[ANALYSIS AND OPINION]
[We know, we know. “ It’s the economy stupid !” But should it be? What follows is our analysis of why the normal rules of rational voting conduct have to be re-considered in the 2022 midterms. For those who insist on focusing on the economy and more immediate and practical concerns the footnotes at the end of this article provide some very insightful information as well.]
Democracy isn’t free. We all take it for granted much of the time. In the past, this could be forgiven because let’s face it most of us have lived in an economically advanced, if not (relatively speaking) privileged society for all of our lives protected by thousands of miles of ocean on both sides—all in addition to having the mightiest military in the world.
Make no mistake, however, the soldiers who froze, fought and died at Valley Forge during the American Revolution, those who got shot, drown or were disfigured storming the beaches of Iwo Jima and Normandy as well as hundreds of thousands of other veterans of World War I, Korea, Vietnam, Kuwait, Iraq, Afghanistan and many other other conflicts know that achieving and then keeping our democracy free from the rule of dictators and foreign adversaries is a very costly endeavor that often requires the sacrifice of life, limb, one’s health and property.
These are not normal times. Thinking that they are is to engage in delusion. Such complacency can only lead to domestic turmoil from which this country may never emerge as the premier functioning democracy, the shining light, not only of the the Western World, but of the whole planet as well.
There’s no free lunch so to speak and sometimes all must sacrifice in order to preserve the cherished freedoms of our democracy. This includes a willingness to sacrifice one’s financial wellness from time to time to preserve our representative form of government and the Constitution which created it. In other words, sometimes, one must push “pocketbook” issues aside to address far more fundamental concerns such as, in this case, the preservation of democracy.
Why is this the case? In our last article we addressed some of the demographic changes that are significantly affecting the racial makeup of American society. Naturally other issues (such as inflation, the environment, Ukraine, abortion etc) are huge concerns as well.
As important as some of those issues are, however, far more pressing because they affect the power of the Presidency, the rule of law and the very existence of our democracy, are the considerations which we will address below in this article.
To do so, one has to get down to basics and look at this on the most fundamental level.
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Peace is preferable to conflict. Life cannot be enjoyed to the fullest, without peace. The maintenance of peace, a peace that allows for the maximum amount of the political freedom that we all cherish so deeply, requires a system that is, at a minimum, rule-based and that, as part of that rule-based system: (i) codifies certain personal liberties that cannot be abridged; and, (ii) encourages the losers of all political processes to peacefully abide by the more or less occasional adverse rule-making and adverse-decision-making that is sure to occur from time to time as government tries to solve complex societal problems. No one can get their way all of the time.
We say that the maintenance of peace requires a rule-based system simply because disputes are inevitable especially if everyone is allowed to do anything they want. Rules lessen the chance of dispute. If there is one, however, they guide and determine what the consequences are. Rules help make life predictable, even if there are disputes. This allows citizens to adapt and adjust and avoid conflict in the future.
Society has no chance of achieving harmony unless all (or substantially all) of the laws enacted and all the disputes decided are enacted or decided by (a) a governmental process that allows all who will be affected by those laws to have some input into the drafting and enactment of them; and (b) a system of justice ( a court system) where actual disputes between citizens will be resolved based upon laws previously enacted (under (a)) by an absolutely neutral arbiter applying those laws fairly and objectively. In other words, actual legal disputes will be decided by a fair, impartial and qualified judge applying the Constitution and/or the laws duly enacted pursuant thereto by the legislature.
Principal (a) above basically requires, a condition for lasting peace and harmony, a government which is a representative democracy where there is, generally speaking, a universal right to vote. The right to vote is vitally important because it is the reason citizens feel that they have participated in the law -making process. Also, the laws that are adopted are far more likely to address the actual problems and concerns that the public has in a representative democracy where people have the right to vote. It makes the enactment of laws seem more legitimate to everyone and thus makes voluntary compliance with them far more likely.
By contrast, the laws of undemocratic governments largely reflect the best interests of those in power (the dictator) , and not the general public. Where the laws do not reflect the best interests of the public, the public will become angry and frustrated. And then the public will either live unhappily, or, they may resort to crime and political protests. Revolution could even ensue resulting in the loss of huge amounts of life and property.
