The Nadir of the American Republic

“But that boundless blind faith is beginning to fade now.” Hunter S. Thompson

My head aches. I listen to bits of the House impeachment proceedings, then read about them on my usual outlets -- Truthout, Truthdig, The Nation, Counterpunch, Politico, Democracy NOW -- and try to make sense of it all. What’s abundantly clear is that the Republicans have sold their souls and their children and their pets to Trump, and can no longer even be described as a political party. Noam Chomsky has said numerous times that the current GOP is a criminal organization. When it comes to the Orange Menace, they see no evil, hear no evil and speak nothing but nonsense. Naturally, the blowhards and miscreants over at FOX News spin and slant their coverage to make it appear that the Democrats are throwing punches but not coming close to landing a glove on the innocent Trump. 

It amuses me to hear Marie Yovanovitch, the former ambassador to Ukraine, talk about how the State Department attempted to school the newly established Ukranian government in anti-corruption practices. Coming from the United States -- whose Representatives and Senators are, with few exceptions, purchased, owned and operated by corporate interests, and whose foreign policy history is rife with coups, election interference, regime change operations, spying, invasions, assassination attempts and other malfeseance -- this is laughable, like a convicted pedophile priest teaching sex ed to teenage boys.  

When I think of American corruption, I think of the silky smooth rhetoric of Barack Obama, who couched the power plays of the American empire in words like self-determination, democracy, liberty and justice, and then turned around and authorized targeted assassinations in Afghanistan or wherever else he felt US power needed to be demonstrated. Measured, reasonable language and a Sidewinder missile is how America has always preferred to operate its Empire. The Trump Administration is completely different, of course, crude, clumsy and overt, the shiny facade ripped away to reveal the base intent of Empire (or is the objective now only to enrich Trump and his family?), which is, lest we forget, to thwart global rivals, control natural resources and markets, put down popular uprisings, and justify ever-increasing contributions to the Pentagon war machine. 

The divide in this country, between reality-based citizens and those who dwell in the FOX News ecosystem, is now so deep and broad that I fear America is finished as a representative democracy. We’ve reached such a nadir the two political parties cannot even agree on the most basic facts. If Adam Schiff asserted that Abraham Lincoln was 6’4” tall in his stockings, Republicans would immediately accuse Schiff of inflating Lincoln’s height, Tucker Carlson would call him the biggest liar in American history, and Sean Hannity would devote an entire show to “Height-Gate.” No republic can survive in this atmosphere, not when the economy is primed to implode and the impact of anthropogenic climate change is accelerating by the day. 

Here’s a dim and not very original prediction. The House will impeach Trump on a party-line vote and the Senate will acquit him, also on a party-line vote. If the economy doesn’t implode between now and election day, Trump will lose the popular vote, again, but prevail in the undemocratic Electoral College, again. Four more years of Trump will spell the end of America as we’ve known it. If you can think about that without feeling a sharp pain in your lower intestine, you must be very wealthy, stone dumb, or high on the most potent chemical concoction Big Pharma can come up with. 

A Temple of Thieves

“Put yourself for a moment in the shoes of those early Americans who started four major social justice movements in the nineteenth century -- the abolitionist, women’s suffrage, trade union and farmer -- populist progressive revolts. It started with the perception of suffering, humiliation, and deprivation. Then it moved to a realization that such abuses and exclusions were not ordained.” Ralph Nader

I suppose that throughout American history men, and it has predominantly been men, have entered politics with one eye on public service and the other on the advantages public office can bestow on them personally. For most of my lifetime, politicians cloaked their personal greed under the guise of serving their constituents back home, or by invoking that useful and empty catch-all, “the American people.”

Today it seems a seat in congress or the senate is viewed as a golden ticket to the spigot where the money comes out. The corruption in Washington D.C. is now so endemic that pandering to the folks back home isn’t really necessary, and there’s almost no reason for an elected official to hide the fact that he is voting on legislation that will benefit him personally. All that pablum about propriety and the sanctity of public service, serving the sacred Constitution, is a quaint remnant of the past. Legal plunder by men wearing suits, silk ties, cufflinks, and an American flag lapel pin is now accepted as the way business is done. Utterly immoral, yes, but what is mere morality when compared to money and influence?

Secure that money seat in the house or senate and you can set yourself up for years to come. Sure, pandering to donors is a pain in the ass, and asking people for campaign contributions becomes tedious after a while, but you get used to it and it gets easier, and once you’ve delivered the goods for the poultry industry or Wall Street or Big Pharma, they seek you out, shove checks across your desk or send you on all expense paid jaunts to Bermuda or Thailand. You become accustomed to these perks, begin to expect them, and cling to your office with bulldog tenacity. Soon enough you realize how little the folks back home matter -- it’s the campaign donors who matter, them you must satisfy, their calls you must take and their wants you must tend to; they call the tune, pay the band, you do the dance with a vapid smile on your face, waiting for the day when you can slide step from public office to corporate boardroom, think tank, or lobbying outfit. Then the real dough rolls in, a daily jackpot.

Sometimes I marvel at the small size of the minority who own and rule America. Several hundred people call the shots for tens of millions. The minority control the structures of power, enhance the impediments to real democracy, and feed the public a steady diet of superficial “news” devoid of context. It’s as if we have returned to 18th century Europe, when aristocrats gorged themselves while peasants starved or froze to death.

Remember what John F. Kennedy said many years ago, on that bitterly cold day when he was inaugurated, ask not what your country can do for you...Trump and his mafia have turned this noble idea on its head; fuck the citizens and raid the treasury, government is good to the extent it enriches the people in power.

The temple is jammed with thieves, and Jesus is nowhere to be found.