Is Conservatism Dead, Or Does It Just Smell Funny?

When watching stalwart Republicans sprain their necks by looking the other way while a President attacks institutions, laws, mores, precedents, protocol, and principles, I've wondered: What is Conservatism today and who are real Conservatives?

Conservatism has several branches, but its hallmark has been the preservation of social and political institutions. This includes maintaining the Family Values mantle, Rule of Law, Order and Tradition. Change is not welcome.

But Life is all about evolution, which I keep in mind when recalling how my conservative Rock-Ribbed Republican Dad went from being a George Wallace backer and Nixon voter to eventually filling out his ballot for Barack Obama. Twice.

Over the years, he had always expressed reflexive support for the GOP. He was a Realtor and owned his own business. He felt quite comfortable with the Pro-Business Individualism that the party touted. He was a Fiscal and Social Conservative, Free Market/Low Tax & Interest Rate, Do-It-Yourself kind of guy. He loathed any government program that, in his mind, gave anyone "something for nothing."

But some things rankled him. Although he liked Reagan, he didn't like Iran-Contra. He was repulsed by the hard-line "anything goes" politicking represented by Lee Atwater/Paul Manafort/Roger Stone.
He didn't care for Bill Clinton, but felt that the GOP had gone way out of bounds to get him. "I'll never vote for another Republican!" he said after that Senate trial. Of course, he did so the very next Presidential election.

His perception really changed during George W's tenure. Dad hated waste and incompetency, and there was plenty of it - a tipping point occurred. The GOP was no longer a Small Government, Fiscally Conservative party. Its claim on Family Values/High Morality didn't hold water anymore. And Dad was no longer the social conservative he'd been. He was uncomfortable with the nonsense and hateful rhetoric spewing out from the top to the bottom of his party. He was shook by the Iraq debacle and the economy's collapse.

So he voted for Obama, something I couldn't have conceived back in 1968. He railed at the GOP for their obstructionism and reactive animus toward Obama. And in 2012, he proudly voted for Obama again. A person can evolve for the better!

And a political party can evolve for the worse. Through most of his life, Dad was aligned with the GOP -- until he no longer could. His party, representing his conservative views, changed even more than he had. Before Trump ever lumbered onto the scene, conservatives within the Republican Party had been turning themselves inside out to justify their membership. Even someone like Ronald Reagan would have difficulty getting nominated today. Consider:

Fiscal Conservatism? Welp - the GOP has become the champ for spending deficits, leading to record National Debt; moreover, its economic policies produced the second worst economic crisis in our nation's history. All Free Market and Laissez-Faire economic conservatism vanished with America First protectionism, wide-scale tariffs and massive subsidies ("socialism") to groups adversely affected by them. And the crazily escalating fissure between the wealthy and everyone else is not a conservative endpoint.

Religious Conservatism? It's going great, if you're a far-right white Evangelical or an ardent anti-abortion advocate. But the GOP has so firmly lashed itself to Trump that it must accept his enormous moral transgressions. Hence the narrative that he's The Chosen One, like David or Saul, an imperfect vessel who is used by God to enact His Will on Earth. The resultant hypocrisy is repugnant and makes any claim to the high moral ground a sham.

Social Conservatism has been about Family Values and Law & Order and keeping the lid on various social issues. Like No to Abortion, and limiting Women's Rights. Or No to Same Sex Marriage and LBGT Rights. Or No to No Public School Prayer and No to Sex Education.  Or No to Gun Control Legislation. Or Criminal Justice Reform. Or Immigration Reform. Yet over the years, these and related issues have gained wide support with the American public. Republicans seem to be for Law & Order, as long as it's their kind of law.

Political Conservatism is listing badly. It's been a long time since Russell Kirk's "The Conservative Mind" sparked the imagination of folks like Barry Goldwater and Ronald Reagan. Some things remain the same - support for a super strong military, rollbacks of regulations, and the pursuit of lower taxes. What has changed is kinda profound.

As a minority-rule entity, the GOP fully embraces ruthless Control above Responsible Governance. It is against protecting Voting Rights; it is for Voter Suppression and Gerrymandering. It supports refusing refugees and asylum seekers; it's for separating such families and putting children in cages. It supports Climate Change denial. It's for allowing a President to enjoy Emolument revenue from his personal government-derived business. It's for politicizing independent agencies like the Department of Justice, the EPA, DHS, on and on. It's for hiring incompetent true believers in place of those with expertise and experience. It's for the rule by Executive Order, after campaigning against it. It's for allowing our international alliances to founder. It's... oh fer cry-yi, it's all such a national disgrace.

In short, the GOP displays the characteristics of a party comfortable with subverting the Rule of Law, Order, Tradition and Decency so it can cover for the President, and so protect itself.

"It (the GOP) is a dark mirror of the authoritarian regimes we once fought," say former Republican strategists Reed Galen, John Weaver and Rick Wilson in a powerful piece titled "A Party Of Idolators". Like many others who've fled the party, they see Trump and the GOP as anti-conservative; instead, a National Conservatism or a White Nationalist Conservatism has emerged. The destruction of establishment institutions and resultant societal shock was always the plan of people like Steve Bannon and Steven Miller. As the dust settled, these great people would construct a whole new society bearing their extreme and autocratic views as the new normal rule.

