We may have recently elected a President who is a young, mixed-race natural-born U.S. citizen, but the political and economic power of this country still rests with a few thousand rich old white guys (ROWGs) born well before 1960. If one looks at the U.S. Senate, less than a dozen of these guys are making most of the decisions on how to run the U.S. – all the while principally representing the wealthiest corporate and private interests in the history of the world.
Even though many under 30 have moved beyond race, religion, sex or prior national origin as major considerations, that group really does not vote as frequently as those who were born before 1950. The U.S. still has between 30 and 40 percent of its population too lazy and stupid to vote. A similar percentage (though some actually vote) believes “creationism” is superior to evolution, even though the latter has been accepted by the vast majority of humans on this planet, many of whom with extensive educational backgrounds. It doesn’t take much to swing the American electorate idiotically around every two years.
For ROWGs, it is still always about those old issues of race, religion, ethnicity, nationality, sex and social class (money). In fact, most of the opposition to President Obama’s proposals goes far beyond pursuing any coherent political or economic beliefs but instead can be explained only on the basis of great personal animosity that they try to hide with increasing difficulty.
There have been multiple studies showing that we all subconsciously carry around many different prejudices that permeate our outlooks and decision-making processes. The older we are, the more prejudices we have and the more we deny those hidden animosities towards those who are not the same as we are. It’s just one more ugly aspect of human nature. Once it may have been a debatable and worthwhile protective shield for a species that killed strangers first and then asked questions later. But now it is not as advantageous when have to constantly live in cities with people who are physically and politically different from each other. ROWGs know how to appeal to the basest human instincts of fear, animosity towards anyone different, and greed.
If President Obama succeeds in enacting a good part of his tax, infrastructure, environmental, healthcare, and educational reforms, the ROWGs will be forever barred from ever dreaming one of them will again occupy the White House. They are not leaving the earth and giving up political power without a fight. They are also caught up in the conundrum that racially and ethnically, there will be far fewer ROWGs in the future than there are now simply due to America’s rapidly-changing demographics. They are not looking to posterity because they think they have little or no stake in it. They live for the moment and only care about the policies that their largest campaign contributors tell them to care about – with the added incentive to hurt the new President and the majority of Americans who voted for him – as a visceral and nasty form of Schadenfreude. Listening to any of the ROWGs speak is ample evidence they care not for the public good but only perpetuating the petty fights that they hope to win for personal gain.
Someone once commented that adult life in the U.S. is just like high school but the food is better. Anyone who has endured American high school over the past 40 years can readily attest that it is a shallow, clique-filled, pointless grab of ephemeral power by a small minority over the rest of the students. Many of us thought we only had to experience 4 years of it, but sadly in this country, we may have to face a lifetime of high school as we have yet to fully mature psychologically as a people.
President Obama is that nerdy outsider who was unpredictably elected High School Student Council President – much to the dismay of the old power structure of wealthy top students, jocks, and cheerleaders. Their reaction to the event is not to thoughtfully consider helping to improve the lives of the vast majority of other students in high school who have had to endure the perpetual abuse and stupidity of the endless old power structure. Instead they decided to destroy the “usurper” and ensure that no one like him ever gets elected again.
That type of visceral reaction to the 2008 elections can also explain the insanity of the “birther” movement claiming that President Obama is a “usurper” since he was allegedly not born in Hawaii in 1961 despite all evidence to the contrary. He was simply not born to the old white privileged class of people from the East where the vast majority of U.S. Presidents have originated. Even though he is an Ivy-League product, those ROWGs consider him a false leader attributable to affirmative action. That kind of similar animosity from their old wars of the 1970’s and 80’s was an undercurrent during the Sotomayor hearings for the Supreme Court.
Our 18th Century Constitution is not a worthwhile document to run any country in the 21st Century. It merely helps preserve an antiquated power structure that favors the top 2% of the wealthy in this country at the expense of everyone else. Those who worship its “sanctity” and “original intent” are also some who claim even older religious texts must be interpreted literally. This does not stem from their superior interpretive skills but simply due to their overarching personalities as “control freaks.” As we have seen over the past decade and the recent recession, our hyper-capitalist system has simply run out of steam and economic purpose. Financial transactions designed solely to make the illusion of money without creating real products, services or GDP wealth are essentially an end game of any declining economy. The wealthy on Wall Street are still siphoning off as much money as possible in advance of the final deluge and collapse that unfettered greed will cause. Whether an end to this insanity comes in 2012 or 2020, the old U.S. dominated world will cease and be replaced by more worthy global powers.
We have not addressed our massive economic and social problems in the U.S. because we are too dimwitted, diverse and divided. If you look at all the other advanced countries in the world with far better national healthcare, educational and infrastructure systems than the U.S., they are much smaller and more homogenous. They actually share some kinship with their fellow citizens that makes them want to help and protect everyone in their country.
Our country has not had that shared background or kinship. It may come to that point from another direction – by a complete mélange of mixed-race people in another 20 years who see their national kinship from a new angle. But for the U.S. in the early 21st century run by ROWGs, that kinship does not exist to justify helping our fellow citizens – rather we must continue the abuse of our fellow citizens who lack the economic and political power. ROWGs have no interest in any other groups except themselves and their diminishing progeny. ROWGs grew up with and profited from the great inequalities of the recent American past. They cannot think of a world where that would not exist. And they will forcefully fight any changes to the status quo until the majority of them are dead.
Under the last Bush Administration, ROWGs thought that they could kill government by spending it to death and cutting taxes beyond reason. However, they now think they may have their final success through a deep and long recession. That is probably another underlying reason ROWGs want the recession to perpetuate and simultaneously not have any meaningful, cost-containing, and coverage-expanding healthcare reforms. If we are still in recession beyond 2012 and if they are returned to power, they will be able to kills so many programs because tax revenues have dropped so precipitously. Coupled with the public’s visceral fear of taxes and public debt, the only future choice will be to shrink all state and Federal programs to the point where they can be eliminated since our global economic position will require getting our fiscal house in order. This fits in with their shallow high school outlook. They do not want President Obama to succeed at anything being the usurper he is to their 2 centuries of exclusive control.
Time is not on their side, but neither is it for anyone living today. It is sad to watch a great country being destroyed by a few short-sighted angry ROWGs. They may destroy the Obama Administration in 4 years but we and our children will all have many more years to regret that we let them do it. If one looks to the great collapses of the prior great worldwide Roman, Spanish and British Empires, none of them had the political ability to change course despite numerous opportunities. The U.S. also lacks a political system that can adequately address our current and future needs. We may all really need to learn Spanish and Chinese in a hurry.
7/28/09 by Marc Pascal in Phoenix, AZ.