For Democracy to Work

Everybody must believe that they can lose the next election. Everyone must understand that any power the winners grab, any abuse they heap upon the losers, becomes fair game to be used against them once the losers gain power back. I used to rail against Bush back in the stone ages when, as I imagined it, Rumsfeld kept slipping new presidential powers under his pillow as he slept.  One net result (and it didn’t start with Bush, it was a long time developing) was that the President could wage war without getting Congress to OK it. Direct usurpation of Congressional power (and Congressional responsibility) and violation of the Constitution – you know, that old rag.

Things have gotten much, much worse since then, because I don’t imagine it ever occurred to Bush and his team that they would never lose another Presidential election. Now? Well, we have a President who turned the IRS loose on the Tea Party, delaying past the point of usefulness their tax-exempt status and thus ability to raise funds and function. Chicago Machine tactics – kneecap your enemies so they can’t even fight. This, in combination with a rabid media vilification campaign, removed the most effective font of criticism his administration faced, and made it much easier for Obama to win reelection.

Note that this administration has little fear that this trick – using the IRS for political ends – will be used against them, because the Press will not let it. 24 x 7 banner headlines until heads roll, as opposed to ‘it was all just a misunderstanding’ with no fair asking exactly who misunderstood exactly what.

Now we have Hillary cheating Sanders out of the nomination (not that I’m feeling too bad about a lying socialist fat cat getting cheated by a lying power-hungry megalomaniac – but still). Trump, who is an embarrassment to say the least, gets hammered in the press every which way for issues that, unlike Hillary’s actions,  would only get him shamed, censured and perhaps thrown in jail. Hillary’s little foibles – selling influence to foreign powers while Secretary of State, for one of many examples – would have gotten her a dawn appointment with a firing squad in saner times. Now? It’s her turn, I suppose, so it’s misogynistic to point out she’s a traitor for any meaningful definition of the term.

Note that the Chicago Machine and its predecessors have been in power in Chicago and Illinois in general for over a century. It doesn’t matter that you could put together enough people to form a shadow government just out of Chicago Machine politicians currently in jail.(1) They win, despite the kinds of problems – terrible schools, insanely high murder rates, police corruption, a government of, by and for unindicted co-conspirators – that might, it is hoped, bring down a less, let us say, robust city government.

And this is what we face in this election. Hillary wins, and thus dies any fear that their own power grabs and dirty tricks (and worse) will ever be used against them. Without that check on their power, without a real fear that the other side will win and throw them all in jail (or worse – people kinda disappear in Chicago sometimes), there is only their sense of fair play (ha.) and sweet little imaginations to limit them. Hillary’s team, such as it is, has the Press and the Schools in total thrall.(2) It becomes merely an exercise in political mechanics to keep the opposition down – to find the weaknesses, the pressure points, and apply the pressure. Think contraceptive mandate, the NBA pulling its All-Star game from Charlotte, witch hunts against triggering on college campuses – people must be made to pay the price of opposition, regardless of how petty.

Two hopes: one is that the Left will start eating their own as soon as it looks like they’ve got a stranglehold on power. This is an historical given, the questions remaining only being how much damage will be done during this process, and whether the outcome is dissolution or Stalin – whether they fall apart or are united under the least scrupulous leader. It won’t be pretty either way. The second hope is that opposition will unite and throw the bums out in a more or less peaceful fashion at the ballot box.(3) This becomes less likely with each election cycle.

So let us pray and put on our spiritual armor. Hope I’m being pessimistic here, but I don’t think so.

Couple further notes/oddities:

• On Google, “Alinsky” will no longer auto-complete. Funny, that.  On Twitter, “Alinsky” is identified as misspelled – in other words, it has been purged from whatever dictionary they use for spell-checking. This provides just a little bump in the road for those who might want to draw some connections that, given the obvious political biases of Google and Twitter, they might prefer not get drawn.
• Never much cared for Scott Adams’ work – his work cartoons represent only a fraction of reality, the high-tech world where margins are high enough to accommodate almost bottomless incompetent management. He needs, IMO, to get out more and meet some real business people running real competitive businesses. BUT: his stand against bullying and willingness to take the financial and personal hits his calling out of Hillary and her thugs has brought on him – well, I’m impressed. Maybe I’ll buy some of his books.

 

1. And recall that the judges in Illinois are appointed by the Machine, or at least can’t get their job without the at least tacit approval of the Machine. Judges have been intimidated, witnesses disappeared – the usual Mafia tactics. What we can conclude, then, is that Machine people end up in jail only when they have failed to please the Machine  – OR the Feds get ’em. Getting Obama elected put a stop to that last little loophole.
2. As LBJ is reported to have said: “Once you have a man’s b*lls in your pocket, his heart and mind will follow”. The media and the schools hearts and minds are quite focused at the moment. Or, as Machiavelli said, when asked if it is better to be feared or loved: both, but, if you have to pick just one, fear is more reliable.
3. More or less because the Machine doesn’t allow itself to voted out of office.