When I studied Marxism and socialism as a Poli Sci major in college, I came to admire some of the ideals of those philosophies, as unattainable as they seemed: elimination of economic inequality, feeding everyone, trading in some individualism for the collective benefit of the greater good. You know, like Spock said to Kirk in The Wrath of Khan: “The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few.”
I liked that. I liked their spot-on critiques of capitalism too, which, in my idealistic youth, I increasingly found to be unjust, unfair, and corrupt.
But what kept me from being fully attracted to the siren calls of socialism and communism, at least on a mass scale, was the incredible hypocrisy I saw in how those systems were being implemented by communist parties around the world, in particular, the subjugation of political dissenters, the crushing of free speech, the lack of an independent judiciary and free press, and most of all, the egregious abuse of power and self-dealing by the communist party members who governed the Soviet Union, Cuba, and China during the 1980s. While their citizens waited in food lines, lived without the trappings of my happy capitalist life, and rotted as political prisoners, the Communist Party apparatchiks got to eat steak, drink fine wine, drive in Mercedes Benzes and vacation in St. Tropez. They lived the good life, surrounded by plenty, while most of their citizens–the proletariat–struggled with no voice and no ability to change their daily reality.
Ultimately, I came to believe the old adage that “absolute power corrupts absolutely,” regardless of one’s political philosophy. Human nature is human nature. At bottom, we are basically highly evolved monkeys. People are drawn to nice shit and will do whatever they can to hold on to it, whether it’s power, a big house, sweet ride, fine dining, or a hot piece of man or woman. Once we have a taste of the good life, our primitive lizard brains eventually kick in. That’s why, despite my views and ideals, I work as a lawyer instead of a soup ladler in a homeless shelter. There is a base financial standard that I want for my life. I’m happy to pay more in taxes, donate, do pro bono work, and fight politically to help other people, but do I want to surrender my lifestyle–which I have worked hard to achieve and maintain–and devote my entire life to those things? No, I don’t. I haven’t. I won’t. It’s important to be honest here. There are people who have done those things, people I know personally who have surrendered those trappings entirely, or achieved a better balance than I have. They are better people than me. So it’s not as if I’m personally immune to materialism or power or convenience. I am not speaking from a high horse here. That said, while I am not in favor of socialism as a national economic standard, I am in favor of certain policies that The Low-Information Kneejerks deem “socialist.” I would accept fewer trappings, less “stuff”, a smaller place to live, a less nice car, if it meant that this entire country had free, or at least affordable, health care and a free public college education. I believe that this is the primary political difference between me and some of my conservative friends.
Sidenote: some of my dear conservative friends like to call me a hypocrite for having the political views that I have and not being willing to leave my cushy lawyer job and go work in a homeless shelter or NGO overseas. “Put your money where your mouth is!” they say. “Live your ideals!” they say. And my response is always the same: “Who the fuck are YOU to tell me what to do? What are YOU doing to help people? What sacrifices have YOU made in your life to help someone besides yourself? The political stands you take and the policies you support actually *hurt* people on a daily basis. Maybe not people you see in your daily life, but they’re out there if you turn off Fox News and take a drive to a low income neighborhood. The fact that you have no inequality standards at all, and don’t give a flying fuck about anyone but yourself and your own family, doesn’t give you the right to call me a hypocrite and demand that I live in poverty so that I’ll be perfectly “consistent” in your eyes. I mean shit, Pol Pot, Hitler, and Genghis Khan, were *really* consistent in their approach to life, so consistency is not an ideal by itself, right? It’s how you live your life and what you stand for that matters. Who do you try to help besides yourself, Mr. Christian? (It’s typically Christians who wouldn’t know Jesus from a toffee apple who like to throw these grenades at me, which only compounds my indignation). Who are you to give me a hypocrisy TED talk? Please. Fuck all of the way off.
Anyway, back to my point. The people who were running the communist parties in those countries really didn’t give a shit about socialist philosophy or ideals. For most of them, it was all about the power, the steak, the wine, and the nice car, and they were just manipulating people with Marxism to benefit themselves and have a nice life. I’m sure there were exceptions, some true believers. But most of them were just self-deluded, corrupt pigs and manipulators who answered only to the party bosses, the military, and the intelligence services who kept them in power so *they* too could get their own taste of that Sweet Politburo Life.
Four decades later, I have come to feel the same way about what currently passes for “democracy” my own country. Here, the manipulation and subjugation are not so obvious or dire (yet), but political disenfranchisement exists and it’s expanding. Closed polling places in predominantly minority districts. Hundreds of thousands of people struck from voting rolls and deemed ineligible to vote in one sweep has become a regular deal and has changed election results, including in Georgia where Brian Kemp–who was in charge overseeing his own election for governor–presided over a series of disenfranchisement moves that ultimately handed him the governorship. Absolutely corrupt. Thanks to two decades of GOP presidents losing the popular vote but winning the presidency, tribalism, gerrymandering, increasing economic inequality, and a host of other factors, division and alienation are growing in this country. (Ironically, this is something Marx predicted would happen in every capitalist country eventually.) In the past four years it’s grown exponentially worse thanks to Mango Mussolini’s daily rants, tribalist news bubbles creating two political realities, and the disinformation and propaganda that are disseminated in social media echo chambers and repeated millions of times on Facebook and Twitter before they’re proven false.