Principled Conservatives believe in gradual change and the preservation of institutions and traditions. Therefore, they've been kicked out, or have self-exiled, from the GOP. The party has rapidly transformed into something more familiar to despots like Kim Jong-un or Vladimir Putin. Dissent will not be allowed. Only fulsome praise for Dear Leader will be heard. Yes, it seems that Conservatism in its traditional sense is flatlining. And the rest of the GOP smells funny, too.

Let's close with this appropriate quote from Hannah Arendt, the thinking person's George Orwell:

In Hot Pursuit Of The National Interest

In the closing arguments made by the President's lawyers during the Impeachment Trial, one stood apart as the defining pillar of his defense and the guiding principle for all further Executive Branch governance. It was, of course, the argle-bargle put forth by Alan Dershowitz that The Impeached One can do whatever he wants as long as he believes it's in The National Interest to do so.

It's a curious contention, one that provides a specious veil of legitimacy over an unlimited range of behavior and actions that even in the very recent past had been quaintly termed as "Illegal" and "Felonious." Justifying one's behavior by invoking The National Interest now is a guaranteed "Get Out Of Jail Free" card. And because the GOP majority agreed with this argument and voted to Acquit, the political template for future autocratic behavior is set.

(In addition, T believes that Article Two of the Constitution specifies "I have to the right to do whatever I want as president."  This, and linking all actions to "The National Interest" is a blanket strategy that dictators around the world have got to be admiring. "Respect, Bro!")

Think about how this maxim would have applied to past American presidents. Nixon would not have resigned for his coverups, nor would his top advisors and Attorney General have gone to jail. The Reagan Administration would lose the onus of having the most officials indicted and investigated (138... 21 were found Guilty). In fact, it's possible a President could claim that any Executive Branch officials caught in naughty behavior (short of outright theft, maybe) were simply seeking to advance their leader's vision of The National Interest.

So... let's take a few minutes to reflect on how Everything Is Permitted In The Pursuit Of The National Interest!

(Ugh, sorry. He presents as a bizarre, bloated Dunning-Kruger narcissist who insists on applying his own makeup, poorly. His hair-growth prescription and hair dye are now in The National Interest.)

Trump's wildly inaccurate statements about, well, anything are now statements supporting The National Interest: The Baltic States were responsible for The Balkan Wars. Belgium is now a city. Paris lies within Germany. The Appalachian Trail is really the Tallahassee Trail. The shootings in Dayton took place in Toledo. The fires that destroyed Paradise, California really laid waste to Pleasure, California and it's in The National Interest to rake our forests. Kansas City is no longer in Missouri. Concord, New Hampshire is now the site where the Minute Men stood fast against the British. I suppose this means, too, that the Bowling Green Massacre really did happen.

The nations of Nepal and Bhutan are now pronounced "Nipple and Button." Ireland, according to our National Interest, is a part of the United Kingdom. Nambia is a country in Africa, probably to the west of Wakanda. The European Union was created to take advantage of us. Putin and Russia are our allies and have our best interests at heart.

The National Interest will demand new words be entered into our vocabulary, like "Covfefe", "Stankuary", "Infantroopen",  "Heroilynn", "Transpants", "Resaption", "Herridge", "Obselels" and many more. Origins is now Oranges. Tolerated is now Tolarized. Diversity is now Diversary. And our 18th President is now Ulucious S. Grant.

It is in The National Interest that former President Barack Obama be impeached because of the Affordable Care Act, as recommended last night by our current President... even though Obama is no longer President and cannot be impeached because he is a private citizen, and the ACA is a law and not a High Crime or Misdemeanor. It doesn't matter, though, because The National Interest wants it  done.

The Central Park Five are guilty, despite having been exonerated with DNA evidence and the confession of the real perpetrator; they were released years ago. Though innocent and now free, their guilt, as continually pronounced by The Orange One, is in The National Interest.

It's OK to continue concealing White House Visitor Logs and Phone Call Readouts from the public record, because being completely secretive and restrictive about the public's business is in The National Interest. It's really in The National Interest to conduct all operations behind a big Stone Wall.

Not cooperating with The House when it requests and subpoenas witnesses and documents for inquiries is in The National Interest if it involves T, his Administration, past staffers, business partners, associates and their employees. It's also in The National Interest to release financial records of one's political opponents to friendly GOP-led Senate committees.

Ivanka's product brands, Jared's real estate holdings and all other T Family interests that continue to soar with profits derived from government business are part of The National Interest. Taxpayers will continue to foot the bill for T's expensive use of T properties, because it is in The National Interest.

Our economy, according to The National Interest, has never been better. Mitigating Climate Change is not in our National Interest, as it is a hoax perpetrated by China. And it is bad for fossil fuel-based business, which is antithetical to The National Interest. Mexico is paying for The Wall, in accordance with The National Interest. In fact, Mexicans really ARE rapists and criminals. The Wall is being built along the Colorado state line.

Attorney General Bill Barr is following The National Interest when he allegedly shut down six Mueller-referred investigations to U.S. Attorney's office for the Southern District of New York and put the kibosh on two new Trump-based ones there. The National Interest is paramount when Barr collects Russian-sourced disinformation from Rudy Giuliani for his Department of Justice's investigation of Trump's political opponents.

Looking at a solar eclipse without protective eyewear is in The National Interest. Speaking at events and rallies while slumping over the podium, slurring gibberish and displaying dilated pupils is in The National Interest.

