Political ADD

For decades now a very large percentage of our citizens have been suffering from a mental disorder. The disorder I am referring to is PADD, Political Attention Deficit Disorder. Sadly, the people who are afflicted with PADD are the very ones who can least afford to deal with the consequences of this disorder. For twenty years now at least eighty per cent of our citizens have seen their incomes remain flat while the price of energy, food and housing rose. During that same time the top ten percent have seen their incomes grow and the top one percent have seen their incomes soar to unprecedented heights. This degeneration of the wealth of the middle class did not happen all at once. It took place over a period of time. The people noticed it as they struggled to make ends meet, but they did not think beyond their personal finances. This is understandable. Unless there is a national crises to draw their attention people will ignore the larger picture and concentrate on what they can do to provide for their families.

The crash of 2007 was such a crises, and the reaction to it was predictable. Even a majority of the people suffering from PADD voted for change by electing President Obama and the other Democrats running for office. Unfortunately, this vote for change was not an informed decision; rather it was an instinctive, emotional reaction. During the mid-term elections of 2010 the voters reacted emotionally again. The economy had improved by then, but unemployment was still at an unacceptable level. Furthermore, far too many people were still losing their homes, and the wages of the people who were fortunate enough to be employed were not increasing. So the voters blindly punished all incumbents, a very large percentage of which were Democrats. This incredibly stupid act on the part of the voters actually rewarded the Republican Party for its failed economic policies and its unconscionable obstruction of all reasonable attempts to relieve the suffering and get us out of the recession. So what accounts for such stupidity?

It has been said that they who do not know history are condemned to repeating it. What the people of this nation have forgotten is the very struggle that created the middle class in the first place. At the start of the twentieth century it was becoming obvious that unregulated capitalism was degenerating into the sort Social Darwinism that makes a few people unbelievably wealthy while everyone else is left with very little or nothing. Furthermore, Frederick Jackson Turner’s safety valve, the frontier, no longer existed. President Theodore Roosevelt reacted to the emerging oligopoly that was concentrating our resources, our means of production, and our wealth into fewer and fewer hands by breaking up the trusts in order to bring about the sort of competition that stimulates innovation and opportunity. As beneficial as the trust busting was it did not go far enough. The people soon realized that the greed of the few was insatiable. It was that greed that brought about the labor movement and the unions. By the time of the great depression the people of this nation had accepted the fact that they needed unions to collectively bargain with their employers. The depression also made them realize how much they needed a proactive government that would pass and enforce the regulations needed to keep the unscrupulous few from putting our entire economy at risk by taking unfair advantage of the many. The oligopoly and the Republican Party fought the reforms of President Theodore Roosevelt, even though he was a Republican. They also fought the labor unions, and they fought Franklin Roosevelt during the depression. They accused the labor unions and both Roosevelts of class warfare and of creating a big, oppressive government. If those charges sound familiar it is because the new oligopoly and the Republican Party are falsely using those same accusations against the Democrats today.

The difference between then and now is that the generation that suffered through the depression and the generation that fought in World War II were paying attention to what was really happening. They realized how hypocritical and false those accusations were. They knew which political party and which politicians where representing the people and which ones were selling out to the special interests. They had labor unions and other groups that helped to keep them informed and active. What changed this was an adjustment made by the Republican Party. With the election of Dwight Eisenhower the Republicans finally acknowledged that the political center had moved. Most people identified themselves as moderates, but even moderates were embracing the changes brought about by Franklin Roosevelt and by the labor unions that fought for fair wages and safer work places. What Eisenhower taught the Republican Party was that it had no choice. If it was to remain a viable political party it had to accept the regulation of Wall Street and the banks, it had to accept the anti-trust laws that prevented monopolies, and it had to accept Social Security, Unemployment Insurance and the other safety nets. With both parties now trying to occupy the middle ground a nap was sounding pretty good to the voters. Neither party seemed inclined to do anything too damn radical, and the voters felt free to concentrate on their daily lives without worrying too much about what their government might be doing.

The Republicans, however, had accepted the changes of the New Deal grudgingly. In the early nineteen sixties they decided to test the political waters by nominating Barry Goldwater as their Presidential candidate. This hard turn to the right was a wake up call, and the voters handed the Republicans a stinging rebuke. The Republicans reacted to this by returning to the center. Vietnam and the civil rights movement then provided a jolt no one could sleep through. The combination was devastating in many ways. It was an era in which much needed changes took place, but the war and the effort it took to accomplish those needed changes left the people of this nation totally exhausted. As Harding said before the great depression, the people wanted “a return to normalcy.” The general attitude was “enough with the social movements and the politics. Let me get on with my life.” The people then stopped paying attention. They accepted as a fact the notion that each generation would be better off than the preceding generation. They saw no need to pay that much attention to the larger picture. They believed that if they worked hard and made the right decisions everything else would take care of itself. This is how we got Political Attention Deficit Disorder, another Harding in the form of George W. Bush, and another economic crises.

