Gatekeepers and Polarization

Ever since the Great Recession, the United States has increasingly defined itself with the most unfair shift towards income inequality in the developed world. Effectively, the economic collapse combined with cheap interest rates gave the richest in the land that precious ability to “buy low and sell high.” Even if they didn’t “sell,” those cheap assets, many acquired from desperate ordinary Americans who were crushed in real estate and market crash or who lost their jobs to a contracting economy, the underlying values skyrocketed.

Wealth continued to concentrate increasingly into the pockets of those mega-wealthy players least impacted by that recession. The old mythology that it was cheap foreign labor that cost those jobs – a Trump anchor platform position – was actually long dead, but politicians supported by donations of these rich folks couldn’t very well blame them for the obvious job loss that was now being caused by replacing workers in this country with automated machines powered by artificial intelligence. Effectively, that wealthy top-of-the-economic-food-chain now owned machines that earned the money that used to be paid to workers. Too easy to pretend that it was unfair foreign competition that continues to rob Americans of jobs.

This mythology also allowed the GOP, truly the representatives of rich business-people at the expense of everyone else, to concoct further mythological embellishments that couched shoving more economic wealth to the richest class as “job creation” for the masses. Because the statistics that measured success (GDP, unemployment, earnings increases, stock market, etc.) were based on “average” results, the higher earnings at the top make the numbers look great because they pull-up and negate that 70% of working Americans have not seen an increase in buying power for almost 40 years. The underemployment, low pay numbers were buried in those “averages” because the top was making so much more.

But this “success” justified cutting taxes for the rich, eviscerating accessible healthcare for millions (a “drag on business”), eliminating environmental, financial and consumer protections and pretending that trade wars were good for average Americans. As the President watched the legal realities around those who had been tied to him or his administration, as felony convictions move ever closer to him, Trump actually threatened anyone who might hold him responsible for criminal acts that his impeachment would collapse the economy… even as sophisticated economists predicted a near-term economic contraction no matter what.

Still, those at the top of the food chain, bolstered by a powerful Trump constituency (the “base”) quite willing to vote against its own self-interests, never had it so good. Big corporations could act with relative impunity, knowing that the increasingly conservative Trump judicial and administrative appointments were unlikely to restrain their greed. Nothing shows how completely callous companies have become like how Verizon, under the F.C.C.’s repeal of Net Neutrality, took full advantage over controlling Internet speeds for pure greed, even if such actions might have killed people or compromised the ability of first responders in dire situations.

Here what actually happened during one of California’s worst wildfires. “A crew of firefighters from Silicon Valley had arrived in Lake County to help battle the largest blaze in California history when suddenly their mobile internet service slowed to a crawl.

“Officials coordinating the firefighting effort inside the Santa Clara County Fire Department’s command vehicle faced email delays and challenges updating web-based documents with critical information about deployment, Capt. Bill Murphy said.

“They quickly learned that their provider, Verizon Wireless, had throttled down the department’s connection to 1/200 or less than previous speeds because the agency had exceeded its data plan limit.

“‘It essentially rendered those very routine communications almost useless or completely ineffective,’ Murphy said. ‘They were essentially dealing with dial-up type speeds.’

“A Verizon representative told them the only way they could make the service faster immediately was to upgrade their plan at a higher cost. So they did, and service improved.

“The breakdown occurred several weeks ago during the massive Mendocino Complex fire, which has destroyed more than 150 homes and killed one firefighter. But the incident only became public this week, sparking widespread outrage both from fire officials and the public.

“Santa Clara County Fire Chief Anthony Bowden chronicled the incident in an addendum to a federal lawsuit filed Monday by 21 states — including California — and the District of Columbia seeking to overturn the Federal Communications Commission’s repeal of net neutrality rules.” Los Angeles Times, August 23^rd.

An embarrassed Verizon, sensing a public relations disaster, then claimed this was all a customer service glitch. Right! A customer service glitch directly and immediately resulting from a repeal of a very reasonable earlier Net Neutrality rule that benefitted consumers. And a greedy carrier that just didn’t care!

We have been conned with “statistics,” false presentations of what is really happening and an accelerating level of income inequality while life gets increasingly more expensive for “the rest of us.” That populist mass that we call the “base,” laden with conspiracy theorists and biblical misinterpretations, will fight tooth and nail to sustain Trump’s false narrative. Even as populism inevitably slides from power, we will have a very angry and well-armed populist constituency that tasted power and just might do anything to get it back. Can the younger generations unite to find a new American consensus… or are we now faced with an inevitable unraveling of the once-greatest democracy on earth?

I’m Peter Dekom, and unless “most of us” care to raise our voices, fight for what common sense tells us is right, we will follow a path that history tells us portends the end of an era.