Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dumb
The age of narcissism
I’m back from a three-week holiday and soaked by the cascade of detailed news events. A few observations follow distilled from the flood.
After a generational transfer of $50 trillion in wealth from the 90% to the top 1% of Americans, the latest budget floated by the Republicans still embraces the lower taxes, higher deficit and reduced benefits formula. If passed, our national debt will soar another $2-3 trillion, eroding economic stability, and millions of Americans will lose safety-net benefits.
The negative impact of the terms led Elon Musk to challenge Republican Senators to reject it. This provoked an acrimonious response from the President and an incendiary exchange. The President has threatened to cancel multiple Federal contracts with Musk’s companies. Musk endorses Trump’s impeachment and intends to cancel the space station taxi service for starters.
The end of their bro-mance was inevitable. The repercussions remain to be seen. One possible result is to increase the number of Republican Senators who want to detox the bill. However, the viability of any change is contingent on the President’s acquiescence. It is possible that the only way forward is a tax haircut for the super-rich, the 1/10 of 1%. Adding this sop would still be no more than a jury-rig patch. Assuming the Republicans can all agree on some version, the likelihood that Speaker Johnson can cobble something that both House and Senate Republicans can stomach is not high. More than a few Representatives seem to owe their election to Musk money.
Will the rift between Musk and Trump be papered over? Given who they are, not very likely.
The Dems look only marginally better. The disclosure of the degree to which Biden’s infirmity was hidden, and the idiocy of his candidacy does not encourage the potential voter to conclude that the contrast between the two parties is decisive. And the 16% confidence rating which the Democrats now own is a long-term source of concern.
Remediation for both Parties involves the recognition that our problem is more a matter of dealing with the results flowing from the degradation of societal values than simply fine- tuning the approach or the message. Put in perspective, we are reaping the long-term results of a shift during the Reagan era from focus on the New Deal defined common good to anti communitarian individualism. Over the years this has degraded to narcissism.
Changing course will not be a short-term achievement. It will require the painful long- term restoration of a positive national character, faith in ourselves and core values. Bickering over minority rights, wokeness, white male values, sexual choice, or religion, will not extricate us from the present quagmire. Acceptance of the pluralistic society we have become is an imperative to moving the only way we can; forward.