Because of PADD we became too lethargic to see how the need to raise enough money to cover the increasing costs of political campaigns was perverting our political system. Now that our politicians are so dependent on the support of the special interests, the strategy of those interests has become quite simple: “Keep the public in the dark and the political wheels well greased.” The Republicans are more than happy to serve their wealthy masters by keeping us in the dark. They do this by eagerly quoting Ronald Reagan: “Government is not the solution it is the problem,” they say. The Republicans want us to believe that it is the power of the government to govern rather than the power of money that corrupts our politicians. The reasoning, if you can call it that, is that a government that does not govern, tax, or regulate cannot be corrupt because it has nothing to sell. If you do not breath you will not get lung cancer either. The result of accepting this nihilistic crap is already apparent. Not since the gilded age following the Civil War has there been a time when so many politicians have done so much for so few at the expense of so many.

The generations before us knew better. They knew that the solution must be political because it is only by exerting our collective strength in the form of our government that we can curb the greed of the few and maintain a system that provides opportunities for all. The first step in doing this is to deal with the corrupting influence of money. In talking about political corruption and graft the old political boss, Plunkett of Tamanny Hall, once said, “it is the pigs that do not know when to back away from the trough who get caught.” Invariably those pigs will use the excuse that everyone does it, thereby demonstrating the need to prevent anyone from doing it. The first step in preventing anyone from doing it is to make an example of the pigs that are greedy enough to draw attention to it by getting caught. In this case the pigs are the Republicans and the blue dog Democrats. It is the Republicans and the blue dogs that oppose the regulations needed to keep Wall Street and the banks from crashing our economy again. It is the Republicans and the blue dogs that oppose making the corporations and the wealthy pay their fair share of the taxes. It is the Republicans and the blue dogs that are blocking all reasonable efforts to create jobs, and it is the Republicans and the blue dogs that are fighting our efforts decrease the influence money has on our politicians by opposing our efforts to reform the way we finance political campaigns. The first step then is to vote the Republicans and the blue dogs out of office.

In order to do this we must jar the hell out of the people suffering from Political Attention Deficit Disorder. This will require a movement they cannot ignore. The first phase of any movement is the expression of dissatisfaction. But the anger must be well directed and the goal must be positive reform. In that regard the Occupy Wall Street demonstrations are useful. As unfocused as the demonstrators are they are drawing attention to what is happening to us. We must let them know they are not alone. We are all feeling the pain that makes them demonstrate. The next phase is to take some positive political action. Holding accountable the worst politicians who are so shameless in the way they serve Wall Street and the other special interests to the detriment of the rest of us will be the first sign that the movement is taking the action it needs to take in order to gain the necessary political power to fight those interests. This should be done as an in your face demonstration of political power that cannot be ignored. The Demonstrators should get behind the American Jobs Act as well. This will show the low information voters and the Democratic Party that the movement has positive goals and is not simply looking for scapegoats. This is the way to gain credibility and momentum. The power to help pass legislation and the willingness to punish opponents will make a major political party pay attention to us. Just look at what the tea party has done to the Republican Party. The difference between the tea party and us, however, is that the tea party has a negative agenda whereas we must have a positive agenda. I will submit to you that returning the control of our government back to the people and rebuilding an equitable economy is a positive agenda.

I believe that the goals of the Occupy Wall Street Demonstrators are our goals. Those goals will not be easy to accomplish. Rebuilding our economy and restoring an equitable distribution of the wealth will require sweeping reforms that will not take place until we greatly decrease the influence money has on our political system. As I said in my previous post, we need a constitutional amendment to change the way campaigns are financed. Passing such an amendment will take time, a tremendous effort, and a strong belief that we, the people, have the power to make it happen. We have to start building the political momentum now. To the Occupy Wall Street demonstrators I say keep demonstrating, but do not lose sight of the larger goals. Realize that the political power we must gain to accomplish those goals will require us to achieve a pattern of success. Taking this country back will depend on our ability to win more than one battle. Few wars are won or lost in a single battle, and this is a class war in the same sense that the labor movement was a class war! Among the things labor unions won for us are the eight hour work day, safer work places, and reasonable wages. In order for labor unions to accomplish those goals they had to break the hold the business tycoons had on our politicians. It was a very difficult, sometimes violent, struggle, but the middle class the labor movement created gave us the most prosperous market economy in the world. That is what we must now fight to restore!