A Supremacy of Nerds

 "So the shift is away from RGLB as a covering theme to "finish the coup." Instead ours can be a counter movement within the re-embrace of citizenship." 

There has long been a limitation, you could say resistance to defining citizenship as the basic building block of our nation.  John Adams argued that 

"The same reasoning which will induce you to admit all men who have no property, to vote, with those who have, . . . will prove that you ought to admit women and children; for, generally speaking, women and children have as good judgments, and as independent minds, as those men who are wholly destitute of property; these last being to all intents and purposes as much dependent upon others, who will please to feed, clothe, and employ them, as women are upon their husbands, or children on their parents.”

So there is a history here that not only implies a caste-like ranking of the population but has worked to understand "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness" as preferably accomplished by those holding property.  Notice that Adams' argument does not leave all work to a "landed gentry" but clearly intends for those "destitute of property" to labor and earn their keep through employment, as dependent on the propertied as are "children on their parents." 

Certainly there were other currents working against a broad understanding of citizenship.  You'll not read any DEI adjacent arguments from those steamy late 18th century Philadelphia summers.  And finally Adams' argument as it came specifically to address voting was to "leave it to the states." I will not argue beyond indicating the long struggle between state and federal "forces" regarding the voting franchise than to say African-Americans were finally fully franchised by the federal government in my lifetime.  

My sad point is that our history has more years than not where the definition of citizen served other interests and suffered many prejudices and fears.  It's as if it was never really the first concern or default set in each era's arguments and contentions about our government.  I say this with some incredulity but how could we have missed(avoided?) it for so long and failed to integrate citizenship as the better unit of measure in the nearly 250 years of our constitutional republic, our democracy.

[Aside: I am curious that those who argue ours is a "republic not a democracy"(RND) are not only making a category error but exposing an old bias similar to Adams'. Indeed my experience in conversation is that a Venn diagram of those arguing RGLB and RND would render nearly concentric circles.]

To answer, I believe at the heart of this failure to embrace citizenship is what we now mostly call racism and with it sexism, classism, and all the divisive categories that populate the rhetoric of power.  Adams knew he was arguing for a way to protect power not just to seize it from a monarch but to hold and share within a body of people--men with property--like him.  

Wealth has other measures such that property is often more sign than source.  Think of Ted Turner's "fishing holes." You can grant that there may even be benevolent impulses at play but the truth is that the land itself is not from where his wealth was derived. 

There are other more lucrative wealth builders most of whom started with someone else's money. Think Trump or Bezos or Musk, all aided by their parents.  It's easy to build a longer list.  The business model that is most recently informing how government should run under the RGLB banner continues to look more like venture capitalism than hard work and thrift.  

The labor of this new "industry" requires no muscularity or leadership.  It's more video gamesmanship and chat rooms.  It's where allegations travel faster than facts and accountability is implemented by who is most offended (not really injured) and has a political power wielded by a trunch of lawyers.  

"Turning and turning" and it will not do for citizens to "defend the constitution" any more.  The idea empowering Musk's maddened attack on any department or executive agency that has scrutinized his many likely illegal, definitely predatory business practices is called accelerationism.  Think Matrix and Revenge of the Nerds had a baby. More later.

Illusory Truths, Part Two

From Part One: "the emerging "better business" practices of hedge funds and private equity make the [newest] RGLB rules. Instead of fiscal restraint and balanced budgets we see emptying the coffers of Social Security and Medicare because the latest mutation is that government funds are just fungible accounts to be liquidated."

I hurried to get to that closing point. I hope it's OK. It might help for me to say that US politics -- campaigns and governance conflated as -- have over time become an increasingly moving target.  That's what happens, especially when the wealthy are competing for power. What were uncomfortable playmates have become indistinguishable twins slipping in and out of each other's roles. It looks like an addiction has stolen our colleague from us. Is this the Chamber of Commerce or Opus Dei meeting? What were once open meetings at the local S&W are now invitation-only foursomes or dock parties.

It never really ends. No matter how lofted they become the new oligarchs must defend their holdings against those with less power.  In the end even democracy becomes a threat to be rebooted if not eliminated because it allows an access to power based on citizenship not wealth.

The shift of RGLB from promoting fiduciary trust to practicing equity liquidation is more rude and predatory with each election cycle.  The politically empowered are compelled to exhibit bravado and condescension so as always appear to be "winning" while governance slips further into perpetual campaigning.  They brag while they spoil $500m of USAID food exports on the docks in the name of ending waste. What was ended was an IG's investigation of Starlink's aiding Russians in Ukraine.

Another aspect of this shift as it takes advantage of the RGLB's blurred lines is the temptation to privatize government function in the name cost savings. Now it's hard to explain DOGE without admitting how far beyond fiscal restraint and balanced budgets we've moved.  Nearly simultaneous with the most recent Oval Office theatre using his toddler son as a shield Musk is awarded another multi-million dollar contract and gets to double his DOGE budget request.

