The first time is always the hardest, isn’t it? The first piece of kale, the first jalapeno, the first colonoscopy, the first fascist regime led by a reality star, all of them are tough.
I am oddly excited about our new Trump regime.
Like a colonoscopy, I am scared that not only is it going to hurt like hell but also that they might find something that has the potential to kill me. On the other hand, I know that once we get through it, going forward, we may actually feel better and worry less.
With Trump, I know this is the last gasp of the far right. In a few short months, the far right will destroy themselves or they will destroy our body politic once and for all. Either way, we will have come to the end of our thirty-year descent into absurdity. There is comfort in finally hitting bottom.
How did we get to this moment in time?
The moment we, as Americans, said to the actor Ronald Reagan, “yeah, looks good. Go ahead take the reins,” we have been on a collision course toward this national colonoscopy.
After the stagnation of the late 70s, Americans lunged headfirst to the right, enamored of Reagan’s charm and talk of renewing our American Pride. It was “Morning in America.”
It was the start of a new day, a day where right-wing extremism began to take hold, a day where the separation between the have and have-nots gaped wide, a day where the very wealthy and the corporations they oversee declined to pay their fair share, a day where we began to be less concerned with our fellow citizens than we were with our own stock portfolios. The 80s, the Reagan era, has never been left behind. In fact, during the past thirty years, the far right not only doubled down on the 80s, they put the ideals of that decade on steroids and watched the good times roar.
It has been a very long day. Finally, darkness has descended.
Reagan’s presidency was like having your grandpa tell you how tax cuts for the wealthy would benefit the poorest of the poor. As long as you listened to the peaceful, earnest voice of grandpa and did not think too much, it made sense that if the wealthy had more money in their pockets then they, as good God-Fearing people, would be able to toss some crumbs down to the rest of us. Yeah, we are all good people. No one wants the plebes to go without. It is the government that gobbles up all the money and leaves the plebes hungry. Yes, we should have wealth trickle down the wealthy’s pant leg where the rest of us can lap it up. Grandpa wouldn’t lie.
Hey, grandpa, what is this AIDS thing? Don’t worry about it, kid. Okay, Grandpa.
Hey, Grandpa, where are all these homeless people coming from. Don’t worry about it, kid. Okay, Grandpa
For a moment or two, this new system where the rich tossed coins into the street for some urchins to pick up and go buy Christmas Geese seemed to work. The economy boomed for a few minutes. The NeoCons took credit for bringing back American Pride. We were off and running. What could go wrong?
UH-OH
As luck would have all those tax breaks on the wealthy and their corporations caused a gaping hole in our national budget. In fact, Reagan raised deficit spending to new heights. The national debt ballooned. Cutting all those taxes left our government broke. The wise thing to do would be to reinstate those taxes. What could go wrong? After all, we are all Americans and know what is the right thing to do.
UH-OH
It seems that the wealthy, the shareholders and the elite enjoyed not paying taxes. Not to worry. The NeoCons, as patriots, did what they had to do. They raised taxes…on the middle class, on the poor.
As is the case with all these things, it took a while for the people to realize that only a select few were getting tax breaks while working people just trying to keep up with the grocery bill were now paying more. But, as long as we had unions and strong well-paying jobs, everything was gong to work out they said. Our wages will increase as the money trickles down. What could go wrong?
UH-OH
So, once the corporations and the elite got a taste for making more money by not paying taxes, they thought creatively on other ways to make more money to ensure that even more money could just trickle down. Corporations and the elite were the only ones who knew how to handle money, they told us. They needed to claw it back from the government and our pockets in order to help us.
The corporations told the plebes that the executive class, the CEOs, deserved to be paid at least 250 times more than a working plebe. It makes sense, they said, because without a CEO, the corporation doesn’t have a leader. As for the workers, so, funny story…
It seems hiring people was very expensive as the plebes through the unions always asked to be paid a fair wage to keep up with rising costs and their new-found tax burden. This unreasonable demand was cutting into the shareholders’ dividends, said the elite and corporations. Oh, the stress of it all. Well as a country that for nearly 100 years had been devoted to the middle class and the workingman, there was only one thing to do.
