I don’t often listen to Rush Limbaugh, but since I happened to be out at lunch yesterday, I caught this, and it is quite the truth bomb. In the course of explaining the Trump Phenomenon, Mr. Limbaugh said this:
“Not too long ago, if you were in the upper class, you didn’t laud it over people. You didn’t try to act like you were in a place they didn’t know about; they weren’t entitled to. You weren’t able to understand it, and you were not persona non grata. Today, all that’s different. The upper class wants nothing to do with anybody else. They mock, openly make fun of the people who make this country work. And the people who make this country work are aware of it and know it. This is not a phase; this is not temporary. This is the end of patience, the end of faith. People in the middle class have finally figured out that the so-called betters are screwing everything up. They’re not making anything better for anybody other than themselves.”
The working class and the middle class in this country have been belittled for years by the political and media elites. They were told their concerns were illegitimate. “You’re worried that illegal immigrants are taking jobs and driving down wages? Shut up, racist.” “You’re worried that too many American jobs are going overseas? You are obviously too stupid and ignorant to understand we’re in a global marketplace now.” “You’re worried that terrorists will use our policy of mass Islamic immigration to slip terrorists into our country? Well, that’s an awfully racist thing to think.” “You’re worried that college is too expensive and indoctrinating your children with left-wing nonsense? Why, you stupid, ignorant racist peasant. You just can’t understand the importance of deconstructing the intersectionalities of race and class in the contextuality of counter-heteronormative social justice.”
People have been told to shut up and let Their Betters run the country; because the smart, Ivy League people on the coasts know what’s best. And yet what they have given us is: The Sub-Prime Mortgage Crash; A series of expensive and ultimately wasteful and ineffectual wars stretching from Vietnam to Iraq and Afghanistan; the botched response to Hurricane Katrina; the inability to maintain a secure border; an exploding national debt; trade deals that seem to benefit foreigners and the wealthy but hurt the working class.
Insulated from the consequences of their policies by connections and wealth, the elite see only the fulfillment of their grand globalist vision. For those who lack wealth and connections, there are only fewer well-paying jobs, schools crowded with children who don’t speak English, entertainment media that mocks and ridicules them, and the tab for ever-expanding welfare rolls.
The lower classes no longer believe the country’s in the very best of hands. Even the entertainments that could distract them are under assault as the elites discuss outlawing football (too dangerous) and NASCAR (too wasteful).
The lower classes no longer believe the country’s in the very best of hands.
Hence, Trump.
And the mirror image of this is the Sanders Phenomenon; which is also driven by a belief that the elites have failed.
One of the things driving Millennials to Bernie Sanders is a mythology that previous generations all had it easy. I get this argument from Millennials all the time. That until the Glorious Millennial Generation arrived, no other generation spent their twenties working [crappy] jobs, living in [crappy] apartments, and driving [crappy]cars. And that they should have to do so is the Worst Injustice Ever Suffered by Any People at Any Time in History. And it’s all the fault of Big Corporations who Bought Washington because the Republican Supreme Court passed the Citizens United bill. (Remember, Millennials.)
But when BS is elected, he’s going to make things right. BS will “get the money out of politics” by putting more money in the hands of politicians. (This makes perfect sense to BS-supporters). And BS will make sure they all get the free health care, free college, and they’ll all have high-paying jobs in the Green Energy and Social Justice industries, with 3 months paid vacation. And it will all be paid for by wealthy Wall Street Hedge Fund Managers.
They really do believe that.
Just below this terrific post is another telling post quoting Gary Kasparov. And below that post is a telling post about the state and nature of “free speech” in America.
The theme that ties these three posts together is corrosion.
The corrosion is what is making America decline and fracture. Kasparov mentions it: it (socialism) corrodes not only the economy, but the human spirit itself…
This whole socialism movement is fueled by slaying every form of inequality imaginable using the tools of government social planning backed by government force.
Over the past several years, this site has had a mostly civil debate over gay “marriage” which was essentially a microcosm of the whole social justice process in which the government forces an outcome on a less than willing culture.