By contrast, the public has no real say in governments run by dictators. The laws are mostly made for the benefit of the dictator and his followers. Thus, democracies are far more likely to have a happier general public than dictatorships do.
Principal (b) above requires that neutral judiciary that objectively applies the law in rendering all decisions and deciding all disputes. If the population doesn’t trust and abide by judicial decisions then a state of peace and harmony cannot exist for very long. If one doesn’t feel that they can get justice in the courts, then where do else can they turn to get it? Again, as we’ve stated in other articles we’ve published, if the public does not trust the courts, they will either exist in a state of continuing resentment, mistrust and anger, or they will resort to violence—perhaps even revolution or civil war.
Then how can it be that dictatorships exist? Naturally, this is a complicated subject. However, it is an extremely important one, particularly now, and Americans had better learn the harsh lessons of history or they will suffer extremely dire consequences.
Simply put, dictatorships exist for a variety of reasons. A major one is that they exist by the sheer force of arms, terror and intimidation. Dictators and their supporters are nothing but glorified thugs, a national form of organized crime, pure and simple.
Another big reason dictatorships come to power is because certain segments of the general public usually “sell-out” and succumb to the graft and corruption, the payola so to speak, offered by dictators and their trusted followers.
Another reason is that normal people sit by, watch things that they know aren’t right, fail to speak up and merely say, I don’t want to get involved. They are too worried about paying the bills. They just want to be left alone and survive. They want to let somebody else take the heat. This is where a willingness to pay the price for democracy is crucial to keep dictators and autocrats from gaining control over a country.
The final reason dictators come into and keep power is deception and trickery. Dictators and their supporters thrive on misinformation. They like to mislead the public as to their true intentions and by the time the truth becomes apparent, its too late for the public to oust the dictator. That is because by that time the dictator has all of his or her supporters in control of all crucial societal functions, including the military, the news media and the like.
The misinformation that would-be dictators use can come in an infinite variety of forms. Often, however, they paint their opponents as the true evil-doers of society, or they point to minority groups as being the true source of a nations troubles. They will even resort to “setting up” and planting evidence to make their opponents look bad.
[All of the above is but one reason why reasonandbalance.com stresses the vital importance of fact based decision-making. One has to determine the facts before they can make any healthy decision, including how to vote. Fact based decision making requires doing some homework, checking multiple objective sources of information. Relying only on sources that obviously support only one political party or person on a regular basis, is bound to lead to biased and thus wrong-headed decision-making. After the facts are determined then one applies reason, logic and science to come to a decision as to what to do but only after balancing one other factor. While emotion and theological beliefs should be set aside for the most part, the balancing basically recognizes that we are not robots and that some reasonable account has to be taken of the realities and frailties of the human condition.]
All dictators, or any unscrupulous political group or minority, has to do to gain power is to: (i) be ruthlessly willing to use whatever means are necessary to gain power (whether lawful or unlawful, but usually the latter); (ii) have the resources necessary to either peacefully or forcibly convince or coerce enough other people to support them so that they can gain effective control over enough levers of power to make resisting their desires futile, dangerous or ineffective; and (iii) have just enough popular support to gain access to and control the major levers of governmental and social power.
The scary thing is that dictators do not have to have the support of the majority of the population to gain control. They just have to gain the support of enough people in a few critical positions or places in order to do so. Law enforcement, the military, the means of communication, the news media, and transportation are usually key assets and functions that would-be dictators focus on controlling first.
This is where having financial resources and the ability to payoff all the right people in all the right places becomes important. And any time a nation and its people are economically challenged by bad economic circumstances it plays right into the hands of would-be dictators. And this is doubly true where a country is confronted by complex racial, ethnic and/or religious issues, such as are presented by America’s current immigration problem and changing demographics.
This raises the specter of the repeat of a typical dictator tactic. Divide and conquer. Pick a minority group, demonize them, take their property and use it to pay your supporters and to shore up the national treasury.
