These are fascinating times in this United States of America! Who will be elected president in 2016 to lead this country across the troubled waters which lie ahead? The story of this election campaign is materializing as I write these very words. Chapter two of the narrative begins after the election results from New Hampshire’s primaries this week which saw Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders emerge as clear winners.
There is much to be said about this election campaign and the amazing, atypical roster of candidates who have emerged, but I focus on three salient points:
Point one: That the current front-runners (yes, it is early), Trump and Sanders are most improbable/unusual candidates. On the one hand, Donald Trump is an outspoken, high-profile, multi-billionaire capitalist with a show-biz flair but no political experience, whatsoever. On the other hand, Senator Bernie Sanders characterizes himself as a Democratic Socialist – hardly the historical caricature of your viable presidential candidate!
Point two: The American electorate is desperately disgusted with Washington politics and politicians who perpetuate the “art” of procrastination and indecisiveness. It is clear that Trump and Sanders are where they are because they present voters with radical departures from the status-quo.
Point three: Both of these candidates have taken the plunge into the deep, treacherous waters of America’s most serious problem – especially Sanders.
What is the greatest threat to the United States of America?
Answer: The fact that Abraham Lincoln’s government “of the people, by the people, and for the people” has been hijacked by wealthy, special interests from industry and Wall Street. I have long been convinced that the situation poses a dangerous threat to the viability of our American democracy. It would seem that Senator Sanders has reached a similar conclusion along with many of our citizens who look askance at the gross wealth inequality which reigns supreme in America.
I recall a trip to Disneyland’s Tomorrowland when I was a young man: My family was listening to a speech by Abraham Lincoln realistically delivered by Disney’s “Lincoln automaton” (programmed robot). In the speech, Lincoln declared that, should the United States ever fail, its demise will come from forces within, not from outside the country. It was abundantly clear to me that Lincoln was warning about both citizen apathy/polarization, and the corrosiveness of internal corruption.
Donald Trump’s willingness to “damn the torpedoes” and say whatever is really on his mind was on full display in the first Republican debate when he wagged his finger disapprovingly at the influence special interests have on the decisions and functioning of our government. He insisted that he should know as well as anyone how the system works for the wealthy, because he, as a developer/capitalist, has taken advantage of the opportunities that the law allows! How refreshing was that honest admission and his subsequent stand that special interests have too much sway on our government by way of campaign contributions?
The Bernie Sanders Solution: Rein-in the Special Interests
For anyone like me who is well aware of Wall Street’s recklessness, Sanders’ contention that our government is being steered by special interests is a resonating bell-tone. Few serious people will forget the near collapse of this country’s entire financial system back in 2007/2008 (yes, it almost happened!) and the role played by the greed and influence of Wall Street banks and investment houses. Hundreds of billions of dollars were lost, much of that by middle-class Americans, during the recovery process and the bail-out of Wall Street. Countless lives were changed forever thanks to the reckless, greedy actions of Wall Street and the banks as they parlayed their securitized and scrubbed, sub-prime home mortgage con game into huge profits…and, yet, not one of the well-documented protagonists ever spent a day in jail for it.
For anyone who needs to be convinced just how close this country came to financial/global Armageddon, I recommend the Frontline documentary, Inside the Meltdown. Michael Lewis, in his book (and the current popular movie) titled The Big Short reveals just how corrupt and/or ignorant were the people in both government and the private sector who allowed all this to happen. And make no mistake: Nothing has changed enough since that narrow escape to prevent a worse, future financial calamity from happening again.
When asked how he intends to change the ways of Congress and Wall Street should he gain the White House, Sanders cites his “popular revolution” as the vehicle. Indeed, he has touched a sensitive nerve in the populace as evidenced by the response received by his message about wealth inequality and the people’s government being increasingly controlled by wealthy special interests. Is Sanders a head-in-the-clouds liberal who does not know what he is tackling? After listening carefully to him, I think not!
Just How Will This Work, Senator Sanders?
A media political pundit (there are a lot of them) asked Sanders just the other day, “How will you possibly get an often self-serving Congress to wean themselves from the campaign contributions which fuel their constant drive for re-election? Who, in a position to matter, would shun the money? Do you think YOU can change their minds and enact laws which eliminate campaign contributions?”
