Capitalism At War With Democracy
By: James M. Ridgway
Tags: Industry, Money, Trump, Poltics, Democracy

Capitalism works for the few, while democracy works for the many. At least this is how these opposed forces function in their pure forms. There was, however, at least for Americans, a relatively brief interval when both worked together on behalf of the few and the many. Following World War Two, between roughly 1946 and 1970, when American industry was king of worldwide manufacturing, our nation led the world in terms of standard of living.

But, alas, for Americans at large those days are long gone. Once the rest of the world recovered form the devastation of the greatest war in all of history and thus foreign industry was back on its feet, US capitalism was no longer dependent on American workers for its immense profits. American capitalists outsourced most of their manufacturing needs to cheap labor all over the globe. Therefore the feverish post war bloom of the American middleclass entered a period of atrophy, a downward slide of its working-class standard of living that continues until this day.

In other words capitalism has been back at war with American democracy since the 1970s, with money passing into fewer and fewer hands. Currently we have one party, the GOP, working on behalf of capitalists to cripple — yes you Mitch — government, while the democrats strive in an uphill battle to protect and enhance America’s bold experiment in democracy.

Desperate for voters to the capitalist cause, the GOP capitalist shills have been pandering to lower White biases and their primitive tribal impulses — telling them things that sound good but are really causing them to politically shoot themselves in the foot.

Inadvertently the GOP on behalf of American capitalists, not so unlike the German industrialists of the 1920s and 30s, were setting themselves up for a demagogue grifter to steal the Republican party and threaten the nation as he panders to the nation’s enemies both foreign and domestic. But unlike GOP capitalistic shills, Trump is an independent contractor who works only on his own behave. As it suits his needs, Trump will be sure to turn on the Republicans and their corporate sponsors with glee, just as he has routinely done to others before them.

This whole ugly Trump thing came into being mostly because of corporate fear and greed. In an attempt to squeeze every last dime out of the American worker and the nation’s markets, capitalists have felt an unnecessary need to war with and defeat democracy. Sure the capitalists can increase profits in the short run by straggling government and killing off laws that protect the environment and worker safety and undercut the social safety net of Social Security, Medicare and the ACA (Obama Care).

But fortunately some captains of industry are getting it through their bottom line brains that everyone wins in the long haul when all Americans prosper, not just those at the very top. Perhaps the Donald has inadvertently taught them that bad things can happen when their greed gets out of control. Just maybe they will stop trying to kneecap democracy and the good life that it was meant to bring to our nation in total.

After all what good does it do for capitalism to kill the golden goose — America — for quick profits, if in the end the nation and all its goodies dies. Please Wall Street and America’s corporate titans, if only for your own good, stop your war on the great American experiment in democracy. You must know, al least deep down, that the best form of society, and the good life, comes from a fine balance of capitalism and social democracy.