Spewing  over 16,000 lies like a demented Gatling Gun since becoming President is in The National Interest. In a similar vein, being an enormous cheat at everything, including golf, is in The National Interest. And it's in The National Interest that T is the healthiest and most popular President ever.

"What can you give me?" will be the new standard response for requests of any sort of aid, or assistance, foreign or domestic. All Executive Branch business will follow the practice of imprisoned ex-Illinois Governor Rod "This is fuckin' golden, man, and I'm not going to let it slip through my fingers!" Blogojevich,  and is now recognized as inherent within The National Interest.

OK, OK!! I'll stop it, already! Yes, this can be funny, but also terrible. Yes, this can be a never-ending manifesto of awfulness, mendacity and blatant corruption. It's designed to be this way. These are hallmarks of an autocratic state. Flood the Zone with aggressive BS and the public becomes confused with what is true, and becomes apathetic. Honestly, I've come to believe that it's in T/GOP's"National Interest" to pull the plug on our system of government so they can maintain a permanent minority-rule quasi-theocracy/kleptocracy boot stamp on our collective faces (thanks, George Orwell). It is what happens when being caught and having to lose power and/or go to prison is not an option.

So, what next? There is plenty of bad stuff in the pipelines for Trump & Company, but a lot of it is being held back by Bill Barr. Some of it will leak out, probably soon. There will be more instances of President Unstable having meltdowns and displaying a deteriorating mind and body. It wouldn't be a shock if he suddenly leaves, citing "health reasons." There will be Supreme Court rulings next month on T's financials that will demonstrate to everyone whether we now live in an authoritative state. These, and more, will inform the ramp up to November. It'll be a right and brutal battle for the future of the country, and ourselves. Time to gird our loins!

Lock Her Up!!

Most of the nation awaits the inevitable conclusion of the Show Trial underway in the Senate and it ain't pretty at all. Honestly, it's as if Al Capone had stacked his tax fraud trial jury with members of his own crime organization, and stifled the prosecution by not allowing documents or witnesses. In fact, The Defendant-in-Chief yesterday felt confident enough to remark at a Davos presser that the trial will be a big zero because "honestly, we have all the material. They don't have the material." Yes, he said the whole Obstruction of Congress impeachment amendment thing out loud, and doesn't care. Why should he when he knows he'll be acquitted, no matter what.

(It's also worth noting that Red State Republican Senators represent a majority of the Senate, but only 18% of the U.S. population. Hmmmmmmm.... that's the core of MAGA-land right there.)

But no matter. Today we're positing what would have happened to Hillary Clinton if her 3 million popular vote majority made her President! Or even, if the 80,000 combined votes in Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania hadn't gone to the T-monster, thus making her an Electoral College winner, too!

It's quite a "What If?" But with a high degree of confidence I can say that Clinton would have been impeached before the 2018 mid-term election.

Now before we go any further, don't expect this to be a Hillary love letter. I voted for her because the alternative, as we now know, was too awful to contemplate. True, many of her positions on certain issues were aligned with my own. However, she exhibited prior questionable judgments that made me an unenthusiastic supporter. (Exhibit A: the sudden appearance of the Whitewater investigation Rose Law Firm billing records. Exhibit B: her claim to be under sniper fire when she landed in Bosnia, 1996. Exhibit C: her dreadful 2016 campaign.)

Overall, I think she would have been OK as Chief Executive. But she would arrive at the White House with heavy baggage from the campaign that the GOP House and Senate would be investigating with full force from Day One. Here are the subjects they'd be pushing for impeachment, and they were all red meat for the "LOCK HER UP!!" chants at Trump rallies:

Uranium One.

The Clinton Foundation. 

More Benghazi More.

The Mishandled and Missing Emails. 

Let's take a look at each of these!

The sale of Uranium One was a real hot ticket back in 2015 and early 2016. When the book "Clinton Cash" came out, it put this topic square up front. I had friends claim that Clinton made millions off the deal and that she was going to be exposed and pull out of the race within a week or so. Well, that didn't happen. But it didn't keep GOP-heads from insisting that Clinton was single-handedly  responsible for the sale of this proud company to the Russians. And that Russia got all this yuuuuge chunk of American-mined uranium for its own weapons. And Clinton put the profits into her foundation and pocketbook! And Clinton was a traitor! RRRRRRR!!

As you might know, passions still run high. There were donations made to the Clinton Foundation that were, well, awkward. Bill did receive $500,000 for a speech to a group friendly to the sale. But in the end, as Secretary of State, H Clinton was one of nine officials who signed off on the vetted  deal, and only the President could have stopped it. As for the rest of the "Clinton Cash" BS reaction that surrounded Uranium One, it all fell apart in the end. The Trump Department of Justice quietly  announced it was dropping its investigation into this mostly baseless canard.

Ha Ha Ha HA HA HAAA HAAAA HAAAARRR OH HA HA HAAAA!

The Clinton Foundation has always been seen by MAGAites as a slush fund cash cow for Bill and Hillary. As written in "Clinton Cash" and promulgated by multitudes of right wing media platforms, the Clintons have used their foundation as an access-to-power scheme. Donate, and you get what you want from the then-Secretary of State and friendly influence from the past President. Again, my conservative friends were agitated by the blatant disregard for the law! These Clintons, RRRRRRR!!

