Victor Davis Hanson has a piece out today on how our Democratic friends are destroying America. Ten Ways. But my question is to link the reasons with our rulers’ political formula. So let’s take a look.
One: Surrender energy independence. That’s because our Democratic friends are making war on the enemy: climate change.
Two: Shovel trillions of dollars at post COVID economy. That’s because our Democratic friends are paying off their supporters with printed money. As all governments do.
Three: End America’s physical boundaries. That’s because our Democratic friends belong to the educated class and they hate the nation, the tribe of the middle class.
Four: Destroy public trust in elections. That’s because our Democratic friends can’t win elections any more unless they cheat. That happens to a ruling class that’s heading for the exit.
Five: Redefine crime. That’s because our Democratic friends cannot admit that all their programs have demolished the culture of the lower classes so that the men don’t work much and the women don’t marry much. Result: young lower class men are criminal thugs.
Six: Make everyone on your side a victim. And you are a racist and an enemy of the victim if you object. That’s because our Democratic friends believe in politics, and the political is the distinction between friend and enemy, and “there is no politics without an enemy.”
Seven: Suck up to non-western nations, with an Iran nuclear deal and buying oil from Venezuela. That’s because our Democratic friends would hate anyone to think they were colonialist imperialists.
Eight: Neuter the First Amendment. That’s because our Democratic friends believe, as rulers have ever done, that the narrative of the opposition is at the very least “misinformation” and sedition, and probably part of an armed insurrection threatening the current regime.
Nine: Demonize half the country. That’s because our Democratic friends believe in politics, and “there is no politics without an enemy.”
Ten: Don’t blame China for the COVID virus or US officials that funded “gain-of-function” research. That’s because our Democratic friends think of themselves as lords and you and me as peasants.
This really is not that hard. Our Democratic friends are the ruling class of America. Ruling classes need an enemy, because of Nazi jurist Carl Schmitt’s notion of politics as the war on the enemy. The enemy could be the climate deniers or could be half the country. And ruling classes need supporters and supporters need gubmint handouts. Ruling classes need to stay in power, never mind elections.
My analysis, from reading stuff like Crane Brinton’s Anatomy of Revolution, is that the current ramp up in ruling class rhetoric and clamp down on regime opponents are indicators that the ruling class is in trouble.
Why is it in trouble? Because the logic of the Over-Under political formula is that you demonize the folks in the middle, the middle class. But the middle class is probably the biggest fraction of the population. So the rulers are making war on the people. Not good.
Also, in my opinion, the welfare state of the last 100 years, while certainly raising benefits on the lower class, actually makes things worse for them, because, as government beneficiaries, they lose their culture and their social and economic skills and become slaves to the state. Thus, lower class men don’t work much and lower class women don’t marry much.
See, I think that while the political is essential, because there are enemies in the world that we have to defend against, politics and government are not very good at anything except taking the fight to the enemy.
Thus, subsuming everything from pensions to health care to welfare to education under government means that all these things become a war, a war for loot and plunder. Because that’s how politics works.
One fine day we humans will have to figure out how to reduce government and politics down to a dull roar. But frankly, I don’t have a clue how to do it, because:
Our current educated class rather likes bossing people around.
Everyone likes getting free stuff from government.
Nobody will agree to taking less from government.
Women expect to be protected.
The ordinary middle class is not that interested in power and politics.
Other than that, the future is grand.