400 years of disenfranchisement is coming to a head in Ferguson, New York City, and now Baltimore. This is the logical consequence of our actions ever since we began colonizing the New World. When you disenfranchise people and push them to their breaking point, the logical result is voter apathy and anarchy. If it continues, the end result, as we have seen in Iraq, Libya, and Somalia, is a failed state and anarchy.
A perfect example of what can happen when people are disenfranchised is Iraq. That country had elections to reelect its president recently. He won with an overwhelming majority. It was hailed at the time as a vindication of our policies there. However, it turned out that the Sunnis, disenfranchised from participating in the political process, went off and joined ISIS. Shortly afterwards, Mosul and many other chunks of Iraq fell to the Islamic State.
There are three major evils in this world -- anarchy, statism, and war. The worst is anarchy, given what we know from actual results. The second biggest evil in the world is statism, or the belief that people only exist for the benefit of the state. George W. Bush was a statist, given the Patriot Act, his expansion of the NSA, and his rolling back of basic civil liberties along with the massive cult of personality that surrounded his rule. Stalin created a huge centralized bureaucracy which put millions of people to death. And the Nazis sent millions of people to death in concentration camps, including Jews, gypsies, Jehovah's Witnesses, Poles, and other "undesirables." The third is war, which forces allegiance to the all-powerful state which we must be loyal to or face the consequences.
It could be argued that certain rioters in Baltimore created anarchy with their actions against private property. But rioting does not exist in a vacuum. It happened for a reason -- the powers that be have ignored Black America for over 400 years. This is not to defend it, but explain it. These race riots will continue until the state effectively addresses the problem of racism. If the state does not, then these riots will get worse as the displacement caused by automation, outsourcing, and climate change will lead to even more disenfranchisement, apathy, and anarchy.
We have chosen a free market system for our country ever since its founding. However, the right is operating on the faulty premise that the markets are somehow perfect. They are not, as evidenced by the cycles of boom and bust that happened before the New Deal. Therefore, when the market fails to provide for the needs of the people, the government needs to step in and provide what is needed, whether it is employment, electricity, rail, roads, and bridges. And the government needs to step in and meet our energy needs given the reality of climate change. It is the oldest lesson in the book -- the Romans had to provide bread and circuses for its people, or face revolt and riots. We have done pretty good on the circus part; not so good on the bread part given millions have dropped out of the workforce.
I would drown the government more than Grover Norquist ever dreamed of doing. We all know the bureaucratic type who says, "I'm from the government and I'm here to help," only to enable the police state and the structural violence like what is happening in Baltimore. That is why Ronald Reagan's remark hit such a nerve. However, Reagan and his henchmen went about it all wrong. They dismantled the welfare programs that are meant to benefit the poor and prevent the slide into apathy and anarchy that could have happened in the Great Depression. Trickle-down economics operates on a faulty premise -- that the 1% are all good and would pump money into the economy if only we would roll back rules and regulations. But the reality is that wealthy people are just people -- some do in fact put money into the economy to benefit us. But others hide it in tax shelters and simply use it to make more money. The same goes for large corporations.
What we have is a crony capitalist state similar to the time before Teddy Roosevelt, where monopolies are tolerated, the government and the 1% pick winners and losers, and there is no real competition for goods and services. Millions of people are considered "unemployable" and shut out of the workforce. The belief that free markets or the 1% are somehow all good is nothing more than a form of idolatry.
Instead, what we need to do is to dismantle the military industrial complex, close all our military bases except the ones dedicated to protecting NATO and our closest democratic allies, stop all military support for foreign dictators as evaluated by Freedom House or some other human rights group, reevaluate our relationship with Israel in light of Bibi's undermining of our foreign policy regarding Iran, identify and terminate programs that are simply lining the pockets of the 1%, identify wasteful and duplicative programs, and focus rules and regulations on the 1% and not Middle America. We can cut our defense budget by one third and still maintain the most powerful military in the world.
Once we have done so, we can bail out the American people. We can cancel student loan debts, put more money into programs for the poor, create jobs and a basic income for people deemed "unemployable" by corporate America, and we can even cut taxes for everyone, not just for the 1%.
And if the right is serious about drowning the government in a bathtub, then let them support the $15 minimum wage. The $15 wage would raise more revenues by raising the tax base; it would create jobs to offset job losses since people would have more spending power, requiring more jobs to meet demand. That is why the UK's unemployment rate is similar to ours even though their minimum wage is higher. It would also drown the government even more, since people would not need welfare programs as much, saving taxpayer dollars.
And that's not all. If we're serious about creating tax base to wipe out deficits, then let us dismantle the police state. We should legalize pot and LSD, wiping out the black markets which are creating anarchy and chaos in Mexico. Other drugs should be treated as a medical issue, not a criminal issue requiring imprisonment. What one puts into their body should be none of the government's business unless it creates a public safety issue. Since border security is a proper role of any state, we all agree on the need for that. But we should make it as easy as possible to immigrate to this country legally. If someone immigrates illegally, they should be prosecuted through the court system and not through unelected bureaucrats in the INS. This is not an argument for open borders, but a reflection of the reality that the world has always seen this country as a refuge from war, dictatorship, and famine. Immigrants create jobs, which will lead to even more tax base, which reduces the need for taxes.
In short, the Constitution is a perfect reflection of the fact that the state is a necessary evil when compared to the fruits of anarchy. It is imperfect (we need an Equal Rights Amendment and we need one to overthrow Citizens United), yet it minimizes the evil of statism while protecting against the power of the mob, which leads to anarchy. But it will only work as long as we pursue peaceful policies. We have been at war as a nation since our founding; when we were not fighting the British (War of 1812), the Mexicans (Mexican War), the Spanish (Spanish-American War), we were fighting the Indians, Filipinos, and any other entities who showed too much independence from our thinking. We have been addicted to war since our founding and it has undermined the Constitutional protections of habeas corpus, free speech, freedom of the press, and the right to a fair trial. Our current President has bombed several different countries -- Iraq, Syria, Libya, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Yemen, and Somalia come to mind. As long as we continue to do so, our Constitution will be constantly under attack. This is a much greater threat to our long-term survival as a nation than Al-Qaeda or ISIS.
Ideally, we should engage in solutions which don't involve war, the police state, or any policies (such as disenfranchisement) that lead to anarchy. Sometimes, it is necessary to follow the lesser evil -- for instance, we chose to support Stalin over Hitler. It is better to have a state that takes care of its people than it is to have anarchy. Case in point -- Nepal, which has a weak central state which is unable to help the earthquake victims effectively. And while war against entities like ISIS, Nazi Germany, or other external threats to this country could be justifiable, war is an evil; therefore, it should only be fought as a last resort when all other attempts have failed.
The whole basis of our civilization is the creation of order out of chaos. Policies should be evidence-based; if they lead to chaos, then they should be dropped like a hot potato. Case in point -- prohibition, which created such a large black market and such rampant crime and disorder that the cure was worse than the disease. The same goes with Baltimore -- methods which have been shown to perpetuate the cycle of closet racism in Baltimore and in the country as a whole should be dropped, such as the militarization of our police forces. And if policies which have previously been considered too radical, such as basic income and universal employment, serve to create order where they are adopted, then they should be looked at.