At that point, Sanders proved to me his mettle with his quiet but firm answer (paraphrased): “No, the public will change their minds.” He reiterated and emphasized that his strategy involves a “popular revolution.” He did not have the opportunity to elaborate further, but I can imagine what his strategy might be. I envision a successful attempt to ban outside money and influence from our government process proceeding in two steps:
Step 1: Establish a generous election campaign fund (including network time) paid for by taxpayers and equally divided among all “qualified” candidates for major office. I am certain that an acceptable winnowing process can be established to narrow the field, initially.
Step 2: The executive branch (the president) drafts a written oath of office whereby major Washington office-holders and seekers can choose to swear to abstain from all moneys collected from special interests – under penalty of perjury. Any incumbent or candidate who does not sign the oath will be listed in the “nay” column of a listing which is readily available for all the public to see. Given the current mood of the electorate, I would hope that those who resisted signing the pledge to forego private campaign finance would see future voter support at the polls seriously dinged. That approach would, indeed, represent the public changing the minds of Congress – as Sanders intimated! Sanders must surely have something similar in mind in order to give his popular revolution some teeth!.
Have You Ever Wondered Why Our Tax Code Is So Complicated?
Here is the answer to the question. The intricate loop-holes and deductions in today’s huge tax code are symbolic footprints left behind by special-interest lobbyists and their lawyers who have, over many decades, chiseled away at tax code simplicity, creating special exceptions (loop-holes) in order to benefit their wealthy clients. Such clients are heavily represented in the top 0.1% of the population who now owns more wealth than the bottom 90% of Americans. Funny how that happens, isn’t it? By the way, I am in favor of raising marginal tax brackets up to at least 50% (with no loop-holes) for those making over ten million dollars a year, rising to 80% for incomes over fifty million – not to exact revenge on successful people, but to discourage the rampant greed and speculation which today’s 39% bracket (complete with loop-holes) encourages. I wonder how the rich ever got the marginal rate reduced from the 90% level it had reached during the Eisenhower administration….I wonder.
One of the worst Decisions Washington Ever Made!
I agree with Bernie Sanders that the 1999 repeal of the Glass-Steagall Act was a terrible move. Glass-Steagall was enacted in 1932/33 to separate savings and loan banks from Wall Street investment banks. The great depression made clear the need for such legislation. Most people with their precious savings held by a bank do not want that bank making risky Wall Street investments with their hard-earned money – never mind what the FDIC says it guarantees. Greed-induced gambling with the money of America nearly resulted in Washington’s inability to contain the financial chain-reaction which began in 2007. Back in 2008, other than Bear Stearns and Lehman Brothers which did go under, it was clear that without a taxpayer bail-out, systemic failure of the system could destroy this country’s entire economy. Call it “taking one” by the taxpayer for the greedy and incompetent.
Why was Glass-Steagall repealed in 1999 during the Clinton administration? I do not know the answer to that one, but I would wager that lobbyist’s footprints were prevalent along the paths leading to Congressional offices – wouldn’t you?
Where Does Hillary Clinton Stand?
Hillary Clinton insists that she is serious about the lobbyist problem, yet I have not heard her call for the reinstatement of Glass-Steagall. I wonder specifically what her plan would be (beyond invoking the reactionary legislation of Dodd-Frank) to proactively restore the full attention of Congress to the business of the people?
At one point in last night’s democratic debate between Sanders and Clinton, she took personal umbrage at Sanders’ insinuation that her $600,000 speaker’s fee received from Goldman Sachs over the past year is unacceptable. Clinton said she would never be swayed in her vote by campaign favors. Sanders missed his chance by not retorting that not everyone in government might possess such high personal standards – a safe bet, I will wager.
Sanders did groan, “Let’s not insult the intelligence of the American people” (my paraphrase) – a remark surely made not to refute her personal integrity in the matter, but to demonstrate the absurdity of blithely dismissing the corrosive power of lobbying on our over-all system of governance. In many crumbling parts of the world, they call it bribery – the need to pay money for a favor…or even for a fair shake. Sanders sarcastically asked (paraphrased), “Why would the wealthy do that with their money? Do they enjoy throwing their money around?”
I hardly believe that Abraham Lincoln, politically savvy as he was, could countenance the form of bribery present in America today. At the time, Lincoln was correct when he ventured that America had more to fear from within than from without. In all fairness, he could little imagine that other immense threat to us all that has since materialized – an unstable nuclear world. May divine providence provide “we the people” with the leadership we so desperately need along with the popular will and good sense to vigilantly guard our democracy and our freedoms.
Reason and Reflection 