William J Mullen
1:15 P.M.
September 22, 2017:
Somewhere over the Eastern Seaboard.
We were at 34,000 ft. – en route to south Florida – my wife and I. It was a bumpy flight as upper level winds from hurricanes Jose and Maria were spiraling not far from the North American coastline.
The turbulence of the flight was not the only roughness I was thinking about however; “things” being what they are on the ground – politically speaking – pretty rough also.
You would have to be living under a rock not to see it; the angst, the outrage; the offended, the pedantic; the scared-witless, white right.
The roots to all of this come from a now long road. A road that has a definitive beginning but no clear end . . . at least not in sight.
One can argue the modern conservative movement started in the 1990’s with the likes of: Gingrich, The Contract with America, The New Republicans, with the Clinton’s; the subsequent twenty years of political witch hunts, leading up to the great conviction of nothing.
But in my view the real roots come from a bit further back . . . yeah . . . the real roots:
The 1980’s, Reagan, and The Great Shell Game.
Happy-time for Bonzo
Vietnam had been in the history books for a half decade, relegated now mostly to print stories: news analysis, historical fiction, essays. It had torn this country inside out both institutionally, and socially. It stretched thin everything this country had. It broke men, homes, the military, the federal budget – and the back of the nation’s will.
No one argued – that action needed to be taken. No arguing the country was floundering under the weight of a heavy stone to shoulder. No, it was all obvious. Painfully so.
So as the calendar changed from one decade to the next; the 1970’s to the 1980’s, no one doubted that more than the calendar was going to change.
What happened next has given rise to the modern conservative epidemic; the outbreak and contagion we are seeing today.
Ronald Reagan was what happened next.
Reagan, a populist, won on a ticket of both international affairs, and a calling to address – and fix – the state of a sagging economic super power. And win he did. By a massive landslide. He carried 44 states, with 489 electoral votes. Winning in 1980 by the 9th highest margin in history. In ‘84 he bettered himself – taking the 6th highest electoral margin in U.S. history (Numbers Trump could only masturbate over . . . and cry when he was done).
Russia was at the time, of course, still the Soviet Union; the world-wide aggressor; purveyor of global communism; a sworn enemy from the ashes of the Second World War. We had been covertly fighting Soviet aggression in small proxy wars for decades, and in 1979 the Soviets invaded Afghanistan. The Carter administration was powerless; then came the Defeat of the Shah of Iran and the hostage crisis in 1979, then the early 1980 death knell of the Carter White House: Operation Eagle Claw. Devastating. Ill Conceived . . . at best.
The Russians had complete global reach – like the US – with tactical bombers, an enormity of tanks, squadrons of fighter jets, a huge standing [conscript] army . . . and nuclear tipped intercontinental ballistic missiles capable of striking anywhere in the planet in 20 to 30 minutes from launch.
We were scared. Period.
And Carter didn’t help allay any fear either. The lack of the projection of power after the collapse of the Vietnam war, along with the accompanying economic woes of the 1970’s: the highest unemployment numbers seen since the Great Depression, unrest, a declining manufacturing sector, social malaise – only made the threat from Russia seem even more sinister – and real.
But Reagan had that something; he had a gravitas, a charisma, a character that spoke to the hearts and minds of an America which drew it’s ideals from before ‘Nam: before the Beats, the Hippies, the Panthers, the Weathermen – and all the unrest of that snapshot of time . . . that moment in America.
No politician – save possibly John Fitzgerald Kennedy’s resurrected corpse – could have beat Reagan, and even that may have been a stretch; Kennedy fared worse than Trump in the Electoral College.
The Eighties
The United States was ready to plant its two feet firmly into the cesspool of the Eighties: big money, cocaine, binge greed, “Just Say No”, born again Christianity . . . like a great weird freak circus.
Reagan, and the Eighties stomped all over whatever lay in their way. He stomped on Russia. Cocaine and crack (along with the DEA) stomped on the lives of millions of Americans. Big money stomped on both the system and the little guy; the average, the struggling, the man in the street . . . but that part was not obvious . . . yet.
No, the economic orgy of the Eighties would not be truly felt till the decade was retiring, and under the presidency of George H. W. Bush Sr.
So . . . the ongoing mantra of Republican fiscal conservatives: the Reagan years – the Eighties.
