Step back from the campaign fray for just a moment and consider the enormity of what’s already occurred. A 74-year-old Jew from Vermont who describes himself as a democratic socialist, who wasn’t even a Democrat until recently, has come within a whisker of beating Hillary Clinton in the Iowa caucus, routed her in the New Hampshire primary, and garnered over 47 percent of the caucus-goers in Nevada, of all places. And a 69-year-old billionaire who has never held elective office or had anything to do with the Republican Party has taken a commanding lead in the Republican primaries. Something very big has happened, and it’s not due to Bernie Sanders’ magnetism or Donald Trump’s likeability. It’s a rebellion against the establishment.
A few months back, Erin tossed out a theory that I at first found somewhat ridiculous- that support for Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders emerged from the same anger with the status quo. The more I thought about it, though, the more I began to realize I was the mistaken one. Robert Reich’s prescient analysis merely provides a framework to support her argument. The truth is that the political establishment is- to use the technical definition- gefickt. Time was when party insiders could, if not outright control the outcome of the nomination process, at least direct it in a way that would maintain their primacy while doing as little damage to their long-term prospects as possible. It looked like democracy because that’s what it was dressed up to resemble. This time around, it seems things have changed. The inmates are running the asylum…poorly.
In 2016, up is down, black is white, smart is dumb…and Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump- at least from the outside- appear to be cut from the same cloth. Sort of. Both candidates trace their popularity to a groundswell of lingering anger remaining from the Great Recession that nearly cratered the U.S.- and with it the world’s- economy in 2008. Corporate greedheads who thought they were the Lords of the Universe played chicken with other people’s money…and everyday Americans are today still paying for that irresponsibility.
Unfortunately, in America, criminal culpability is not always what one might believe it should. A friend once described it to me thusly: Steal $1000, and if you’re caught you can expect to go to jail. Steal a couple billion dollars, and you get your face on the cover of Forbes Magazine and interview requests from Fox Business Channel, the Wall Street Journal, and CNBC. The only reason Bernie Madoff went to prison was that HE STOLE FROM OTHER RICH PEOPLE. Even Iceland sent 26 corrupt bankers to prison for their part in the 2009 financial crisis that very nearly destroyed the country’s economy.
The question any reasonable sort should be asking is…Why can’t we do the same thing? The answer is as simple as it is distressing and inimical to democracy: The rich play by different rules and are held to different standards than the unwashed masses.
It’s understandable, then, why our politics is steeped in anger and dissatisfaction, and why people have flocked to Trump and Sanders. The difference, of course, lies in the message and proposed solutions. Trump appeals to many because he, while having no program, promises to “Make America Great Again,” the implied (yet very clear) message being that he wants to “Make America Great Again” for Conservative Whites. No others need apply- because this country belongs to White folks.
Sanders, on the other hand, owes his appeal to those who are equally dissatisfied but recognize our problems won’t be solved by determining who’s to blame. To Sanders’ supporters, America never stopped being great, but it’s been headed in the wrong direction for quite some time. Sanders, unlike Trump, has put forward concrete proposals designed to reflect a change in priorities- we need to put people before corporations.
Economic indicators may be up but they don’t reflect the economic insecurity most Americans still feel, nor the seeming arbitrariness and unfairness they experience.
Nor do the major indicators show the linkages Americans see between wealth and power, crony capitalism, declining real wages, soaring CEO pay, and a billionaire class that’s turning our democracy into an oligarchy.
Median family income is lower now than it was sixteen years ago, adjusted for inflation.
Most economic gains, meanwhile, have gone to [the] top.
American politics has morphed into a corrupt exercise in which the rich are able to purchase the best government money can buy. During this election cycle, the richest 400 Americans have accounted for fully 1/3 of contributions to presidential candidates. The American people, even those of the “low information” variety, can recognize a scam when they see one. The system- whether controlled by Republicans or Democrats- has been corrupted by the rich, who’ve discovered that by applying large sums of money to a problem they can make their problems magically disappear.
Americans know a takeover has occurred and they blame the establishment for it….
At its core are the major corporations, their top executives, and Washington lobbyists and trade associations; the biggest Wall Street banks, their top officers, traders, hedge-fund and private-equity managers, and their lackeys in Washington; the billionaires who invest directly in politics; and the political leaders of both parties, their political operatives, and fundraisers.
Arrayed around this core are the deniers and apologists - those who attribute what’s happened to “neutral market forces,” or say the system can’t be changed, or who urge that any reform be small and incremental.
Some Americans are rebelling against all this by supporting an authoritarian demagogue who wants to fortify America against foreigners as well as foreign-made goods. Others are rebelling by joining a so-called “political revolution.”
If today’s political environment resembles a scene from “Network”- “I’M MAD AS HELL AND I’M NOT GOING TO TAKE IT ANYMORE!!”- it’s because a large number of Americans have grown tired of having their voice nullified by those willing to write large checks. Whether it’s the Koch Brothers or other members of the 1%, “One man, one vote” has been replaced by “One rich person, one checkbook.”
It shouldn’t be any great mystery why the GOP and Democratic Party establishments have lost control over the process. By turning over our political system to those willing to write large checks, they’ve made it clear that they have little interest in traditional American democracy. They’ve acquiesced to and benefitted substantially from the creation of an oligarchy (bordering on a kleptocracy) whose sole purpose is to create a two-tiered society in which the 1% rule and the 99% whose existence revolves around attending to the needs of their wealthy masters.
Americans are concerned about economic security, both their own and in the global sense. They want a system in which the playing field is level and they have a shot at making ends meet. They want the system to work for them. Unfortunately for all of us, that’s simply not the case in 2016…hence the sizable support for Trump and Sanders.
In a weird, warped way, the candidacies of Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders are cut from the same cloth. Trump is demagoguing the issue by peddling rage, hatred, and intolerance, while Sanders is trying to address the problems of income inequality and corruption from a practical intellectual standpoint. Both are imperfect candidates, to be certain, but they both reflect an intense degree of dissatisfaction and anger extant among the American Sheeple.
There’s a very simple solution available that would both address and resolve rampant income inequality and systemic corruption: It wouldn’t matter what the 1% wanted if the 99% could be bothered to vote. If we make our voices heard, we will get the quality of representation and governance we deserve. If we stay home on Election Day, we’ll also get exactly what we deserve.
What’s it going to be, America?
