Throwing off the shackles
As humans, we are an adaptive tribal species and there's nothing we like better than a sense of superiority. From this derived the kindling that has ignited the fire of unbridled capitalism. I read an excellent piece by Sona yesterday, you really should check out here work. It explores the roots of the Trump years economic philosophy, which dates back to the Reagan years and in particular, the agenda of his then Treasury Secretary at the time Don Regan, who was wedded to "...extreme capitalism, or what some refer to today as “gangster capitalism or crony-capitalism.” Simply put, people with money “know more” than others and are not subject to regulatory practice. Those who have money rule everyone else with no restrictions." It is a T-shirt slogan that Mitch McConnell and his cronies would wear with pride.
The problem with Trumpism, is that it relies on maintaining a level of ignorance in the wider population. What is truly frightening, is that he almost hit the sweet spot, with his avalanche of lies and disinformation. Had the pandemic not come along to thwart his ambition, I am convinced he would be sat in the White House today planning how he could amend the constitution to remove the two term limit. Once you reach a stage where you are prepared to incite insurrection and overturn the will of the people, it's no longer about 'We the people", it's about establishing an autocratic thiefdom and that became his sole aim. What's more, people openly stated that they were prepared to accept him as a dictator. We know that nobody is safe from his vengeance and this has effectively paralysed the GOP. It seems unable to present an alternative policy agenda, other than obstruction and voter suppression. That doesn't feed families, support small businesses, or address social or racial inequality, it simply serves to divide a divided nation still further. That's not politics, it's social cleansing.
The media annoyingly will still cover Trump's statements of hate and disinformation and by doing so, they provide him with the life support he needs to continue in his efforts to dismantle democracy at the earliest available opportunity. I'm not sure why they do this, unless they still feel he has a chance to rise from the political dead and punish them (and there's my Easter Sunday political link). The media surely have a societal responsibility to not fixate on a man that was prepared to dismantle democracy if that's what it took to remain in power. He has wrecked the economy, destroyed America's reputation on the world stage and he killed 400,000 Americans before leaving office in disgrace. It's time to draw the line and let him vanish into infamy.
I only mention the above to highlight the need to throw off the shackles of this 'rich knows best' mentality that dictates everyone else needs to stay quiet and know their place. It's not for nothing that corporations are now speaking out against the new restrictive voter laws being passed by the likes of Governor Kemp and his cronies. The one thing that companies fear, is big public push back on their brand. The likes of Stacey Abrams know this. She knows that the power of ground support is critical to fighting back. Kemp has cheated her once and he's never going to get away with that again, of that you can be sure.
The GOP has spent over a decade installing largely unqualified judges in lower courts and building a well of Republican support within the judicial system. In addition, state trifecta have been established to help support the Republican agenda at the state level. This means that when the GOP is out of power in Washington, they have the ability to apply a brake to the legislative process and thereby they are able to obstruct the opposition administration. Mitch McConnell has spent a lifetime building this political infrastructure, as a Republican safety net against change and it is now about to be put to the test.
Joe Biden's apparent easy going nature obscures a ruthless political mind that has a depth of knowledge and experience, some of these obstructive Republicans would die for. Biden's time as VP to Obama has served as an education in the methods and tactics used by McConnell to simply act as a roadblock to progress. The major problem McConnell now has, is that Biden has the wind in his sails as he begins to fire up an economy that has huge pent up growth waiting to be unleashed. He knows that if he gets it right, the economy will fire up like a rocket and the GOP will simply have nowhere to go trying to defend tax rises on their corporate donors. This will enable him to fund his infrastructure plans without any everyday Americans feeling any pain whatsoever. It is the political Nirvana.
Biden's focus on vaccination has been relentless for very good reason, he has overdelivered to such a level, he is now regarded as a vaccination rock star. He is going to be the guy that is sat in the White House when everyone has been vaccinated and the party can begin. The only thing standing in his way on that front, is the stupidity of those being reckless because they don't want to be inconvenienced. I have little doubt, this group is being wound up by the right to cause problems and this will sadly lead to even more deaths than is necessary. However, it will not be for the lack of trying to get the public health messaging out there, so once again the GOP can't lay a glove on Biden. It really is quite amusing.
Joe and Kamala are lining up on the runway to consequential and transformational change. It's not going to come without some turbulence, but if he remains focused and is able to counter these voter suppression attempts by Republican state legislators, he has the opportunity to pave the way for Democratic political dominance for the next 20 years and I don't make that statement lightly.