CommentsONE MAN’S OPINION--Have we turned from benign oligarchy to predatory corruptionism?
The difference is that a benign oligarchy operates by the rule of law by which the oligarchs must abide even when dealing with people who have less power. Under corruption, law means whatever the person in charge at any particular moment wants it to be.
Although the US Constitution created a Republic, we were an oligarchy as the decision making was under the control of a small number of white landowners. Since power tends to corrupt, the framers balanced power against power in a variety of ways. The most balances were dividing power between three branches of government and reserving rights to the states themselves. These two mechanisms were insufficient to gain ratification of the constitution, requiring the first ten amendments, The Bill of Rights. The Declaration and the US Constitution were benign as they set a framework to disperse power and wealth among everyone.
Because power is a relentless force, power tends to corrupt and corruption destroys. Power’s concentration in a cadre of myopic persons resulted in successive recessions and depressions known as the business cycle. The myth that capitalism operated best with no government regulation was an absurd notion which seems to have been based on the notion that Adam Smith’s “invisible hand” was GOD. Hence, any action by man was a sacrilege. Child labor, that’s GOD’s will. Workers wantonly killed on the job, GOD’s will. Poverty, filth, disease and death – all GOD’s will.
The fusion of Adam Smith’s invisible hand with the Calvinist idea of Predestination still lingers in the American psyche. Under Predestination, GOD decided who was saved and who was damned. Wealth was a sign of GOD’s grace, while poverty shows GOD’s damnation. Thus, no one should limit a man’s accumulation of wealth as that interferes in GOD’s will. Fortunately, not all Americans are Calvinists like Trump which may help explain why he recognizes no limit on his actions. Being among the elect, he has the right to do whatever he wants. As one can see, when the concept of Predestination enters into politics and economics, the rule of law has to depart. Wealthy and Power are evidence of GOD’s grace, and hence, the saved embody the law. This idea is not unique to Calvinists. It is what King Louis XIV meant by “I am the state” ('L'etat c'est moi'). James I of England likewise believed in the Divine Right of Kings. This concept that some men are above the law is deeply ingrained in our psychology. Look at our love for rogue cops in TV Shows, forgetting that in real life they disproportionately murder Blacks and other minorities.
When both political parties repealed Glass-Steagall and okayed Credit Default Swaps in 2000, they created weapons of mass economic destruction. Do not think the devastation is over. The hard hit blue collar workers in the Rust Belt revolted and voted for Trump after Hillary called them “Deplorables” (which is the N-word for poor Whites), resulting in a madman becoming President. They are still suffering.
When the pandemic hit, people had little savings since the rents had been so high that they could not save. A lot of people could not pay rent so moratoriums were called. This was a stop gap measure since rents cannot be suspended forever. With seriously diminished rental income, many smaller landlords will go bankrupt so that the larger institutions (i.e. the1%) can buy them out. When the pandemic abates, wealth will be more concentrated in the 1%.
Right now, people think that small landlords will make it provided they can start evicting people who cannot pay rent. Really? To whom will the landlords rent? Los Angeles is losing population. The more for “rent signs” people see, the more potential renters will demand lower rent – assuming people are looking to rent in LA.
Evictions will leave landlords with empty apartments, while the ranks of the homeless will swell. Mayor Eric Garcetti know he is facing a real estate crisis which is why he trying to get over $100 Million in rent relief to the most poor. (Keynesian economics on a municipal level is intriguing.)
Even today Trump has a 10% edge in polls as being more capable to solving the economic crisis than Joe Biden. What!?! People think Trump can solve the economic disaster brought upon us by his insane Covid-19 blunders which turned a virus into a devastating pandemic, crashing the entire economy with a few weeks?
Here’s the terrible psychology which lurks just beneath the surface – the law does not matter. All we need is a strong man who will ignore the law. That’s the definition of Donald Trump. In contrast, Joe Biden is an ineffectual old White guy that Obama chose to be Vice-President so as not to be upstaged.
Thus, we are experiencing a weird situation. After the nation turned from Keynesian Economics to corruptionism in 2000, which then crashed the economy in 2008, the voters themselves are now pressing for more corruptionism. The Dems want Kamala Harris for no good reason. They claim she is Black. She was mean to Joe Biden so she can be mean to LumpyTrumpy. “Oh, she’s a woman and it is time for woman.” Poppycock. It is never the time for a man, or for a women, or for a white person, or for purple person. It is always time for character, or have we all forgotten Martin Luther King?
Right now, Black Lives Matter are the people calling for the rule of law while also improving the law so that the law no longer excludes Blacks from “all men have certain inalienable rights including life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.” Odds are that the Dems will co-opt BLM into an anti-white movement marching under the banner of Identity politics.
(Richard Lee Abrams is a Los Angeles attorney and a CityWatch contributor. He can be reached at: [email protected]. Abrams views are his own and do not necessarily reflect the views of CityWatch.)
-cw
