Deep Idiocy

There is in this country a strong anti-government streak. At their best the anarchistic folks who embody that streak talk about rugged individualism, and at their worst they talk about the deep state, inferring that all public servants are somehow part of a nefarious plot to take away the rights of free citizens. “Free citizens” sounds like something from a dark past when there were slaves and other people who were not so free, and it is. Therein lies part of the myth. Free citizens meant privileged citizens, and the fear is that those others, those who are less fortunate and therefore less privileged might try to get from the government what the government so freely grants to the privileged. What a terrible thing that would be! Why that's almost egalitarian socialism. And how are you supposed know who you are better than if you don't have privileges not enjoyed by everyone?

“Many people consider the things government does for them to be social progress but they regard the things government does for others as socialism." [Address to National Press Club in Washington DC, as quoted in Freedom and Union (April 1952)]” ― Earl Warren The deep state idiots don't need no stinkin' government until they do! Then by God! They paid for it, didn't they?

Unfortunately the demonization of government by Trump and the Republican Party is far too likely to make “you can't depend on the government” a self fulfilling prophesy. As the Washington Post pointed out “Trump would slash disaster funding to the very agencies he’s praising for Harvey response.”  So what is the role of government in the event of natural disasters? The government must go beyond the first response of  helping to save lives. The Federal Government must embrace the same philosophy that provided the infrastructure spending commerce and manufacturing depend on; it must take the long term view and help to rebuild this productive and prosperous hub of industry. It must do this in spite of the fact that Texans did their best to set the precedent of telling other states (particularly Democratic ones) devastated by Hurricanes to go to hell. That is right, almost every congressman from Texas and both of its Senators, John Cornyn and Ted, the Canadian Texas turd, Cruz voted against funding aid to the parts of New York and New Jersey ravished by Hurricane Sandy, and they did this in spite of the fact that such funding has always been provided without question! Now that Texas is in need of such aid Ted Cruz is denying that he refused to vote for such aid. He says he just wanted to make sure the aid was paid for. Considering the fact that he wanted to pay for it by robbing senior citizens on Medicare it is not surprising that every legislator with a conscience told him to stuff that proposal back into the dark and smelly place where it was formed.

The fact that Democrats will probably vote to provide the Huston area with the funds it will need to rebuild rather than using the refusal of Texans to provide such funds to New York and New Jersey as a precedent is a sure indication of which party is responsible for the great political divide and hyper partisanship we see today.  I would like to think that Republicans in general and Texans in particular would learn something from the responsible behavior of Democrats in this instance, but I would not hold my breath because most of them are still Trump chumps!

Celebrating Sin

I do not mean to get biblical about this, but our nation was born in sin. The precedent of waging almost genocidal wars against native Americans had already been set and slavery was already considered an institution by the time our founders declared our independence. Racism was used as a justification for both of those sins. It was a classic case of blaming the victims of oppression for the oppression; they (those other races of people) do evil things and are not capable of governing themselves, don't you know?

As I have written elsewhere educated people do not celebrate whatever intent they can glean from the very difficult compromises our founding fathers had to make in order to establish or preserve this nation. What educated people celebrate are the ideals expressed by our founding fathers in the Declaration of Independence, the Bill of Rights, the Preamble to Constitution and other documents stating the virtues of democracy and the rights of all people. Indeed the need to reach compromises that forced an inconsistent application of the proposition that “all men are created equal” weighed heavily on the minds of Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, and many other delegates to the Continental Congress. This can be seen in the following excerpt from Thomas Jefferson's first draft of the Declaration of Independence:

 "He [King George] has waged cruel war against human nature itself, violating its most sacred rights of life and liberty in the persons of a distant people who never offended him, captivating & carrying them into slavery in another hemisphere or to incur miserable death in their transportation thither. This piratical warfare, the opprobrium of infidel powers, is the warfare of the Christian King of Great Britain. Determined to keep open a market where Men should be bought & sold, he has prostituted his negative for suppressing every legislative attempt to prohibit or restrain this execrable commerce...” 

This paragraph condemning slavery caused an absolute furor, and many delegates from colonies that profited from slavery threatened to walk out. It is very doubtful that there would be a United States of America if the delegates of good conscience had insisted on condemning slavery. Needless to say that the compromise they reached was a pact with the devil that caused untold suffering. Some eighty years later it was a pact that also cost tens of thousands of men their lives. While I cannot say that the North entered into the Civil War to end slavery, there is absolutely no doubt that the South entered into that war to preserve slavery. Therein lies the difference between the founders of this nation and the founders of the short lived Confederate States. Our founding fathers did not fight to establish or preserve slavery they fought to establish a new nation. The founders of the confederacy fought to preserve slavery, and they tried to found a nation in order to accomplish that end!

While the Civil War did put an end to slavery on this continent it could not and did not put an end to the denigration of an entire race of people. The racism used to justify the “peculiar institution” of slavery remains an ugly part of this nation to this day. At the end of the reconstruction era and well into the nineteen hundreds, as Jim Crow laws were passed to codify the superior position of white people, those southern white people celebrated their lost cause by erecting statues of Confederate Generals and by displaying the flag that has come to represent the old Confederacy. This was both an affirmation of their belief in their racial superiority and a threat to anyone who might challenge that belief.