The very sad and scary fact of the matter is that some dictators do come to power even in democracies. Just look at the history of Germany after World War I and the rise of right-wing fascism and Adolph Hitler. There are a variety of reasons why this happened but the biggest ones were that there was a worldwide economic depression with extremely high unemployment and rampant inflation. [ Not to mention the vain attempt to cure past wrongs by requiring Germany to repay the Allies huge amounts of reparations for the damages their aggression caused during that War.] People started looking for scapegoats and quick economic solutions and were seduced by a very persuasive demagogue and the result was the extermination of millions of people (such as the Jews) and World War II. Tens of millions of people died and the dire consequences of that war started the Cold War are still felt today. In any event, the Germany of the 1920s and 30s shows that an economically challenged general public is very susceptible to selling out to would-be dictators by casting their votes based on “pocket-book” economic issues (such as high inflation and unemployment) and not on the long term undemocratic ramifications.
Do the problems with inflation and the economy ring a similar bell herein in 2022? How about right-wing political parties and spellbinding demagogues? But before addressing that, let’s get back to our point.
The good news is that no matter what else happens, if the conditions necessary for the achievement and maintenance of peace and harmony exist, then society has an excellent chance, over some admittedly undefined time period, of solving virtually any problem it confronts without horrific loss of life and/or major economic setbacks. In other words, democracy, a real genuine one, if preserved, gives all of us the best chance of maintaining peace and harmony. Why? Because it allows everyone to have some input into how they are governed.
It’s worth noting here, that most dictators are not stupid. They know that democracy is largely preferred by people and thus they will pretend to have free elections. They will also pretend to have legitimate democratically elected legislatures just like democracies. But the elections they have are just for show with rigged results electing only followers of the dictator. Thus, dictators survive with the help of sham legislators who always adopt the laws that the dictator wants.
Dictators thus often maintain or allow democratic legislatures that are merely there to mislead the public into thinking that they have a representative democracy. They don’t have real democracies. The same is true of governments run by one party or a small group of sycophantic followers. They are sometimes known as autocracies and have virtually the same characteristics as dictatorships. This is also where having a majority political party that won’t stand up to its leader and criticize and/or abandon him or her when they are clearly wrong or acting improperly becomes dangerous because they are acting just like the sham legislators in a dictatorship.
But let’s not belabor the point. The essential pre-conditions for peace and harmony in America (as in anywhere else) require a form of government that, for all intents and purposes, is exactly what was adopted by our Founders in the form of the United States Constitution. The point here is that in many respects, that document is as essential for the peace and well-being of mankind as the Ten Commandments. Some might say even more so because it deals directly with governance issues on a national level. This is because the U.S. Constitution contains all the characteristics discussed above that are necessary for societal peace and harmony as well as the vitally important provisions stating that the federal government is a government of limited power (powers not granted are reserved to the state governments); that the federal government consists of three separate branches with, very importantly, co-equal and clearly defined powers (the Congress, the Courts and the President); that church and state are to remain separate; that the rights of citizens to due process of law, equal protection and the freedoms set forth in the first ten amendments thereto cannot be infringed upon.
All of the above, however, can be summarized into the simple notion that ours is a democracy built on the rule of law—not of men. No kings. No dictators, period. No President, no member of Congress, no judge, no one, no matter how high the office, is above the law. All members of Congress as well as the President must be duly elected by the public. The President cannot unilaterally make laws, only Congress can make law. Courts exist only to settle legal disputes. [Admittedly what constitutes making the law, what constitutes interpreting and whether one branch of government is acting improperly and infringing upon another’s powers can be hotly debated at times, but the foregoing are the central concepts upon which the Constitution is based.]
If we consider the foregoing in the context of the events of the last six years or so, but particularly given the events of January 6, 2021 and more recently the FBI search of former President Trump’s Mar-a-Lago property one should be extremely alarmed. This is especially true given the fact that President Trump was the only President ever to be impeached twice and then be acquitted largely along a party line vote. That is a breathtaking fact because it clearly shows that the “debate” and determinations being made by Congress are largely based on one of two things: the acquisition and maintenance of power by a particular party and/or the fear of the repercussions of doing anything to antagonize either Mr. Trump or the militant right wing of the Republican Party. In other words, for too many politicians (mostly Republicans) it wasn’t about, and it hasn’t been about, fact-finding and the administering of a just result, or problem solving, it was, and is, instead all about power. And because of this, and events like Charlottesville, January 6th and the like, fear and intimidation have crept into the national political arena on a level that no living person can remember.