QAnon is a perfect example of where this country is right now. There are tens of thousands of people (hopefully not more than that) who honestly believe that JFK Jr. never died, is running a closet political campaign behind the scenes, and that thousands of Democrats (only Democrats, mind you), are running a pedophile sex trafficking ring and will be rounded up Soviet style and locked up in Gitmo where they belong under Trump’s presidency. (Not much time left for that, you assclowns.) People actually believe this shit. A QAnon true believer who also believes 9/11 was an inside job is about to be elected to Congress. It’s insane.
Truth is optional right now. It’s a suggestion. Make your own. Choose your own “facts.” It’s Orwellian, where we are and where we’re headed.
Now we have our own American Politburo: the Trump administration and party bosses in the GOP, who have abdicated their congressional oversight responsibilities and rubber-stamped literally everything he has done in the past 4 years, including an egregious abuse of power when he used the power of the presidency to attempt to kneecap a political opponent he deemed dangerous. Not because it was good for the country, not because it helped most of their constituents, but because it was good for them personally and their donors. It’s all about the power, baby. Keeping it. Extending it. So they are doing what all corrupt political parties do: trying to stay in power as long as possible and by any means necessary.
The only thing they still answer to, besides the wishes of their wealthy donors, is elections. Voters. Political pressure. But as previously stated, the fuckery with our elections is increasing, and it’s corrupting them to the point where, if we continue down this path, this will be a democracy in name only. We’re probably there already, and I’m just living in a Matrix delusion. I’ve always said that this a plutocracy disguised as a democracy, but we still have our elections, a free press, and an independent(-enough) judiciary separating us from the Banana Republic abyss. To me, those things are still democratic (small “D”) lifelines.
And yet, that “independent judiciary” has been under threat for years to anyone who’s been paying attention. Mitch McConnell effectively blocked Obama from nominating federal judges for eight years. He got some, but not nearly the number he should have, and it was no accident. It’s a political strategy. I read this morning that McConnell’s goal is to transform the judiciary to replace Congress, which is broken, accomplishes nothing, and will gradually shift leftward over the coming decades due simply to changing racial demographics in this country. It’s federal judges who wield real power now (along with the Executive Branch), and McConnell knows it. Control them, pick your judges, and you can accomplish a lot of your political goals. After stymieing Obama’s judicial nominations, McConnell has helped Trump push through dozens of federal judges in the past 4 years, including judges who are blatantly unqualified and disturbingly partisan. This is the second most number of judges of any president in their first term.
But equally important is who those federal judges ultimately answer to: the Supreme Court of the United States. Trump has already named two SCOTUS justices, and he’s about to get another one. Indeed, the latest and greatest example of fuckery by the American Politburo is what is about to happen following the death of a woman I greatly admired and held out to my daughter as an example of what to strive for in her life: Ruth Bader Ginsburg. (That’s “Notorious RBG,” if you’re nasty.) She had an incredible life and changed the country forever for women. If you haven’t already, go watch “On the Basis of Sex” and see what she accomplished.
What makes me admire her the most though, is that after being diagnosed with cancer–a time when most people would want to squeeze whatever joy they could out of the time they had left by spending it with family, traveling, or just relaxing–she was so concerned about what would happen to the country if she left SCOTUS that she kept working while she had cancer, while she was going in and out of hospitals for treatment after health setbacks, until the day she died. Until yesterday. That’s courage. That’s guts. That’s putting your country before yourself.
Call me cynical, but after Gorsuch and Serial Sexual Assaulter were appointed to SCOTUS, many conservatives have been pining for RBG’s death, hoping it would happen on Trump’s watch, just so they could shit out another friendly Justice and cement a conservative SCOTUS majority for a generation. They have wanted to overturn Roe v. Wade since the day the decision came down. They are pro-birth after all. Yes, not pro-life, pro-BIRTH. 99.99% of so-called pro-lifers are also pro-death penalty and don’t support social welfare programs that help people raise children *after* they’re born. They just want them born. So let’s call them what they are. They are not pro-life. They are pro-birth. So Roe Needs to Go! And it needs to go, as Malcolm X famously said, By Any Means Necessary.
