| It didn’t take long for President Donald Trump to report a record $105 million haul in the second quarter, which will add fuel to his re-election bid. Tweeting, “Record breaking!” and “Eye-popping numbers,” Trump had good reason to boast. So did the Republican National Committee. It announced: “It showed the incredible strength of support for the President, his policies and successes.” Fox News, which some say has practically sold itself like a prostitute to the Trump Administration, followed with more praise and glowing reports. But if democracy means “the people rule,” then Trump is a very consequential president. So are Republicans as a political party. They’ve already changed the pure meaning of democracy. On closer examination, most of the donors were Fortune 500 companies. Along with giving Trump unchecked dark money, they’ve encountered few if any barriers to purchasing political perks and laws. In fact, a much discussed study just found that Trump and the Republicans more closely resembled an oligarchy than a democracy due to the overwhelming influence of special interests. Consequently, Trump didn’t cause this corruption within the Republican Party; he exploited it. The modern Republican Party, however deep its roots, is also a product of the recent past. A past that not only served as a front for conservative businessmen and corporations to promote antilabor and premarket ideologies but revolted against the ideals of the Civil Rights Movement and 1960’s New Left. Meanwhile, this corporate corruption and racism doesn’t only endanger the Republican Party and Trump, but the morals of the entire country. Backlash Racism, Populism, and Big Government In the 1960’s, the Civil Rights Movement had not only exposed America’s racial divide and class tensions, but the Civil Rights Act started to realign the political and economic power of the nation. Once dismissed as irrational crackpots, the Republican Party therefore embraced religious fundamentalists, the 1920’s incarnation of the Ku Klux Klan, and depression era figures Huey Long and the far-right radio priest: Father Charles Coughlin. They also offered a vision of “backlash populisms,” extreme individualism, minimal government, and autonomous local communities. Ultra-conservatives like Senator Barry Goldwater and populist George Wallace looked to white southerners and their response to the civil rights revolution. Anti-busing initiatives and proposals to reduce or eliminate social programs, which they believed favored blacks and other minorities, were common themes. So too was fear, fear that a government and its programs had grown so big that it was going to take everything away from white Americans. Wallace wasn’t quite as nuanced as Goldwater saying: “…segregation now, segregation today, segregation forever.” Another thing that followed this new conservative revival within the Republican Party was “backlash populism” against the New Left. Known to conservatives as the Radical Sixties, the Republican Party played on the fears among working-class whites and their concerns over the racial, cultural, and economic disruptions of the 1960’s. They moreover used right-wing student groups on college campuses to combat the anti-war protesters protesting the Vietnam War. It entailed labeling them as violent extremists, communists, and enemies of the state. Then President Richard Nixon of the Republican Party mobilized his “Silent Majority. Not only did it mainly consist of millions of white middle class Americans who continued to support the Vietnam War, but appeared unfazed with the release of the Pentagon Papers or reports of the Mi Lai Massacre. This was true of Watergate and its disillusionment. Better to have a crook in the White House than to be overran by communists, peaceniks or hippies’ counterculture. Corporatism at Any Cost Modern day corporations were only more than willing to play a role in America’s divisive and explosive atmosphere. In 1971, for instance, the corporate lawyer Lewis Powell-soon to be appointed by Nixon the Supreme Court-wrote a confidential memo to the director of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce decrying what he described as a broad-based ideological assault on capitalist principles underway in academia, media, economics, and politics. He also resented the levelling in some parts of society due to the New Deal and Great Society programs. Along with proposing that business leaders collective marshal a long-range countermovement within those same institutions to reclaim a more managed democracy and power, he urged corporations to use “aggressively and with determination” to wage a one-sided class war against working people, the unemployed, the poor, and minorities. Most importantly, he and others never wanted to see again the student-led protests and massive demonstrations that challenged the status quo. Corporatism, as an ideology, must therefore succeed “by any means necessary.” It shouldn’t have surprised anyone that Ronald Reagan was elected president. Reflecting a liberal outlook, experts were still caught off guard. They understood American history as an inexorable unfolding of liberal principles, including the quests for economic equality, social justice, and activist government. They hadn’t figured the marriage between the Republican Party and Powell Memo, or their ironic politics of hostility to taxes and government redistribution. This, despite subsidizing home ownership, white businesses, and massive infrastructure-highway projects. The Republican Party’s successful counterrevolution was evident in the merits of corporate capitalism. Indeed, and since it is not a system whose benefits are equally distributed, they were more than pleased to set a new course which produced striking inequalities. The results were not only evident in the greater concentration and extremes of wealth during the Reagan era, but the Bush I, Clinton, Bush II, and even the Obama era. They were also more than willing to pit whites against blacks, the upper classes against lower classes, and the “free” market against socialism. Trump and Republican’s Historical Farce For now, Trump and his billionaire Cabinet is grateful to continue a deeper divide between classes and races, in terms of health care and educational and cultural opportunities. A business tycoon himself, he’s manipulated the wide disparities in order to champion his own brand of corporatism and managed democracy. No wonder he raised $105 million to further his cause. As non-governmental bodies that have been registered with and authorized by the State, they have privileges which are not afforded to most citizens. In 1886, for instance, the Supreme Court decided to recognize corporations as a “natural person” under law. Long before blacks, they were entitled to the citizenship rights found in the 14th Amendment to the Constitution. Thanks to Citizens United, corporations can now give enormous amounts of money to campaigns and political parties. This kind of corporate fascism, which overturned “one person one vote,” even involves the distribution of rights and responsibilities through the very same elected officials and government which they fund and control. Even Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg admitted, “If there was one decision I would overrule, it would be Citizens United. I think the notion the notion that we have all the democracy that money can buy strays so far from what our democracy is supposed to be.” There’s also a pattern of corporations circumventing laws and manufacturing foreign policy. Of the 100 largest economies, 51 are multinational corporations and the rest national states. In practical terms, Wal-Mart equals that of Sweden, while ExxonMobil has exceeded that of Turkey. General Motors is larger than Saudi Arabia and General Electric of Poland. The wealth and power of corporations is moreover increasingly equated with the control of domestic political agendas through the ownership of media institutions which influence the outcome of public discourse-and elections. The same goes for determining university curricula, researching funding, and, of course, political parties. Consequently, the Republican Party has not only evolved into a front for racism, anti-labor, and corporatism but awards corruption and divisive ideologies. Lincoln’s Future Crisis Is Now Just think the Grand Old Party always falls back on President Abraham Lincoln who preserved the Union and freed the slaves. But even he warned: “I see in the near future a crisis approaching that unnerves me and causes me to tremble for the safety of my country…corporations have been enthroned and an era of corruption in high places will follow, and the money power of the country will endeavor to prolong its reign by working upon the prejudices of the people until all wealth is aggregated in a few hands and the Republic destroyed.” Dallas Darling is the author of Politics 501: An A-Z Reading on Conscientious Political Thought and Action, Some Nations Above God: 52 Weekly Reflections On Modern-Day Imperialism, Militarism, And Consumerism in the Context of John’s Apocalyptic Vision, and The Other Side Of Christianity: Reflections on Faith, Politics, Spirituality, History, and Peace. He is a correspondent for www.WN.com. You can read more of Dallas’ writings at www.beverlydarling.com and www.WN.com/dallasdarling. |