The Discreet Charm of the Ruling Class
Elected officials are sent to Washington to govern but not to rule. This may sound like a question of semantics or at best a fine distinction. But rulership isn't a legitimate part of democracy. When a governing class develops in a democratic society, it loses contact with the people who elect it. In many ways America is burdened with such a class, which has amassed power over the past fifty years, until it arrived at a place where its right to rule goes almost unchallenged.
Who belongs to the ruling class? One might start with the wealthy lawyers who form an inordinate percentage of senators and congressmen, then move on to the corporations whose lobbyists write the very laws that are supposed to regulate corporations. Working hand in hand, these two blocs form a privileged class that feels free to ignore what the American people actually want.
An unexpected benefit of the Bush years is that the ruling class may have gone too far. A culture of corruption binds Congress and lobbyists to an unheard of degree. Bill after bill, earmark after earmark, has blatantly served special interests. Both parties are guilty of kowtowing to money and the corporations that dispense it with shameless abandon -- the buying and selling of political favors has never been so outrageous. Influence peddling, once a crime, has become the norm.
The ruling class also includes those who wield power without checks and balances. The disaster of the Iraq war can be traced in large part to a small cabal of neoconservatives surrounding the White House who decided to railroad Congress and the American people without consultation from anyone who failed to buy into their ideology. Under the cloak of national security, the advent of warrantless wiretapping, torture of captured enemies, secret prisons abroad, and a host of other infringements of the Constitution came about without discussion or advisement. A handful of self-styled rulers did what they wanted to because they could get away with it.
Finally, the present ruling class imposes a narrow religious ideology that grossly oversteps its rights. Right-wing Christians, the so-called values voters, constitute roughly 25% of the electorate. As such, their minority rights are protected in a constitutional democracy. But that's a far cry from pretending to be a majority and forcing their values on to everyone else. Unknown to the average citizen, the religious right has infiltrated every department of the executive branch by the use of civil-service appointments. On a broader basis, conservatism has become a litmus test for federally appointed lawyers and judges as well. A good example is provided by the new laws that demand voters to show government ID before they can enter the polling booth.
Previously, such IDs were not required (one only had to be listed on the voting rolls) and border on being unconstitutional. Yet a number of states have adopted such requirements, which seem on the surface to be a blatant form of intimidation, since blacks, Latinos, the poor and the uneducated would be the least likely to have IDs or to trust the government for demanding to see one. In every single case where such laws have been tested in federal court, Republican judges have supported these laws and Democratic judges opposed them. This rigid partisanship grew directly from the litmus-test standards imposed by conservatives and is shocking to long-time judicial observers. The days when a judge could change his philosophy over time or choose to align himself with liberals one day and conservatives the next, depending on the merits of the case at hand, seem to be forgotten.
The betrayal of democracy hasn't escaped notice, and the Democrats have promised, once they gain the White House, to sweep away the distorted policies of the right wing. Yet we can only watch and wait. The end of neoconservatives won't end the war. Nor will it depose sitting judges or weaken lobbyists or bring in a new class of congressmen who aren't beholden to moneyed interests. The entire government has become entangled in the problem, and it will take an awakened electorate to undo the harm that has been done already. The key to an optimistic, progressive America -- the America that threatens to turn into a dream of the past -- lies in a renewed belief in an open society and trust in the principles of democracy. Do you want to be governed or ruled?
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Council on Foreign Relations (CFR)?
You people are unbelievable. The administration in America is not "right wing", its a slightly right of centre Economic-Liberal administration. In England, we have the exact same problems, and we have a supposedly left wing administration. The truth in England is that we have a slightly left of centre Socio-Liberal administration.
Next major point, Democracy is not the property of the Left. Not all right wingers are interested in totalitarianism.
What we really have here is a situation where the entire political spectrum has collapsed, as Margret Thatcher ominously once said, "there is no alternative". What she meant is undemocratic global liberalism is here to stay, and there is nothing anyone can do about it.
Personally, I would like to see a rejuvenated Right take on the globalists, challenge the over-comfortable and consumerist mentality that has made the people of the world slaves. For me, the only force capable of bringing this about is a recognition of Nation (in the true sense of the word). Borders need to go back up, and bloated institutions like the EU and the UN need to be torn down, they are too big to ever be representative of anything but meaningless compromise, and the interests of a global elite.
Bottom line, the left isn't "good", the right isn't "bad", this is not a simple "good vs evil" matter. And a one world future does not mean eternal democracy and happiness.