So… after refusing to allow a vote on Obama’s SCOTUS pick of Merrick Garland 276 days before the 2016 election because he had the power to block it, and because he purportedly “wanted to give the American people the right to choose the next nominee” in the 2016 election, Mitch McConnell has now reversed himself (a shocking, SHOCKING development!). While RBG’s 87 year-old body was still warm last night, McConnell declared that Trump *will* get a vote on his third SCOTUS nominee a mere 46 days before the uh…. 2020 election, where many people have already cast early votes. 46 days, if you’re good at math, is 230 fewer days than Obama’s nomination of Merrick Garland. And counting, because Trump hasn’t nominated anyone yet. And it most likely will need to happen during a lame duck session, because the Senate isn’t in session enough days between now and the election, and SCOTUS nominations and debate take time.
Bottom line: we’re looking at the very real possibility that Trump loses the election on November 3rd and STILL gets to pick his third SCOTUS justice. That’s American Politburo stuff. Maybe that’s too complimentary. It’s actually the stuff of a banana republic. A powerful banana republic, but a banana republic nonetheless.
You do the math. There are no standards here. It’s all about power and political expediency. And no, Democrats are not immune from hypocrisy. Schumer and Biden have their own bad quotes and hypocrisy on this very subject that they have to eat and own. But neither of them actually did anything remotely approaching what McConnell has done, or so starkly reversed themselves like this. Only four years ago, McConnell stole an Obama SCOTUS pick based on a purported new standard that he set for SCOTUS nominations, and he just took a massive dump on it. And he does not give one flying fuck. His answer: The other side would do the exact same thing if it could.
No it wouldn’t. Because the other side is comprised of incompetent political eunuchs who routinely bring a loaf of Pepperidge Farm to an AR-15 fight, and that really needs to change. I’m all in now on that changing. Time to play by their rules. When they take power, and they will eventually, Democrats need to expand SCOTUS, install more liberal judges until they have a majority, eliminate the filibuster, pass a new Voting Rights Act, overturn Citizens United, eliminate the Electoral College, and pass a new ACA with a public option or Medicare for All, for starters. Time to stop bending over and start playing by McConnell’s rules.
We obviously have more freedom than everyday citizens in the Soviet Union had. Or China. Or Cuba. But let’s not kid ourselves. We are being governed by an American Politburo. Thanks to the archaic Electoral College and a legislative branch that gives disproportionate Senate power to many states with small populations, elected leaders–comprised mostly of old, white men representing a distinct minority of the American population–is sticking a tongue depressor down the throats of 330 million people and making them gag. That needs to end.
Like it or not, and unless something big happens (tossing a Hail Mary to Mitt Romney, Murkowski here, and we need two more of you fucks to grow a conscience) we are going to get a new SCOTUS justice who will help overturn Roe and send the right to choose to end a pregnancy back to each state for regulation. It will no longer be a right. It will be for each state to keep or shitcan. Relax. Middle-class and wealthy women across the United States who want an abortion will be fine. They will drive or fly to a suddenly awesome blue state and get er’ done. Women in New York, California, and Massachusetts will be fine. The girlfriends of GOP pro-birth hypocrites like Elliot Broidy will be fine. They’ll still get their abortions. Future women impregnated by Donald Trump, just like past women impregnated by Donald Trump, will still be able to get their abortions. Plenty of abortions will still be available for women of means.
The rest of women? Poor women in Louisiana or Alabama or Mississippi? The ones who can’t afford a flight or three tanks of gas to a blue state? Sorry ladies. Tough fucking shit. You’re going to have to have see your unwanted pregnancy to full term and raise your child. And here’s the sweet kicker: you’ll need to do so without the help of any social welfare programs after your new beloved is born because money is real tight in your red states, and those programs are severely underfunded if they exist at all. So you and your beloved new baby we forced you to have (isn’t he adorable, coo-coo-coo!) are not a priority in your state AFTER they’re born. So fuck you.
Of course, you’ll always have the option of taking that illegal pill you were just handed, or DIY with an available implement. No one can see what you do in your own bathroom, after all. Yet. But there’s a serious health risk that goes with that, so Vaya con Dios, ma’am.
And that’s just abortion. This new justice, whoever she is (and it’ll be a she, because RBG was a she, and they think it will make this shit sandwich easier for everyone to swallow) will change the landscape on a host of other things, including the ACA, with its preexisting condition protections, and possibly, a vote in deciding the next president, if it’s close enough.
So… even though I trend optimist, I find these days troubling indeed. There is one silver lining though. The majority of people in this country are seriously fucking pissed and totally fed up. It remains to be seen if that’s enough to do better than the shitty 41% voter turnout we had in the 2016 election. And you never know how many voters the American Politburo will strike from the rolls. Mango Mussolini won three states–Michigan, Wisconsin, and Pennsylvania–by a mere 77,000 votes last time. That small difference was enough to put him in power and bring this country to its knees in only 4 years. It can, and quite possibly will, happen again.
What can be done? Vote in 45 days. Send the American Politburo a message. Do better than 41% turnout and expedite their inevitable departure from the political landscape. Demographics, history, and time are not on their side.
Just like the Soviet Union.
