WHEN YOU'RE RICH THEY THINK YOU REALLY KNOW: "If I Were a Rich Man," Sung by Tevye the Milkman in "Fiddler on the Roof"
3 Oddly Related Reflections on this Moment
The Perverse Role of Money in Politics and Why
In American Politics, Big money is important, but not determinative. Yes, given the Media-Politics Complex, the media companies make hundreds of millions in revenue by running never ending campaign cycles. Have you noticed that allies with robust democracies, e.g., France or the UK, can have national elections in 10 weeks to three months? We need 4 years, but I’ve written the reason for that.
More, led by some Silicon Valley billionaires, who now are funding the Maga campaign and soon joined by the Obama-Clooney effort to get Joe Biden to end his Presidential reelection bid, many billionaires and centi-millionaires weighed in to try to economically pressure Biden to withdraw. They did not succeed; though they contributed to a daily souring of Democratic enthusiasm for November’s election.
I am among those who believes that Joe Biden will go down in history as one of the most consequential presidents (for the general good; the opposite of T) in American history. His withdrawal now puts him on a different and more noble and patriotic plane, up there with George Washington.
Look at the Maga party Presidential campaign. They’re now garnering (or at least were before last weekend) Silicon Valley billionaires as donors….who are likely investing in republican economics: low taxes, reduced to eliminated regulations, few if any pressures on new technologies. I hope they’re wasting billions on this effort. Given that the GOP has for years pioneered endless culture war politics, this year they will reap what they’ve sewn. The sooner the better.
Musk, who last week allowed the Maga folks to trumpet his purported commitment to give T’s PAC $45m/month through the campaign—if T named Vance his VP candidate— now says he never made a firm commitment. Given that he takes lying lessons from DJT, I’m not surprised at Musk’s reversal. Despite my issues with Musk, he is brilliant and reads the zeitgeist well. Why waste so much money on a born loser when Harris will win in November? Maybe Greg Abbot will save him?
Here’s An Early Preview of Why and How Culture Wars Took Hold in Politics
John Ganz, a young blogger, just published a very insightful book, WHEN THE CLOCK BROKE: Con Men, Conspiracists, and How America Cracked Up in the Early 1990’s.
Want a plausible and even compelling explanation of the rise of culture war politics in America? This is your book. The back drop that produced the “dream team” of evil GOP strategists: Roger Ailes, Karl Rove, Lee Atwater and others is described in some detail in this easy to read book.
In fact-filled chapters with ample resources footnoted, Ganz shows us the rise of the radical right in gradually taking over the GOP policy establishment until a charismatic fraudster (and now convicted felon) grabbed the baton to lead the Maga nation to victory in 2016. Taking pages from conservative pundit, Sam Francis’ observations about how Hitler and his Nazis “pre-figured” their move into governing, after effectively exploiting popular unhappiness around “culture war” issues in Weimar Germany. Sounds a bit like Project 2025, doesn’t it? Don’t treat issues that government can treat; exploit the popular unhappiness and feeling of disaffection and distrust.
In each chapter, the principle in these historic moments found the government responsible for their own actions, progressively sewing doubt, distrust, and disdain for the institutions of American life, and sewing the seeds of the next populist political rebellion.
We read about the rise of American Nazi/Klansman, David Duke, the rise of Sam Francis as widely followed right-wing commentator at the start of podcasts, blog posts and ubiquitous radio programs, Pat Buchanan, Rush Limbaugh, H Ross Perot (clearly the spoiler of George HW Bush’s reelection effort), the importance of Populism and so much more. Over thirty years from the early 90s these moments transformed American politics as they transformed the GOP into Maga drivel, and the effort to restore 1850 America.
Coupled with the Hollywood Writer’s strike and the takeover by Reality TV programming while no scripts were written, we have Rob Burnett’s “Apprentice” to thank for T’s rise and popularity. A celebrity cousin of mine who’d appeared on one of the “Selling NY” programs told me all these “reality” tv shows are lightly scripted with foreordained outcomes and faux fights and hysteria. Look what 40% of Americans will buy—-Maga drivel.
It must be noted that these same decades saw the rapid rise of economic globalization, and the hollowing out of the American white middle class throughout the country. Increasing numbers of disaffected Americans, feeling as though the world had passed them and their families by, were susceptible to the simple answers and conspiracies that fuel the Maga faithful.
Media Disappointment With Kamala Harris’s Rapid Certainty as Dem Candidate
From the campsite for “Joe Biden is too old for a 2nd term” grew the, “now that he’d gotten the primary votes for a closed Convention, let’s force an open convention.” And while it took him weeks to be persuaded that he needed to end his campaign, 30 minutes later he gave his endorsement of VP Harris, who as of Tuesday morning, has secured all the votes needed to be the Dem Presidential Candidate succeeding Biden. Now we read a few “sour grapes” columns daily in major media outlets.
The John Ganz book well-describes the transformation of GOP politics to Maga drivel. Today we see the nexus of our media thriving on 4 year election cycles and the billions of revenue media companies need to survive. Many in the media seem to pursue their beat with instructions…find the controversy or make it up, and then milk it for weeks.
Don’t kid yourself, even historically lauded vehicles: NYT, WSJ, WAPO, and CBS, NBC, ABC and of course Fox, have pecuniary need to “cover” politics as horse race.
I have no empathy for Bret Stephens’ or Ezra Klein’s lament that their opinions were disregarded in the effort to ensure an “open” convention in late August. To the credit of the Dems, once deciding that President Biden couldn’t win/couldn’t effectively serve to age 86 given his cognitive decline, and his heroic decision to leave the race, the Dems have one objective: Beat DJT and the Maga nutcases he’s anointed to serve to fulfill his destructive agenda in Project 2025 and in bright-red states. Rallying behind the VP is the right way to go.
It’s a binary choice: the end of the American experiment as we’ve enjoyed it through our lifetimes (and for nearly 250 years), rolling back the clock to the pre Civil War era. Or, build on the renewed foundation that Biden has remarkably established in just 3.5 years of his presidency: transforming the American economy for the future, creating 16m new, well-paying jobs, renewing infrastructure sorely needed in all 50 states, beginning meaningful change towards effectively dealing with the destructive nature of climate change. Sustaining America’s global leadership at a time of totalitarian rise around the planet. Harris will pursue this agenda and that will be good for our kids and grandkids.
HERE’S A GOOD WAY TO BE INVOLVED IN MAKING THIS A GREAT YEAR FOR DEMOCRAT WINS
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I would argue that this phrase in your piece-- "... the Dems have one objective: Beat DJT and the Maga nutcases..." is only half complete. The other half is to govern for all the people, something DJT would not to.
Brilliant, as always!