The real two-party system ...

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.