Except, of course, that the charges set forth in "Clinton Cash" and subsequent accusations from the GOP fever swamp have crashed and burned. Yes, after more than two years of effort, the Justice Department announced it's closing down its probe and expects no charges. It's very hard for many to accept, including the conservative National Review, which when reporting on this development, stated that the Clinton Foundation was defunct. (It isn't.)

As for the oft-stated corrupt nature of the Clinton Foundation, the gold-standard charity watchdog, Charity Navigator, has consistently given it high marks. (In severe contrast, the Trump Foundation was recently forced by New York courts to close shop because of its fraudulent operations. The Trump family, being its Board of Directors, was fined $2 million dollars.)

Benghazi. Or, BENGHAZI!!! If you were in a coma between September 12, 2012 through H Clinton's epic 11-hour House testimony on October 22, 2015 you would have missed an enormous amount of partisan BS spun by both parties. The deaths of 4 Americans, including the Ambassador to Libya, at a CIA operations base that had been clumsily designated as a "consulate" was a real fustercluck. Plenty of finger-pointing and hysterics to go around. Republican rhetoric rose to accusing Clinton of accessory to murder and treason. Democratic rhetoric spun a series of stupid CYA defenses that failed to satisfy.

In the end, the House launched 10 separate investigations on what went down in Benghazi. 107 witnesses were called to testify, and did. The Executive Branch produced over 100,000 document pages in compliance with House requests. There were 33 individual hearings. Hillary Clinton emerged as blameless for the four deaths, but not so blameless in the subsequent spin. Because she had slipped through their fingers yet again, Republicans ratcheted up their fury toward her. GRRRRR!!

And, of course, her emails. The disclosure that Clinton used a private server for her Secretary of State business was THE big catch of the Benghazi hearings. It can be argued that this revelation, with the tortured and defensive spin by Hillary, and its subsequent handling by the FBI, sank the S.S. Clinton on November 8, 2016.

The big question remains: why the hell did she do it? Hills insists it was for convenience. She was accustomed to it for her Blackberry. And that it's a practice that's not uncommon within government. This seems true, even, stupidly, amongst top-level Trump Administration nitwits.

But it always seemed to me that Ms. Clinton chose this route because of her 20+ years of being in the crosshairs of the GOP Hate Machine. I believe she decided that using the private email server would provide some extra insulation for her... a layer of privacy and obfuscation. As a result, Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests for such info by reporters, groups and individuals were stymied. State Department couldn't give them what it didn't have, officially. She had been sneaky.

But then, once outed, the problem compounded. Clinton lawyers separated her official emails from personal business ones, roughly 30,000 each. As was her prerogative, she had her personal emails sent to her email vendor, Platte River Systems, with instructions to hold for 60 days if they were somehow needed, and then delete afterwards. A doofus at Platte forgot to delete them after 60 days. And it was after this 60 day period that the House issued its subpoena for these personal emails. The doofus panicked and deleted them too late, and in apparent "defiance" of the House request. Ladies and Gentlemen, I give you "the missing emails!!"

Yep, a big dopey mess that would hang around Hillary's neck like an albatross. And if she had become President, it's guaranteed that it would be used in an Impeachment inquiry. Along with the ridiculous accusations from the Uranium One kerfuffle, the Clinton Foundation flat tire, and BENGHAZI!

Each and all of these wouldn't amount to impeachable offenses. But given how ham-handed Hillary was in getting in front and past these problems, I have every confidence that she and her advisors would have gummed everything up, leading to Obstruction of Congress/Justice charges.

So, she gets impeached and the trial happens in early 2018. Considering how many Democratic Senators were up for re-election in 2018, and how unpopular President Hillary Lightning Rod would probably be, it's not crazy to think that there would be enough Democratic defections to make a Senate conviction possible. Yeeesh, what an alternative timeline!

I will be very happy when our current President and his Administration take a spectacular fall within a few months after the Senate trial concludes. Even though he very likely will be acquitted by his Senate enablers, there will be more and more terrible stuff coming down the pipeline. You can bank on it. It's almost as if The Fates had decided that whoever emerged victorious in 2016 would be dashed and destroyed. What a time to be alive.

End of the decade, 12/31/2029

OK, fresh off of the block, 2020 already sucks. It's presenting as a deeply wild year, one that causes acid reflux regularly through next Inauguration Day and maybe beyond. We're riding a crazy roller coaster with no guardrails and no recognizable track path and no OHSA to close it down. If you ever wondered what it was like to live during the national crises of the 1770's or late 1850's or 1930's or even the 1960's, this is our own time of national existential crisis.

So... let's take a moment to clear our minds a bit. Let's think on what life may be like living in December 31, 2029 as we will turn the page towards a new brand new decade. What do you think will happen over these next ten years? What will it look like heading into the 2030's?

Who knows, right? However, allow me to present several topic points that would shape the things to come. I strongly believe these actions are necessary for a better common life going forward. Of course, this isn't necessarily a prediction page. These points may or may not happen. But it is a listing of items that we need to get closer to realizing if we are to survive with each other in this country and  on this planet. We might not accomplish these goals within our tumultuous decade ahead, but we could get much closer than we are now.

Movement towards Matriarchy. This heads the list because it is most important. It's my contention that our country and world need to turn further away from systems of patriarchy. While it has created immense wealth and privilege for a comparative few, and a comfortable lifestyle for many, patriarchy in general keeps an unfair world in place. It maintains power and control for those who operate through a top-down and zero-sum approach towards our fellow human beings. Patriarchy means men rule; might makes right. And in our country, it means the white men rule (although that has been slowly changing).

