41/52 - Rage
Well, it's been quite a week. We've gone someplace I thought we would never go as a country. I think back to what leading Republicans said in 2021 before they capitulated to Trump.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said on the Senate floor that "President Trump is practically and morally responsible for provoking the events of January 6.”
Kevin McCarthy said, "The president bears responsibility for Wednesday's attack on Congress by mob rioters" in a House floor speech on January 13, 2021.
Senator Lindsey Graham stated on January 7, 2021: "It's going to be a process of rebuilding in the Republican Party... Trump and I had a hell of a journey. I hate it being this way... all I can say is count me out. Enough is enough."
Well, not quite. It was just a blink of an eye before they all got in line to bend the knee.
So, what the heck was Tuesday all about?
As someone who has NEVER liked Trump, not even in his quasi-celebrity days, I thought Tuesday would be about rage. Rage that someone as morally bankrupt as Trump – someone who has a lifetime of boorish behavior that was on full, unfiltered display during the past two months -- could be elected. Rage that a clown who faked oral sex on a microphone, who rocked silently for 40 minutes during a planned Q&A session while listening to not one, but two, versions of Ave Maria, who has a long record of demeaning women, and who was called a fascist not by Democrats, but by two 4-star generals who worked for him could somehow be elected as the leader of the free world.
I get that my rage is not the rage that ruled the day. And unlike the election denier-in-chief and his minions (wait, what happened again to all the claims of widespread faulty election processes and fraud?), I accept the results of the election.
Rage -- and a strong undercurrent of racism and sexism -- is at the core of what happened. According to my crackerjack A.I. assistant Claude,
The bottom 50% of families earn around 12-13% of national income
The top 1% earn around 20% of national income.
The top 0.1% (one-tenth of one percent) of U.S. families earn approximately 8-10% of national income.
During the period from 1945 to 1970 (when my dad was the first in his family to go to college -- on the GI Bill), income inequality was significantly less than it is today:
The bottom 50% earned about 20% of national income
The top 1% earned about 10-11% of national income
The top 0.1% earned about 2-3% of national income
During the period when I grew up, there were:
High marginal tax rates (the top marginal tax rate was over 90%)
Strong labor unions (about 1/3 of workers were unionized)
Strong financial regulation from New Deal policies
Limited globalization and automation
Higher minimum wages relative to average wages
It is possible for two seemingly conflicting statements to be true:
The U.S. economy is the envy of the world.
Income inequality is getting worse.
Relative to the first point, I hope we will remember a few data points over the next few years.
The inflation rate in the United States in September 2024 was 2.4%.
In October 2024, the unemployment rate in the United States was 4.1%.
The real gross domestic product (GDP) growth rate in the third quarter of 2024 was 2.8%
Trump’s evil genius has been to blatantly lie about the first point and to affix blame on the “other” for the second. It all comes down to the well-known LBJ quote:
“If you can convince the lowest white man he's better than the best colored man, he won't notice you're picking his pocket. Hell, give him somebody to look down on, and he'll empty his pockets for you.”
The 50% of the population that rightly feels they are being squeezed is at the heart of the rage that fueled this election. Who realize that executive salaries are through the roof while worker salaries are flat. The folks who feel like they are playing by the rules but are still getting screwed and see life as getting harder and harder.
Trump successfully focused their rage around the “other” and the need for some strong man – definitely a man -- to “change things.” The sad thing is that this misplaced loyalty and misogyny will do nothing to improve lives.
Fueled by torrents of rich-people money unleashed by the Supreme Court through the Citizens United decision and the subsequent D.C. Circuit Court decision in SpeechNow.org v. FEC, we have moved into a dangerous time. The influx of this money could not have come at a worse time, as A.I. algorithms on social media push us further and further into our protective and isolated information segments.
Oligarchs are not only running unchecked in Russia and China, but their power is also on full parade here. We have allowed our technology gods unfettered power, and the result is not good. Per Lord Action, “Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.” Nothing better illustrates the dangerous power held by single individuals than the spectacle of Elon Musk cavorting on stage like a crazy person or Jeff Bezos and the once-great Washington Post bending the knee to Trump.
What should we do?
I just don't know. In the immediate wake of the election, I am just too mad at the failure of our country to see Trump for the charlatan he is. I am so disappointed and sad that so many in our country have yet to rise above the racism and sexism to which we seem to revert as explanations when things get challenging or complicated.
Per Abraham Lincoln, "Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man's character, give him power." We'll see.
That’s all for now. Thanks for the therapy.
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