Lauryn Hill was in the new this week stating the reason that
she did not pay any taxes in 2005, 2006, or 2007 was because she was trying to
“build a community of people, like-minded in their desire for freedom and the
right to pursue their goals and lives without being manipulated and controlled
by a media protected military industrial complex with a completely different
agenda.” While we can be sure that there
is in fact a military industrial complex, does the media really protect them? I
think it’s more that the media and the public get so easily distracted. Let’s
not forget Lindsey Lohan got in a car accident this week, and friggin’ Kim
Kardashian’s walked somewhere in New York, so that had to covered. Meanwhile,
Ms. Hill earned $1.5 million in this period when she was on the run from the man.
She tried to explain all this to the IRS, apparently thinking they were not
part of this vast complex that wanted to crush her soul, but they chose to
prosecute anyway. Strange…
That I am aware of all of these stories just shows what a
media whore I am.
But I digress. I wanted to talk about Wisconsin.
Much has been made of the expense of the recall. Through the
end of May about $66 was accounted for, but the non-Partisan campaign finance watchdog group Wisconsin
Democracy Campaign estimates that the final total could be close to $80
million, which would come out to about $32 for every vote. But the sources and
amounts of some of the campaign cash are where the real ugliness occurred. CNN
reported the following:
·
Wisconsin roofing magnate, billionaire Diane
Hendricks, gave Walker more than $500,000
·
Texan home builder Bob Perry, who bankrolled the
infamous 2004 "Swift Boat" attacks against John Kerry, contributed
$500,000 to Walker
·
Las Vegas casino magnate Sheldon Adelson gave
$250,000
·
Michigan Amway Billionaire Dick DeVos donated
$250,000.
Four people, all of whom are spilling their corrupt cash
across the political landscape spent $1.5 million to keep Scott Walker Governor
or Wisconsin.
The NY Times reports
that the Republican Governor’s Association poured $8.7 Million into the
campaign, and that Americans for Prosperity, the financial arm of the Koch
Brother’s criminal business enterprise, spent an additional $3 million. At the
height of the Iraq war, I marched with tens of thousands of others during the
Republican National Convention in New York. People were angry. I remember the
Fox News truck was assaulted with outstretched middle fingers. People chanted
“This is what Democracy Looks like!!”
But in 2012, Fox News contributed $1.0 Million to the Republican
Governor’s Association. Sadly, this is what Democracy looks like today. A
corrupt system awash with so much money, some
of it from News outlets which are ostensibly there to report on the campaigns,
that voices of dissent can barely be heard.
In Wisconsin—the home of Bob Lafollette, the founder of the
Progressive Party in America--
Walker outraised his opponent by
7 to 1 in direct contributions, but when outside money is included it’s closer
to 3 to 1. Of Walker’s total, 70% came
from outside Wisconsin. So what? When such obscene amounts of money are raised
and spent in such a small and in terms of media costs inexpensive state does
any of it really matter? Let’s be honest
Wisconsin is not the capital of corruption; it is really just a satellite
office.
Union membership which was about 30% of all American workers
at its peak is now less than 6%. In 1982 when I helped organize a feeble little
Walk-A-Thon to raise money for an antinuclear/ antiwar group, we managed to
raise about $10,000 after three month’s work. At the time UAW local 65 was an
active ally in the movement to defund the military, arrest Reagan’s headlong
rush to place Nuclear missiles in Europe, and accelerate the process of investing in the
infrastructure of the US economy. I
often saw UAW 65 people around in those days. Everyone knows that these unions,
though not always bastions of progressive politics, are now just faint shadows
of their former selves.
Though still politically active private union membership has
shrunken so dramatically that conservatives have set their sights on public
employee unions. That conservatives continue to rally against a political
force, long since vilified virtually out of practical relevance, which maybe harnesses a tenth of it former
power, shows how completely the game has
changed and how fervently they want to wipe out any opposition to the
unfettered application and power of capital.
Though conservatives suffered a setback in Ohio, where voters rebuked
Republicans governor’s Kasich’s efforts to outlaw collective bargaining, they
scored an obliterating neutron bomb victory in Wisconsin. The buildings stand. Everything else is gone.
Scott Walker in Wisconsin initially wanted big public sector
union givebacks. He got them, and then showing the real teeth of the
conservative coalition he pushed for legislation to outlaw collective
bargaining on a basketful of issues in the future. This virtually guarantees that
teachers, fire fighters, and DMV employees will never again have recourse to
claw any of these concessions back in the future. The Unions which invested million in the
battle were massively outspent. Hello Citizens United, goodbye, democracy, “Maaan…”
Americans it seems have come to the conclusion that
consolidated wealth is good and workers are just annoying impediments in the
furtherance of that goal. Nothing it seems angers Americans anymore unless of
course their cable goes out. Well, let me restate, there is most certainly
anger, but mobilization is lacking and the power structure is not afraid. The
threat of non-violent direct action is too diffuse and too little employed.
Occupy protestors raised all sorts of alarm bells last summer and fall, but
then went silent when cold weather and revised and more subtle police tactics
maneuvered them into near silence.
Capital may have been annoyed, but they were never worried. In general
it seems pretty clear that the Tea Party, well-funded by the same entities that
paid for Scott Walker’s campaign have more staying power. Money always talks.
Always.
It’s hard to believe that just a short time back in our
history things looked so completely different. Calls for change on civil rights
could not be silenced even after Medgar Evers was killed in 1963. A few months
later four little girls were killed in the bombings at the 16th
Street church in Birmingham. Still year
after year the marvelous new militancy that Dr. King spoke of continued to
grow.
In 1967, Abbie Hoffman attempted to levitate the Pentagon,
and the following year the Chicago Police rioted at the Democratic Convention
beating and gassing ant-war protestors.
