The Parties Crawl Off to Die

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Published : September 14th, 2015
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I ‘ve alluded to being a registered Democrat now and again, a disclosure that makes some readers go feral with wrath. For years I could only justify it as formal opposition to the cretinous brand of Republicanism that washed over the country like a septic wave with the reign of that sainted pompadour-in-search-of-a-brain, Ronald Reagan, whose “morning in America” bromide was among the biggest whoppers of my lifetime. With Reagan, we got the officially-sanctioned marriage of right wing politics and the most moronic strains of Southland evangelical religiosity. (Ronnie stated more than once his belief that Biblical “end times” were close at hand, which should have raised the question of his actual concern for the nation’s future — did he think it had one? — but nobody ever asked him about it.) George H. W. Bush expressed a similar view, perhaps merely pandering to the dolts of Dixie.

So, who in his right mind could have subscribed to that load of bullshit?

Meanwhile, the youthful and magnetic Clintons came on in 1992. They put on a good show of national stewardship in the early going. Bill could speak English fluently, unlike his two predecessors. Hillary’s committee to tackle health care reform came to grief, but the effort at least implied a recognition that medicine was turning into a shameless racket (now fully metastasized). Bill managed to shove through a species of welfare reform — remarkable for a Democrat — that has since deliquesced back into a swamp of disability fraud. But the Clinton turning point was the repeal of the Glass-Steagall Act, which opened the door to an orgy of financial mischief so arrant and awful, and to a plague of corruption so broad and deep, that American life is now pitching into a long emergency.

Add to that now the signal failures of Barack Obama: 1) no prosecution or attempted regulation of widespread financial misdeeds 2) no effort to counter the disastrous Citizens United Supreme Court decision that allows corporations to buy elections; 3) no end to dubious military operations in distant lands, and 4) healthcare “reform” that only fortified the existing rackets — take all that together and you can only recoil from whatever it means to be a Democrat.

And now the return of Hillary, gliding above the election arena like Rodan the Flying Reptile — caw! caw! Get me outa here! It’s not just her, of course. It’s the whole disgusting circus parade of identity politics, and PC witch-hunting, and trans-sex drum-beating, and girl-lugging-a-mattress-around-campus idiocy, and blame-it-all-on-Whitey whinging, and drone-strike-du-jour warfare, and out-of-control NSA surveillance monkey business, plus throw in the outrageous scams of “civil forfeiture” under a president who was supposedly a professor of constitutional law — the list of Democratic-sponsored absurdities and turpitudes gives me the vapors.

The New York Times ran a front-page story Sunday saying that the Republican nomination-chasers were sounding too ominous, too dark, about the state of the nation, at least for the purpose of getting elected. As if the Times has an interest in them succeeding. I guess they were “just sayin’.” For my money, you can’t paint a dark enough picture to fully capture the decadence and depravity in the current zeitgeist. This, after all, is the basic appeal of Trump — though a panoramic shot of his supporters in one of those stadium love-fests suggests that their very demeanor is a big part of the problem: crowds of overfed tattooed clowns in nursery togs clamoring for a return to 1956. Good luck with that.

More than once I’ve referred to the earlier period in US history, the 1850s, when the political compass points shook loose and parties died. The Whigs disappeared altogether (and fast!) and the Democrats became a rump party of southern slavers. Well, the two major parties of our time are now perfectly poised to enter the Temple Grandin cattle chute of death. But history doesn’t repeat, of course, it only rhymes, and this time there are no other political parties standing by to take their place, no credible institutions, certainly no one like Lincoln. There are only Bernie Sanders and the execrable Trump.

Sanders functions nicely as a foil to the flying reptile. But the self-labeled socialist has a big problem. The public may be simmering with grievance, but my guess is that they are not especially hot for more redistribution of the national wealth — that is, whatever little remains in the hands of a sore beset former middle class. The absence of any other reputible figure on the Democratic “bench” belies a party now more hollow than a supermarket Easter egg.

What we see gathering is a political storm as perfect as the typhoon that has formed in banking. Surely the financial storm will strike first and it will leave the public stupefied with loss. I would not even bet against the possibility of the 2016 selection being canceled in some manner. Imagine, for instance, what the Pentagon brass thinks of Trump. And what they are planning for him. Just sayin’.

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James Howard Kunstler has worked as a reporter and feature writer for a number of newspapers, and finally as a staff writer for Rolling Stone Magazine. In 1975, he dropped out to write books on a full-time basis. His nonfiction book, "The Long Emergency," describes the changes that American society faces in the 21st century. Discerning an imminent future of protracted socioeconomic crisis, Kunstler foresees the progressive dilapidation of subdivisions and strip malls, the depopulation of the American Southwest, and, amid a world at war over oil, military invasions of the West Coast; when the convulsion subsides, Americans will live in smaller places and eat locally grown food.
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Why does no one vote Libertarian? People say, "Don't waste your vote on a party that won't win." But what good is your vote if you waste it on a party that is just going to maintain the status quo. You can bet that if you vote Demo or Repo, that is what you'll get, a good can kicking maintenance of the status quo at all costs (to the middle class and poor). If the 50 to 60 % of the population that does not vote because they don't like the Demos or Repos would just get out there and vote Libertarian, it would be done.
Fiscally conservative (it's your money, keep it), and socially liberal (who cares what you do, we don't), the Libertarians would eliminate the alphabet soup of government agencies that take your money and tell you how to live, or else.

What have you got to lose people? Your money and your life are being taken now. How much worse could it be if you were left alone to live as you see fit?
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It is not often you see a writer tell the story like it is. The more usual spiel from the mainstream Press is to hide the truth from the public lest the servant revolt. Calm is the word of the day. And so the game goes on: corrupt government by vested interests kill the national interest to feed themselves. So the obscene divide between rich and poor grows at an alarming rate whist you see the big end of town scream about paying the serfs at all.
My only issue is the mention of "redistribution of the national wealth". When you look at truly wealthy people (not the middle class!) you see people who can all but avoid paying tax. This is immorality of the worst kind as the poor can barely pay their way on the crumbs they are paid whilst the big end of town lives the most lavish lifestyle and believes that the poor should be grateful to them. Yeah right.
The body of this article and the above text is common to the western world, where the US model has replicated in many other states. The results are similar everywhere: huge amounts of debt taken on through the political system with no thought about repayment. My guess is that many regimes intend never to repay the debt. Easier to destroy currencies, default and start again with a clean slate. Ain't crooks wonderful.
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The "execrable" Howie Cuntsler is sounds like a Hilly-roid supporter in detox... a lunatic meltdown... as well as a liar and roach.
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The financial industry and Wall Street love and support both parties as do the media. They do not want anything to ruin the good thing they have going so they will not jeopardize this incestuous relationship by promoting an alternative party. Without the mega-financial support and media coverage all others have no chance and we will get what we deserve, whether it be Trump, Hillary, or Alfred E. Neuman.
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Check out Dr. Ben Carson
If we even have a chance for change.
From the Kentucky coal mines to the California sun....account #21214. The blather of both political parties will be faded echoes from the past.
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Why does no one vote Libertarian? People say, "Don't waste your vote on a party that won't win." But what good is your vote if you waste it on a party that is just going to maintain the status quo. You can bet that if you vote Demo or Repo, that is wha  Read more
J. - 9/15/2015 at 4:01 PM GMT
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