Now I'm not against white men, per se. I happen to be one myself. But our world and country is not homogeneous. And there are more women than men. Let's be reminded of Michelle Williams's words as she accepted a Best Actress award last week:

I know my choices might look different than yours, but thank God or whomever you pray to that we live in a country founded on the principle that I am free to live by my fate and you are free to live by yours. So women, 18 to 118, when it is time to vote, please do so in your own self interest. It’s what men have been doing for years. It’s what men have been doing for years, which is why the world looks so much like them. But don’t forget we are the largest voting body in this country. Let’s make it look more like us.

Right. Matriarchal values of cooperation and caring are essential towards achieving progress for the rest of my list. Without a greater rise of Women Power, we are stuck and screwed in a world where the "winners" are busy getting theirs and to hell with everyone and everything else.

Climate Crisis Mitigation. Oil and coal companies have known about where we have been heading since the mid 1970s. Their public approach has been to deny until they can't. There's just too much money to be made using their model than to make widespread energy source changes! So while we pass a tipping point that basically condemns our way of life from future generations, fossil fuel companies are busy getting their government representatives to de-regulate environmental restrictions on their businesses. And renewable energy continues to be poo-pooed at the highest levels.

I recall attending an Electric Utility demonstration back in 1984. There was a PR guy who explained how we got our power, how it was distributed, etc. He showed how fossil fuels were the primary source for electricity. He mocked solar energy, saying that if you expanded it by 100% it would only account for 1% of power needs. So I raised my hand and asked, "what if we raised it by 1000%? How about 100,000%? You're suggesting there's some sort of ceiling, and there isn't." The PR guy looked at me and shut down the presentation.

Today we have an oil-friendly Senator from Oklahoma bringing a snowball onto the Senate floor as an example of the Global Warming fallacy. And we have Australia burning, and its Great Coral Reef dying, and fish species expiring from warming waters all around the world. We need to create stronger cooperative international programs that ensure radical changes in energy sources. Otherwise our children and theirs will be facing life with routine killer drought, floods, unlivable heat, enormous refugee movements from uninhabitable lands, disease spread, and socio-economic collapse. Our species has become endangered. We need healers.

Fixing Democracy. To say that our system of governance needs updating is an understatement. Too often whole classes of people are restricted from voting, either by registration purges or reduced number of polling places or gerrymandered districts or signature challenges or felon records or funky paper-less voting machines or other corruptive stifling methods. Voting rights need to be enacted like what New York State is doing - when one turns 18, one becomes automatically registered! Why make it hard? This should be the easiest thing in the world.

But there's so much more. The entire Electoral College needs to be reformed or rejected - as currently structured, Red States will win close Presidential contests 65% of the time despite losing the national popular vote! This plays against "majority rules" of course. It represents Patriarchy at its worst. In addition, we need non-partisan panels that draw up fair and objective representational districts. "Citizens United" needs to be overturned so unlimited amounts of toxic Dark Money can be drained from the system. And let's reinstate the Fairness Doctrine and put Fox State News and Hate Radio out of business!!

Additionally, we will need to codify restraints on the Executive Branch and create much stronger Checks and Balances. The Trump Adminstration and the GOP Senate demonstrate how Bad Faith actors and their pursuit of power and control can ruin democratic representative government -- something our Founders never envisioned (their view was that men of the highest character would invariably rise to the top).

Capitalism Undergoes Some Changes. Yep, we need more Naomi Klein and less Milton Friedman. More Barbara Ehrenreich and less Steve Mnuchin. More Jane Addams and less Ayn Rand. More business behavior based on research and development planning and less reacting to quarterly statements. Let's end off-shore and Swiss accounts where corporations, billionaires and crime bosses park their tax-free fortunes. Let's put an end to international transactions that mask immense money-laundering schemes.

All thought systems evolve, and Capitalism is no exception. Its current direction is toward the way it was at the turn of the 20th Century. No regulations existed at that time, no oversight, no worker rights, no protections, nothing more than the ruthless pursuit of profits. Then reformers like Jane Addams and Upton Sinclair emerged. Unions formed. Teddy Roosevelt presented his trust-busting and anti-monopoly policies. It made a big difference.

But not enough to prevent the economic collapse of the Great Depression. Policy and legislative changes made by FDR during that time helped create the remarkable and sustained Post-War Boom that lasted, more or less, until 2008. It ended when specific safeguarding regulations had been removed. Today, even more economic guardrails have been removed, with more being recommended. We need to reverse this trend. We need to end the egregious income and wealth distribution model of today. It's unsustainable.

Health Care Becomes A Human Right. Well, this should be a given; however, it's still more of an economic right, if you can afford it. The nature of American health care system is conflicted. It can provide the best care in the world. But it cannot provide such care to many of its citizens. And the structure of health insurance that subsidizes this model corrupts an efficacious delivery of benefits, makes fraud an endemic problem, and creates a major and too often debilitating economic weight on people's lives.

