The real two-party system today has nothing to do with party
affiliation. It’s now the de facto
ruling class versus the working class.
Who makes up the ruling class? Start with establishment types like Mitch McConnell,
John Boehner, Lindsey Graham and John McCain from the Republicans. On the Democrat’s side you have Harry Reid,
Nancy Pelosi, Steny Hoyer, Chuck Schumer and Dick Durbin among others.
In short, members of the ruling class include the deal
makers in government willing to put their own and their supporters’ interests
ahead of what’s best for the country as a whole.
Add the legions of government employees and their unions, politically
appointed regulators, government contractors and suppliers, as well as the
entire lobbying industry that relies on currying favor with the government for
sustenance. Then throw in businesses and
industries that wouldn’t exist – or be nearly as profitable – without government
support.
Now you have a fairly complete 50,000 foot view of the
greatest domestic threat the American public has ever faced in modern times …
The political establishment.
The members may not always work in concert, but their goals
are the same: To enrich themselves and
their friends at the government trough.
The political establishment is essentially lawless, unless
you consider the law of the jungle – in this case survival of the most
politically connected. Its legislative members
routinely exempt themselves and their allies from laws and regulations they’ve initiated
yet don’t care to follow, while enforcing those on the rest of us.
They see nothing wrong with carve outs for each other and
their friends. Until recently few
Americans probably knew that the Republican and Democrat parties received a
total of more than $36 million in government money in 2012 to help with the
cost of their national conventions.
This gift from taxpayers to the two major political parties only
surfaced because Eric Cantor and others in the Senate pushed a bill to redirect
that money toward pediatric cancer research.
Guess where the $36 million originally came from? You know that box on your tax returns to
direct $3 of your tax to Presidential Campaign Financing – the box pushed by campaign
finance reform advocates? Your money was
used to subsidize lavish events for Republicans and Democrats. Nice.
Do you still believe the political establishment doesn’t work in concert, across party lines?
There are also apparently no penalties for its members for
stealing on the job, padding contracts, investing based on insider information,
breaking laws, misusing government resources, or other serious offenses that
would land normal folks in prison for a long, long time.
Just remember the GSA scandal. Also remember the guy who took the EPA for about
$900,000 while falsely claiming he was also working for the CIA – over a period
of almost a decade. Now an audit of a
small number of credit cards used by EPA employees showed that 75 of the 80 or
so transactions reviewed had been misused for about $80,000 in personal charges,
including for family gym memberships, child care and gift cards.
And you can bet these are just the tip of the iceberg.
Anybody who believes government employees are solely focused
on serving the public is delusional; a large number are focused on serving
themselves and their bosses at our expense.
What makes the political establishment such a threat to our
society is not the money they take from us and squander. No, it’s the power they continue to
accumulate, aided and abetted by a complicit media that refuses to do its job.
With enough power the political establishment can do
whatever it wants. We’re seeing that
now. We’re so far in debt it’s almost
beyond comprehension. Yet the political
establishment continues to borrow more and more so it can spend more and more
on whatever it wishes.
The political establishment is already powerful, pervasive
and pernicious. It’s also
seductive. Because it controls how much
money exists, who gets more or less of that money, where and how many jobs are
created using that money, and how much it takes from each of us, it can use
that power to bend others to its will.
Because it controls which laws are created, and which laws
are enforced and how, it has near tyrannical control over all of us. It can use various branches and agencies of
the government to harass, intimidate, and crush political adversaries with
virtual impunity. At the same time, it
can turn a blind eye to criminal acts it chooses not to prosecute.
It’s also one of the few solid growth areas in our economy. While the rest of the country suffered
mightily during the last recession, the political establishment prospered. While ordinary businesses had to lay off
workers, hiring was up for the political establishment. It even managed to find money to buy parts of
major industries, bail out banks and favored companies, and fund pet projects.
The traditional Republican Party wants you to believe none
of that would have happened had they been in control. That’s simply not true. Establishment Republicans are just like
establishment Democrats, united under the motto of “go along, to get
along.”
The truth is, when Republicans gain enough power they are no
different than the current Democrats.
Republicans are just as likely to drive up the deficit while expanding
the size and scope of the Federal government.
Nixon gave us the EPA and OSHA, among others. Reagan was
the first U.S. President ever to boost the deficit over a trillion dollars in a
single term, mainly through spending that largely benefitted defense
contractors. George W. Bush will be
remembered for the costly wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, but he also gave us the
budget-busting prescription-drug coverage plan. And George W. was a groundbreaker when it came to deciding what parts of what laws he
planned to enforce through “signing statements.”