The Reagan years in fiscal terms are characterized by the ideals of; lower taxes, less regulation; the theory that the combination would excite the economy and the burgeoning capital would trickle down resuscitating the American Dream; financial security, two cars, a kid or two in college, a picture book home. And on the surface, for a few years through the end of the decade it seemed to be working. Unemployment dropped, factory orders went up, middle America started feeling good again. Conservatives had their moment . . . they drew deeply on the economic crack pipe . . . but like smoking crack, the effects soon wore off, leaving the weary-eyed want for more. By 1992 the country was facing mid-Seventies levels of unemployment.
We should have taken Nancy’s advice, and just said no.
You see, the single greatest strength of Reagan’s economy was the lie. The lie that it worked. It did not, and it was, in fact, the great shell game.
“Hey buddy, wanna take a chance?”
As I mentioned earlier, Reagan had two callings: the economy, and Russian aggression. Both needed vast amounts of money to battle. Both were large nebulous issues. And both were at conflict with one another – how do you fix an economy and win the cold war at once?
It’s simple actually. Keep the ball hidden and the shells moving quickly.
Reagan achieved his dreams however. By the later Eighties it was apparent that the Soviet Union was crumbling under the pressure of Reagan’s military spending and diplomatic posturing – Gorbachev was instated as the reformer in 1986. Our economy was coming along. It was all, and still is, a conservative’s wet dream . . . but it wasn’t. Crippling Russia was . . . but the economy – that was just a lie.
Under Reagan the national debt more than tripled; mortgaging his policies onto the backs of the American workers for decades to come (or at least until Bill Clinton and the age of the internet). The Saving and Loan crisis erupted; Milken, Keating. Reagan cut taxes twice , the Economic Recovery Tax act of 1981 and the Tax reform Act of 1986. He borrowed from the Fed recklessly.
Yes, Reagan borrowed more from the Fed than all of his predecessors combined. And this is not the stuff our modern crop of utopian, Republican conservatives, like to talk about. No, they just want to talk about about factless gloss-overs of the 1980’s and Reagan; he fixed the economy, he beat Russia – and he did it all “responsibly” – by lowering taxes. No, actually Ronald Reagan added a 186% increase to the national debt, more than the entirety of all previous administrations. Clinton rose the debt by a mere 32% during his tenure; George W. Added 101% during his tenure. Clinton ended his term in office with a budget surplus and the strongest economy in the nation’s history, whereas the Reagan and later Bush Jr.’s administration’s ended with financial turmoil and recession.
But that crack addiction – that quick ride to the top; shaky, sweaty, dilated pupils – is what the Grand Old Party is still all about. Still trying to chase the dragon of Reaganomics. To the day.
Yes it is still the great shell game. Keep the eye moving – always move the eye cleverly away from the ball underneath; deception, misinformation, sleight of hand.
Street con men have much success this way, cheating unsuspecting, or naïve, passers-by.
But it’s not the passer by anymore; whether you believe(d) in conservative trickle-down economics or not; we were then, and all are still being conned in the end.
“Tax and spend” is the moniker placed upon the heads of liberal legislators by the conservative mouths like some kind of heinous disfigurement. A badge of dishonor.
But where is the common sense in reduce and spend? There isn’t. Simple. One can clearly see the writing on the wall.
And here we sit again with a populist self-proclaimed reformer, swamp drainer, gatherer of the best and brightest: all gathered in the alley barking for players, “Hey buddy wanna take a chance? The shells are hot tonight.”
2:10 A.M.
September 23, 2017:
Boynton Beach, Florida
The conservatives were out on the street tonight. I saw them. Looking for the score. Chasing, always chasing the dragon: one more rush, one more time, just-one-more.
It’s like the Eighties all over again: it is easy to see. The mob gathered around the shell game con man. But inside the mob, where sweaty, worried, aroused brows lay down cash – lay down the bet – for these folks; the diehards, the Reaganomic Kool-Aid kids – the real conservatives – they don’t see it . . . and the Eighties never ended. The crack parties never ceased; Reagan was never less than demigod; and the shell game never finished.
~~~~~~~
Sitting in the lanai tonight here in Boynton Beach; 84 degrees, sipping cold beers and thinking of Reagan; finishing this piece – I ponder one thing additionally . . .
Today, some whack job biblical scholar, claimed the world would end (again). Numerology steered him to this belief. People believe this crap. People believe crap. Hell, they’ll line up for an orange carnival barker with everything to sell – but nothing to give.
I guess we all have our own crack; our own Eighties; our own shell games. Gotta keep that eye moving, away, from the real prize.
WJM
William J Mullen 