Our Lives Will Never be the Same, Nor Should They
New Age
March 22, 2020
Will greed now kill us?
After the stock market collapse in October 1987 someone reported of a finance worker telling a co-worker our lives will never be the same. He envisioned the coming depression and a 1930’s replay. I would credit the story, but that was decades ago. I believe I heard it in an interview likely on the radio since the Internet wasn’t a thing then. The story illustrated sometimes people act on their worst fears during a moment of panic. Instead rather quickly everyone’s lives had very little change. The S&L crisis of that era led to a few changes, but not sufficient to prevent the crisis of 2008. This time Covid-19 has done more damage to the economy than our titans of finance. Lessons from the 2014 Ebola response were quickly ignored putting us in far more danger than necessary. Humans are not very noble creatures. Many of us grow selfish and panic during a crisis, then quickly pretend no permanent changes are needed when it recedes. As our stress levels subsume to normal, we undo or neglect the policy changes demanded during the crisis. We have replayed the same failed pattern in our financial meltdowns, environmental disasters, climate change threats, and election debacles. Implementing real policy improvements require tax revenues. Any initiative in Congress is blocked or is redirected by the flood of lobbying. Any reform gives way to the short-sighted interests of the power players. Public hoorah returns to the latest celebrity scandal and there is not enough political momentum to move legislation.
Majority support means nothing with Republicans in power.
Change is never easy. People are very resistant to change and once a crisis has receded unwilling to sacrifice or take a risk. We have all the elements to make dramatic changes in our society and this time we must do it. Popular support is not enough. Mitch McConnell sits on many bills ignoring the majority support behind them. Mitch has the power and rewards the powerful not the people of this nation. We think the populace has awoken, but today (March 20, 2020) Trump has majority approval on Covid-19 crisis at least according to one poll. The forces of institutional power are strong; the forces of progressive and young voters seem ephemeral. Political power is now in the hands of the greedy. A power block of wealth combined with Trump’s aggrieved and easily beguiled clan are in control. There is no law or norm they will not break to keep power and privilege. We the opposition sometimes labeled the resistance must use this moment to retake the power. The resistance need not hold policy agreement or be ideologically pure. We must start with eliminating Trump and every other Republican. It is sad to say that, I used to have many a Republican friend. Anyone still in the Trump party has forfeited any right to hold office. No one supporting Trump and his administration can do so with integrity. They are not putting the interests of the country and our future first. The remaining Trump defenders maintain no moral standard. The limbo pole has gone lower and lower, yet they have degraded their values at every notch to stay Trump loyal.
We do not have a democracy
and may soon not have a republic, either.
We can lay out all the dramatic change our world and country needs, but without power it is ineffectually pounding the table. This year with so many qualified and diverse presidential candidates we are down to a good old boy. I like the good old boy. Biden in himself is not the change I want. Power must bring more if we are to survive and flourish. Power can bring dramatic change. Surprisingly taking power is done by voting (not a revolution). Voting followed by accountability and reason. My heart sank in September of 2009 when on NPR I heard a young first-time voter make this statement, “I voted for Obama because we need change, but nothing has changed.” Change doesn’t happen immediately. There are two natural forces trying to kill us, viruses and institutional power. One Democratic Senator kept the public option out of Obamacare. Compromise after compromise was made to Republicans for the recession rescue of TARP and then the ACA. Not one Republican voted for the bills. I do not believe in unity, bipartisanship, or reaching out to the other side. The other side is consumed with greed or is delusional sometimes both. We need the never-Trumpers and those whose principles have brought them to reject Trump. Many of these voters still claim to be Republican conservatives. We need to sweep as many real Democrats, people powered Democrats, into office as possible. These normally GOP voters will only be with us in 2020. This unique moment has given us an opportunity.
Wealth holds power tightly
Without the Depression would we have social security? We can drive the Covid-19 crisis to a political watershed election all while self-isolating and sheltering in place....
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