So, with help from the government, they sliced the unions into shreds. They sliced good paying jobs cutting the heart out of the country. They dismantled worker protections for the good of the country. Companies needed to grow, they said, and they cannot grow if they have to take care of their workers particularly when they pay a CEO 250 times. By eliminating organizations devoted to fair and decent wages for employees, corporations would be able to grow and hire more people, they said.
It makes sense, they said, corporations should pay little in taxes and pay workers even less. That way, they can make a profit. If the company makes a profit, it is good for the country. If a CEO makes over 250 million dollars a year, it is good for the country. Those well-paying middle class jobs were replaced by minimum wage service-oriented jobs for the good of the country. States became “right-to-work” states. The unions, you know, the organizations that brought you the weekend, were demonized as corrupt organizations hell-bent on destroying our way of life. The unions are unfair to workers, they said.
No taxes. No wages. Life was good for the corporation. As long as the CEOs had money, they were going to let that trickle down to the plebes. Also, the workers and middle class got saddled with the heaviest tax burden. What could go wrong?
UH-OH
With the tax burden shifted to the workers who no longer had decent wages, taxes were no longer meeting the needs of government again. What to do? Not to worry, as patriots and fellow citizens, the CEOs and Senators sat down to a few dinners to work out the problem. They will do their best to help our country.
The problem, they said, is not that too little tax is coming in. The problem is the government is bloated. We do not need all those government services. We need to slash budgets. So, we slashed government spending just when the people, who once had good paying jobs and low taxes but now had lousy paying jobs with higher taxes, needed the government the most. We cut government spending over and over again. A government that once provided safety nets to the most vulnerable now had few nets to provide.
This was starting to hurt the plebes. More and more plebes had family members affected by the cuts to wages, higher taxes and little avenues to assistance. Plus, many people, even families, were ending up in the street without a home, without money, without hope, without sanity. It was getting difficult to keep the plebes in line with the “Morning In America” brand. What to do?
Well, first, the media was a problem, they said. The media kept telling the plebes how the wage loss, loss of unions, loss of jobs, loss of safety nets is problematic.
The plebes seemed concerned about the homeless, the disadvantaged and those on the edge. It would be much easier for the corporations, the senators and the CEOs if they controlled the message. So, they consolidated the media. Now, the message would be clear. We relaxed the neutrality rules. This way, they could have entire broadcasts devoted to ensuring the plebes were getting the message they needed them to hear. The message, set to repeat, over and over again, goes something like this:
Anyone who looks to the government for safety is a loser. The government is a loser. The government has never done anything for anyone other than get in the way of making money. We need to slash government spending. The government is filled with losers. The homeless families are losers and drug addicts. If those street people can’t make it, it is their own fault. Anyone who uses a government assistance program is a loser sucking on the teat of public funds because of their own failures. But you, you and your family are not losers. You do not support losers. If those losers cannot make it in America, they deserve to sleep on the street. Slashing taxes and creating deals where the government hands corporations millions of dollars in benefits is not welfare. A corporation that pays little taxes and low wages benefits everyone.
The less taxes we collected, the more we slashed the budget and the less the government could do.
The less the government could do, the more the government looked like a loser.
The more they told the plebes what a loser the government, the more the government looked like a loser, the more cuts we made with ease because the government was a loser. Perfect!
All the while, all that money was diverted from the middle class, working class and the government, you know, all the losers of our society to the elite, the winners. Now, rather than depend on our own job or our own government to invest in our citizens and communities, now, we depend on the corporations, the elite and the shareholders to invest in our communities and our neighbors.
During our transition from a country that invested in the middle and working class to a country that invests in the corporations and the elite, those people on the fringe, those who were barely holding on anyway, managed to lose all hope whatsoever. Drug use skyrocketed. Crime skyrocketed. Drugs, crime, unemployment and hopelessness decimated whole sections of the country. What could go wrong?