To add to this, there is very strong evidence that indicates that Mr. Trump: (i) intentionally and unlawfully took classified documents affecting national security to his Mar-a-Lago residence where he kept them in an unsecure location (thus being susceptible to theft by foreign agents); (ii) that he knew that Joe Biden’s election was legitimate but nevertheless persisted in telling the public and his followers that the election was stolen; (iii) that he did nothing to stop the January 6th storming of the capital by his supporters even after learning of the mortal danger that the situation posed and being made aware that it was interfering with vital Congressional business, namely, the certification of the 2020 Presidential election results electing his opponent.
Does all of this not sound like some sort of coup attempt? Some even say, and with at least some evidence to back it up, that it looks like Trump was also an actual instigator of the January 6th riot, a riot which in essence attempted to seize control of a governmental function, if not the government itself.
And, of course, the list of Trump’s and/or his organizations apparent serious misdeeds (both civil and criminal) goes on. In fact, all the way back to 2016 when he publicly asked the Russians to help him find dirt on Hillary Clinton. (Even assuming that Trump did not have any nefarious Russian connections, some things just appear so improper [like conspiring with the enemy] that no reasonably prudent person, let alone a Presidential candidate, would even remotely suggest or even hint at them.) From there it has been one investigation after another of the potential criminal and civil liability of Trump, his companies and/or his associates. ********** And to those who say that the Democrats have been out to get Trump from day one, the easy answer is that Trump consistently says or does things that raise alarm bells that, in the minds of any reasonably prudent national security official would raise a duty to investigate. Clearly not abiding by the custom of disclosing his financial records (as historically been done by recent Presidential candidates) his warm statements and prior dealings in Mr. Putin (a mega-rich billionaire in his own right), his attempted business dealings in Moscow and a myriad of other facts would pique the keen interest, if not the outright suspicion, of any reasonably prudent government official in the intelligence and/or law enforcement communities.
Given the foregoing, prudence dictates that we all should ask ourselves: Did he take government top secret documents to Mara Lago as potential plea bargaining leverage in case he was ever indicted for crimes he may have committed? Talk about acting above the law. Was he going to sell them to a foreign adversary? True, most people would probably give most former Presidents the benefit of some doubt and believe that removal of the documents was either accidental or for some other legitimate purpose like creating a new Presidential library. The big problem in Trump’s case is that his entire history is so checkered with questionable practices, some quite substantial, that serious concern is very justified. Moreover, it appears that the government has requested documents from Mr. Trump several times and that his lawyers at one point informed the government that all documents had been turned over, when in fact they had not.
The bottom line is that the alarm bells are now going off–at least, that is, to any reasonably prudent and objective lover of American democracy. It is simply breath-taking the number of warning signals that are out there—if only all Americans would see. Most students of history certainly do. The huge concern here is that everyone does see, but that a significant part of the population willfully ignores the facts because they, in fact, believe in the extreme right wing agenda—or something very close to it.
To make matters even worse, if America’s Constitutional principals were to ever be eroded, limited or quashed by any actor foreign nor domestic, the World would be caste into an eternal state of autocratic if not dictatorial oblivion. This is truer now more than ever before given the government’s ability to snoop, control communication and employ an unlimited number of high tech weapons and other devices to maintain control over the population at large. Given this, if a dictator ever took over the U.S. government freedom and personal liberties might never again see the light of day—anywhere on the planet.
Just think about it. Vladimir Putin, a dictator, is one of the wealthiest people in the world. Mr. Xi of China is a dictator. If the U.S. was to go the route of welcoming a dictator where would freedom and democracy reign? We are already seeing signs of right wing extremism gaining traction in Europe.
Its beginning to look like the world is going to be ruled by a bunch of dictators. We would be back to ancient times but instead of having kings everywhere we would have dictators.
For the sake of brevity we won’t recite the dazzling and lengthy list of former Trump cabinet and executive branch officials who’ve taken issue with Trump’s integrity, general character and/or his handling of the Presidency. But the list includes vitally important former office holders such as Chiefs of Staff, Secretary of Defense, Secretary of State, National Security Advisor and the list goes on and on. (See https://news.yahoo.com/the-growing-list-of-people-donald-trump-hired-who-eventually-soured-on-him-171720536.html). Given this how can rational Republicans continue to support Trumpism?
