Would you like to start us off,
S
StoicPhantom
?
I have plenty in mind, but I'm lacking time currently. I suppose I can do a relatively brief overview and fill things in later if need be.
We are ushering in a new administration in the US to much celebration and fanfare, but the reality in front of us is grim to say the least. I hate to break it to people, but there are no "good guys" to come fix everything. Much of what I'm about to describe is decades in the making and was perpetrated by all of the current leaders in the government, including Democrats. There is no going back to ignoring politics if you want a good future.
Starting with the issues we face; pandemic, record unemployment, massive social division, food insecurity, housing crisis, etc; we have no real choice but to accept that the US is in decline and there is no going back to "normal". Anyone still entertaining this delusion is going to receive a massive shock going into the next few years. To put in to perspective just how bad I'll give a few statistics below:
Tens of millions are at risk for eviction
Food banks are overwhelmed
High unemployment
Basically, the things Americans take for granted are starting to collapse. And this is only the beginning as stimulus payments that were too little too late are going to have massive consequences down the line. It's not just about keeping the current situation afloat, but you also have to make up for lost ground in all the debts that have occurred and small businesses that have shuttered. This isn't a status quo that can be maintained, but a disaster that will have major knock-on effects coming down the line. These types of shocks start chain reactions that only further the destruction of the economy.
Solving this isn't just about helicopter money either; we need to implement actual infrastructure before we can even begin repairing things. Capitalism's obsession with efficiency has lead to a sore lack of any sort of infrastructure that isn't tied to big business. America lacks any sort of social safety net, but also just lacks any sort of pipelines to get money to places where it needs to be. It can't really do much until it establishes those pipelines and updates its current infrastructure.
And to that end we are going to need massive stimulus and restructuring. Things that are going to make the CARES Act look like pocket change. I'm sorry deficit hawks, but you can't austerity out of this particular crisis and I don't think you want to attempt to do so with tensions being this high among the populace. This is the definition of an emergency and it's one that is in large part created by this lack of infrastructure to begin with.
But will that actually happen? Dems are in control of the government, but who are they in the first place? Let us remember that Biden is part of the most conservative wing of the party. He's been one of the major roadblocks to enacting infrastructure reform and has spent most of his career destroying what little we already had. His cabinet (more on this later) is largely comprised of the worst of the Bush and Obama administrations and are about as far from "most progressive" as we can get.
On top of this we are coming off a rather pyrrhic victory for the Democrats. They managed to get a slim majority in the Senate by losing House seats and putting that in jeopardy. Not to mention they bled pretty much every demographic but the wealthy white vote, further eroding their lead among voters. That makes going into the midterms a terrifying prospect for them and can lead to a desire for a conservative approach.
That would be a really bad thing to do. If they are too conservative again, which is what cost them so much voter share in the first place, things are only going to significantly deteriorate further and all the rage stemming from that will fall squarely on the Democrats. This isn't the time to be worrying about long-term image; they must do exactly what needs to be done to get us out of this crisis.
That means stop taking the high road and using every means available. If the GOP refuses to play ball then they must be roasted with the bully pulpit. Get on the airwaves and make it clear to people that the Republicans are standing in the way of their salvation. None of this pussyfoot bi-partisan nonsense.
Because we aren't just dealing with an economic crisis, but a social crisis as well. The last two elections have been won on what is essentially a technicality with no real mandate. Neither side accepted their loss and the process in general is increasingly losing the public's faith. We've had levels of riots and protest not seen in decades that signal an increasing level of anger and unrest among the public. And this really is just the beginning.
If things aren't fixed swiftly then Americans are going to witness first hand what a collapsing nation looks like. The government has completely failed to do anything to address the current crisis and they've attempted to weather it by allowing the bottom 1/3 of the economy to collapse. As we hit record unemployment and high levels of food insecurity, the stock market is setting record highs which shows where the relief has actually been focused.
