An Unholy Alliance

An Unholy Alliance

With the debt crisis we are in right now, it seems to me that there are three alliances that have converged at just the wrong time.  These are the would-be oligarchs, the rugged individualists, and the evangelical fundamentalists.  The following descriptions are ones that I have formed after much reading and much thought.  I have distilled from these thoughts the bare bones which I offer here.

An oligarchy, by definition, is a government run by just a few who also form the rules.  Right now in our country these would-be oligarchs are the CEOs of corporations, and other wealthy elites.  The most notable at this time is the Koch Machine.  These oligarchs really do not want a government that requires tax dollars to be spent on any social justice safety nets, such as Medicare, Social Security or Medicaid, unemployment insurance, infrastructure building by the government, and definitely no environmental protection laws.  In short, anything that requires them to pay taxes for the benefit of anyone else.  They wish to “maximize” their profits to the fullest extent possible, not to create jobs for anyone other than the few people who cater to their every want.

The second group, are the ones I refer to as suffering from the John Wayne syndrome of taking nothing from anyone and solving all problems by oneself.  Ayn Rand is the guru of this group.  These are the rugged individualists.  Since the individualists believe in personal responsibility to the extreme, they do not want government involved in social justice programs because they believe that this weakens the resolve of the individual.  They are fond of telling stories about feeding wild animals in one location, taking the food away, and the animals starve because they have lost the ability to take care of themselves.  I’m not sure this ever really happened, but it makes a good story for them, although people are not wild animals.  These people tend to ignore the long lines of people standing in front of the “help wanted” signs who are willing and desperate for work, and who are, and who may or may not have been receiving government benefits, but they do want to work.

And then we have the evangelical fundamentalists who don’t like government because they believe that people will then rely on government instead of God.  From what I understand they believe that God will cure an illness if one prays hard and sincerely enough, or find a job, or answer any prayer pretty much the way the petitioner asks.  This always reminds me of the story of the man on his roof in a flood.  He prayed very hard for God to save him.  Shortly thereafter two people came by in a row boat and offered to take him to safety.  He refused because he said God would save him.  The water rose higher, and some people in a motor boat came by to rescue him.  Again he refused because he said God would save him.  He had faith.  Finally he was sitting on top of the chimney because the water was so high.  He prayed even harder, and a helicopter came by, but the man refused again.  God would save him.  He drowned, and when he got to Heaven he berated God for not saving him.  To which God replied, “What did you want?  I sent a row boat, a motor boat and a helicopter.”  These people really have an ideological antipathy toward government, even though the government assistance they decry might just be the row boat, motor boat or helicopter that God sent in response to prayers. 

Be that as it may, these three forces have come together to wreck our economy, and they are, in my opinion, doing it absolutely on purpose.  I do not mean to infer that everyone who falls into any one of these three groups wants to bring down our economy, but there are enough true believers among them who absolutely do.  The next few weeks will, I profoundly hope, prove me wrong.