Back in the 60’s The New Yorker ran a cartoon in which a pollster was interviewing a 50’s something man holding a cocktail and standing at the front door of his middle-class suburban home. The punch line was: “So, your response is: I’ve got mine, let them get theirs.”
We can only imagine what the question was, but the cartoon was clearly poking a bony finger into the soft gut of social inequality. It was an elitist poke at success without guilt.
We have sped past the straight forward 10 simple commandments and jumped head first into the briar patch of entangled regulations in which every tiny itch can be governmentally scratched.
And now we are damned confused about who we are and where and how we find purpose. We even walk up to total strangers and either ask what its all about or tell them what its all about, whether they asked or not.
The corrosion has eroded our sense of purpose, our sense of proportion and our sense of posterity.
The Democratic AND Republican Elites have conspired and co-enabled each-other to perpetuate this pseudo-Liberal morass and malaise since WW2, and now the vultures are returning to the roost: hence Trump and Sanders. The Middle-American middle-class is pissed-off and the young Millennials are disaffected while Peggy Noonan’s “Protected Classes” are clueless and wondering “…what’s happening?”
And listening and reading the Day-After Punditry, they remain just as clueless. The popular Volkgeist is against them and justly or unjustly they will be swept away by the whirlwind.
The sad thing is that the Establishment still doesn’t get it, and if they do they still can’t accept it. If they won’t accept it, and give full support to the Donald as the Party nominee, They will destroy the Republican Party. It will go the the way of the Whigs. Either the Libertarian Party will emerge as the alternative or a new conservative party will be born.
By the same token, if the GOP Party elites attempt to thwart a general volkgeist of the Primary electorate for Trump through Convention Rules trickery at the last-minute it will probably splinter the popular-base of the Party.
Who are they going to draft via the Smoke-filled Room? …Romney? …Jeb??
That would just guarantee 8-more years of Clintons, probably 16-yrs of unchallenged Democratic administrations, and 3-5 new Liberal Supreme Court justices as control of the Senate swings firmly to the Democratic Party for the next 20-years.
If they desperately want to thwart Trump, they have to do it openly, fairly, and in the open right-now. …Not dirty-tricks and Convention thuggery.
I will oppose Trump forever. This unstable, self centered schmuck is not qualified to be President. Trump is an elitist masquerading as a populist. He lived with a golden spoon in his mouth from birth. He makes deals that screw his workers by bringing in foreign workers while eschewing Americans. He hired illegal aliens for his Trump Tower. He had a phony university that took advantage of people. And he won’t release his tax returns. What happens if he gets the nomination and refuses to release them while Cankles does? I see a 38 state landslide for Hillary, which would usher in a Democratic senate and liberal Supreme Court nominees. Trump voters, be very careful what you wish for.
Yes, this is a terrific post outlining the state of affairs in the US today. Accurate characterisation is an art.
First BO, now BS.
I feel in need of a shower.
What I find odd is that the populace sees the top elites running their lives, so they are supporting a top elite, who just isn’t in the pocket of someone else. That, interestingly enough, is one of the reasons evangelicals in South Carolina support him. They know he doesn’t share their religious values, but he is not beholden to anyone but himself.
Oh, also… Kudos on the Li’l Abner link. I performed in the musical when I was in high school, 45 years ago.
“The Country’s in the Very Best of Hands” has long been one of my (cynical) favorites. I, too, am glad to see the reference.
if the millennials believe what you say they do then that education they got isn’t worth the paper in their degree. the policies that Bernie supports are the cause of their problems not the solution. that incestuous relationship between big business and the politicians is called socialism not capitalism. in socialism the ruling class makes the economic decisions not the market, I. e. green energy. all that money was given to those green energy companies by the politicians because they donated money to the politicians not because they has a product to sell. the green energy companies gave thousands to the politicians, the politicians gave millions of our tax dollars to the green energy companies.
but i guess socialism is best for the millennials, it is the economic system that benefits people that don’t want to work.
BAD PUN ALERT!!
Mitt Romney was playing Bridge today. He made a Grand Slam in No Trump.