Like Clemenceau taught, the last war teaches some us how to fight the next.  Some evolve, some don't.  Some play the name game, like Reagan's "peacemaker" or Elon's DOGE.  If you keep saying it, it becomes true. These illusory truths are weapons the powerful weigh open all discourse. Try using the phrase "Gulf of Mexico" in public.  Orwell's "thought police" no longer need uniforms, just little more than a link to social media. MAGA has moved beyond marginally mannered rebuttal and instead prefers to "flood the zone." 

So I'm thinking Bluesky's alternative provides some escape from the flood but is weakened by it's openness and transparency.  Perhaps the more evolved tactic finds us some other, less social media driven ways to share and explore ideas, to expose truth, to strategize and plan.  The way I see to know about but steer clear of the flood is not to use the previous conflicts' "guns."

In the same way that Jesus refused Judas' guerilla insurrection entrapment and Pilate's outright military rebellion accusations we can refuse the habits and practices of Trump's "winning."  Let's watch more closely but stop fighting on their terms. They needn't hear our complaints and protests. That just locates our base on their radar.

Besides, "winning" changes the frame and both sides use terms like lawfare and complain about weaponization.  So the shift is away from RGLB as a covering theme to "finish the coup." Instead ours can be a counter movement within the re-embrace of citizenship. Which is always monarchy's preferred victim. Think subject instead. Best to properly exercise our First Amendment protections before they're removed in the name of Trump's "unity." More on that later.

So write me a note. I'll share my address after I know who you are. Then mail it.

The Illusory Truth about Winning

I'm sorry I can't find who he was but the first candidate to campaign saying "run government like a business" (RGLB) was not completely honest with his voters. First heard, this claim sounds like advocating for fiscal restraint or balanced budgets. It is now 2025 and we have suffered at least 45 years of this belief's impact on the American taxpayer with neither real fiscal restraint or balanced federal budgets to be seen. 

In terms of the American taxpayer, more data than not supports the sad reality that RGLB has allowed if not intended the worst concentration of wealth in our history into the accounts of America's newest oligarchs. An ideology that enjoyed repeated assertion without evidence in our political rhetoric since before Saint Reagan's ascendency was then accelerated by his accompanying claim that government was the problem. Now we are left with the "blur" of governance and perpetual campaigns, the failure of checks and balances and the widest income gap on record. 

The illusory truth of RGLB is a kind of meat and potatoes to the current MAGA politico. Its repetition makes more critical thinking about the facts difficult or even worse, disloyal. RGLB is repeated as if there had been no use of bankruptcy provisions or legal settlements allowing predatory business practices to continue beyond insolvency or legality. These two categories (are there others?) imply a broad range of questions and concerns in particular for two business men elected to high office, Rick Scott and Donald Trump. There are plenty more but I'm already 71 years old so . . . 

Certainly many will offer that each is only guilty of "violating" the unfair standards and practices of "bad" government, think weaponization. Perhaps a question about the sequence of government empowerment, private initiative, system abuse and finally governmental lenience can help us recognize that something more like a blurring of boundaries than a war between ideologies is happening.

Doesn't it make sense that Rick Scott's medicare fraud happened AFTER a loophole was found? Was it his "better business practice" to exploit the loophole for profit? Is that what RGLB means to promote? Certainly "good government" wrote several provisions into Medicare rules but who looks at those provisions and sees loopholes when enjoying taxpayer funds?

Sensible or not, even the settlement wasn't accomplished without a "better business'" gaming of legislated standards, bureaucratic practices (more loopholes?) and judicial practice allowing Scott to retain most of his ill gotten gains AND then nearly immediately self-fund a run for political office.  

Trump's bankruptcies and courtroom choreographies though "legal," show an even greater "better business" gaming of the system. How else was he ready (and at least to appear so) to self-fund his first campaign for President AFTER at least 6 bankruptcies? Let's also include the court judgements regarding Trump U and Trump Charities as we make our way through identifying the "choreography" of his dancing through courtrooms. We should ask exactly when was Trump subject to bad governance? What are the lessons his business practices could provide except to find loopholes, reduce penalties and delay judgements. No wonder this descant of the RGLB anthem is also sung by the MAGA choir. 

There are others whose business practices have gained them high office and many were invited into department secretary positions with similar resumes. Many will say its too soon to tell if #47's appointments will render better proofs. I'm thinking we need not wait to find out. The lines are blurred beyond repair by recent elections. What used to be winning as a campaign strategy toward governance is now the perpetual monopolization of government.  

RGLB, with the new oligarchs as best witnesses, now means that the emerging "better business" practices of hedge funds and private equity make the RGLB rules. Instead of fiscal restraint and balanced budgets we see emptying the coffers of Social Security and Medicare because government funds are just fungible accounts to be liquidated.  

With Musk in the White House RGLB will not just continue to blur, it will mutate.

Part 2 coming soon.

From Blogger iPhone client