Trump has been a useful tool for the rich, powerful
For the past months, we have heard numerous times how the 2024 general election could become a democracy killer if Donald Trump gets reelected and the Republicans take command of both congressional houses.
For many of us this sounds ominous, frightening, even incomprehensible.
Yet, for a second time a Republican presidential candidate has shown little understanding of and concern for our democratic system, no past experience in actually managing any type of public office, wants to rule in an authoritarian style, is presently awash in both civil and criminal charges and continues to lie about an alleged rigged election.
The Electoral College is usually blamed as the culprit in allowing a candidate with the lesser number of nationwide votes to become our president. Unfortunately, the real culprits are some of our own very wealthy countrymen, corporations and governmental institutions.
Why and how is this possible?
There is no question that when Trump became a Republican candidate for the 2016 presidential election, this caught the immediate attention of those who thought they could seriously benefit from his presidency. Trump was perceived as malleable, suggestible, unprincipled, amoral and easily influenced by his social and economic superiors: The perfect lackey or henchman for corporations and the wealthy. He had that special panache, that braggadocio needed in the political rough-and-tumble of today’s politics.
And if they could assure his presidency, he could be manipulated into supporting a slug of political, social, economic and legal changes for their benefit.
And did that pay off! The 2017 corporate tax cut saved corporations $1.5 trillion. And this tax cut lasts through 2025!
The first to take both judicial and societal advantage of this opportunity was the Federalist Society for Law and Public Policy. It started in 1982 at the law schools of Yale, Harvard and the University of Chicago. Its aim was/is to challenge liberal and left-wing ideologies and replace them with conservative, right-wing/libertarian ideologies such as limited government in size and power, government deregulation of business, protect and promote individual liberty and freedom, and a strict, originalist interpretation of the Constitution. These points sound innocuous, but they can be quite sinister in a democracy.
Since 1982, the Federalist Society has become a monolithic legal titan with 70,000 registered attorneys in 90 cities, plus law professors and law students in over 200 law school chapters. Its goal is to dominate the judicial systems at both state and national levels for the purpose of entrenching conservative judges in positions of power to change the focus, direction and goals of our present democratic system. The primary target has been the Supreme Court. For example, six of our nine Supreme Court justices are Federalist Society members and/or appointees.
This achievement by the Federalist Society and its sister, The Heritage Foundation, reflect the quid-pro-quo between them and their manipulated president: Hence, his three ultraconservative and decisive appointments to the U.S. Supreme Court. And then a magnanimous, thank you response by Leonard Leo, the vice president of the Society: “What the President has done with judicial selection and appointments is probably at the very center of his legacy, and may well be his greatest accomplishments thus far.” And the sinister outcome: The first serious attack on women of America with the elimination of Roe v. Wade – all under the guise of “promoting individual liberty and freedom.”
The second major factor is the participation of some of our wealthiest citizens and corporations in supporting the many Political Action Committees and political parties to finance lobbyists and legislators (both state and federal) to bend the country’s liberal, democratic and all-inclusive society into a laissezfaire government in which corporate political and economic powers become dominant and the citizenry makes-do both individually and collectively with the political and economic powers that remain. It is estimated that it took $580 million of both personal and corporate moneys to make sure the Republican Senators were in line (Senator Mitch Mcconnell’s job) to support the Heritage Foundation’s Supreme Court nominees.
As the general election closes in, one might wonder if those who fervently supported Trump might be thinking whether or not they made the right decision. Certainly, they know their control over him is now greatly diminished and may realize that his legal and attitudinal issues may ruin his chances of becoming president again.
What will they do after such an investment in money and morality?
Answer: Jump back aboard the Trump bandwagon and make sure he has plenty of money to counteract the President Joe Biden “threat.” Bloomberg’s article on such, presents a number of billionaires eager to help fund Trump’s election efforts knowing full well of the financial benefits to them, their companies and stock holders – and the public be damned.
In addition, since 2021, 50 of our best known companies have donated $23 million to Republican congressional election deniers so the Republican Party can maintain a majority in both houses.
So, how do we as voters fit into this situation?
Individually, we don’t. But collectively, especially statewide, we can have an impact by voting as a block regardless of our financial status and regardless of our political affiliations. But we don’t. We have been propagandized enough so that the division between us remains extreme.
In the 2020 presidential election, Sutter and Yuba counties voted 65% Republican and 35% Democratic for both state and national candidates. In the recent primary elections on March 5, almost the same percentages for Sutter and Yuba held true – and probably for our nine county District 1.
For example, the two leading candidates for the U.S. Senate were Steve Garvey, a Republican, and Adam Schiff, a Democrat. If one took the time to evaluate both candidates, one would see a stark difference between them. If
voters considered their levels of education, experiences, positions on specific issues, their knowledge base and how best they could represent and support the people of California, Schiff would have easily won. However, the vote on who would complete Feinstein’s term, was a wipe-out for Schiff. But on the fullterm senatorial race vote, he beat Garvey by just 7,100 votes! However, geographically, Garvey stomped Schiff in every rural county and five coastal counties: that’s 42 out of California’s 58 counties, leaving Schiff
with only 16 counties.
When Mcconnell stated that the Republican Party owns most rural counties in America, who would have thought California is “owned” to that degree? He later agreed that those rural counties get almost nothing in return for their support. What support they do get is mostly Democratic support, but most rural voters don’t want to believe that.
So, what’s the point of this column?
A national government of the people by the people and for the people, at this point in time, is no longer valid. The power of individual and corporate wealth
“buying” court decisions, legislators, judges and possibly a president, skews our financial, social and policy making systems toward the upper class, to a minority political party (especially on the state level) that does not represent the thinking, opinions and needs of the majority.
Some of us may be pleased with Trump’s candidacy and the present socio-political status of America, but the consequences can, and probably will be horrific for many of us. The prime targets of the ultra-right and libertarians will be taxes, the so-called welfare state, the “administrative
state” (federal and state agencies that regulate and oversee business, etc.) and federal and state budgets. With the “right” president and a controlling majority in Congress or in state legislatures, reductions and needs-assessments in Obamacare, Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid and corporate taxes would be first on the list. Even states and local governments are concerned about employee retirement and medical programs they support.
There are dozens of programs we rely on for our sustenance, peace of mind and future. We can’t get complacent. Our right to vote is our most
powerful weapon if we spend the time to know about the candidates and the issues. We’re all in the same boat with the same needs and desires and that’s what unites us – party preference should not be an issue that divides us.
John Lewin is a Yuba City resident and former longtime history teacher at Marysville High School. Lewin taught at the school from 1964-2003 and was the school’s social science department chairman for 25 years. In 2016, Lewin was inducted into the school’s Hall of Fame with a lifetime recognition award.