Cromwell

Do you remember that scene in “The Shining” when it is revealed that the “book” the Jack Nicholson character has been working on consists of nothing except the line “All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy” typed over and over again? Well, it seems pretty clear that if the Republicans in Congress were presented with a bill entitled “Obamacare repeal” with that text, a large majority of them would vote for it.

It’s easy to get caught up in all of the drama and corruption and incompetence, but the real scandal in Washington is that the mainstream of the GOP simply doesn’t care what goes into an Obamacare repeal bill as long as it passes.  The welfare of the American people is of minimal concern compared to “winning” and satisfying the reactionary base.

Life in the time of Trump.

We’ve heard this song before.

We’ve four more years

Of lies and tears

Till we show that man the door.

Can’t say I know just where this ends.

How much must we endure?

A world in which we have no friends.

Will we end up dead or poor?

I suspect Bernie Sanders would agree with my conclusion that the Democratic Party needs to be more sensitive to red culture.  However, we would reach that conclusion from different lines of reasoning, and in this case, the journey is the destination.

Sanders’ program isn’t really socialist, but he sees the world in old-fashioned Marxist terms, and to him, what we call “identity politics” is really false consciousness driven by cunning and unscrupulous capitalists.  To me, American politics is primarily “identity politics,” and anyone who ignores that point is a fool.  Sanders himself implicitly conceded my point by changing his approach during the primaries because to do otherwise was to commit electoral suicide.

The world does not run on economic class alone.  People are more complex than that, and the wounds of the past can take a long, long time to heal.  And so, instead of blowing off cultural issues, I think the Democratic Party simply needs to embrace a form of diversity that clearly includes the values of white working people, as well as minorities.  There is plenty of room for white in the national mosaic; it just isn’t the whole story, or even the default.

On the new chief of staff known as Kelly.

His new job, I’m afraid’s, a bit smelly.

He’ll stand at the door.

But he can’t do much more.

For his boss gets his news from the telly.

To most of us, the events of the last week have only confirmed, yet again, that Trump is in way, way over his head.  To his base, however, his repeated failures are proof that the swamp is every bit as swampy as he said it was, and it includes Republicans as well as Democrats.  To them, he looks more like Don Quixote than Bozo the Clown.

If he ever succeeds in getting health care “reform” through the system, he will own the consequences, which won’t be pretty.  For now, however, he gets the benefit of good intentions without actually having to live with the ugly results.

Donald Trump needs a successful war–now.  To the rest of the world, he looks like a bumbling, bombastic, corrupt loser–a man on golf cart.  A successful war would change all that;  it would shut up his critics, give him leverage over Congress, and, most of all, make him look like the winner that he knows that he is.  He might even get a big parade with jet fighters and tanks out of it.

So a war it surely must be.  But where?  North Korea is the obvious choice, and still might happen, but it appears for now that the thought of hundreds of thousands of South Korean dead have deterred him.  The logical second option is Iran.

There are lots of advantages to fighting Iran.  The Sunni despot alliance and Israel would be delighted.  Crushing Iran would make dealing with Syria and Iraq much easier.  The American public hates the Iranians.  And, most importantly, Iran’s ability to retaliate is far less impressive than North Korea’s.

Sure, the price of oil would skyrocket, but American producers would be able to make up at least some of the difference, and it wouldn’t matter that much if the victory could be won quickly.  The question then is, what would the objective of the war be?  A few bombs and a parade?  Regime change?  The complete annihilation of the country?

The last question is the one I can’t answer.  It would be up to the man on golf cart.  Expect the worst.

 

         Another Bill Bites the Dust

Another bill bites the dust.

Another bill bites the dust.

And another one gone, and another one gone.

Another bill bites the dust.

 

Parody of “Another One Bites the Dust” by Queen.

Bernie Sanders proposed legislation for a universal free public college entitlement during the 2016 campaign.  Hillary Clinton ultimately supported a watered-down version of it.  Will the issue raise its ugly head again in 2020?

Probably.  It won’t happen, because the GOP would resist it, and even if the legislation somehow passed, I can’t imagine that the red states that refused to participate in Medicaid expansion would permit the federal government to dictate how they operate their university systems.

Here are the differing positions of the party factions in a nutshell:

The GOP

1.  Reactionaries think the purpose of the state is to advance the interests of white  Christians.
2.  PBPs think the purpose of the state is to advance the interests of businessmen.
3.  CDs think the purpose of the state is to advance everyone’s interests.
4.  CLs think the purpose of the state is to do as little as possible so as to secure  freedom.

