It seems to me that we are at a crossroads in this country. Someone is always saying that the country is at a crossroads, but this time seems different. We have a president who is clearly not the quality of human being that our founding fathers envisioned when they conceived of the office. In fact, the Electoral College was inserted into Article II, Section I of The Constitution to prevent exactly this situation. It was inserted by the Federalists and defended by them--by Alexander Hamilton in particular--in the Federalist Papers with the same intent that resulted in putting a second body in our legislature made up of the very same people who were to choose the electors in the Electoral College: the ruling oligarchs of the various states. As The Senate was intended to moderate the radical to reactionary swings of the popularly elected House of Representatives, the Electoral College was intended to prevent the populous that elected the Representatives from doing the same with the presidency. I think Hamilton is rolling in his grave muttering, "what have I done...woe is me...woe is the nation."
As to the Republican Party, they don't exactly have a monopoly on disingenuousness, but they certainly have a healthy lead in the battle for first place in the disingenuousness race. This morning I heard a Republican senator claim that the reduction $0 of the tax penalty for being without health insurance was a genuine tax reduction even though everyone now knows that the ulterior motive behind it is to relieve the federal government of the obligation to pay the subsidies required by the Affordable Care Act for all those for whom health insurance is otherwise unaffordable. True, it is literally a tax cut, but it costs those who get it thousands of dollars of assistance they now get to make their lives healthier. The Republican claim that it is anything but a way of taking one more thing from the poor and those who struggle financially is naked casuistry that is tantamount to a lie even if it isn't one literally. Yet, there doesn't seem to be a hue and cry over their mendacity in service of their wealthier constituents, including President Trump. Nor does anyone jump up in a rage when Trump says, contrary to all of the experts on the two tax plans being contemplated, that the new tax plans will cost him money, "believe me," he adds through his crocodile tears.
And now, every effort is being made to undermine the Bureau of Consumer Protection, without which Wells-Fargo would have been able to keep its ill-gotten gains purloined from its customers. Somehow, the Trump administration opines that The Bureau is bad for our economy...apparently because it keeps big thieves from thieving big at everyone else's expense. Supposedly it is curtailing banking activity despite the fact that the banks--the finance industry in general--is reaping more profits than ever. Again, no hue and cry. But I have hope.
All of this is happening in 2017, so it will have its effects by the beginning of 2019 when we pay our 2018 taxes. At about the same time, the "net neutrality" regulations that keep internet service providers from reducing the data transmission speed of some content providers--you may remember when your television set or Roku had to stop transmitting pictures and sound every ten to fifteen minutes in order to buffer again before net neutrality went into effect in 2015--will have been abrogated so that every middle class household in the country will be suffering that inconvenience again. Mess with people's money and that's one thing. Mess with their Netflix and Amazon Prime and that's something else entirely. I'm pretty sure there'll be a hue and cry then...just in time for the presidential election in 2020.
So, we may have to endure the indignity of a president who is...well, undignified for another three years, and we may be stuck with a congress, the majority of which is reactionary, plutocratic Republican until 2018 or 2020, but in the end, I feel encouraged to believe that when we all go to the polls, the Republicans, including the leader they reluctantly chose, will get their oats. Take heart. It's still the case that no one can take better aim at his own foot than a Republican.
Your friend,
Mike
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