UH OH
These people are losers, they said.. Crime is up. Drugs are up. These people take no responsibility for their lives. But, the plebes kept seeing them on every corner. The very sight of all these losers was starting to have a negative affect on the trickle down theory. The plebes were scared to drive through certain sections of their hometown. We needed some way to hide these losers.
What we needed to do is put these degenerates in prison. We needed to get tough on crime, they said.
So, we got tough on crime. Got these losers off the streets. We will make the cities safe again.
We shoveled people off to prison as fast as we could. Addicts, mentally ill, the poor, people of color, really anyone who challenged the effectiveness of our trickle down world went to jail.
Of course, the government budgets, slashed to the bone, could not afford to house all those degenerates, those losers, those who did not fit into the trickle down narrative. The prisons became overcrowded, dangerous and verged on the edge of being unconstitutional as the overcrowded prison itself was cruel and unusual. What to do?
Not to worry. Not to worry. The government is full of losers who do not know how to handle money. The government has no idea how to run prisons, they said. We need to privatize prisons. Yes, we will pay corporations to house degenerates in prison.
Hey, while they are in prison, prisoners should work for corporations, for free. This is a win-win for everyone. First the cities are safer. Second, the degenerates have a place to sleep. And best of all the government now pays corporations to hold people in jail while they work for corporations. Perfect. What could go wrong?
Rinse and Repeat—for 30 years.
Now, it is Mourning in America
That whole trickle down theory has dried up. Workers long ago were stripped of decent wages and left to just survive as best they can. If they can’t survive, they cannot go to the government for help because the government has been stripped. The media and the corporations tell us if we can’t survive it is our own fault. If we step out of line, the corporate prison is there to help.
What adds confusion to all this is the smoke and mirrors of technology and globalism. The last 30 years have been witness to a fantastic evolution in technology and global connectivity. Smartphones, computers, the internet, software, treaties, agreements, general peace and other advances hid the simple historical truth that unchecked, unfettered, the powerful always trample on the weaker even here in our own country.
For 30 years now, we watched as we slid from the envy to the world, a champion of the middle class, to a country that allows Flint, Michigan.
In Flint no one can drink the water because those in power did not want to spend $20 a day to ensure the water was safe for everyone. We looked on as North Carolina degenerated to become a state that is not even considered an actual democracy by international standards.
Those who would use power and money to trample on those without have been around since the dawn of time.
As Americans, we failed on our quest to ensure a nation where all men are free more times than we can count. But, as Americans, we are able to at least try to correct our errors.
Now, today we begin this colonoscopy known as the Trump Administration. All of us should be just as worried and just as hopeful as we have ever been in the history of our country.
This is the end of the last thirty years of fighting for the soul of our country. This, right now, this is the end game. Those who began the dismantling of national soul thirty years ago now have everything they want—power over our weakened institutions. Today, these people have the opportunity to prove what these types of people have been trying to prove over and over again throughout the history of man, that the masses, the people, never win.
They could win it all right here and right now.
They have the potential to destroy everything we, as Americans, once the envy of the world, built. They could dismantle our ideals, our dreams. They could take our dreams, our freedoms, and put them in a trophy case only to point to it with a sly grin when future generations speak of freedom, speak about a country by and for the people. Our dream could forever be shrouded in darkness, a passing thought as old men fall to sleep.
This fight had to come down to this, here, now, in our country. This is the way it has to end or it will never end.
I am excited.
We are Americans. We don’t go backwards. We move forward. We will break through this darkness just as we broke through tyranny, slavery, civil rights and so many other injustices on our journey to freedom for all. This is not our first fight for humanity, justice and freedom. We know how to beat back this darkness. We have done it before. We will do it again.
We, the people, will fight, again. We will be vigilant, again. We will win for the tired, the poor, the huddled masses. We will emerge from the darkness. Tired? Yes. Injured? Yes. Humbled? Definitely.
When we break through this night, we, the people, will own the day. Then, on that day, it will truly be morning In America. Trump is right. He is going to make America great again.
That path to our greatness is not the path he thinks it is.
Our Civic Duty