America: The Plutocratic Corporatocracy (Part II)

As I mentioned in the last post, the United States is one of the freest countries in the world in terms of human rights and civil liberties. And yet, for all this unabashed freedom we have, Corporate America has managed to hijack the U.S. government for its own rapacious ends, turning the country into a kind of neo-serfdom.

For decades the income gap between the wealthy and non-wealthy has been widening steadily. Under George W. Bush, this chasm became even more dramatic. Here’s what the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office discovered earlier this year:

“The data reveal starkly uneven income growth over recent decades. Between 1979 and 2006, real after-tax incomes rose by 256 percent — or $863,000 — for the top 1 percent of households, compared to 21 percent — or $9,200 — for households in the middle fifth of households and 11 percent — or $1,600 — for households in the bottom fifth...In 2006, the average household in the top 1 percent had an income of $1.2 million, up $63,000 just from the prior year; this $63,000 gain is nearly two times the total income of the average middle-income household.”

The seemingly ever-widening income gap is hardly news, as this plutocratic trend has been well known since the Reagan years. Because Americans are generally docile creatures, hardly any of them have raised a stink about the matter. After all, a widening income gap does not necessarily imply hard times for the non-wealthy. But in 2008, the U.S. economy was in a full-blown corporate greed-driven nosedive, which, when it came crashing down, decimated shareholdings and 401Ks. Unlike the voodoo accounting scandals of Enron, Tyco, WorldCom, etc. in the early 2000s, the 2008 shit-show was more far-reaching. You didn’t have to be a big player in the market to lose big, and many people sure did.

It didn’t take long before the corporate propagandists—avarice’s apologists—were on the scene to assure the American people that everything that had happened was legal. There would be no need for corporate witch hunts because it was all on the level, we were told. But even if this is true, what does it say about our financial system? The housing bubble was achieved by smoke and mirrors, and it should’ve been clear that maybe—just maybe—too many people were getting credit when they shouldn’t have; not just mortgages, but also auto loans and credit cards. Much of this debt was securitized and bought up by opportunistic speculators who were left holding the shit end of the stick when the subprimes blew up the economy. Add to this a horrifyingly lopsided balance of trade in favor of imports, and you have yourself a nation of debtors spending well beyond their means and who don’t make anything the world wants. Who knew our house-of-cards economy would fold like a house of cards?

The worst part about this wasn’t the collapse itself, but the government’s remedy for it. Then Secretary of the Treasury and former Goldman Sachs CEO Hank Paulson saw fit to arrange a taxpayer-funded bailout of Wall Street, including Goldman and big Goldman debtor AIG. In order to justify the bailout, the government told the masses that these companies were simply “too big to fail” and that if a company like Goldman Sachs went belly-up, the ripple effect would be devastating. Indeed, there is some truth in that phrase, but if Washington insists on using it, then let’s not pretend that our economic system follows a capitalist model. Adam Smith and David Ricardo would shit themselves if they saw what we’ve been doing in this country. And what we’ve been doing is state-subsidizing capitalism, which of course, is not capitalism at all.

So why this complacency among the people even in the face of this disaster? Well, it has a lot to do with the freedoms enjoyed by Americans. That ours is a republic in form only, and is really a corporatocracy is not evident to most Americans. While it is true that many Americans hold a low opinion of politicians in the abstract, it is this writer’s impression that they know not just how near the mark are their cursory observations.

Complacency, of course, does not bode well for any kind of social mobilization. Rather than trying to improve the country, many Americans prefer to rest on the nation’s laurels and relish in its being supposedly the “greatest country on earth.” A large portion of the U.S. population is far too conservative and patriotic, and therefore extremely susceptible to plutocratic manipulation. It’s the classic What’s the Matter with Kansas? strategy. The interests of Corporate America are served best when serious discussions about the economy, health care, taxes, military spending, etc. do not take place in the public forum. Otherwise, it is inevitable that Americans will reject the corporate agenda. This is why the business-friendly GOP generally tries to steer the discussion in less threatening directions, toward abortion, or gays and flag-burning. In fact, you could sum up the Republican Party’s talking points in three words: Fags and flags. They don’t want informed and substantive debate to occur on matters that affect everyone because that would make for a nightmare scenario come reelection time.

If you think I’m exaggerating, take the anti-health care reform strategy of the Orwellian-named FreedomWorks, a conservative organization of corporate shills led by former House majority leader Dick Armey. In a FreedomWorks memo you have to read to believe, the organization advises health care town hall forum attendees on how to deal with a pro-reform representative:

“– Artificially Inflate Your Numbers: ‘Spread out in the hall and try to be in the front half. The objective is to put the Rep on the defensive with your questions and follow-up. The Rep should be made to feel that a majority, and if not, a significant portion of at least the audience, opposes the socialist agenda of Washington.’

– Be Disruptive Early And Often: ‘You need to rock-the-boat early in the Rep’s presentation, Watch for an opportunity to yell out and challenge the Rep’s statements early.’

– Try To ‘Rattle Him,’ Not Have An Intelligent Debate: ‘The goal is to rattle him, get him off his prepared script and agenda. If he says something outrageous, stand up and shout out and sit right back down. Look for these opportunities before he even takes questions.’”

There you have it. This memo shows just how intellectually and morally bankrupt many of health care reform’s opponents are. This should thoroughly piss off anyone looking to have a serious and intelligent discussion about health care reform. Even if you oppose Obama’s health care plan, this sort of shit should enrage every decent American. If you think “Try to ‘Rattle Him,’ Not Have An Intelligent Debate’” is a legitimate strategy like the people at FreedomWorks, you are an asshole and a terrible human being. One of the great things about America is that we can have intelligent public debates. To deliberately try to railroad efforts to that end is an abomination, is fascistic, and is something the Iranian mullahs would do.

I must say, however, that while the GOP has a penchant for deceit and corporate servitude, the Democrats are only slightly better in this respect, and by slightly better I mean slightly less bad. Politicians from both parties accept boatloads of cash from wealthy donors. In the U.S., if a candidate wins election to the House or Senate, he or she will undoubtedly owe quite a few favors to some wealthy people who will be looking for a political payoff. The president? Even worse. By the time a person becomes president, he’s totally compromised and in the fucking corporate bag.

That is the deal with our plutocratic corporatocracy. This assessment is admittedly superficial, but it would take many more words to sufficiently explore the mound of steaming shit that is the American power structure—a project I may very well undertake in the coming weeks, as I haven’t been this bullshit about politics in quite some time.

- Max