It is easy to see that the U.S. is headed for a political train wreck. In fact, even the railroad executives have begun to sound the alarm, but the speed of the train and the malfeasance of their railway maintenance efforts over the last decade make it all but impossible to avoid the catastrophe. The Republican Party seems poised to reap the whirlwind it has so assiduously sown.
It is easy to see that the U.S. is headed for a political train wreck. In fact, even the railroad executives have begun to sound the alarm, but the speed of the train and the malfeasance of their railway maintenance efforts over the last decade make it all but impossible to avoid the catastrophe. The Republican Party seems poised to reap the whirlwind it has so assiduously sown.
By refusing to discourage the most disruptive and intolerant among them, and by remaining anodyne in the face of their nativist and racist rants, the party has perhaps unwittingly unleashed its own Armageddon. It turned a blind eye and a deaf ear to the bigots and conspiracy theorists in hopes of winning their votes. Now this tiger is turning to eat the rider on its back.
As a Democrat, why should you concern yourself with this bizarre and admittedly self-satisfying and even entertaining phenomenon? If your competitors have chosen to destroy themselves, so much the better for you. Correct?
Not so.
Really? Isn’t the deal that both sides fight as hard as they can and the country is better off for the partisan struggle? That is the strength and beauty of the American system, is it not?
The enticing myth of the great American public waiting and observing effortlessly as the patriotic politicians work things out in a way that benefits us all is now foundering against the rocky shoals of hard reality. As anyone who has ever held any position of power knows, there are many times when the powerful are called upon to act not simply for themselves or for their partisan supporters alone, but for the integrity of the entire system itself. When those in power do not feel and respond to this almost intuitive and restraining urge, we descend into a laissez-faire, everyone-for-himself maelstrom of inequity and abuse that may seem agreeable to those who profit from it in the short run, but which coarsens and embitters our society and ultimately forces rebellion against them.
How did it begin? Incrementally. In modern times, the current cycle can be traced back to the FDR responses to the Great Depression. Republicans always resented the socialist activism of his solutions and clung stubbornly to the cherished belief that it was World War II that righted the U.S. economy rather than the National Recovery Act and the WPA. As Democrats continued to be elected and to build on the FDR programs, Republicans saw themselves as victims of a greedy public eager to lap up government-funded largesse at the expense of runaway budget deficits and immoral socialism. Their time would come, they told themselves.
And it did. The flawed Goldwater campaign pushed itself too openly and too suddenly for the public to accept it, but it prepared the way for the Reagan regime. At last Republicans could rejoice in the glory and moral certitude that the excesses of FDR and JFK and LBJ would be curbed if not reversed.
Unfortunately for them, weaning the public away from Social Security, regulated safety for food and drugs, Medicare and Medicaid, a mandated minimum wage, and the socialized medicine of the Veterans Administration proved less popular than was expected. As a result, the Republicans continued the battle against all these and more by rhetorically attacking big government and runaway spending and by praising individual initiative and local control all the while approving continuation of the existing programs and even, in the case of Medicare Part D, expanding them.
Eventually, the true believers who were excited by the rhetoric and committed to the ideology began to notice that the actions did not match the words. They saw a failure to follow through on campaign promises. Politicians were caught in a bind. They claimed they just did not have the votes to pass the promised reversals, whether they actually believed that or not. Their bluff, if it was that, was called when the voters, with the assistance of partisan redistricting and the vaunted “Southern strategy,” gave Republicans control of both houses of Congress.
Realizing they had become victims of their own success, Republicans, all too aware of the impossibility of what they had promised, which now included “ripping out Obamacare, root and branch,” turned their attention instead to a full bore attack on the president. This had the expected resonance with the bigots and racists among them and kept the general public thinking it was just watching the usual moves from the “loyal opposition.” But the true believers wanted blood, not rhetoric. It was time for the Tea Party Rebellion.
Mainstream Republicans claimed to welcome the Tea Party as populists on their right, all the while concerned about its extreme elements. Still, anything that could bring more votes for Republicans couldn’t be bad. So they played along with the “birthers,” the Obama-haters, the “take-my-country-back” protesters, and even the rabble claiming that America’s liberty was being destroyed. With each new turn of events, the outrage increased and the shrill demands for action intensified.
Enter Donald Trump. He recognized frenzy when he saw it. He knew how to whip up a crowd with venom and blather. The true believers loved it and lots of idlers began to show up for the fun as well. Trump loves people who idolize him almost as much as he loves being rich. How could he lose? He is enhancing his brand with each primary triumph. He is more famous than ever and all he does is say whatever comes into his self-obsessed brain from moment to moment. And it’s starting to look like he can ride this carousel pony right into the White House.
With his Mussolini quotes and sneer, he is probably even ignorant of his own natural fascist tendencies. He just wants to show us how the government can be run like a successful business. Just like Trump University, Trump Mortgage and Trump Airlines. Or maybe the U.S. can just lease out its name to big venues like hotels, arenas and skyscrapers. It would be huge and beautiful. Nobody succeeds like Trump! And the Amtrak trains will finally run on time, too.
John H. Sucke is a resident of Kamuela
My Turn opinions are those of the writer and not West Hawaii Today.