It is not America's Empire that is to fall as the article predicts. It is the Global Liberal Empire that is to have its day (of which, America is a part), and all it will take is an economic crises. Every generation thinks its system, or a refined version of it, is the pinnacle of human achievement. Its not hard to see that the system that is spreading across the world is anything but. On that, the left and the right can agree.
I very much agree with the main fact of the article, that the fraction of the affluent community have usurped most of the political power , wielding it now mostly to preserve their own interest.
However, I find the paragraph about voting ID as related to this fact very much out of place. Voting is manipulated (remember the Kings County in 2004 where 3500+ more votes were cast vs. the number of registered voters!). But the poor and disenfranchised are not the one capable of it. Nor the non-politically affluent population. People who have grabbed the power are the ones manipulating votes and they will be the only ones hurt if additional measures are in place to prevent cheaters.
As a non-affluent immigrant, I'd feel more empowered with the voting ID knowing that some politician is less likely to overturn my voice using the legions of "dead and unborn" votes.
Teaching about the values of such IDs in local communities would likely overcome any potential misgivings and raise the participation in the politics of the ones who are the least heard now.
Deepak, I normally completely disagree with your views on the nature of the universe and spirituality, but I judge the merits of the message and not the messenger. Your words here are very wise and I couldn't agree more.
That being said, I think things are so entangled between lobbyists and government that even the will of the people cannot directly correct it. The Democrats are just as deeply corrupted and only in a slightly different direction. The inertia is very great. It will likely require the economic collapse of the American Empire to bring about change. This is, ironically, one of the more important benefits of the Bush years, I believe, in that it will bring about such collapse much quicker due to overspending and degradation of the education system. It is unfortunate that so many people will suffer.
If there is another way to fix this problem, I have yet to hear it. One ray of hope lies in the likes of Ron Paul (ironically, a Republican to fix the Republicans) and Mike Gravel (Democrat). It appears neither will be a major force in 2008 but the grassroots are there and the momentum of their message and support is a good sign.
I think you only have to look at the recent squabble over hedge fund managers' tax rate. (Many pay on the order of 15% - because their earnings are classified as capital gains). The Democrats allowed this situation to continue, even though these 6, 7 and 8 figure incomes are essentially their compsensation for work just like my salary or billable hours to my clients. So a school teacher making 33k a year pays a marginal rate of about 25% and a hedge fund manager takes in a couple of million and pays 15%.
I think you're on to something, but you've mis-identified the ruling class. The ruling class, IMHO, is the small group of Americans in whom wealth is being concentrated. Essentially, when a change in the law can cost you an additional 6 or 7 figures in taxes a year, a 100,000 in contributions to various groups is a cheap way to protect your income. The "average family" of 4 can send in a few bucks to support a candidate, but America's top 1% or event top 0.1% can literally funnel 6 or 7 figures a piece in contributions. This creates a kind of political imbalance that, in the long run, is not sustainable.
In don't begurdge lawyers becoming politicians. After all, they are trained in understanding law, just as Computer scientists make the best programmers. Where I see the ruling class forming is the imbalance in wealth has created a class that can easily "buy" whatever laws they need. They have even developed a sophisticated marketing machine that conflates their interests with the interests of middle-income and low-income Americans. Hence, you see you typical middle-class conservative voter railing about the "death tax," a tax to which they or their heirs will never be subject.
So, taxing hedge fund managers making 7 figures at 15% is viewed as being in the national interest. To think that the Democrats in Congress are any more immune to the money and clout carried by the top 1% than Republicans is a pipe dream.
"They have even developed a sophisticated marketing machine that conflates their interests with the interests of middle-income and low-income Americans.
Absolutely. Everyone in a structured heirarchy has an incentive to maintain the status quo. Another facet of the marketing machine is that the ruling class is "liberal." Certainly the Bushes and Romneys of the world serve *our* best interest, right?
Dear Deep,
Every society has a curve; we ascended to our apex about 60 years ago as we emerged triumphant from World War II.
We are now on the decline; our empire, like that of the Romans and the British, will come to an end.
There are always unintended consequences, and undreamt of resolutions. The Germans and Japanese were systematically depopulated of young, able-bodied men in WWII. After the war, the surviving young men were in short supply; they did not have to pursue women -- women pursued them -- so they built up their economies while the "victorious" United States got fat, dumb, and lazy. Now Germany and Japan are the supreme economic giants (along with China) and manufacturing kings (look at the auto industry).
And so it goes.
Deepak, I was all the way with you, right to the bitter end.
But it's the very end of your post, the question that's not right. The whole idea of asking us if we want to be governed or ruled just smacks of not getting it.
And I know you must get it.
All the way, up until that point, you got it.
But you're asking us as if that's the issue. As if the American public has not already decided that something's very rotten in Denmark.