Naturally, there are points of overlap here, but there are conflicts, too.  That is the principal reason why the GOP majorities in Congress find it so difficult to actually govern.

The Democrats

I have described the Democratic Party as a “victims coalition” made up of groups that view the state as their only possible protection against the legal, social, and economic power of the white Christian patriarchy.  These groups (ethnic minorities, the gay community, working women, and non-Christians) have a common sympathy for each other and do not typically compete for resources.  As a result, the Democratic Party tends to be more cohesive than the GOP, but has difficulty competing in states that are dominated politically by white Christians.

On the DOJ head known as Jeff.

To the hints he should quit he’s been deaf.

The right’s on his side

But there’s no place to hide.

So just how many days has he left?

Most people, including myself and Barack Obama, would concede that single-payer, probably financed by a VAT, would be the way to go if you were designing a national health care system from scratch.  We aren’t;  every American has a vested interest of some sort in the current system.  And so, the questions for today are:

1.  Will the Democratic platform in 2020 include single-payer?
2.  Should the platform include single-payer?

My thoughts on this are as follows:

1. It depends largely on how successful the Republicans are in dismantling Obamacare.  I have seen quotes from multiple GOP members of Congress to the effect that Obamacare repeal is necessary to stave off single-payer, but that strikes me as being exactly wrong;  if Obamacare is destroyed, the Democrats will have no compelling reason to stay wedded to it, and are much more likely to go straight to single-payer.
2. Remember the failures of the Clinton health care plan, the problems getting Obamacare though the system with large Democratic majorities, and even the difficulties the GOP is having with Obamacare repeal today.  Then consider that single-payer would be opposed ferociously by:  (a) virtually all of the GOP; (b) the insurance companies, who would be losing a huge amount of business; (c) most health care providers, whose negotiating leverage would be diminished; and (d) millions of Americans with employer-based plans, who might well wind up with a plan that is worse than the one they have today.

In short, a pure form of single-payer, based on our historical experience, is a pipe dream, and a more plausible incremental version of it (such as the public option) is not really single-payer.  Regardless of the views of the Democrat nominated in 2020, in the real world after the election, the debate is going to be about a much more moderate program than true single-payer.  And that’s OK with me.

Make no mistake:  Sessions is a terrible, awful Attorney General.  He is the tip of the reactionary spear.  Everything he says and does is intended to recreate a dreamscape of small town America in the 1950’s.  It won’t work in the long run, but it will cause enormous pain in the trying.

Sessions does, however, have one minor redeeming quality–a sense of professional ethics.  Trump has no use for that;  to him, personal loyalty is all that matters.  For either personal or political reasons, he can’t bring himself to fire Sessions, so he is running around making it crystal clear in public that he wants him to quit.  Sessions, for his part, is either so wedded to his agenda that he can’t bring himself to bow out, or he thinks the support of the Fox News crowd will cause Trump to reconsider.  As a result, he is ignoring the unprecedented rain of abuse that is coming his way.

Should we feel sorry for him?  It reminds me of a test question I had to answer about “Twelfth Night” many years ago:  was Malvolio treated unfairly?  My response at that time was no, and I would have to say the same thing about Sessions today.  He knew, or should have known, the character of his boss, but supported him anyway;  he shouldn’t have misrepresented his communications with the Russians; and he can stop the abuse any time he wants.

Assume, for purposes of argument, that Trump’s protectionism in the White House turns out to be far more bark than bite.  How will the Democrats respond, in light of their desire to win back the votes of the white working class? Will they attack him for being too much, or too little, of a protectionist?

Protectionism doesn’t poll well with the blue base.  In addition, everything that Trump touches is going to be toxic with Democratic primary voters, who will associate closed borders with bigotry.  As a result, my guess is that the Democratic platform in 2020 will contain a nod towards the use of existing tools to promote fair trade, but will otherwise reject Trump’s “America First” rhetoric.

As the head of his own business, Donald Trump was accountable to no one but himself.  He could screw people over as long as he didn’t break the law.  He could demand complete loyalty from his subordinates.  He could be completely unpredictable, and change positions on a dime, without repercussions.  There was no such thing as bad publicity.  He was truly the master of his own domain.

Trump was elected largely on the basis that he would run the country as efficiently as he did his business.  He has, in fact, maintained the same management style in the White House.  How’s that working out?

Only Trump could make a speech to the Boy Scouts about himself and his endless string of victories.  Wait until he has to play comforter-in-chief after some sort of natural disaster;  he’ll spend the entire time talking about the election, Crooked Hillary, and the fake news.  Believe me.  Believe me.