Oops! We Lost Our Balance.
Something has gotten seriously out of kilter in American life and society. We all sense it. We feel our beloved republic wobbling on its rails; we just can’t agree on why. And that lack of agreement, adding to growing contentiousness in public life in general, contributes further to the imbalance. A political fog envelopes America—a fog that grows thicker and murkier decade-by-decade. It gets harder all the time to get our bearings, and to see what’s gone wrong. Even worse, it seems, some people have gotten good at using our national distress to better prey on others of us.
Just this morning (Dec. 14, 2016) I stumbled into another of the unhealthy political bramble patches that seem to be sprouting up and flourishing in the fog—political paralysis in the face of Russian attempts to shift our election. The Economist magazine (of all things) reports today on credible CIA evidence that Russian hackers backed by the Russian government meddled in our election to shift critical results in Trump’s favour, and to help defeat Hillary Clinton. Even this, is not enough, however, the Economist article observes with evident dismay, either to unite our warring parties in outrage against a common enemy’s incursion into U.S. politics, nor even effectively mobilize the Democrats to cry “foul.
Burgeoning Inequality
80% of Americans make do with only 7% of our nation’s financial wealth
Burgeoning inequality of income and wealth, now approaches the level of social pathology. This extreme inequality (as I’ve been saying significantly contributes to the unhealthy unbalancing of public life. Look at this pie chart (and, if you’d like, check out the full article on line): It illustrates just how out-of-balance things have gotten. That much inequality generates a wobble in the flywheel of American democracy that feeds on itself, creating even more imbalance.
The over-concentration of wealth in ever fewer hands generates instability, and clouds our way forward. On its account, for instance, too many citizens no longer trust our political and economic institutions.
The very wealthy—”the 1 percent”—have co-opted, captured, and diminished our government to serve their own interests and those of the transnational corporations that they own and control. It’s in their interest to sow doubt and confusion—to keep the rest of us in the fog—and not only in respect to hot-button controversial issues like climate change or the adverse health effects of smoking, but also in regard to deeper more general issues. At the forefront of these deeper issues is how we view our democratic institutions of government. How we view them colors how we feel about them.
Government (Never the Market or Market Failure) Is The Problem
When Ronald Reagan famously declared in 1981 that “government is not the solution to our problem; government is the problem,” the American political right put our democratic government itself squarely in their sights. Right-wing professors, think-tanks, media, and political commentators—generously funded by corporations and wealthy family foundations—actively promote distrust of government in general.
The right particularly targets government’s role in regulating the activities of the transnational corporations that wealthy interests control and benefit from. When the far right gets the reins of the democratic government they despise, they drastically lower taxes on the wealthy, deregulate their industries, cut government safety nets for ordinary citizens, and like petulant children create deadlock when they can’t get their way.
When we, the voters (and those who don’t vote) put the reins of government in the hands of those who despise it, this is what we get: We get a government crippled and diminished in all the ways that provide public goods and help the people at large. Yet there’s always enough to bail out failed banks and generally to protect and provide subsidies to the interests of the wealthy. We get a government of, by, and for oligarchs and transnational corporations. We get government that favors the few at the expense of the many—and at the expense of democracy.
That takes me again back to Trump’s candidacy and his win of the electoral college vote to become president. But that will have to wait. What I have just said was going to be only a few more preliminary remarks on the ugly 2016 campaign and election we just endured. But I’m resisting the temptation to put everything down at once. Next time, then, I’ll return to the election, and (once more, for the last time for now, I promise) talk more directly about it and the neoliberal agenda for America—and with that, hopefully, thankfully, close out this painful topic for the time being.