In reality, the only actual differences between
establishment Republicans and establishment Democrats are so minor as to be
laughable. They are cut from the same cloth.
They believe in using government money to win friends, influence enemies,
and further their careers.
Are there loftier motives at times? Certainly.
The Civil Rights Act of 1964 is a perfect example. So is the Americans with Disabilities Act. Even a stopped clock is right twice a
day.
More often than not, unfortunately, most pieces of
“bipartisan” legislation are a witches’ brew of self-aggrandizing publicity, special
interest payoffs, pork, and pet projects.
(Drill down on the details of the most recent “farm bill” and see for
yourself.)
So while establishment types in both parties want you to
believe the parties are fundamentally different, they’re not. Sure, on TV they appear to be at each other’s
throats. But behind the scenes they are
back slapping and high-fiving as they cut deals and swap votes to help one
another.
Republican and Democrat incumbents work together to protect
each other from competitive races in their home districts. They also join forces to limit any reforms
that might make them more accountable, or to tighten ethics standards. Republicans have no problem funding a pork
project in a Democrat’s district in exchange for a pork project in their
district.
Most of all, they’ll form whatever unholy alliance is needed
to keep the status quo intact; neither establishment Republicans nor Democrats
want to change the way things work . The system may appear perverse and
counterproductive to most rational observers, but the players understand how to
work it for maximum gain.
That’s why the Tea Party is so reviled by establishment
types on both sides of the aisle, and the bête noir for government employees
and contractors. The Tea Party threatens
the status quo. They are outsiders not
willing to play the game according to the establishment’s rules.
Career politicians like Boehner and McConnell, and Reid and
Pelosi – all of whom kissed ass for years to get where they are – are
confounded by newbies to the club who don’t bow down to their elders. Worse,
the Tea Party types are vocal and not content to vote the way they’re told.
Folks like Kelly Ayotte, Ted Cruz, Rand Paul, and Mike Lee are heretics to the political establishment.
They challenge the hierarchy.
They refuse to be “managed.” They say things that are true, but
uncomfortable for party leaders to hear.
They aren’t “team” players, in simplest terms. And for that, they’ve been dismissed as Tea
Party extremists or misguided even by members of their own party.
Make no mistake, the idea of a Tea Party-style grassroots
resistance to business as usual threatens a way of life for the entire political
establishment, so there’s a bipartisan move to destroy it by whatever means
necessary. The last thing the political establishment wants to deal with is
millions of pissed off voters who might want to cut spending and rein in
government expansion.
Just listen to how Boehner, McCain and other establishment
Republicans attack the Tea Party. It’s eerily similar to the talking points for
the Democrats. The media’s also doing a
job on the Tea Party whenever they can.
TV and movie producers are doing their part as well.
Lost in all this focus on the “vast right-wing conspiracy”
of the Tea Party is a very simple truth:
the Tea Party isn’t even an organized party. As far as I can tell, this loosely knit
coalition has no positions on social issues.
It appears most Tea Party-type groups are generally focused on fiscal
responsibility and stopping wasteful spending.
Which, to me, seems like a good idea.
I suppose that scares the crap out of the political
establishment. It must; otherwise, why
would career politicians, public sector unions, the media, Hollywood and others
unleash such vitriol on what truly started out to be a grassroots American
movement?
The Tea Party has been accused of racism, being
anti-science, anti-progress bigots, homophobes and whatever else can be slung
at them. None of which has been
proven.
If anything, perhaps the most frightening thing of all for
the political establishment is that most Tea Party supporters seem like perfectly
normal middle-class Americans who don’t want to see their taxes go up
anymore.
How dare they.
The only non-violent way to stop the political establishment
is to overthrow them at the ballot box.
That requires putting up and supporting commonsense candidates who
represent our interests, and not the interests of the establishment.
That means taking a reasonable approach to spending, scaling
back the domestic reach of government, reducing Federal payrolls, decertifying Federal
public sector unions, ending no-bid Federal contracts, enforcing ethics laws, and
staying the Hell out of social issues.
It also means realistic means testing for benefits, strengthening
the safety net for those who truly need it, and making national defense a
priority.
Oh, and upholding the Constitution.
You know, the things that are important to us.
It can be done. It
has been done in the past. And we need
to do it now.
