And then there was this “election” thing. I’m
not sure if a poll of less than 50% of the electorate really reflects anything
very much about anything. Except that it probably reflects the growing
influence of Fox News in the heartland of our country (more on this later) and
is a fair measure of the voter enthusiasm that can be generated by spending a
gazillion dollars of secret-donor funds on slash and burn political
advertising. Unless we can unravel the “Citizens United” Supreme Court decision
our nation runs a very real risk of becoming Italy. Why Italy? Because that is
where former Prime Minister Berlousconni and his media empires controlled (wait
for this) something like 70% of the television programming. Seventy percent.
Yikes. It’s amazing that they didn’t have an election to decide whether to make
him the Emperor. Emperor Bunga Bunga perhaps, which for those not familiar with
the slang term, would translate to “Emperor Casual Intercourse”.
Anyhow, despite his almost complete control of Italy’s media, that was not enough to keep Berlousconni in control. Italy has a young and interesting Prime Minister now, who does not appear to be a corrupt douche. Change can happen anywhere.
But can you imagine if Rupert Murdock controlled 70% of US media? Yikes.
But there was enough wrong in this midterm election to give us pause and grounds for concern. Unlimited money from financial oligarchs like the Koch Brothers. They have a large pipeline full of tainted crude oil that they’d like to run through your bedroom. They are very, very wealthy, very powerful, and they are not going away. Because, it has been decided, “Corporations are people”, and they should have a voice as well as the actual people, and then it was decided that they really should be able to donate as large an amount of their ill-gotten gains as they want to, Gosh Darn it! Is this a free and fair country, or what? Umm, yes, to an extent it IS a wonderfully free country, but fair? Maybe not so much. We have hundreds of thousands of Americans in jail for selling a bit of pot or something like that, who are costing our country tens of thousands of dollars each, to warehouse them in prisons. Some should probably be there, but the vast majority of them should be living independently, with state supervision and support, so they can turn their lives around. It is fairly rare for a person to be in prison and learn to turn their life around. Those who do get books written about them.
And in the meantime there are major corporations who are discovered to have embezzled enormous sums of money, from their shareholders, the government, the public and so on. In some cases tens of Billions of dollars. When they are caught doing that, do they get slapped into the same prisons as someone who sold some pot to an undercover policeman? Nope. They get fined. And if the fine is modest enough, their company pays them a large year-end bonus for having navigated the system so effectively.
And companies of that sort are exactly the sort of “corporate citizens” who can make unlimited donations to elections and campaigns.
And when rightwing politicos blather about people illegally registering to vote, it turns out that there are perhaps (at most) a few dozen in each state who do so, either intentionally or by innocent mistake. But when we add up the number of voters who were disenfranchised in this election it will add up to hundreds of thousands. And NO ONE will be held accountable for suppressing/stealing/denying their right to vote. Why not? Because they are white and wear suits and ties? Why isn’t stealing a voter’s rights an enormous and fundamental crime, punishable by a number of years in a really uncomfortable jail? Isn’t that tantamount to treason, in our Holy Democracy? Or is there a racial element at work? Is stealing a Latino or African-American vote just kind of like a Parking Ticket? While stealing the vote of a white skinned guy should be a Capital Offense. Why isn’t anyone raising Holy Hell about that? Will that all be forgotten after the election is over? Like it has been before?
You know, like the voter disenfranchisement in Florida that gave us President George W. Bush instead of Al Gore? I mean, who knows how Gore would have done, but the American people had a right to make that choice, rather than have it be stolen from them by upscale bandits. Who went totally unpunished for their actions.
We need a couple of new and progressive Supreme Court Justices. Now. The odds of one of the medium-aged conservatives quitting their job, or this earthly realm, are small. But who knows? LIfe is full of surprises.
In the meantime, Americans are going to get a chance to watch Mitch “Turtleface” McConnell pontificate at length, until we become deathly sick of listening to his avuncular lectures. Senator Inhofe, who apparently believes in the Biblical story of creation, is slated to take over the Senate Committee on the Environment and explain that Global Warming is a myth. Listening to him will be loads and loads of fun. Intelligent people all over the world will be watching with fascinated horror. And laughing at us.
This should be a very interesting couple of years. The economy is said to be doing very well, though it seems to have benefitted those at the top of the heap a lot more than those at the bottom, but the success of initiatives to raise the minimum wage did very, very well this election cycle. That’s a very, very good thing, and the States that had that change in law (Alaska is now $15? Wow) will be models of what the impact of that change will do to the economy of those States and the lifestyles of the young. Over the next two years it is very likely that we will see those positive impacts.
And there are some really horrible things. John McCain may head the Defense Committee in the Senate and push for getting into a land war in Iraq again. Dumb-ass. Dumb idea, dubious outcome.
Anyhow, let’s all stay tuned and see how it turns out. Sometimes a bad event can be the trigger for some very positive things. By and large younger people didn’t vote in this election. If so, they are likely to find the shenanigans of these new Senators and Congressmen not very much to their liking. Maybe that is what it takes to politicize young people. If they think politicians have it under control, then why even think about it, but this debacle may help them wake up to the fact that government is a ditch that tends to silt up over time, and needs to be continually dug out and cleaned, in order to keep working.
And here is an interesting article, by all people Frank Luntz, the GOP wonk. If Republicans listened to him, they’d be dangerous, but I suspect they are soooo pleased with themselves that they’re not in mood to listen to anyone. Not even each other. It’s going to be fun to watch Ted Cruz and Rand Paul battle each other for “intellectual” leadership of their party, and the country.
-Arthur