In short, these are not normal times. And if anyone doesn’t believe that merely has to open their eyes, see the events of January 6th, of Charlottesville, of the rise of right wing extremist groups like the Oath Keepers, Proud Boys etc, One only has to consider the statements, warnings and alarms sounded by former blood relatives, by former lawyers and the innumerable former Cabinet officials and high level government officials who served the previous Administration in the years 2016 to 2020 who have loudly warned us all of the insidious tactics and objectives of the prior Administration to realize that everything that has happened in the last six years makes scandals like Watergate look like child’s play.
Moreover, we are clearly at a point of technological advancement where a scenario such as that portrayed by George Orwell is not only possible but probable if political actors, particularly those who are independently wealthy on a grand scale, whose only concern is the acquisition and maintenance of political power are elected and/or have other politicians who support them elected in numbers sufficient to allow them to gain control of Congress and the Judiciary.
Voting
Why rehash the foregoing? Isn’t it ancient history? Won’t this be a new Congress with new faces?
The problem with voting for most members of the GOP is that they have, in most recent times, over and over again, demonstrated an alarming tendency to let Trump and the alt-right movement do as they wish—regardless of whether its legal or illegal and regardless of whether it involves overthrowing the elected government or not. While, thankfully, there have been a handful of Republicans (for example, Mitt Romney, Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger) who have bravely spoken out against Trump and the alt-right, they have been shunted aside by their very own party for doing so, and worse, they seem to be the type of Republican that is becoming extinct. They certainly, do not appear to hold any kind of sway in any Republican caucus. As such, if the Republican party gains control of Congress and/or wins elections to many state offices, the chances that Trumpism and/or the alt-right will be held under a reasonable amount of control will be significantly reduced, perhaps to the point of being totally eliminated.
Even Mike Pence, [who thankfully (and so he deserves considerable credit for it), bucked Trump and allowed the Congressional election certification of President Biden], has more recently failed for forcefully speak out against Trump. Like too many Republicans he has buckled to the intimidation tactics of Trump and his supporters. (We say this acknowledging that Mr. Pence has indicated that he would prefer to see someone other than Trump nominated in 2024.) The same is true for high profile Republican senators such Lindsay Graham, Ted Cruz who at one time or another voiced strong concerns and/or out right warnings and objections about Trump. They both, like too many other Republicans, have either surrendered or succumbed to the overwhelming influence that Trump still has over the Republican Party. Even Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, whose own wife has been insulted by Trump fails to speak loudly and clearly against Trump even when he (Trump) acts in a wrongful manner.
In short, most Republican members of Congress today act like the “for show” legislators that countries with dictators have, and not like independently minded and rational office holders looking out for the best interests of all people.
In any event, in terms of the rule of law, electing a Republican majority to Congress will in all likelihood mean that Donald Trump will never be fairly tried in the courts for any illegal acts he has committed. Given what transpired during Trump’s two impeachment trials in the Senate, Republicans will very probably find some way to make sure that he is not fully prosecuted, if for no other reason than they would be afraid as to what Trump’s alt-right and MAGA supporters would do. If many of these matters aren’t fairly tried in court, Trump will have demonstrated, yet again, that he is above the law. If that happens then one must ask oneself: Will this country ever be able to hold any former President accountable for his actions? Future Presidents will be emboldened to overstep their legal boundaries and flaunt the law. America will be one step closer to a virtual dictatorship—an imperial presidency.
[This is not to say that Trump is guilty—merely that he should be tried in a court of law for his alleged crimes. If he’s acquitted so be it. What is suggested above is that if the Republicans gain control of Congress there is an increased chance that no direct case against Trump will see the light of day.]
So the bottom line is that electing Republican majorities threatens the rule of law not just because of their incessant and groundless attacking and questioning the 2020 election, but also because of what would be their ability to count the votes and their demonstrated failure to hold one of their own, namely Trump, accountable to the rule of law itself. [We say this while acknowledging the deep debt this country owes to Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, a Republican, for the courage and integrity he showed during the 2020 vote count in Georgia.]
