COMMENTARY: "The Next Two Years" by Denise Coffey (read: my mom) · 10:59pm Nov 12th, 2016
Thoughts on a week to remember
( https://next721776.wordpress.com/2016/11/12/the-next-two-years/ ) - This is my mom's first post on her new WordPress page, Next. I recommend you follow it on a regular basis.
It’s said that the darkest hour is just before dawn. I believe we’re now there. And as odd as it may sound, I believe there is more reason to hope now then there has been in years.
So don’t give in to fear, despair, rage, or panic. Don’t believe everything is lost. Because if you want real change, you’ve just been handed a gift from the gods.
The powers that have so destroyed the middle class in this country have finally been handed a glorious length of rope to hang themselves with, and I believe that’s exactly what’s about to happen.
Donald Trump was elected president because the people believe he can and will do two things: one, restore the American economy to a state where it works for the people, and two, clean out the corruption in Washington and its devotion to entrenching the status quo, or as he said, “drain the swamp.”
If he succeeds in these two goals the people will love and adore him, and he will be a hero to them, which is what he most wants. If he does not, the people will turn on him with lightning speed, and he will be reviled as one of the worst leaders in American history.
The only thing standing between him and what he wants is The United States Congress.
You see, the Congress (largely unchanged by the election) that he’s about to inherit is the swamp; it consists primarily of Republicans and pseudo-Democrats absolutely devoted to the corruption, status-quo-maintenance, and corporate hegemony people most want gone.
Nothing breeds stupidity quite like arrogance, and both president-elect Trump and Congress believe they’ve just been handed a mandate to do whatever they want. And I have no doubt these people truly believe that their ideas aren’t dangerous to the economy (four decades of evidence to the contrary). This means Congress is now going to do everything in its power to entrench the current corporate power structure and cater to every whim of the reigning oligarchy and its corporate uberstructure. (Did I mention arrogant is so often a synonym for tone-deaf, counter-intuitive, above the will of the people, and stone-cold blind?)
How much hope you have in this moment can be based on your answer to the following question: do you believe that two years of tax cuts for the wealthy and corporations, massive deregulation, massive cuts in spending, and a veritable orgy of largesse for the corporate world will help the American middle class?
If you don’t – and the past forty years pretty much tell that story – then it’s all over but the shouting; the hegemony that has ruled us for so long is about to commit a very public suicide.
A writer at DailyKos, Scandalous One, wrote a piece yesterday that said this election could be a silver lining for the Democratic Party. I’m willing to go much further. I believe the election marks the beginning of the final and total destruction of the power structure that’s been destroying the people of this country and their economic chances for forty years.
One of the problems with recent attempts at change is that it has heretofore been impossible for the average person to get a truly clear picture of who’s responsible for what. That’s about to change. Republican president, Republican Senate, Republican house – everything that happens for the next two years is strictly in the GOP wheelhouse.
So let them have the rope.
As to what we can do, our priorities now must be as follows:
A complete and total overhaul of the Democratic Party. My thoughts on that matter will follow in my next post, and everyone on the side of progress needs to be thinking too.
The most determined effort in American history to win back the House and Senate, and it needs to begin now, today. And it needs to begin with we the people – not party bigwigs – finding candidates who believe steadfastly in economic policies that will revive and benefit the middle class and getting them to run. Then we need to make as many people in the community as possible – regardless of their current or previous political affiliation – aware of the choice available to them.
A massive wave of brainstorming to find real answers to our economic problems. Invite friends over for coffee and talk about it. Read books. It’s patently clear no one in the power structure is going to do this for us, so we need to do it ourselves. Talk to the owners of local small businesses about the problems they’re facing; talk to teachers about the problems in education; talk to your local police about the problems they’re having. Ask questions. Talk to people who are out of work about the problems they’re having finding work; talk to both single and married parents about the most difficult parts of keeping their heads above water; talk to the elderly about what’s happened to them. And read more books. (A suggested reading list follows this post.)
Find out about everything that alienates people from the Progressive Movement. Ask Bernie supporters what parts of Bernie’s agenda they didn’t like, and ask those who didn’t back him as well. Have an honest discussion about any doubts you had about Hillary Clinton (don’t just regurgitate media sound bites; speak openly about whatever might have turned you off). Ask a local small business owner what parts of the Democratic agenda they think are air-headed. Seek out those who didn’t vote and listen to them. And above all, talk to people outside your own circle of experience and hear them out.
Find out what parts of the progressive agenda people find unworkable, alienating, unrealistic or dangerous and fix them.
Only we the people can fix this, and singing just to the choir is no longer an option. We need to listen to everyone now, and that will tell us where we need to go.
In the next two years, the middle-class, working people and small businesses are about to get screwed by Congress like they’ve never been screwed before. I don’t think Donald Trump actually wants any of this; at least I hope he doesn’t, or he’s going to go from hero to villain in the eyes of the people at the speed of light. Congress (a wholly owned subsidiary of multinational and transnational corporations incorporated) does, though, and is about to spend the next two years giving the oligarchy and its corporate uberstructure the biggest boost in power and wealth it’s ever gotten.
And that’s a gift from the gods.
Two words: get involved. We’ve got the option to replace at least part of Congress in two years. And for every action they take, don’t hesitate to make known at the top of your voice what it does to working people, the middle class, the poor, we the people. Get involved, so two years hence we can give them two more sweet words:
You’re fired.
Suggested Reading List:
When Corporations Rule the World, David Korten
Screwed, Thomas Hartmann
The Great American Stick-Up, Robert Scheer
Unequal Protection, Thom Hartmann
One Market Under God, Thomas Frank
The Great Turning, David Korten
The Best Democracy Money Can Buy, Greg Palast
Dismantling the American Dream, by Kenneth A. Buchdahl
That covers books in the progressive vein. An interesting contrast—both entertaining and thought-provoking in its own way—is Jesse Ventura’s I Ain’t Got Time to Bleed and its sequel, Do I Stand Alone?
I also recommend David Halberstam’s The Reckoning, a stunning analysis of how our auto industry failed in the 1970’s and 80’s—as relevant now as it ever was—as well as his The Next Century.
Finally, Kevin Phillips’ The Politics of Rich and Poor is an excellent and detailed analysis of how Reaganomics worked out in practice and affected so many. Now might be a great time to revisit that issue.