America continues its anomalous role as an under-performer with health care delivery in relation to other "first world" nations. Its system of service distribution needs significant revamping. It's corrupt and inefficient. The administrative and operating costs far exceed other nations. Don't believe it? Check out this comprehensive and quite damning report:

https://www.pgpf.org/blog/2019/07/how-does-the-us-healthcare-system-compare-to-other-countries

Everybody Needs an Education. Having a good education is the best answer for the challenges of the next decade. No one disagrees with that. It gets contentious with what "good" means. And the debate usually revolves around public cost. And private profit. And even religion. There can be no argument that the U.S. position in elementary and secondary education is tops, because it is not. In fact, it's kinda embarrassing, according to this Pew Research Center study on our position in the world:

https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2017/02/15/u-s-students-internationally-math-science/

Significant changes need to be made in what is taught, how it is taught and who it is taught to. The cost for future education will need to be determined by a simple maxim: The resources for a public education received by the richest student is required by the poorest student. Hoo boy, that represents a huge societal mindset roadblock. But it's necessary. And a more matriarchal and egalitarian society will pursue this. The result will be a true meritocracy.

Let Diversity Bloom. All these aforementioned topics will take time to transpire and transform our society. Certainly, we will need every bit of the 2020's to work on gaining traction. The 2030's will require a sea change surge in how our society operates. A generational upgrade. A huge shift in consciousness and self-awareness. All of these topics, and other institutional reforms, are dependent on the decline of the patriarchal mindset. It all may be achieved through our own pro-active choices, or by having painful circumstances dictate our lives to come.

A 2019 Christmas Carol

It was Christmas Eve. Scrooge McTrump was arriving back at the White House. He had been at a Holiday fete given to him by the RNC at his own DC hotel. It would pay for the month's lease, so he was content. As his limo slowly pulled up to the security checkpoints, Scrooge thought on the evening's event. So many obsequious and fawning sycophants! So many previous opponents now turned into groveling acolytes! He had succeeded in conducting his hostile takeover of an entire political party and now most of the nation's government. It felt good to be king.

"Thank you, sir, for making it safe to say 'Merry Christmas' out loud," said a burly security guard at the gate, tears streaming down his face. "Yeah, yeah. Merry Christmas. Now get the fuck outta my way!" If he was lucky, he could still catch the last minutes of Hannity on Fox.

Once inside, he walked up to the Residence floor. He knew Melania and Barron weren't there. They rarely were, and he didn't care. All he wanted was to relax and watch some Fox. He reached for the doorknob and recoiled -- "WTF!" The elaborate doorknob had somehow taken on an eerie and uncanny visage of his old pal, Jeffrey Epstein! Scrooge dismissed it as the result of having eaten some bad shrimp at the party. Maybe he would need to rush off to Walter Reed Medical Center again?

Feeling his pulse rate race a bit, he got into this golden night robe and turned on the TV. And there on the big screen was Jeffrey Epstein's mournful face appearing momentarily before giving way to Tucker Carlson's perpetually perplexed persona. "Fuckin' frozen fish trust fund loser," Scrooge grumped. He set his phone on the night table next to his Adderall and closed his eyes.

A booming knock at the bedroom door awoke Scrooge. He drew the covers up to his nose. There was the ghost of his old booty call partner - Jeffrey Epstein! The ghost walked in, burdened with heavy chains linked with sex toys, money boxes and hotel room safes. A knotted prison bedsheet was wrapped tightly around his neck. He gazed at Scrooge and began to moan and shake.

"Jeffrey! What the hell do you want? You're dead! I made sure of it!"

"McTrump, hear me well. Tonight at midnight, you will be visited by three spirits, showing your past, present and future. Heed their visions. This is your last chance to amend your ways. Don't be a total shreklekh mensch like I was." And then he vanished!

"Jeffrey, wait! Can I tweet about this?" Scrooge thought better of it. Shaken, he pulled the covers over his head. What the hell was Epstein on about? Scrooge liked him back in the day when they were on the poontang patrol. Ep had even introduced Melania to him. Jeffrey said he'd imported her like so many other "models" from Eastern Europe. But he had crossed Scrooge by poaching girls from Mar-a-Lago without his permission. That was the last he'd seen him... until tonight. He tried to go to sleep.

The phone alarm rang. It was midnight. Scrooge sat up and was startled to see the shade of Roy Cohn standing by his bed.

"Hello, Scrooge. Long time, you old counter-puncher!"

"Roy!! My old mentor! You died of AIDS in 1986. Where the hell did you come from?"

"Hell. A lot of your dead family and associates there say 'Hi'. Now let's get going. I've got a job to do here. I'm your Christmas Past."

And off they went lifting into a swirl of clouds and stars and the night sky!

When Scrooge could focus, he saw himself with family and friends at his Trump Tower penthouse. He felt an urge to visit his gold toilet there. But Cohn held up a cautioning hand. "You cannot pee. And they cannot see you." But he could see them, and himself. He squinted at one of his three wives. Everyone was laughing.

McTrump was regaling the group about having recently stiffed the Association to Benefit Children. "Yeah, it was for that nursery school opener for AIDS kids..." Scrooge remembered. He hadn't been a donor and never intended to be. But he knew where the NY press would be that day. So he showed up, got backstage and talked his way onto the Big Donor spotlight area. There was an empty chair there, so he sat down as the event began (he didn't care that the seat was reserved for an actual donor who now couldn't get into the chair before the event began and had to sit back in the audience).

"Yeah, what a bunch of schmucks," he recalled. The NY press took oodles of pics and video of him smiling and clapping. Then he left, and never gave a donation. But he got a lot of press coverage for nothing that day. "Yeah, that was a good day. That was fun, that I can tell you." Everyone laughed again.