You may very well be right that,
"An unexpected benefit of the Bush years is that the ruling class may have gone too far,"
but we're not out of the woods yet. The situation is still very much touch and go. Our country remains in great danger. Not from without, but from within.
We elected Dems because we want a voice in our country. We want change. We want the thugs out of our system, altogether, everywhere.
But the lure of lobbyist money calls them more than lending voice to us. After all, they're leaders, we're just activists, easily dismissed by Pelosi and Reid.
We know what we want. We don't want the ruling class, never did.
We want our country back. On that we are finally united.
The question is not whether we want to be governed or ruled.
The question is how do we get the government we want and deserve.
Before it's too late.
I think, deep down, the religious right knows they don't deserve nor does religion require all this power. That's why they keep lying to themselves about the nation being founded on Christianity: to justify their rule.
The media's not doing anyone any favors. News has become a part of the market, and we all know how well THAT works. It's not only Fox News, though they are the worst. They all have their flaws.
nypoet22 has it right. We're so hopelessly divided, we'd rather suffer than guarantee equal rights for everyone. Even groups that would seemingly be allied can easily fall apart. Except, of course, the Republicans where a group of eight white men stand around arguing about who's the most conservative, who Jesus likes the most, who the terrorist fear the most.
All the while, Katrina victims are being labeled as lazy. Conservatives are swiftboating children. Talk of making sure everybody can get healthcare gets slammed as socialism. Children are being left behind, sick and cold. And either the problem is undocumented workers or GLBT or minorities or rap music or feminists.
Everyone's fighting for power. All the while, the ones who have it are sending us up the river without a canoe or a paddle or even a piece of driftwood.
Dear Dr. Chopra,
That was excellent, enough said. Agape.
"The betrayal of democracy hasn't escaped notice, and the Democrats have promised, once they gain the White House, to sweep away the distorted policies of the right wing. Yet we can only watch and wait."
Pelosi and Reid have recently demonstrated this oligarchy, they do not represent you but only the ruling class. Throw them out.
I respectfully submit:
(a) That these evil men do not in fact represent Christians. That is, after all, an enormously large and diverse cross-section of the world population, which defies any singular label.
(b) We most definitely DO NOT have to "only watch and wait" until a hoped-for savior (of a different kind) arrives in 2008.
The crimes are being committed right now, and the appointed law-enforcement power, Impeachment, can be applied to "any civil officer."
We must demand that this "terrible swift sword" of justice be unsheathed and used, against any and every "civil officer." We must demand that it be deployed immediately, and without fear or favor.
but how can even an informed electorate fight against the four-headed monster of money, government, military and media with nothing in its own arsenal? be it by policy or philosophy, the masses of us are all so divided, and it suits the ruling class to keep us that way.
"Unknown to the average citizen, the religious right has infiltrated every department of the executive branch by the use of civil-service appointmen
I AM VERY GLAD YOU BROUGHT OUT THIS FACT.
Pardon my yelling, but after researching the extent of this, I can guarantee if there is not a LARGE SCALE CLEARING OF THE DECKS by the next POTUS, you will see "passive/a
This country can't survive that.
It's not political - it's reality.
The lights have to go on
The water needs to flow,
The trash needs picking up, yada yada.
I am SICK of Dominionists demanding ruling-rights.
To top it all off, the man that the right wing evangelical sided with: G.W.Bush, lied his ass off about being born again. All the right wing sheep had to hear from the devil bush is that he was born again and that the person that he would like to meet if he could go back in time would be Jesus Christ. They fell for him hook, line, and sinker. This mad man is no more a christian than the devil himself, who uses lies mixed with truth to dupe the sheep to the slaughter. A real christian does not start wars, lie, steal, cheat, murder, or send little children to their deaths by the stroke of a pen. When will the sheep wake up? I'm afraid that they want to see Jesus come down from the sky so bad that they forget that He said that nobody knows when He will come back. So if this idiot president manages to start Armageddon and Jesus doesn't come back, all he managed to do is to wipe out large portions of the world. Thanks for nothing.
Don't follow leaders; watch your parking meters.
Thanks, for an eloquent summation and call to action, Deepak.
"The key to an optimistic, progressive America -- the America that threatens to turn into a dream of the past -- lies in a renewed belief in an open society and trust in the principles of democracy.
I will not be ruled, and I chafe whenever the right raises the false flag of "class war" whenever someone notices that the ruling class exists. They're waging war on us: don't we have a right to resist?
I loved the homage in your title, but I wonder how many remember the Bunuel film, much less appreciate the iron that the bourgeoisie have in fact become the ruling class...
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