To make matters even worse, if that’s possible, more than one GOP member of Congress has spoken of impeaching President Biden, if they gain control of Congress. Time and space considerations don’t permit addressing this issue in detail here, but suffice it to say, that, these representatives have not pointed to anything of substance amounting to a high crime or misdemeanor that President Biden himself has committed that justifies threatening to impeach President Biden. This, in the clearest terms, merely demonstrates that they merely seek to retaliate for the Trump impeachments. [We note that Hunter Biden is Hunter Biden and parents aren’t responsible for the criminal acts, if any, of their adult children.] One gets the disturbing impression that for Republicans, it’s all about power—keeping and retaining it—and nothing else.
All of the above, however, merely points to the political chaos that has dominated the political atmosphere in this country ever since it elected a narcissistic billionaire to be President back in 2016. The first President ever who has always flat out refused to condemn anyone remotely associated with militant right-wing extremism and fascism. That fact alone is unheard of. All prior Presidents clearly would have done so.
A healthy government requires the election of leaders who are problem solvers –not politicians whose only concern is to acquire and maintain power for power’s sake. To be sure, there are loud and sometimes militant voices on the left within the Democratic Party with whom one can and should disagree. One might, for example, reasonably object to many things about Wokism. One might object to social programs, the level of government regulation, high tax rates, and a variety of policy positions that many Democrats have. However, those objections relate to things that can be rectified through regular governmental processes and election cycles in the future, when the influence of Trump and the alt-right subside.
But for now, first things first. The clearest and most pressing present danger to this country and democracy is Trumpism and the alt-right. This danger will significantly increase, perhaps to the point of causing the end of our democracy, if GOP majorities are elected in either the House of Representatives or the U.S. Senate. Moreover, it is just as important, to stop the election of Republicans to statewide offices that have anything to do with counting votes. Why? In short, too many of them have demonstrated a tendency to buy into the false narrative that the 2020 election was stolen from Trump.
Rest assured, were a leftist threat to democracy as imminent and as close to a successful governmental takeover as Trumpism is, the advice here would be just the opposite of what it is. However, that is not the case—at least yet. And so, one must address the most urgent and pressing problem first—which is the failure of Republicans to stand up to Trump and defend the rule of law and the Constitution.
In conclusion, during normal times, voting for candidates based on their positions on the issues, and not what party they belong to, is the appropriate approach. Reasonable people can and do differ. Candidates with the best ideas and policy positions should be elected regardless of party affiliation. But these are not normal times. Any problems anyone has with Democrats have to be put aside in the overall existential interest in maintaining democracy. And the only way that can happen is keep a majority of Republicans out of office—at least for now and until they show that they are not under the spell of Trump or the alt-right.
We are loathe to say it, but until the Republicans loudly and clearly disavow Trump, his alt-right supporters and conspiracy theorists, we all should vote heavily Democratic.***
Footnotes discussing economic, immigration and other issues are below.
David Dixon Lentz October 22, 2022 revised October 29, 2022
© Copyright 2022; David Dixon Lentz; All Rights Reserved
[ ***** For those worried about inflation, there are two basic types. One is caused by overly large increases in the money supply. While Congress and the President do have influence on the size of the government borrowing to fund federal deficits, in the end, the money supply (and interest rates) is/are controlled by the Federal Reserve Board, and not by the President or Congress. While it is true that the size of the federal budget deficit has an effect on government borrowing and thus the level of interest rates, budgets ultimately have to be passed by both houses of Congress and then be agreed to by the President. During the past two years the Senate has not been effectively controlled by Democrats because two of its members have several times voted with Republicans thus diluting the ability of the Biden administration to get its legislative packages passed. Thus it is difficult to truly assign inflationary blame for money supply issues. Moreover, in any event, as discussed below, an objective investigation into the question of which party has caused the biggest budget deficits yields surprisingly mixed results.
In any event, the other type of inflation is caused by supply shocks. This happens when the costs of production of goods and services go up because the raw materials or inputs have somehow become expensive. In present times, COVID’s effects on supply chains, the war in Ukraine, Russian and Middle Eastern oil supply shocks, and other factors have disrupted supplies of raw materials and created cost increases in the price of gas and other commodities. Our opinion is that it is doubtful that either political party or any of their leaders is/are to blame for this. Sometimes things are just beyond anyone’s control.