The party was now raising a toast to McTrump. "To the man who always stiffs his workers. To the chief who bought two huge portraits of himself for $80,000 using his own foundation's money. To being able to stay above water despite writing off ONE BILLION dollars in losses over ten years. To Russians and their dirty money. To real estate and money laundering! Yay!"

Everyone clinked their glasses. Scrooge looked at the shade of Roy Cohn, who smirked and shook his head. "To all the stupid failed sucker businesses that we've foisted on the rubes! Trump University! Trump Airlines! Trump Steaks! GoTrump search engine! Trump Vodka! Trump Mortgage! Trump Magazine! Trump Ice! The New Jersey Generals! The Trump Network! Trump New Media!" Everyone laughed again and slurped their champagne as they began to fade into the chintzy decor - this vision was swirling about and then Scrooge found himself back in his White House bedroom.

"Roy, those were such good times, the likes of which have never been seen. And, quite frankly, I don't have as much fun now." But Cohn simply said, "Wait for the next Spirit." So Scrooge got back into bed.

He awoke again at midnight when his phone alarm sounded. Scrooge looked wildly around and saw the shade of the recently departed Elijah Cummings standing there. "I'm here, Scrooge, to take you for a spin through your Christmas Present. So hang on, it's going to be quite a ride." The room spun. Soon he witnessed a whirlwind of voices and images.

Scrooge saw the 1% enjoying their stock market and tax cut gains. There were glaciers melting, withering droughts, wildfires and floods. Sexual assault victims sought the comfort of their friends and families. Hundreds of immigrant/refugee children were in cages at the southern border. Puerto Ricans and Virgin Islanders were still struggling.

He saw old flames like Stormy Daniels and Karen McDougal and felt his mushroom stir. In a flash, the 24+ women who have accused him of sexual assault flew past. Then he saw courtrooms and prison cells with associates like Michael Cohen, Paul Manafort, Roger Stone, Michael Flynn, Rick Gates. And then he saw others he knew who would be there soon.

He saw his adult children being told they were required to attend training classes on the duties of running charities (this, and a $2 million dollar fine, was the civil case punishment for operating a fraudulent Trump Charities scam).  He looked past the 1000+ former Federal prosecutors who agreed that the Mueller Report would have resulted in multiple felony charges against him if he weren't President.

He saw China's Xi sipping a drink, chuckling, saying to himself "an immense fortune". There was his love letter pal, Kim Jong-un, riding a horse and thinking "What a dumb fuck!" And there was his boss, Vladimir Putin, sitting by a fire in his dacha, quietly laughing and shaking his head, saying "Who could have imagined?"

Finally, Cummings brought Scrooge to an Arizona desert home where he found Cindy McCain lighting a Christmas candle for her late husband.

"I can't take it anymore, Elijah!! Take me away! Get me outta here!"

Scrooge found himself in bed again when the phone alarm rang once more at midnight. He opened one eye and saw the Spirit of the Future waiting for him. It was Richard Nixon. With a glower and a shake of his jowls, Nixon raised his arms high, flashing his famous Victory hand signs. Then the now-familiar swirling of senses began and they were gone.

He began to focus on familiar settings. It was a wing of his residence at Mar-a-Lago. The room had been set up like a hospital room. There was a hospital bed, a crash cart, and vitals monitors. Two nurses were unplugging cables and removing IVs as the long "beeeeep" was heard, registering a flatline. A silent bored orderly waited in the background.

"He was such a crazy man! Still grabbed at my cooch with his dying breath!"

"Oh, honey. I was so tired of his constant yelling! It was such a load of mush! 'I'm the real victim!' and 'I've had the worst treatment anyone in the world has ever had!'. And that's the stuff I could even make out..."

"Well, at least it will be quiet around here now. His wife won't come and most of his kids and friends  are in jail. It's sad."

"Yes, it is."

Nixon turned to Scrooge and pointed to the shrouded body. Scrooge peered closer and saw a marmot-like mop of disheveled dyed-blond hair spilling out from the top of the sheet. It looked familiar. He looked back at Nixon, who shook his jowls and lifted his arms aloft again.

And then it was over! McTrump opened his eyes. It was Christmas morning! He leapt out of bed, feeling like a completely recharged man. He grabbed his phone and shot out a quick tweet. "Merry Christmas, even to the hateful losers who are trying to destroy me and America! This means you, Democrats!!"

Scrooge felt fine! He didn't need any redemption. When you're the greatest person in the world, the one who is the smartest genius, the handsomest man, The Chosen One  by God who requires undying support and obedience, well, who needs flippin' redemption? He got on his phone.

"Hey! Kitchen! Where the hell is my Diet Coke and Egg McMuffin?!! Let's go, chop-chop!!"

It felt good to be king.

53%??

Let's take a quick and adventurous look at how half of our nation thinks!

In a recent poll, it was revealed that 53% of Republicans preferred Trump to Lincoln. Yes they did:

You.Gov poll shows 53% of Republicans think Trump is greater than Lincoln

It's not all bonkers. Reagan beats him 59% to 41%. The same Reagan who, in his farewell speech as President, urged the nation to accept more immigrants. This poll really is indicative of the swirling toxic mess that the GOP has become over the last few decades.