You cannot let such a one-sided situation continue like this. Institutional distrust has already been increasing, but this is just another level of incompetence and indifference. When you have this level of desperation and anger then you are naturally going to see social unrest start to happen. And I think we saw the beginnings of that last year. And if this continues then things are going to get much more violent and widespread.
Because there two things that this kind of situation breeds: Fascism and Authoritarianism. When you have widespread distrust in the establishment and institutions and a government that is incapable of solving the current crisis then you open a vacuum for fascists to rise to power. We saw this happen with the rise of Donald Trump. He's not a fascist by any real stretch, but he proved that there is an opening for that kind of movement. Fascists take advantage of the rising anger and direct it towards anything standing in their way by coaxing people to release that anger through violence with the promise of catharsis.
And then we have the Biden administration which is full of authoritarians. Biden, who helped create the current police state, and Harris, who dutifully followed in that field, as well as all of the other mass murderers in his cabinet are authoritarian by nature. I don't think it was a coincidence that we have this lineup as we are moving into a period of social unrest and escalating violence.
This is a time where the establishment, liberals in particular, need to get off their high horse and pay attention to other parts of the country not named California and New York. The rage may be misguided and unproductive, but it is a legitimate one born from decades of mismanagement and destruction by the government. Whether or not you agree with each other culturally there are bigger issues that need to be solved before the social fabric is completely destroyed.
But what are we going to actually see?
Unprecedented military occupation. However you feel about the threat level of the Capitol incident; 20,000+ troops is an insane amount of force, especially in a pandemic. D.C. was turned into the same type of zones you'd see in the Middle East.
And they're not leaving anytime soon.
This is important because it means that the Biden administration is comfortable with domestic applications of the military. It's already bad enough with militarized police, but actual military occupation is completely unprecedented and not something Americans are going to want to see. It's a trend for declining empires to eventually turn their imperialism on their own populace and that's what we are likely seeing with all of the talk on a domestic War on Terror and increasing surveillance powers.
This is not a coincidence with the current crisis and the beginnings of social unrest. Authoritarians can only govern through draconian force and violence. They have no other concept of dealing with dissidence other than squeezing harder. And that unfortunately is only going to escalate matters. People become more rebellious under that type of crackdown and they aren't necessarily going to be unjustified for it. Not to mention that it will feed fascist narratives of unjust systems needing to be toppled.
The completely unnecessary levels of force and utter hysteria leading to calls of more power grabs leads me to believe that the Biden administration is insecure and losing their grip on power. That kind of overreaction is what you do when you are afraid and not confident in your ability to handle things. It's understandable when you have half the country opposed to you and a mob breaking into your HQ, but this also isn't what you want to be signaling either. Weak leadership only breeds insecurity among the masses.
That's important because collapse and fascism only comes when the establishment loses respect and faith among the populace. And historically it's been liberals that have been the ones to play the role of desperate authoritarians doing whatever they can to maintain power. A look at the rise of Nazi Germany shows us that the ruling liberal class (SPD) lost legitimacy which led to massive social unrest among the economic crisis, a subsequent crackdown on left movements led by the likes of Rosa Luxemburg that liberals carried out with fascist paramilitary organizations, and then a collapse of liberal hegemony when they were murdered by said paramilitary.
That's almost to a tee what's coming together now. Liberals have lost legitimacy and after crushing the Left, who are the historical buffers to fascism, are now losing their grip on power. What history teaches us in Germany and Yugoslavia is that the ruling class will pretend everything is normal while attempting to initiate authoritarian crackdowns before succumbing to that very violence and often times by the very tools they are wielding.
That's why it's important that the Biden administration quells the unrest through solving the root problems and not trying to crackdown on the symptoms. All other points in history points to liberals losing when push comes to shove against fascism and I'm not seeing anything that will change that. The Biden administration already has a shaky hold on power and they don't need to be trying to throw that around.
I'd like to get into the disturbing rise of corporate censorship and power and how that plays into all of this, but I'll have to save that for another time. Needless to say, I don't have a lot of hope that were are going to solve the above, especially when the Biden administration is saying it will take them months just to solve the pandemic.