Interestingly over the last year the size of the federal deficit under the Biden administration has actually shrunk by about $1.4 trillion, thus making government borrowing less necessary. This should somewhat ease pressure on the Fed to keep interest rates at high levels and/or to raise them further. But who knows what the Fed will do? In addition, in order to fight inflationary price hikes in the price of gasoline, Biden has taken the rather dramatic step of tapping the nations strategic oil reserve. This has helped some but naturally the additional supply will yield only temporary relief from future price hikes. Much depends on what happens in Ukraine, Russia and the Middle East. See https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/speeches-remarks/2022/10/21/remarks-by-president-biden-on-historic-deficit-reduction/
For the sake of comparison, it is very interesting to note that during the Republican Trump administration the ratio of total federal debt (held by the public) to the gross domestic product of the US increased as follows: Total federal debt was 75.53% of GDP in 2016 and increased to a whopping 96.51% in 2020. [ For those unfamiliar with GDP it essentially represents the income of the nation as a whole. And so as the nation’s income (GDP) increases, it can afford to pay more debt. But if total debt goes up faster than income then that can become economically problematic at some point. And, unfortunately, since the financial crises of 2008 and then Covid the size of total federal debt to GDP has gone up significantly. ] In fairness, a significant amount of that debt increase during the Trump administration may have had been caused by Covid but one has to question whether tax breaks for the rich are truly paid for by increases in productivity as Republicans often claim. Interestingly, the last time this county had a sustained period where this federal debt to GDP ratio went down (which is good) was during the Democratic Clinton administration in the 1990s. Federal debt to GDP increased during the Bush administration (foreign wars) and then soared under Obama, due to the need to bail out financial institutions during the 2008 financial crisis (which occurred in the last year of the Republican Bush Administration) and then the introduction of Obamacare. However, the point is that the Republicans always lay claim to being the more fiscally responsible party when in fact their habit of reducing taxes for the rich, and constantly increasing defense spending has largely led to increases in the size of the federal debt relative the size of gross domestic product during Republican administrations that are at least comparable as those that have occurred during Democratic ones. ]
******** And for young adults who have the foresight to worry about retirement issues, and for those struggling on fixed incomes or are otherwise facing economic hardship, consider this: Republicans keep talking about cutting or reducing Social Security and Medicare benefits. Moreover, history clearly shows that the Republican way of bolstering the economy is to cut tax rates for the rich and hope that the benefits thereof trickle down to the common man. While some may argue otherwise, most of the evidence points to the fact that “trickle down” economics doesn’t work that way. We still see widening wealth gaps between the rich and everyone else everywhere.
[ ****** As of the date of this publication the unemployment rate in the United States is only 3.5% Traditionally economists have considered 5% unemployment to be “full-employment”. This is because there will always be persons temporarily out of work because they are temporarily between jobs, they’ve just graduated and entered the job market etc. Interestingly, the fact that the unemployment rate is so low, is one very likely reason for today’s inflation rate of about 8.6%. This is because employers have to bid for fewer available workers, because so many people are employed. This has bid up the general level of wages, which in turn means that producers have to charge the public more for their products to pay for their higher wage expense. This in turn naturally leads to some inflation.
Importantly, the Democrats and the Biden Administration have considerable bragging rights when it comes to the passage of the $1.2 trillion (that’s trillion with a “t”) legislative packages called the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act of 2021. This will help to keep the economy well-oiled and importantly create good paying jobs to repair and replace our highways, bridges, public transportation, airports, waterways, shipping ports, water and clean energy and power facilities, the expansion of broadband access and environmental remediation ]
[** Our intention here is emphatically not to insult traditional Republicans or conservatives. In fact, we agree with some of their policy positions. In our view, many, if not most, conservative and Republican voters have, for decades now, been inundated with broadcast and written information content, masquerading as news, that has demonized and greatly exaggerated the nature and level of threat posed by the policy proposals of most Democrats. The election of a Black man to the Presidency only heightened the sense of alarm felt by many of those who fear the rise of a socialistic welfare state and are susceptible to what amounts to right-wing propaganda. True there are always going to be extremists in any party, (including the Democratic one, but contrary what the right-wing media would have one believe, President Obama was no extremist). However, the rise of Trump, the immigration problem, and the changing demographics of America, and other factors have all infected the political psyche of a disturbingly large number of Republican supporters and has resulted in the problem this article seeks to address. Having said this we do not mean to imply that many aspects of what is known as Wokism aren’t also objectionable. ]
[*** We say this with the possible exception of voting for those Republicans who have had the courage to clearly, unequivocally and vocally express their disapproval of the alt-right, Trump and his conduct. Those brave Republicans have our profound thanks and deepest respect !]
