In November of 1954, President Dwight Eisenhower was having a little argument via mail with his brother Edgar. Edgar had sent the president a letter disagreeing with elements of the administration's foreign and domestic policies. Ike's response is remarkable in a couple of respects, but the following quote is almost prophetic:
Yet here we are in 2012 face-to-face with those dangers.
The people Ike warned us about are engaged in realizing his--and our--worst fears. We call them "The One Percent" now and they have instigated a revolution.
• Unrestricted, unopposed, regulation-free
laissez-faire capitalism
• Unquestioned military spending
• Minimal taxation of the rich
• Militant opposition to social, civil rights, or welfare programs of any kind
• Opposition to unions or any other form of worker organization
• Promotion of and adherence to fundamentalist Judeo-Christian mores
• A strict law-and-order regime supporting the elite's prerogatives and property.
The New Deal, World War II, and their aftermath occasioned a profound examination of this nation's adherence to the principles and precepts set forth in its founding documents. The United States needed "all hands on deck" for the war effort. With that necessity came the realization that the world and the American People themselves had just cause to question the moral authority of a nation that claimed to have achieved liberty, freedom, and equality through genocide, slavery, and discrimination. How could we face down fascism if we failed to face up to our own shortcomings?
The acknowledgement of the tension created by this disparity and the government's recognition of its duty to address it afforded the American People a singularity of purpose that led to a supernova of achievement in every aspect of human endeavor--a Golden Age Of American Democracy. America's advancements in the cause of human rights stand foremost among them:
• President Harry Truman desegregated the military in 1947.
• Brown vs. Board Of Education was decided in 1954.
• The Montgomery Bus Boycott prevailed in 1956.
• The Civil Rights Act Of 1964 banned discrimination on the basis of race, sex, religion, color, or national origin.
• The Voting Rights Act of 1965 extended the franchise to all. Medicare was passed that year.
• The National Organization For Women was formed in 1966.
• The Motion Picture Production Code died for good in 1968.
• The Stonewall Riots took place in 1969.
• The first Earth Day was observed in 1970.
• The Equal Rights Amendment was launched in 1972.
• Roe v. Wade was decided in 1973.
• America left Vietnam in 1975.
• The Americans With Disabilities Act passed in 1990.
These achievements were possible because active, involved citizens informed by honest journalists took the case for progress to a government willing and able to do good for all the country's people.
And that is a problem for the One Percent: government--its rules and regulations, its power to tax, and its power to enforce the laws--defined and constrained them. America--with all its faults, and through Democratic and Republican administrations alike--charted a more-or-less progressive course between 1932 and 1980.
The interests of the "negligible, stupid" cabal President Eisenhower worried about were not served by a democratic American society that was expanding, economically mobile, better educated, well-informed, and more inclusive. The Republican Party wants a federal government of the same scope as the one helmed by President William McKinley at the turn of the nineteenth century. The One Percent wants the regulatory regimes of the Progressive Era, the New Deal, and the Great Society swept aside and the institutions and initiatives those eras spawned disabled, dismantled, or captured.
They have to have more.
The vision and the mission of The One Percent were stated succinctly by their most hallowed adherent: ...Government is not the solution to our problem; government is the problem. President Ronald Reagan followed those words from his first inaugural address with a nod to the usefulness of representative democracy, but he said what he and his elite backers meant... exactly.
John Adams defined a republic as a government of laws; not of men: A government of laws punishes companies that allow coal miners needlessly to sicken and die of black lung. A government of laws doesn't ignore a clear and present danger like global warming. A government of laws doesn't turn the promulgation of law into a business that serves only its own interests. A government of laws doesn't rely on suppression of citizens' right to vote for electoral success. A government of laws doesn't countenance massive, systemic fraud in its banking system or allow its richest citizens to escape paying their fair share of the taxes needed to sustain it. A government of laws doesn't do this:
The Reagan Administration began
an assault on the rule of law that reached a crescendo under President George W. Bush. Aided by anti-progressive voting blocs in the South, Southwest, and Midwest, the Republican Party has combined the so-called
Starve The Beast strategy of spending the federal government into deficit (after which they demand austerity) with a brazen contempt for laws, rules, and regulations that run counter
to their interests.
The 112th Congress is a massive fraud--an utter, almost complete waste of taxpayer money by virtue of its stated goal: Limiting Barack Obama to one term as president of the United States. Governance has ground to a halt. The Republican majority in the House Of Representatives and de facto minority rule in the Senate have rendered Congress worse than useless: it borders on the criminal. Crucial appointees such as lower court judges, undersecretaries, and agency heads languish. Budget constraints have kept Guantanamo open while foreclosing any program that would loosen the grip of economic depression on the poor, the working poor, and the middle class (Senator Jon Kyl castigated President Obama yesterday for even mentioning the middle class).
The scions of the people President Eisenhower warned us about--members in good standing of the One Percent--are mounting a full-court press to accomplish their goal of transforming us from a nation of laws to a nation of men.
Welcome to the Nation of Kochistan.
Kochistan, where Citizens United has supplanted government of, by, and for the people in favor of government by the corporations. Welcome to Kochistan, where the avoidance of taxes, the repeal of Glass-Steagall and the resulting unregulated casino-style market in mortgage debt, and the assault on public employee unions threaten the viability of state and local governments. Welcome to Kochistan where the presumptive Republican presidential nominee is the poster boy for the looting of American money and jobs. Welcome to Kochistan, where religious fundamentalism, bigotry, and prejudice inform national debate. Welcome to Kochistan where the government literally and figuratively doesn't work. Welcome to Kochistan, where "the right people" are "above the law."
I love the movie
A Man For All Seasons. Its writer,
Robert Bolt has his hero, Sir Thomas More, argue with son-in-law William Roper about the usefulness of law in the face of the Devil:
William Roper: So, now you give the Devil the benefit of law!
Sir Thomas More: Yes! What would you do? Cut a great road through the law to get after the Devil?
William Roper: Yes, I'd cut down every law in England to do that!
Sir Thomas More: Oh? And when the last law was down, and the Devil turned 'round on you, where would you hide, Roper, the laws all being flat? This country is planted thick with laws, from coast to coast, Man's laws, not God's! And if you cut them down... do you really think you could stand upright in the winds that would blow then? Yes, I'd give the Devil benefit of law, for my own safety's sake!
I do not equate the forces attempting to subvert the American political system with the Devil or with evil, but the above passage lies at the heart of my reason for writing this diary. I agree with President Eisenhower's admonition about the "disastrous rise of misplaced power." I believe that we are seeing it now. The Republicans have cut a great road through American law in service to their narrow, selfish interests. They encourage civil disobedience against a law that will provide
basic healthcare for millions of their fellow citizens. They have made a mockery of international law. They have decimated laws protecting
unions. They refuse to fund enforcement of
regulations crucial to the nation's health and safety. They have impeded the administration of justice by
blocking federal judicial nominations. The Republicans have done all this at a time when America--Democrats and Republicans, liberals and conservatives--need action the most.
We need America moving forward again. We need an America that will work out its differences rather than fight them out. We need an America that can lead on climate change and renewable energy and sustainable economic activity. We need to return to the rule of law rather than the checkbook rule of a few powerful, self-interested, short-sighted men.
The disaster that was the administration of George W. Bush has deposited America at a critical juncture in our history. We can not afford to lose our heritage as a nation of laws. We can not afford to lose the America that undergirded Dr. Martin Luther King's dream.
We need America, not Kochistan.