Less popular than Reagan, but more popular than the President who freed the slaves and saved the country. Imagine that. Throughout his tumultuous scandal-a-day administration, Trump is still amazingly popular with Republicans, who cannot get enough of him. Given how 78% of GOP support the Confederate flag as a symbol of "Southern Pride" it is not entirely surprising they prefer him to Lincoln.

How popular is he? Pretty much since taking residence in the White House, Trump has claimed a 95% GOP approval, according to the usual unnamed poll. The Sharpie Poll? It must be this one:

Actually, this consistently hyped figure is likely when considering former Republicans have left the party because of The Freak Show, leaving it in a more purified state for the grifters and the rubes.

So, looking past the Soviet-style near-100% approval mark, it's clear that T enjoys rampant approval from his progressively regressive GOP base. As an example let's listen in to Exhibit A, a caller to a recent CSPAN show:

Hilarious/Horrifying Trumper call to CSPAN

Oh, how did we ever fall to this lowly state?

Back in the day (pre-Lee Atwater and Karl Rove), the GOP was comprised of three basic groups: Partisans, Ideologues, and Others.

Partisans - Every party has its share of partisans. They will carry the water and do whatever is necessary to advance the party. They don't have much philosophical attachment to anything except advance the party. It is more Tribalism than anything else. It's Us vs. Them. Some might step past the legal line if they could get away with it.

Ideologues - The GOP was renowned for their share of high profile principled ideologues. Think Milton Friedman, Barry Goldwater and St. Reagan. Belief in such values as Fiscal Conservatism, Free Trade, Pro-Business, Maintenance of Law & Order/Rule of Law, Pragmatic Management of Government, Pursuit of Balanced Budgets, Strongly Hawkish Foreign Policy towards Autocratic States, and such were always loudly ballyhooed.

Others -  This category used to be an ambiguous amalgam of subgroups that flitted back and forth between Republican and Democratic parties. "Reagan Democrats". "White Working Class". "Disaffected Union Workers". "Non-College Educated". "Conservative Christians". "Independents". Before the Internet Age, this diverse group was hard to identify, much less motivate for action.

OK, that was then. Let's take a moment to consider why so many Americans continue to defy reality and support Trump. Over the last decade, a small stream of Republicans began leaving the GOP. For the last three years, the stream has widened as former members have become acutely uncomfortable with their old party. Now that the party has purged its people who think independently and morally, GOP is a depot for three basic groups.

1) Nihilists who find laws and rules to be useful only when advancing their own political purposes. This group used to be the Partisans. These are the fine folk who believe that Power and Control are more important than Right over Wrong. Those who follow norms are Losers. This may seem like a horrible conclusion. However, it is a very popular theme amongst DC observers.

2) Reflexive Regressives have taken the place of Ideologues. When Trump conducted his hostile takeover of the Republican Party in 2016, members had a choice. Some became Never Trumpers and joined the stream out of the GOP. Most abandoned whatever principles they may have had and lashed themselves securely to the guy. It's safe to say the guiding philosophical lights of the party have been snuffed out. Milton Friedman? Goldwater? No sir. Russian hawk Reagan? Nope. That school of conservatism is dead. The premier thought leaders in the GOP are found foaming on Fox State News and Hate Radio. And these people have no principles except to their own bottom line. Truth for them is extremely relative.

3) Deplorables are the new Others. As Trump loudly spoke in racist and misogynist terms, he galvanized racists and bigots. He said what they thought. He celebrated the resentful "poorly educated." He called for a Muslim registry and a complete Muslim ban from entering the country. When he made an alliance with top evangelists, their followers were told Trump was a vessel of the Lord. "God works through this imperfect man." Of course He does. When one is convinced that God is on your side, there is no bottom to what is accepted and promoted. The Lord works in mysterious ways, all right.

Barf me out. What a bunch of phony grifters.

The GOP has become so bad that it celebrates when WAR CRIMINALS are pardoned. Why? Because these are tough men who were put in bad places to protect our country -- like sniper shooting unarmed and defenseless Muslim girls and old men. And killing/desecrating an enemy combatant and posting pictures. When Trump pardoned three Navy Seals for having conducted this egregious and murderous conduct, charges brought against them by their own team members, he was cheered. He even suggested he'd bring them along to appear at his campaign rallies!! It's a degradation of U.S. military values, but nothing matters when you've got the Lord's vessel working for you, so who cares?

It really is a political party that has pursued Power Politics for so long that it has completely lost its way. And the leader it has is so obsessed with himself that he cannot lead, beyond saving his own skin. There is no moral compass. There is no moral imperative at play. What is left are the Left Behinds who have "raptured" themselves into their Members Only club. It's a party that has much power at this moment. The Electoral College gives them a huge advantage. Maybe they can extend it somewhat over the next few years. But within ten years, this carnival will have left town and few will admit to having been a part of it. The main question is, then, how can the GOP positively evolve from this point on? Magic Eight-Ball, what say you?

Wow, what a rant this has been. Let's end again with the useful quote from former Bush communications staffer and speechwriter David Frum. In writing about the possibilities of Trump's win and the rise of an authoritarian state, he stated this chilling thought:

"If conservatives become convinced that they cannot win democratically, they will not abandon conservatism. They will reject democracy."  

When people abandon Rules, it's easy to figure what happens next. William Goldman certainly knew this. So did George Orwell. Democracy is fragile and needs constant tending. The alternative is having the Boot on your neck for the rest of your life.