[*********. Immigration is a real hot-button issue in which governments on the state, local and national level are involved. There is actually fairly broad agreement in both parties that it is a major problem that must be solved. The disagreement is over how. Generalizations can be misleading. However, despite what his critics may say, since President Biden has taken office over 1.7 million would be immigrants have been turned away at the U.S. border. 300,000 who have temporarily been allowed in(for a variety of reasons) have been given tracking devices so that Immigration and Customs Enforcement can keep tabs on where they are. In a two year stretch under President Trump over a million immigrants were allowed into the U.S. (See Eileen Sullivan, New York Times, Sept 6, 2022.]
[Forgive us, but a little background is in order. We have written and done videos and pointed out that those who are amongst the one percent of the wealthiest people (the super-rich) control half of the world’s resources. And they own a higher and higher percentage of all wealth as each day passes. All one has to do is consider Elon Musk’s situation. He’s the world’s richest man. His income is greater than the GDP of many countries. He has the monetary and technological resources, to not only rival, but to actually surpass the capabilities of most nations in space. Naturally, his company Tesla will probably dominate the automobile industry for decades to come. And now of great interest is the fact that he’s buying Twitter and will have considerable influence over what everyone is exposed to on the internet. He’s even a hugely important actor in providing the Ukrainians with important defense capabilities because of the presence of his company’s satellites in space. Now he’s going to buy a huge communications outlet and he’s talking about making weapons. Sounds like he’s awfully powerful doesn’t it? And every day he is in the news and loudly proclaims his views on virtually every subject.
We only mention Musk and his wealth because super-wealthy people who get involved in politics are a particular danger to democracy for several major reasons. Three that come to mind are that they have the ability to buy support even when they are wrong (the old political payoff); (ii) too often their business interests can, and do come into conflict with that of the best interests of the public and the government itself; and (iii) they have the financial ability to manipulate and overwhelm the court system to delay justice and overwhelm their adversaries in court cases by making it too expensive to fight or resist them. Who can afford to defend or institute numerous lawsuits backed by an army of lawyers? It can be financially ruinous for opponents of the super-wealthy. And, the mere threat of litigation can
force would-be opponents to capitulate. And what is worse, if the government is the adversary the ability to endlessly appeal and use the court systems in various parts of the country means that the super-wealthy can use their resources to delay justice to the point where any result reached does not truly rectify the wrong. In short, super-wealthy political leaders can totally dominate and control a political system, even a democracy, much like a dictator.
This leads us to the case of former President Trump and his more militant right wing supporters (who we will refer to generally as the alt-right). This includes, many, but not all, so called MAGA supporters. It includes everyone who stormed or assisted in the storming of the nation’s Capitol on January 6, 2021. It is Trump, his wealth, the militancy of the alt-right and the unwillingness of not all, but far too many, Republicans to both concede the legitimacy of the election of Joe Biden and to disavow Trump and the alt-right that make the 2022 mid-term election critically important. This is especially so, when one considers additional vitally important fact that 60 different courts with both Republican and Democratic judges have held the 2020 election to be valid. Some Republicans go so far as to continue to publicly argue that the 2020 election was rigged or somehow improper thereby keeping the entire country in turmoil for almost two years now. As a party Republicans are too prone to fearing the far right and the former President. They worry about being “primaried”, that is, losing their own party’s nomination for re-election if they speak the truth, and what 60 courts have held. Namely, the 2020 election of Joe Biden was valid.
Those who back super-wealthy politicians invite what amounts to a warlord system of rule into the United States. This is true for both Democrat and Republican billionaires.]
[Some great information can be obtained from the following: https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/speeches-remarks/2022/10/21/remarks-by-president-biden-on-historic-deficit-reduction/]