A couple of days ago, in California, another rich woman chose to transcend.
She sent the servants quietly away, dismissed her personal assistant, her masseuse, her shopper, her dog-walker and the rest of her staff.
She needed a few moments alone ...
Something called to her ...
It was a voice.
A voice that spoke of Change. Of Unity. Of Transcendence.
Was this the moment that she had been waiting for all of her life? There had always been something missing. Between the private schools, the multi-million dollar personal fortune, the Georgetown education and the low-effort six-figure jobs thrown at her every step of her adult life ...
Something was missing.
Transcendence.
She always "felt" she was a Democrat, despite being long married to one of the most loathsome Republicans in American politics. But something always seemed to hold her back from getting involved in the process. It was the economics of the thing.
"Old style Democrats" had an obsession with the New Deal, with what they called the "Roosevelt legacy." All those tired old issues, social programs, welfare money, Federal dollars being spent and wasted on people who did not have the skills or ambition to capitalize on them.
All this "old style" stuff dragging the country down ...
Now, suddenly, there was someone new.
A politician who promised that he wasn't an "old style" Democrat. That would be no more tax and spend. There would be Hope. There would be no handouts. There would be Unity. There would be no more New Deal. There would be Change.
The burden of the Roosevelt legacy could be left in the dust.
Good-bye, "New Deal!"
Hello, "Transcendence!"
A couple of weeks ago, she asked around and tried to figure out who was advising the politician on economic issues.
She found, to her delight, that none of the "old style" Democratic advisors were on board his campaign, this time around. Krugman's books were burned or banished in his campaign central office. Instead, an assortment of Chicago-trained, free market "experts" and "economists" ruled the roost with a secondary cadre of advisors with ties to major corporations and Wall Street.
Remember what the Chicago school economists did with the economy of Chile? They are still calling it the "Chilean Miracle." They even managed to privatize Chile's social security program, something that no one thought could ever be done.
This morning, she saw that one of her maids, a new citizen, was wearing a Hillary Clinton button.
She asked her, "Honey, why are you supporting Hillary Clinton?"
The maid answered, "You know. Jobs. Education. Health care. Retirement. I want to make sure these things are there for my kids. That's why I came to this country."
The rich woman smiled and thought to say, "This is why I am the first lady of the state of California ... and you are just a servant."
But instead, she said, "Oh, Mimi" -- this was her pet name for the maid -- "Those tired old issues, we need to let them go. We need to move into the future away from all that stuff. We need to Transcend."
Get ready, people.
Because I think we might be about to Transcend. I hope we're all ready for Unity.