All Hail the Oligarchy!, (Part 2), 7-26-2010

 [Continued from All Hail the Oligarchy!, (Part 1), 7-26-2010. sch 2/14/2022.]

From where I sit (a bunk in the Volunteers of America facility at 611 North Capitol in Indianapolis, I am not so sure that we are not a banana republic, or, at least, fraudulently representing our government as democratic. 

Back to The New York Times on July 23, 2010, for these competing front page headlines:

Federal Report Faults Banks on Huge Bonuses – Feinberg Is Said to Call 80% of Pay Unmerited

With Voters Angry, More of the Rich Run as populist “Outsiders”

I have not much to say about the first headline. The banks contracted foolishly with their employees – the Bush Administration foolishly failed to protect the taxpayer from the banks. Although, I do not know enough details to know if the federal government could have done anything to those contracts.

The second headline reminds me of Republican Rome. Dim memories of Marius and Sulla, or of others belonging to the patrician class, using populist tactics for rousing the plebes against for patrician factional purposes. I know everyone likes making analogies between the US and the Roman Empire, but I think the Roman Republic gives us better comparisons. This paragraph reminds me how little human nature changes.

Like how nothing really changes between the haves and the have-nots. I wonder if the Tea party crew has not had its true effect here: the have-nots will remain have-nots. 

I wonder if Obama will ever find his inner FDR, as he has his inner Lincoln. He does seem lacking in FDR's love of a fight; but it may be that quality belonged to FDR as a Roosevelt. Time for a bit of razzle dazzle – more elbows and full court pressure. I am not sure what will happen if Obama disappoints.

I expect disappointment from the Republican side. The July 17, 2010 New York Times has Charles m. Blow's “Dog Days of Obama.” More interesting than the actual op/ed are the Gallup poll numbers. Do 76% of Republicans truly favor Sarah Palin as their candidate? Her talent seems more in self-promotion than anything else. (I think Romney poses the most serious threat to Obama, but I thought Kemp more dangerous to Clinton than Dole.) I think most Americans find Palin a fraud.

If you have read this far, I suggest you find Indispensable Enemies by Walter Karp. I read it about thirty years ago, and I think it still bears up. His thesis that our main political parties are oligarchical than true opponents remains true. Gore Vidal often describes them as wings attached to the same party.

I remain convinced that Obama remains committed to changing Washington. What he knows, and we forget, is that change cannot be dictated by the Executive Branch. Real change must come from the people. We must stop expecting change from the politicians. They will continue holding onto power and the sources of that power until we make them stop.

I do not think we can continue as we have. While I wait for the federal government to digest me as a python digests its prey, I am amazed by its inefficiency and need to tout its power. Power hides all kinds of inefficiencies, yet we can feel its overreach. Does therein lie CC's sense of things going crazy?

God help all of you. I will be living for 151 on your taxes.

sch

[I apologize for how this one's argument goes into the weeds and dies. We have oligarchs in America as surely as does Russia, and their interests are not those of a democratic nature. If the people will not defend democracy, our oligarchs will have their way with us. That was where I think I meant to go; it is where I am now. sch 2/14/23.]