John Chuckman
COMMENT POSTED TO AN ARTICLE AND VIDEO IN RUSSIA INSIDER
“TUCKER WATCH: Syria Withdrawal Is BS, Chicago’s Middle Class Has Disappeared! (Video)
Tucker Carlson of Fox News has been putting out great stuff for the last year, and we know not everyone catches his show, so we’re keeping you posted when we see something interesting”
https://russia-insider.com/en/tucker-watch-syria-withdrawal-bs-chicagos-middle-class-has-disappeared-video/ri26397
He definitely has something to say.
Nice to see substance in these two clips rather than empty partisanship or sales points for something. Damn little of the first in America’s press and far too much of the latter.
The Chicago situation provides a concise and dramatic example of trends across America. Division into have and have-not groups with a middle class – people regarded traditionally as hard-working builders of careers and families – becoming as thin as the hair on many middle-aged men’s heads.
Slashed taxes at the high end - thanks to a series of economic geniuses like Ronald Reagan, George Bush, and Donald Trump - plus reduced job opportunities at the low end, the result of world competition and automation, have worked away for decades to generate a dual society, something undesirable from every point of view you can take.
Competition from other aspiring people abroad also has displaced many in America’s middle class. If industries and organizations grow abroad, as they naturally have been for decades since America’s heyday after WWII, all the important administrative and professional jobs grow with them. Real incomes for American middle-class workers have declined for many decades, providing one of the driving economic forces for both for two-income families and suburban sprawl as people search for space and amenities at a price.
The dual society is just one of the results of America's having become effectively a plutocracy, and plutocracy is a natural enemy of democratic government, much like a top predator among grazing herds.
The social/economic structure of contemporary America in many respects resembles that of France in, say, the 1770s.
The rich and privileged feel little or no obligation to the rest of society. There is a widespread, narrow prejudice often heard in America, “It’s my money, and I’ll keep it, all of it.” Otherwise, privileged people would actually welcome a fair share of taxes. The society has many problems to be solved and costs which need to be paid. The problems, including America’s immense debt, reflect irresponsible attitudes by America’s well-off and the politicians loyally serving them.
They are largely disconnected from their society.
And we get something similar at the other end of the economic spectrum. What connection with his or her society does a person with either no job or a very poor one and a decayed, crime-ridden neighborhood have with society?
And, because of the dominance of money-driven politics in America, that poor person has no sense even of a government or political parties concerned about him or concerned with correcting any problems he sees. Washington almost resembles a distant occupying power or, at best, a big glittery by-invitation-only bash for the well-off.
And to a great extent, that’s what it is. Its establishment concerns itself almost exclusively with imperial matters, military matters, and corporate matters today. There is not time or resources or inclination for the general population of the country, for their concerns and problems. They are addressed only at election-time, and then only superficially through the slick and empty appeals of advertising and marketing – slogans, sound-bites, and photo-ops.
Then it’s back to what really matters – wars and overthrowing countries, new military and security budgets, special considerations for corporate needs and desires, favors for the powerful, and the never-ending matter of getting campaign funds from the well-off, it being estimated that an America Senator on average spends about two-thirds of his or her time soliciting campaign funds. It really is government for, by, and of the well-off.
And so, a vicious cycle is established. Things only happen to please the rich and powerful, whether abroad or domestically. The poor fend largely for themselves and often against great odds with jobs disappearing in a changing world, rotting infrastructure, poor public transportation, and the fear of crime. They are not the ones living in the country’s many gated-communities and special enclaves. The well-off regard none of that even as remotely part of their concern.
But when you look at a country as a country, as a unified entity with common concerns and hopes and beliefs, what a national flag and anthem are supposed to convey, it is everyone’s concern when things start going so seriously amiss.
Moreover, the privileged class of people begins to become extremely corrupt in their views and practices – under that inviolable rule of power tends to corrupt - only adding to the vicious cycle of things. Donald Trump, in ethical as well as other terms, is perhaps the perfect president for the time, he almost symbolizes it with an entire lifetime of dodging taxes and responsibilities, mouthing platitudes about Patriotism, pushing others around, and having a highly developed attitude around privilege and entitlement.
