We have, it would seem, a kind of Perfect Storm going on, one
which may well overwhelm our democratic system altogether. What would replace that system, if our
enemies of democracy succeed is a bit ambiguous at the moment. It would seem
that the GOP now seeks a system in which, while remaining nominally a democracy,
the United States government would become a true plutocracy, with nominal
leaders in seats of power, from the president on down, but wherein those “people
of power” would in fact be answerable mainly, if not solely, to the richest 1%.
Their purpose in seeking such power seems to be something
like this:
1.
The government should never interfere with the
operations of private sector business, ergo, the regulatory powers of government
would be largely undone;
2.
The government should refrain from taxing the
incomes of the very wealthy, so tax rates at the highest levels would be
minimized;
3.
Systems that now operate as governmental
systems, e.g., Medicare, Social Security, Medicaid, et al, would be transferred
to privately operated systems of care involving voucher-like approaches, giving
the plutocracy an easy approach to restraining or reducing the costs of those
systems.
4.
Public systems of education, i.e., the public
school systems, would gradually be phased out in favor of privately operated
charter and/or religious school systems;
5.
All voting districts would be rearranged (gerrymandered)
so as to favor the continuance of GOP control;
6.
Obamacare would be dismantled altogether, and
the system would revert back to what existed in years gone by, i.e., the
uninsured would obtain its health care by relying “on the kindness of strangers”;
7.
The military is at least somewhat ambiguous. The
GOP leadership seems to love launching our military at anything that moves, but
they are also singularly reluctant to devote any of their money (or flesh) to these
causes, so it is a bit up in the air how they might shape and use our
magnificent military machines;
8.
Lastly, perhaps, they would, of course, fill any
vacant Supreme Court slots, and several are coming open, with hard right justices
who will do their bidding (although the Supremes are a bit unreliable in that
regard).
9.
Oh, and all members of the GOP would continue to
speak as one, with all remarks scripted carefully by Mr. Murdoch’s screen
writers. No deviant views would be permitted of course.
I have doubtless missed some of
their more interesting ideas for replacing our current system of government with
their own approach, but what the hell, I’m just one old guy.
One can predict some consequences
of such a plutocratic approach to our government. One imagines, for example, that
our cities would become something like Chinese cities—covered in a shroud of
pollution; our waters may become soiled to a point of unusability; our middle
class may quickly disappear, as the United States becomes a two-class society,
the very rich and a class of serfs. Unemployment would doubtless increase, as
we continue to move jobs overseas and as we destroy the public education
system, thereby reducing the workforce quality. Perhaps most of the poor serfs could
become migrant labor and household staff to the very rich.
I imagine over time, companies
would become larger and larger, as the concept of monopoly disappears as a negative
term. Maybe we will all enjoy “Wal-Mart—The Store for all your needs”. And the
Faux News Network, owned and operated by Mr. Murdoch from his hideaway in the
Cayman Islands, would become our only TV carrier and station. Newspapers will
probably become extinct, and we will get all of our news from Mr. Murdoch. Won’t that be fun??
So, I think I’ll just go find a
little corner somewhere and suck my thumb for a couple of years, while the boys
reshape our formerly great country.
Ta ta . . .
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