IS IT TIME FOR THE PITCHFORKS AND TORCHES?
By Michael Haran
2/5/2025
After the first couple of weeks of Trump’s second go around it’s obvious that his campaign bluster about dismantling the Federal government wasn’t buster at all and, after denying any knowledge of Project 2025, it turns out to be his master plan. It remains to be seen if the Democrats can stop this full on assault of our constitution and democracy without the support from the courts and ultimately the Supreme Court.
A few years ago I read an article by AlterNet’s Chauncy Devega’s interview with Pulitzer winner Chris Hedges (“Oligarchs don’t care about democracy,” 4/28/20). Hedges stated, “The oligarchs don’t care about democracy. They don’t care about the truth. They are not interested in the consent of the governed. They could care less about social and income inequality. They are not going to rein in the surveillance state. In fact, as things deteriorate, the surveillance state is going to expand. The oligarchs do not care about job losses because, as Karl Marx said, unemployment creates greater pools of desperate surplus labor. The oligarchs do not care about the climate. It’s all about the primacy of profit and corporate power — and those values and systems are extinguishing our democracy.”
Now I don’t deny Chris Hedges’ take on the surveillance state but I do think that our democracy, despite constant warning to the contrary, has enough built-in checks and balances to keep us from going over to the dark side. That said, this recent assault by Trump, Musk and their synophants will surely test that assumption. Although, under the guises of cutting the cost of big government for the middle class, when the reality is to pay for the huge tax cuts for the wealthy, the pandemic showed why our institutions, like the CDC, NIH, FDA, USDA and OHSA to name a few, were created in the first place.
As far as jobs go, the American oligarchs may not care about people individually, but collectively American consumers account for over 70% of our GDP and so it’s in the American oligarchs, who own the majority of big businesses, which account for about 60% of American businesses, to keep consumers flush, spending and far away from the pitchforks and torches.
When the EPA tried to roll back the environmental retrofitting requirements of major power plants, there was a big push back because the utilities know that the growth of their energy sources (as well as job growth) is coming from renewables. We all grew up in this representative democracy and the rule of law and even the American oligarchs know that the rule of law is the only thing that keeps the big oligarch from gobbling up the smaller ones.
With the rise of technology, the surveillance state was inevitable. I find it kind of fun that, based on my purchases, Amazon and Google make recommendations of what I would like to buy (although I sometimes think their algorithms smoke too much pot). I agree we do have to stay vigilant even from the powerfully liberal elitist as there are more democrat billionaires than Republican. We need effective privacy laws so we don’t go over to Orwell’s 1984 darkside.
It never ceases to amaze me how well our founding fathers understood human nature and could look so far into the future and the key to our future is our kids, and their being educated in strong, well-funded public schools. With Trump weakening, if not eliminating, the Department of Education it will be up to parents, local communities and the States to make sure our kids can read, write and critically think.