Exploring the POLITICAL PROCESS POST #19
The Quest
A little over a year ago I introduced myself and expressed concerns about America. I felt I inhabited an alien and harmful political landscape and admitted I no longer trusted the American Political Process. I am a college graduate but have never had a political science course. All of my perceptions of politics resulted from extensive personal and professional interaction with a variety of governments. I have never been a card carrying member of the Democratic or Republican Parties and often split my vote to support my perception of the best qualified candidate. I consider myself an Independent Voter. My political philosophy is to vote for the “Problem Solver”. I believe that there are two basic types of people: those who create more problems than they solve (Pathological People), and people who are good at solving problems. I firmly believe in “We the People” as the rulers of America.
My year-long observation of the current political landscape from the perspective of an Independent Voter revealed realities that I had never before considered, or took for granted. It also helped me understand the nagging anxieties I was experiencing concerning government and my grandchildren’s future. I stumbled upon the word “Hypernormalization” which helped me define my vague sense of gloom. It was first articulated in 2005 by scholar Alexei Yurchak to describe life in a society such as Soviet Russia where two things are happening. People see that governing systems and institutions are broken, but carry on with their lives as people in power ignore the systemic dysfunction. I think this same disconnect burdens Americans. At the root of this gloomy outlook is a loss of confidence in governments. Millions of Americans, no matter what their political preference (liberal, conservative, other) are united in this one negative feeling. Meanwhile, the people in power who controlled the political parties, Congress, and our financial institutions ignored the systemic problems and dysfunction of our political process. The elites influencing government policies discouraged any substantial changes to the status quo and bred ineffective, unpopular and often corrupt leadership.
Voters have many examples of political blunders and policy failures to pick from. An incomplete list of what I experienced during my lifetime began with DDT (Dichloro-diphenyl-trichloroethane) investigations in the 1960s and was followed by the cigarette industry’s deceptive marketing practices; Viet Nam; race riots, the Oil Embargo; Water Gate; hyper-inflation; Iran-Contra: Enron; the agricultural crisis of the 1980s; Exxon Valdez oil spill; continuous Wall Street fraud; Trade Center bombing; Hurricane Katrina; Iraq and Afghanistan invasions, illegal immigration, failed drug wars; periodic recessions; government bailouts of private industry and banks; the housing market crash; the pandemic response; and many other lesser or greater government policy mistakes or failures to protect Americans. This does not include local or state screw-ups. Individuals have multiple choices when it comes to picking their favorite critique of government, but are they the fault of “Government”, or the Political Process and its policy makers?
Jimmy Carter was possibly the first politician to articulate public gloom and doom in 1979 with his “malaise” speech. He told Americans there was a “crisis of confidence” cutting away at our strength as a nation.
“It is a crisis that strikes at the very heart and soul and spirit of our national will. We can see this crisis in the growing doubt about the meaning of our own lives and in the loss of a unity of purpose for our nation.”
He went on to call for a cap on oil imports, which he hoped to replace with solar power and an expanded domestic energy sector. After this speech and his attempts to initiate policy change the elites conspired to discredit him and succeeded. His successor point blank blamed the gloom and blunders on “The Government” meaning the assets and mechanical details (rules, regulations, materials and people) which enforce policies. Ragan then set about re-organizing the infrastructure of government. This is a model still used by elites to shift blame for bad government away themselves.
Government assets (workers and materials) merely implement policies. Rules and regulations are the mechanical details of policies that must be followed during implementation.
I worked in Georgia’s state government while Carter was governor and he was able to undermine the “County Boss” form of political power and instituted badly needed policy revisions, but was unable to overcome the status quo in Washington. Some twenty years later Barack Obama articulated some of the gloom and doom clouding the judgement of conservatives. In 2008 he said;
“You go into these small towns in Pennsylvania and, like a lot of small towns in the Midwest, the jobs have been gone now for 25 years and nothing’s replaced them. And they fell through the Clinton administration, and the Bush administration, and each successive administration has said that somehow these communities are gonna regenerate, and they have not. And it’s not surprising then they get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy toward people who aren’t like them, or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations.”
The statement did not hurt his political support with a room full of rich people in San Francisco, and it was only inaccurate in its scope. The same was true for many small towns in the South and West.
The entire purpose of political parties is establishing and maintaining their signature government policies. The political process is the means through which the policy goals of political parties are accomplished. Elite control of the two political parties and financial systems discourages disruption of the status quo and breeds ineffective and unpopular leadership. Donald Trump offered an outlet for the pent-up anxieties and anger of Americans. Trump’s supporters anticipated he would poke his finger in the eye of all the Washington and Wall Street Fat Cats. His campaign trashed “The Government” and elite policy makers in both parties to a degree never before seen and promised only he could make America great again. His harping on a corrupt U.S. political system gained the attention of voters. During his first presidential campaign he said he had previously contributed money to Democratic candidates to get business-related favors. His justification for participating in political corruption was “everyone does it”. He told Fox News:
“I will tell you that our system is broken. I gave to many people. Before this, before two months ago, I was a businessman. I give to everybody. When they call, I give. And you know what? When I need something from them, two years later, three years later, I call them. They are there for me. And that’s a broken system.” The Atlantic: THE TRUMP PRESIDENCY’S WORLD-HISTORICAL HEIST, by David Frum
Enough gloom and doom voters bought his message and forgave his transgressions to defeat Hillary Clinton. The government policy brokers and status quo institutions were wary of Trump and Democrats knew exactly why Trump was elected. Joe Biden said as much in his first speech to Congress.
“We have to prove democracy still works. That our government still works—and can deliver for the people.”
He then did what political party elites do when they are in power and threatened. They buy the support of “We the People”. Biden and the Democrats gave the working class a trillion-dollar infrastructure bill. Trump and the Republicans did the same thing during his first presidency with a huge tax break. Both of these tried and true political schemes failed. The tax break didn’t keep Trump in office and pumping hundreds of billions of dollars into infrastructure, manufacturing and energy failed to keep the Democrats in office.
Trump’s second chance at running the country remains to be played out. Who knew Trump would attempt to do much more than finger poking self-serving and turf protecting professional politicians of both parties. Who knew he would be embraced by an upstart base of elites operating out of Silicon Valley and a ground swell of support from Evangelicals driven by a sense of national moral decay and un-Godliness. My belief is that either one of the two major political parties could have been captured by Trump or some other Trump-like business persona guided by the accumulation of wealth, devoid of ethics and empathy, and willing to flame the fears and insecurities of “We the People”.