From The Square Deal to New Deal to Fair Deal to No Deal or Raw Deal

A fairly big lack of political enthusiasm hangs over America at a time when its politics have rarely been more important.

In the (race? crawl? slugfest?) for the top dog spot, one man is somewhat narcissistic, insecure and in need of affirmation, self-trumpeting, overly pragmatic, and excessively afraid of being perceived as weak and ineffectual (as a certain one of his predecessors was labeled).  The other is a vacuous man who wants his past hidden, who doesn’t want to run on specifics, but only vague promises that leave the electorate nothing to evaluate, but whose proclivities favor more of the criminally disastrous rich-serving policies that have brought us ruin and extended deep recession.

We are “shocked”, “offended” and “threatened” by marginal or transitory things, and make THOSE things important while our real threats go unnoticed or uncared about.

When one examines history, one finds that when a culture is not mass offended—neither among the masses nor among the elites—by the things which are true threats to the body politic, the society, and the civilization, then decay and downfall have begun.  When that culture is instead diverted by spectacle or a series of mostly meaningless “scandals” or momentary buzzings, then the decay has accelerated.

When future historians look back at us, they will see turning points.  For example, witness the country—and its elites—who were near uniformly shocked and revolted by what Nixon did (including illegal wiretapping and other spying).  Thirty years later, witness little shock and almost no revolt at illegal wiretapping, indefinite detention, torture, etc.  Then, to cement for us how much power has shifted and how little we seem to care, we at most faintly whimpered when a Vice-President (Cheney) declared the Vice-President “not a part of government” and so not accountable to the people, nor to its investigators when they want copies of emails and other documents and communications.

It is a scene played out in sickening similarity to the long decay of the Roman Republic.  One does not have to wait until the end of the Republic in witnessing the demise of its defenders (including the quite imperfect Cicero).  It was a long and steady decline, with one thing after another occurring that in previous times would have called forth both the people and its elites to set to rights.  A people’s character can change over time, and it is often not for the better, especially when the country becomes richer and more powerful.  The Roman Republic’s long decline of a century and a half, from the Second Punic War to when Julius and Octavian finally effectively finished it off, was marked by character decay in the patrician class certainly, but in the plebeian class as well.

And they too had their Pogos who spoke out yet not enough listened, cared, or acted.