he may spend most of his lifetime paying off. And he won’t be alone.

What do I want for my son? That he be challenged and inspired and taught to think critically, and maybe have his talent – and he does have native talent – nurtured by a teacher rather than squashed. His high school experience was mostly about being squashed by what he considered “boneheaded” teachers; they never got him or bothered to get to know him.

Portland is a lovely city, growing, a mix of old and new, brick and glass. The city has a cool vibe. We spend some time in Powell’s Books, an enormous store that occupies a city block, four stories of books, books, books, and, pleasantly, shoppers, readers of actual books. I like e-books because of their easy portability and storage, but I love actual books, the tactile nature of turning pages.

It’s always good to get away from the routines and fixed patterns of one’s own life, to gain a new vantage point and perspective. In our case, one of the happiest aspects of the trip was walking around in the rain. The day we returned to Los Angeles it was nearly 80 degrees.

A Feeble and Horrible Year

“The great and terrible irony of capitalism is that if left unfettered, it inexorably engineers its own demise, through either revolution or economic collapse.” Robert Scheer, The Great American Stickup

I’ve never set foot within Iowa’s boundaries. It’s the middle land, flat country, with an economy centered on agriculture and insurance; the highest point in the state is Hawkeye Point at 1,670 feet above sea level. Every presidential election cycle, Iowa takes a turn in the spotlight as the center of the American political universe, and then it returns to being, well, Iowa.

So maybe Hillary Clinton and the Clinton family political machine isn’t invincible after all. Until the Iowa Caucus, Hillary looked the presumptive Democratic Party nominee, a shoo-in with too many advantages for any other candidate to overcome, especially one like Bernie Sanders who proudly proclaims  himself a socialist. Americans are conditioned from birth to fear socialists and communists and Maoists, or any other doctrine that doesn’t exalt free market capitalism; calling yourself a socialist is normally a political death sentence.

I wrote Sanders off in these pages some time back -- not because his economic message doesn’t resonate, it does -- but because the political status quo is so difficult to beat. The truth is that I desperately want to believe that someone like Bernie Sanders can be elected President, but my doubts are as strong as my desperation. The ruling class will not go quietly or let go of its privileges easily; they are on a major winning streak and control nearly every gear of power. Hillary Clinton is an ally of the ruling elites, one of them, a Wall Street suckup if there ever was one, and she will do their bidding when push becomes shove. Same goes for the Pentagon. Hillary seems to enjoy saber rattling, and she will be unlikely to throw a lug wrench into the perpetual war machine. Sanders might, although he’s not completely averse to militarism.

Sanders did better in Iowa than I thought he would and I’m sure the Clinton camp is concerned that Madam is in a battle from which she may emerge bruised or bloodied.

The Clinton coronation is now behind schedule.

The nation is clearly unsettled and seething with anxiety. The middle class is battered. Young people face a diminished future, with many saddled by student loan debt and lousy job prospects. Middle-aged whites, particularly males, have seen their economic and social advantages eroded. They need a scapegoat, and Mexican immigrants, Muslims and other minorities make for inviting targets. Donald Trump speaks in a language these people understand at a subconscious level. Though a complete buffoon, a joke that no thinking person can take seriously, Trump understands how to connect with certain people on a gut level. Make America Great Again is a nice sounding slogan and looks good on a bumper sticker, but what does it mean? Trump says he will make “deals,” as if the political world is merely an extension of a corporate boardroom. It’s not. The world is frighteningly complex and dangerous, many times beyond the Donald’s ken.

I’m not surprised that Cruz won Iowa, although the victory over Trump and Rubio doesn’t make Cruz any less creepy. Past GOP winners of the Iowa Caucus include Mike Huckabee and crazy Michele Bachmann, so winning Iowa isn’t, frankly, that grand a prize. Cruz will pick up momentum on the GOP fringes, with Holy Book thumpers and mainstream media handicappers, but Teddy will also learn that with frontrunner status comes intense scrutiny. Ted has made many bizarre statements during his political career, and all those birds will flock home.

Rubio is still my pick for the GOP. When the dust settles, and Trump and Cruz have totally freaked the GOP mandarins out, Rubio’s youth and ethnicity might prove a realistic default.  This hardly means Rubio is presidential material. None of the GOP contenders are; it’s a weak and sorry bunch of nitwits and hacks.  

More and more Americans are aware that something is fundamentally out of kilter with the way our society is organized, that the American Dream is only available to a select few, and that the means to redress the situation are missing. Thus the appeal of a political outsider like Trump or an unusual voice like that of Bernie Sanders. Too much economic and political power has lodged in too few hands, and the Casino Economy offers more jagged edges than benefits for working people.

When it comes to ideas, the GOP offers nothing but more of the same. Sadly, the Democrats aren’t much better, though at least Sanders is talking about middle and working class issues like college tuition, Medicare for All, and increasing the contribution of the wealthy to the common good. Better still, Sanders is not a serial liar like Hillary Clinton.

If nothing else, that’s refreshing, and in this feeble and horrible political year we take what we can.