Sadly, the main post of this blog, Koch Brothers and Right Wing Political Network Overview, has proved prescient. With the 2016 elections, the super rich at the top have managed a right wing network U.S. government takeover with the aim of accomplishing what they most care about, the elimination of taxation and regulation of their fortunes. They have done so, in part, by using their enormous wealth, unrestrained since Citizens United, for lobbying and campaign contributions to purchase politicians and undermine government.
Their network needed votes beyond its own beneficiaries to win elections, so it also used its great wealth to fund a multi decade campaign to create a “false consciousness” in the general public to vote against its own interest. This system of simplistic false beliefs and shameless exploitation of racial tension, misogyny, homophobia, and xenophobia helped turn the tide. White males displaced by globalization and automation actually voted to support those who took all the money and blocked programs that would have helped them.
With all this, it still took the Electoral College (national gerrymandering) and incredibly partisan political interference by the FBI to get the network over the top. Nevertheless they won, and the rest of us lost, including many who were duped into voting to support the network. Naturally, I blame myself for failing to get 40 million readers rather than a mere handful for my blog (just kidding).
So what can we expect now? One might think that when Donald Trump fails to deliver on his many ridiculous promises, he will be discredited and lose his support. But wait, his ridiculousness couldn’t have been more obvious even before the election, except to those who live in a parallel universe. The alternate reality of that universe may be so deeply embedded in his followers that we will be stuck waiting for them to pass from the scene. As Samuel Johnson once observed, “Prejudice, not being founded on reason, cannot be removed by argument.”
In any event, Trump is already irrelevant. He clearly never had any interest or plan for governing. He is already turning the process over to Mike Pence and other unsavory Republicans. We saw how well that works when George Bush disastrously turned his government over to Dick Cheney. The unpredictability of Trump would have been preferable to the utter predictability of this supporting group of rogues. Thus we are left with the pathetic hope that Trump will on occasion rise to defend the real interests of the misguided populists who supported him.
I know that sooner or later this too shall pass due to the inevitable cycling of political events and the inexorable encroachment of demographics on the domain of angry white men. Unfortunately, it will be too late for a retiree like me. In the meantime, I cannot bear watching news that will be dominated by the likes of Mitch McConnell, Newt Gingrich, Rudy Giuliani, Mike Pence, and Paul Ryan. I will be forced to struggle to find a new interest to occupy my time.
What does this mean for my blog? I had planned to post a series of book reviews emphasizing analyses and data that supported the assertions of my main post. Probably, I will still do so since I have already read these and many other sources. Possibly, others will actually read this blog someday and offer additional or better insights through posts of their own.