The Partisan Divide on Issues

[pbrower2a]

(12-16-2019, 01:45 PM)David Horn Wrote:

(12-14-2019, 03:48 AM)Classic-Xer Wrote:

(12-12-2019, 02:20 PM)David Horn Wrote: At this moment in time, both parties are largely "owned" by the wealthy elites, but it's the GOP that is doing it's level best to make that even worse. Citizens United is the product of a conservative court, bent on protecting the rights of wealthy.  The Dems are the second raters here.  So wanting to escape the control of the overlords by supporting the GOP is the world's greatest exercise in futility.  

Be aware of the actions not the words.  The GOP cuts taxes on the rich and removes restrictions on how they can use their wealth.  That enables the virtually unlimited right to use wealth to undermine democracy and we're already pretty far along on that journey.  Next up: anarchy, because only the rich and powerful have control in a wide open game.  Everyone else is one or two steps away from poverty -- you and me included.  It's easy to control people who are at risk.

I happen to believe in the notion that action speaks louder than words. So, I tend to focus/ judge more on actions than words. How many brushes with poverty have you experienced in life? I've experienced three during my life so far. The first was the worst because I was pretty powerless at the time. The last one was the worst as far as overall financial losses. Right now, I'm actually more than a couple steps away from poverty. I'm pretty familiar with ex urban areas and ex urban people. Honestly, I don't know of many or have met many ex urban folks who seem to be financially hurting these days. So, I doubt that you're a couple of steps away from poverty either unless you're completely dependent on your wife or something. Yes, it's easy to control people who are at risk. I'd say that Liberals know/ understand that better than anyone else right now.

My journey has been far from linear.  I left upstate New York, because the place was in rapid decline, and I wasn't about to join the fray.  That was 1972, and it's only worse today.  I've had other struggles along the way too, but I'm beyond that now.  I'm not atypical in this exurban enclave, because it's a resort area, with plenty of well-to-do retirees.  The locals who hail from here, on the other hand, are not so secure.  Still, there is an actual economy here.  No, the real exurban and rural economy lies to the west of me, in Western Virginia and other coal-belt areas.  Poverty is high, education levels are low, and mobility is near zero.  Among these folks there is a general belief that they pay the bills for their urban cousins, and they resent it.  Of course, the exact opposite is the case, but that truth is not enough to change opinions.  The area is solidly pro-Trump by upwards of 80%.  They believe he wants to help, but the nasty Democrats are stopping him.  Never mind that the state hasn't had a solid Democrat-lead government since 1983.

Basically the Democratic party has gone conservative while the Republican party has gone reactionary, if not fascist. The GOP stands for an ethos among most the reactionary ever known: the concept that the common man has great responsibilities toward the economic elites and that those elites owe the common man nothing. In essence it is the lord telling the servant "Suffer for me, and make sure to show your recognition that you are so much a loser that you need to be exploited to keep you from going in some dissolute and destructive manner, and eventually you will get pie in the sky when you die". That is not capitalist; that is feudal!

Elites of all kinds have typically devolved into such an attitude that recognizes their own sybaritic excesses as the sole rightful object of all. So it has been with the Pharaohs, and so it is for some pampered pricks who sailed through life on the enterprise, toil, investment, and innovation of others yet are blind to the contributions of others. It is not a matter of ownership; so it was with shamans in primitive societies and so it has been with the administrative elite of "socialist" states. (One of the biggest blind spots of Karl Marx was his inability to recognize bureaucrats as potential exploiters, as capitalism and Marxism-Leninism have both shown likely.

In the end those elites preclude anyone having a chance to challenge their power even as a competitor. Those elites entrench power and ensure that they co-opt any bounties of innovation, that they alone make the decisions on investment. Toil of course is demanded, and under increasingly-onerous terms. Crony capitalism becomes a modern version of feudalism, and the rentier is king. 

In case anyone thinks that I see Donald Trump as a prime example of this depravity -- he is right. When we go in a bad direction we must typically return to where things last seemed to be going right, at least according to the wisdom of the time. I think of a community in America which is undeniably capitalist, honors work and enterprise, and has its head on straight about investment. It does not produce sybaritic opulence for any elite. You probably wouldn't like it: it is the Old Order Amish. On the other hand, people are valued at all stages of life from early childhood to senescence. There is no bureaucracy, so there are few white-collar occupations. In their world only capitalists get rich... but if you truly believe in capitalism, shouldn't genuine capitalists be the only ones to get rich? The Old Order Amish are decidedly primitive in their technology, especially if such technology devolves into entertainment. Television and radio, along with the potential for intellectual gain and exchange of ideas (never mind that most people who are addicted to television and radio in all their manifestations aren't using electronic devices for intellectual gain -- and they don't share ideas if they really have none!)  That Amish kids stop formal education at age sixteen appalls me as a prospect. Still, theirs is a sane society, however limited it may be. 

There's obviously a huge difference between using a television and video to see this:

 http://www.pbs.org/wnet/nature/group/birds/parrot/

...or pornography.