Puck Magazine was a political satirical magazine founded in 1871. It was infamous and beloved – a magazine of reform that mocked monopolists, corruption, money in politics, bigotry, fraud, and hypocrisy in government. Its home was the Puck Building in Manhattan’s Nolita district of Lower Manhattan. Puck made and unmade politicians, and waged war on corruption. Its successor, Spy Magazine, moved into the Puck Building in the 1980s and continued the tradition of lampooning corrupt businessmen and politicians – Donald Trump, in particular. Their mockery of Trump is best remembered by its characterization of him as a “fat fingered vulgarian”. The Puck Building is now owned by Jared and Ivanka Kushner.
But enough with historic farce; this is about tragedy. This is about what we learned from Robert Mueller’s testimony before the House on Wednesday, July 24th, 2019. But the quality of analysis depends largely upon what various viewers expected to hear.
For political pundits, Mueller’s testimony was supposed to be a long awaited “J’Accuse” moment, where this celebrated patriot would stand before the country and denounce Donald Trump as an eminently impeachable traitor, setting off a cascade of events that would lead to his removal ASAP. To journalists, Mueller’s words were too factually dense to fathom, particularly if not even one of them had taken the time to actually read Mueller’s report in the first place. Thankfully for journalists, Mueller’s testimony at least offered up a week’s worth of headlines like: “Is He Too Old?”
But to historians, Mueller’s testimony – and his urgent remarks – were all about Russia. It was about how Vladimir Putin’s Russia is reigniting The Great Game of the 19th Century, reigniting the Soviet expansion that led to the Warsaw Pact of 1955, and reigniting the Cold War – but this time with the tactics of a brave new world. Putin famously remarked in 2005 that “The breakup of the Soviet Union was the greatest geopolitical tragedy of the 20th century.” Well, now it’s abundantly clear that he has an app for that.
Muller’s words were a clarion call to America to put down the Cheetos and take a cold shower – because it wasn’t mere “meddling” that delivered us Donald Trump; it was a political nuke that landed in all 50 states. And worse…it worked. It worked in Britain and in many other democracies in Western Europe as well. It delivered Boris Johnson to a Cheetos addicted UK; it delivered Viktor Orbán to Hungary; it delivered Recep Erdo?an to Turkey. But we were the biggest prize of them all, because it delivered Donald Trump to America. That’s what Robert Mueller said … so listen up.
If you heard nothing, hear this: This election was the first shot across the bow of liberal democracies across the world – a blow to American democracy that we might not survive if we don’t sober up and crush Donald Trump and his complicit Republican Party now. And by complicit, I mean Mitch McConnell’s refusal this week to bring election security legislation to the Senate floor. The Democrats responded to McConnell’s obstruction with a report that said: “For years, Sen. McConnell has fought to increase the impact of dark money and corporate spending in our elections…. But now, after reportedly fighting efforts to expose Putin’s interference during the 2016 elections, Senator McConnell is blocking bipartisan reforms that would secure our elections from foreign interference.”
If this isn’t Republican conspiracy, then what is?
The story of America’s 2016 election is an epic tale whose final chapter hasn’t been written yet. It is a mosaic comprised of thousands of pieces that only come into view when seen from a distance. But epic stories like this one need an omniscient author to weave the tale. No such person currently exists. And the question remains: Will this tale have a tragic resolution? So tragic, in fact, that policies like Medicare For All, the New Green Deal, Campaign Finance Reform, Reproductive Rights, Criminal Justice Reform, and Tuition Free College legislation will be remembered as the vestigial remains of a 243-year-old failed attempt at self-government. I think our problem isn’t that we lack policies; it’s that we’re attempting to cure the wrong ailment.
Trump ate our lunch in 2016 because globalization and high technology extinguished the 20th Century jobs that relied on an industrialized economy. Trump didn’t tell steel workers that America has been de-industrializing for decades and that their jobs had become obsolete. But Hillary Clinton didn’t tell them that she would ensure that they would get job training for the jobs of today. While Trump lied with the flamboyance of a carnival barker, Hillary said, “It’s morning again in America.” She should have known what Churchill knew in 1930: “You cannot cure cancer by a majority. What is wanted is a remedy.”
Globalization and the democratization of information are forcing us to consider how the entire world will be re-partitioned. Our domestic angst isn’t merely whether America can take back its democracy; it’s whether liberal democracies across the developed world can survive at all.
We can see the 2020 election as a struggle to uphold the essential rights and institutions of ethical life. The flood of policy emanating from the Democratic presidential candidates reflects this perspective. While they describe how to slice the pie more equitably, some ask whether the algorithm of liberal democracies can even adapt to the massive global shifts that are distorting our business model.
Clearly, the Republican Party is suffering from a monumental plague of what Aristotle called “akrasia” – people who know the right thing to do but can’t help doing the opposite. (A current characterization of Boris Johnson and his support of Brexit.) But I’m afraid that the Democratic candidates with their mid-century progressive prescriptions are merely jumping the shark. Old prescriptions for new ailments. Old slogans for challenges we’re afraid to acknowledge. It’s really not morning again in America, and it never was.
Deborah Long is a Principal at Development Management Group, Inc. and founder of several non-profit charitable organizations. If you find her perspectives interesting, provocative, or controversial, follow her at: https://www.facebook.com/debby.long.98499?ref=br_rs
image: Wikimedia Commons
Deborah Long is a Principal at Development Management Group, Inc. and founder of several non-profit, charitable organizations. If you find her perspectives interesting, controversial, or provocative, you can follow her at: https://www.facebook.com/debby.long.98499?ref=br_rs