Many of Trump's apologists say he is not really as racist as the absurd comments he made about the demonstrations and violence that recently took place in Charlottsville, VA would seem to indicate. I disagree with those apologists, but it is a moot point. Whether Trump is a racist or he is merely pandering to racists does not matter one whit to the victims of the violence or prejudice encouraged by his apparent rationalizations. In this regard Trump is as guilty as any Neo-Nazi. He is a disgrace to this nation, and the fact that so many in his party are still willing to support him is just another indication of how morally and intellectually bankrupt the Republican Party has become!

Cartoonish Bellicosity

Since the repressive Kim regime of North Korea failed in its quest to conquer South Korea in the nineteen fifties, the dear leaders of North Korea have been cutting a comical figure with their braggadocio and bellicosity. It did not matter what you were talking about Kim Jong Un's father Kim Jong II always did it better than anyone else and disputing that was deadly if you were in North Korea. Furthermore, like a small yapping dog, Kim Jong II was always shouting absurd threats at South Korea, Japan, and the United States. Now we have his son and successor Kim Jong Un who is also shouting threats that would result in his own destruction if he tried to carry them out!  But it would be a serious mistake to dismiss Kim Jong Un as nothing more than the Pillsbury Doughboy with a bad haircut. The cost of a conventional war with North Korea would be staggering both in terms of human lives and resources, and there is a very good chance that nuclear weapons would come into play before such a war was over. Therein lies the rub. It is one thing to make absurd threats when you do not have the power to carry them out it is quite another thing to make those threats when people have to take them seriously.

Like the Kims, Donald Trump also cuts a comical figure with his outrageous braggadocio and bellicosity. The only reason people do not see him as a cartoon character with a bad haircut is because he controls the most powerful military in the world. This makes him a truly frightening force. He does not have the good sense to listen to career diplomats or historians who know anything about North Korea, or to the generals who are urging him to be cautious. So now we have two blustering, egotistical buffoons trading threats and insults that are likely to result in a tragic miscalculation. This is a terrible time to have an idiot as the President of the United States!

Alt Wrong

The first time I heard about the Alt Right was when I saw the title “Alt Right Comes To Washington” of a January/February article written for Politico by Ben Schreckinger. In that article Mr. Schreckinger warned us that a “new generation of nationalists sees a chance to ride Donald Trump's coat tails into the capital.” So why do I say Mr. Shreckinger's article was a warning? Because the people who identify themselves as Alt Right say they are working to protect or advance the rights and interests of White Americans, and many of them make no bones about promoting white nationalism. This racism makes the Alt Right Alt Wrong, and the fact that Stephen Miller and Stephen Bannon represent the Alt Right in the Trump Administration is a real and present danger to what our country stands for. Indeed it is at least in part the nativist aspects of the Alt Right agenda as reflected by Trump's stand on immigration and immigrants that have earned Trump the epithet of fascist!

One would think that a would be fascist style despot like Trump would try to increase the power and role of government, but in order to seize the power a despot craves he must first weaken the present government and all of the institutions that might check his ambitions. In this regard the traditional Republican demonization of government and the destructive pursuits of the Alt Right suit Trump's purposes. And to that end Trump talks about draining the swamp. What does Trump mean by Draining the swamp? Unfortunately, he does not mean getting rid of the corrupting influence of money or conflicts of interest that work against the interests of the hard working men and women of this country. What Trump means by draining the swamp is getting rid of the bureaucrats who do the work of the government and keep it functioning. In other words, Trump's swamp is what the Alt Right calls the deep state, and like the Alt Right Trump blames the deep state for everything. How dare they make the government work!

Far from objecting to Trump pissing in the swamp by appointing to head up sundry agencies and departments people such as Rick Perry and Tom Price who have vowed to destroy those very agencies and departments, the traditional Republicans such as Paul Ryan are actually applauding the destruction. Those Ryan Republicans object to the government regulating or restricting the oligopoly in any way.  They think the oligopoly should have the political power of an oligarchy.  Not surprisingly one of the things the traditional Republicans do object to is Trump giving to the Russian oligarchs the power and influence our oligarchs have spent so much money to obtain. The Traditional Republicans also object to the fact that the Trump administration is a rudderless ship constantly changing directions with no apparent coarse or destination. Indeed it is the ineptitude and inconsistencies of Trump and what passes for his management style that sets factions in the white house against each other and causes so many of the leaks Trump complains about.

The conditions under which Reince Priebus resigned make it appear as though the Bannon, Alt Right, faction has emerged victorious in this internecine warfare, but it is not that simple. Where do Jared and Ivanka fall? There are also the generals Trump is so fond of. Generals do not like disorder in the ranks, and they know the importance of well defined objectives and clear directives. General McMaster has come under attack from the far right for expelling Stephen Bannon and other conservatives from the national security staff and for advocating a responsible foreign policy, such as keeping the nuclear agreement with Iran. Since General McMasters also knows how dangerous Vladimir Putin is, Russia's trolls have joined in the attack on McMasters. At least for now Trump is facing some resistance from traditional Republicans who are reacting to his low approval rating, and he is trying to reassure those Republicans by supporting the adults in the room, the generals.  How long that will last is anyone's guess.