In 1970 four kids were shot in Kent State. Anti-war protests continued. Ten days later, two more student protestors
were killed and a dozen more were wounded at Jackson State. Still despite all that, the anti-war movement
driven by anxious self interest in opposition to the draft, and the horrific
images of the war projected on TV screens every night (images no longer
allowed) eventually prevailed.
In August 1965 the Watts riots nearly destroyed inner city
Los Angeles. There was at the time a feeling that no matter the ugliness or
violence change was going to come, one way or another, by any means necessary
as Malcolm X famously said.
In July 1968 riots destroyed large sections of Detroit and
Newark accelerating the white flight. This was both the nadir and the zenith of
the movement for progressive social change.
Middle class white American was genuinely frightened into action.
However given a few years progressive social change came to be seen, and was
masterfully projected by cynical politicians, as a handout for minorities and
the mood in the country first darkened and then turned ugly. Capital found a reason and a way to
strengthen their hand.
This is not to suggest that positive social change has not
taken place in the interim. Women’s rights, gay rights, The Americans with
Disability Act, and the environmental movement all coalesced and moved forward
after 1970 when it seemed that country had just had it with protests and
militancy. Enlightened self-interest and more modest goals and agendas generated
change. Enough of a window opened so that many of the wounds of racism, sexism,
and homophobia are no longer festering to the same degree. Though, success
cannot be claimed, progress cannot be denied.
I firmly believe that in a generation or two, my children’s children, or
maybe their children’s children will wonder what all the race, gender, and
sexual orientation fuss was about. That will be all to the good.
But while all this good stuff was taking place starting with
Reagan in 1980 capital reasserted itself. It almost seems like capital was
willing to concede some battles in order to protect their larger concerns. The most
profound and important changes often come when the elite power structure comes
to fear in one way or another. Today there is so little fear that lies are
promulgated by the day. The true elites, those with money, call those that
oppose them class warriors. The image
one is left with is protests in front of the bank rallying against unfair and
dangerous practices, while behind the bank the fat f*** with the shiny suit
loads the van full of money. Bank robbers may have to be happy with thousands,
but millions and billions are looted by those wearing fancier suits and absurdly
more expensive shoes. Kozlowski went to jail for looting $81 million from Tyco.
$81 million. It really was hard then even to fathom the need for the stupidly
expensive umbrella stands and all that. Steve Martin’s funny and prescient
comments on fur sinks come to mind. Boesky and Milken ran up junk bond fortunes
in the hundreds of millions before they were prosecuted, fined, and jailed. But
even these guys were small time hoods compared to the billions which were bet
and lost on the sub-prime loans. Most of these losses were eventually covered
by American taxpayers, so The US and the world go move forward as economic
entities. Alright I get that, but the rapidity with which capital now calls for
deregulation even beyond the minimal amount under which they f***ed all of us
really does astound. This is our new reality. Moral hazard replaced by endless
whining and complaint by institutions which are so large that government can
barely contain or even comprehend their power or complexity.
Between them Obama and Romney raised almost $140 million in
May. Wall Street is again awash in cash and spending it feverishly to influence
elections. It’s really astounding that the large media outlets handicap the
horse race of who outraised the other when the loser still managed to top $60
million and seems to schedule an event or three a week that raises another two
or three million. One might call it all funny money until you realize that many
of the elements of the Dodd- Frank legislation to oversee the financial
industry have yet to see actual regulations written to enforce them. To the
extent that agencies have been set up by the legislation Republicans in
Congress are underfunding enforcement. When I was in China, I can’t remember
where I saw it, but I read that the banks understood that that to kill Dodd
Frank they did not need to kill it overturn it, they just needed to slow it
down. That they have done. Yet all we hear is Dodd-Frank this and Dodd-Frank
that as if the legislation has not been completely stalled out by the bank
lobbyists and campaign contributions. Though profits are still weak owing to
the state of the economy bonuses and salaries are roaring again and back to
pre-crisis levels.
While I’m not going to weep openly about the “end of
democracy as we know it”, I do think that electoral politics as a means to
enact positive social change is at a standstill, if not a complete dead
end. Democrats are moderate at best and
seem to have no stomach for the hand to hand combat required to move a
progressive agenda forward today. As
Bill Maher pointed out last night there are no crazy mother-f***ers on the left
remotely comparable to the Tea Party which would tend to balance things out in
Congress. I am not as sanguine as the hordes of Hollywood celebrities, all so
certain that Obama is a great or even good President. That Sarah Jessica Parker
spot to win a chance to meet the president made my skin crawl. This election
has come to be a steel cage death match about fundraising. I’ll wade through
the swamps of filth to vote for the president, but without enthusiasm.
The results in Wisconsin are ominous. The canary in the coal
mine, the last gasp of any sort of truly democratic process, hit the water at
60 miles an hour. Its lifeless carcass now lies splayed across the sand of the
pseudo- beach off the edge of the yellow ramp at the Lake of the Dells. Flies
pick at it while carnivores lie in wait for the cover of darkness to carry it
away completely and forever. Americans will soon enough forget that there was
ever a good reason to have unions, or small “d” democratic elections which were
not funded by a couple dozen billionaires.
The most vibrant progressive institutions in the country long under
siege are now completely marginalized, and I wonder what power structure has
the courage, imagination, or will to do battle with entrenched capital. We have
reached a valley in the exercise of our Constitutional Government and I really
don’t see any way out. Is it the end of
democracy as we know it? I don’t know, but electoral politics looks
increasingly like Oz’s massive green
curtain, behind which massive amounts of money change hands never to be seen
again. It’s all a lie, Maaan… Where we
go from here, I really don’t know. 
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