I think the two-party system – and yes, there are other smaller parties with meaning – is an essential part of the American Democracy. Until Donald Trump won the presidency, the parties were generally divided between fiscal conservatives with a socially conservative bent and liberals believing that government has an obligation to support its citizens and provide safety nets when they trip and fall. Minimalist government favoring letting the marketplace decide versus a government that guides, regulates and supports its citizenry. But that was before right-wing, white traditionalism trumped fiscal conservatism as the driving force within the GOP. That nationalist, populist turn needed people to blame – mostly immigrants south of our border, the “radical” left and China – for what seemed to ail a working class slammed by change. Apparently being super-sensitive – labeled “woke” – was far more objectionable than being racist.What America truly needed was fiscal conservatives, and those who championed religious priorities, keeping America from spending itself into oblivion to solve this nation’s problems. The exception was wartime spending to defend the country, or so it seemed until the attack, which killed more Americans within our borders than had ever been killed since our Civil War, came from a virus that absolutely required the same centralized planning and action that was required in any war.
When they politicized a safe and medically necessary path to contain the coronavirus, that “city-slicker sickness hoax” – not much worse than an ordinary flu – millions of Americans (even in small, relatively isolated rural areas) succumbed to the infection as close to 600,000 Americans (900,000 according to new examinations of mortality statistics) died. Most of those negative statistics could have been vastly reduced if monied interests had not pushed to ignore the necessity of containing a pandemic. The resistance to vaccinations shows the continued pernicious mythology, embraced within social media by Russian spreaders of disinformation and populist conspiracy theorists, is literally preventing achieving herd immunity. And then there are the economic myths.
After deficit hawks swallowed hard and passed a corporate tax cut that create virtually no new jobs, jacked the stock market through the roof, exploded CEO pay to even more absurd level, they seem to ignore the massive two trillion-dollar deficit that they created. After those pigs slorped at the fatted trough, they pretended that there were always against deficits. Right…
I have no issue with fiscal conservatives arguing for conservative spending and minimalist government during normal times. I just wish they would stick to the facts, rail against fiscal irresponsibility (in their eyes) and stop manufacturing reasons why cutting taxes for rich people is good for everybody. It isn’t. There is no “trickle down” benefit of job creation, the rising tide does not float all boats, and the clear beneficiaries are the rich. The result has been the erosion of our public educational system, the vast reduction of job-creating government funded research and the inefficient and very frustrating slow collapse of our aging infrastructure. On a more horrific but more abstract view: the demise of upward mobility and the most divisive income inequality in the developed world.
As GOP resistance to infusing the economy with more government stimulus rises, it’s not really about ferreting out ineffective expenditures as it should be. Instead, there is a powerful need to pretend that Americans are just plain so willing to live off of governmental largesse and not accept the jobs that are clearly going unfilled as our economy recovers, because not working is so much more lucrative than working. Really? They think that little of the citizens who voted for them? That many are scared to return to a workplace where not all the employees are vaccinated, that they are unwilling to let their children return to schools were COVID infections still lurk, that there is no viable and affordable childcare, that rent and housing costs are soaring such that the meager, low-paying offerings are out of touch with that reality… well, those could not be the reasons, right? Republican pablum.
OpEd contributor to the Los Angeles Times (May 8th), Michael Hitlzik, lays it on the line: “In a rational world, employers desperate to fill jobs would do everything they could to make their workplaces seem attractive: They’d raise wages, offer bonuses and show themselves to be caring and respectful bosses.
“In our world, just the opposite is happening. Wages are stagnant, especially in low-paying sectors, and employers are demonstrating utter contempt for employees they’re trying to lure back to work… They’re casting blame for their difficulties elsewhere — especially the purportedly lavish unemployment benefits provided by the federal government.
“As part of its pandemic relief program, Congress enacted unemployment benefits of $300 a week to augment state benefits. The addition will continue through early September in states that accept it… But in Montana and South Carolina, business leaders enlisted their governors to drive people back to work by canceling that unemployment assistance. No one should be shocked to see other red states join them.
“The notion that unemployment benefits are keeping able-bodied workers home has become an article of faith among employers and their lobbyists, despite a lack of any evidence that this phenomenon is endemic… In some places, the business community hasn’t been shy about demeaning workers who aren’t clamoring to join their staffs. Typically they portray the workforce as an army of layabouts.
“Here’s the insulting way that John Kabateck, California state director for the small business lobby group the National Federation of Independent Business, put it: ‘The federal government’s extra $300 it added to state unemployment benefits comes to an end in early September, so it will be a matter of time before showing up for work is a better-paying proposition than remaining on the couch watching reruns of Gilligan’s Island.’…
“No one is disputing that some employers are having difficulties recruiting workers. Nonfarm employment rose in April by a meager 266,000, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Friday [5/7]. This confounded economists who had expected a second straight month of employment gains of more than 900,000.
“Yet the statistic sent a mixed signal. Employment growth was actually strongest among restaurants, bars and hotels (up by 331,000). That’s the sector where employers are squealing the loudest about their inability to recruit staff. It was down in manufacturing and in professional and business services, where wages tend to be higher than in hospitality and leisure.
“Some economists who expect strong growth to resume in coming months counsel not to make too much of a single month’s data… The question is not whether employers are scratching for staff, but why… ‘Employers simply don’t want to raise wages high enough to attract workers,’ observes Heidi Shierholz, a former chief economist for the Department of Labor who is now policy director at the labor-affiliated Economic Policy Institute. ‘I often suggest that whenever anyone says, ‘I can’t find the workers I need,’ she should really add, ‘at the wages I want to pay.’ ’”
In the end, truth is writhing, perhaps facing an agonizing death spiral in a world of “whatever I need to say to get elected” false narratives. That democracy itself is at risk seems irrelevant. That non-existent voter fraud is used as the excuse to create legislation clearly aimed to disenfranchise non-white traditionalist is among the most blatant recent trends. What is amazing that the usually pro-business Republican functionaries have actually embraced stopping individuals who might vote against them as a priority over and above catering to business.
“Texas Republicans doggedly courted corporate America for decades, an approach personified by former Gov. Rick Perry, who took to radio airwaves in California to urge businesses to ‘come check out Texas.’… When it comes to voting restriction bills now being considered in the Texas Statehouse, however, GOP lawmakers have broadcast a different message to the business community: Back off.
“Be it Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick berating American Airlines for opposing the legislation or lawmakers floating proposals to punish companies for speaking out, the effort to tighten Texas’ already strict voting rules has spurred unusual acrimony between the majority party and corporations, its usual allies.” Melanie Mason and Molly Hennessy-Fiske writing for the May 8th Los Angeles Times. That the GOP is embracing a highly destructed form of populism, with affiliation to white supremacists, insane conspiracy theorists, ultra-conservative religious factions with views widely divergent to those of the vast majority of Americans and right-wing militia is now viewed as an existential necessity. Sorry Liz Cheney, the GOP is firmly committed to self-destruction just to keep enough Republican in power in 2022… even if it means losing sway with independents and traditional Republicans.
I’m Peter Dekom, and slow self-destruction is never pretty to watch and often even harder to stop.
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