There is an astonishing disconnect or perhaps more accurately, disengagement, taking place in American politics. Having been exposed as the party void of ideas beyond cutting taxes on the wealthiest Americans and without a shred of interest in governing, the Republicans have seen their representation in Washington at its lowest level in thirty years. And yet were it not for the population's changing demographic we could have easily been facing a President McCain and Vice-president Palin.
In "The State of Working America 2002-03," the Economic Policy Institute estimated that the bottom 80 percent of American households now control only about 17 percent of the nation's wealth. Since the advent of the Bush administration wages, benefits, and working conditions for workers across the board decreased at a precipitous rate while the rich made out like bandits. Now we learn that the few safeguards that the S.E.C supposedly had in place to prevent unscrupulous bankers from ripping off the public were not only not being enforced, but when the thefts were discovered by several states the federal government bluntly refused to prosecute.
Here is where it gets truly cynical and why Obama's attempt to bring Republicans on board may be D.O.A. What the banks were doing was essentially preying on borrowers who had been historically disadvantaged, primarily because of the race. I can assure you I have first hand evidence that the color of your skin can effect the points on your mortgage. It was Eliot Spitzer who first identified the illegal pattern that underlay the sub-prime fiasco-- what he did not realize when he asked the Bushies to prosecute was that their supporters had specifically sanctioned the game, believing that when all was said and done their voters would be inclined to blame the victims (and just in case their scam was exposed, they had Rush Limbaugh ready with the appropriate "spin".)
As Greg Palast humorously explains:
Here’s how it worked: The Grinning Family, with US average household income, gets a $200,000 mortgage at 4% for two years. Their $955 monthly payment is 25% of their income. No problem. Their banker promises them a new mortgage, again at the cheap rate, in two years. But in two years, the promise ain’t worth a can of spam and the Grinnings are told to scram - because their house is now worth less than the mortgage. Now, the mortgage hits 9% or $1,609 plus fees to recover the “discount” they had for two years. Suddenly, payments equal 42% to 50% of pre-tax income. The Grinnings move into their Toyota. Now, what kind of American is ‘sub-prime.’ Guess. No peeking. Here’s a hint: 73% of HIGH INCOME Black and Hispanic borrowers were given sub-prime loans versus 17% of similar-income Whites. Dark-skinned borrowers aren’t stupid – they had no choice. They were ‘steered’ as it’s called in the mortgage sharking business.
There is saying in the ghetto--you want to see the next scam that's gonna rock the country?-- just take a look at what's going down in the 'hood. Just like the IRAN/Contra drugs for smuggled weapons triggered the 80's crack and cocaine epidemic, the sub-prime racket, thanks to some clever Wall Street sleight of hand eventually blossomed into a worldwide infection. One would think that after seeing their 401k's reduced to rubble and their pensions looted the Republican faithful would be hunting heads, or at least for an honest party. But here is where Rove and his minions have displayed their true genius. Theirs is a party guided not by the actions of imperfect political men but the inscrutable designs of the Almighty.
By identifying Republicanism with Southern Evangelism the Bushies have updated and codified "Manifest Destiny". So that the political debate centers not on economic concerns but religious and social philosophy. Thus the crisis of Christian faith as propagated by the Dispensationalists and the prophets of End Times blends seamlessly with the notion that America itself, as it continues its "browning" is seeing its "Last Days" before the inevitable "Rapture". When the end is at hand and one's eternal soul hangs in the balance what is the significance of an emptied bank account. Indeed, what the republicans are banking on, now that they have destroyed our manufacturing base and stolen our money, is that as the crisis deepens their faithful will tune out government completely and tune in the preachers they've kept extremely well paid to be the voices of God.
As Kevin Phillips suggests in "American Theocracy":
"It is not coincidental that at the time the leading sector of the economy was assumed by finance and oil (a declining global resource) that right wing Christianity emerges as a state ideology under Republican rule."
Nor that we've seen a foreign policy that is defined by imperial overreach and where religious dogma denies science in the name of biblical inerrancy.
Judas Capitalism and End Times
Indeed, Business Week's William Wolman has described the American economy as a 'Judas economy'; one dominated by debt and unscrupulous financiers. As he and Anne Colamosca point out in "The Triumph Of Capital and The Betrayal of Work": what our business and government leaders are unwilling to admit, but most Americans know in their gut is that: in the brave new global economy, big money holds all the cards while workers -- including white-collar professionals -- are increasingly expendable.
All symptoms of banking imperialism wedded to late stage capitalism. It is no great stretch to perceive that Fundamentalist Christianity’s concern with the End of Times actually reflects its followers sense that American democracy itself is approaching its end.
The kicker here is that by embracing the vanity embedded in Manifest Destiny the white American worker by in large refrains from making common cause with his darker-skinned colleagues. In so doing he enables the rich and disables his potential power. As Wolman and Colamosca note:
"in the new economy you need capital, and contrary to the hype only a lucky few will prosper on their own. The dynamics of the global securities markets, and the control of interest rates by the Federal Reserves and Bundesbanks of the world, perpetuate a system where fast economic growth is allowed only in developing countries. Meanwhile in the U.S. and the rest of the developed world inflation is kept low, so as to protect the value of the wealthy's financial assets. Any nation which strays from this policy is punished by a devastating outflow of investment capital. The result: few economic opportunities for American workers."
Obama is to be commended for wanting to bring more Republicans into the fold. Unfortunately, those willing to lavish the Limbaughs of the world with millions are betting that for the fundamentalist Evangelical faithful all ends well so long as God's heart is pure and His favored children are white.
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