A Warm Heart & A Cold Brain: Getting Serious About Politics
A couple days ago, The Intercept ran a very good interview with investigative journalist Allan Nairn. I am going to run some long quotes from the interview, something I don’t usually do but these nuggets fit into what I’ve been babbling about the last couple weeks. I urge you to read the whole interview, it rambles at times, but is well worth your 20 minutes. I am going to intro and comment on Nairn’s words. Mine will look just like this, his will be bold..
One of the crucial turning points in the 2016 election, one which gave Donald Trump credibility was the Hillary Clinton campaign’s response to Trump’s “Make America Great Again.” Without pause, the Clinton response was “America is already great,” followed by a parade of politicians, generals, women, and people of color testifying on a stage of red, white, and blue — America’s party to America — with a righteous scold for those who questioned our exceptionalism. I knew, you knew, everybody but a small sliver of very clueless, very privileged people knew that America was far from great, yet we went along with the lie, for the “greater good” or something.
Trump essentially came out and said: Look, the system is totally corrupt, I’m a crook, I’ve been part of this rigged system for years, I’ve been paying off the politicians, now I’m going to be your crook. I’m going to be fighting on your side.
People heard that, and it sounded a lot more credible to many people than Hillary saying: “Oh no, the system is not rigged! The system is not corrupt!” Those Wall Street contributions I take don’t affect my decisions. She said that first to Bernie, then to Trump.
She said: “In fact, Obama took more Wall Street contributions than I did.” People heard that and say, “Come on!” They hear Trump say, “Look, it’s crooked, I’m a crook, I’m going to be your crook — it sounds a little more plausible.”
And, in one sense, Trump is following through. He’s indeed demonstrating again that he’s a crook. But, of course, he’s not doing it on behalf of the working people who he claimed to be campaigning for.
However, that fact has only gotten through to a limited extent. If you look at Trump’s popularity now, it’s more or less within the normal range. His approval rating is in the low 40s, which is not shocking for an American president. If the facts of what he and the extremist Republican Party are doing now were being hammered day to day in the American press and coming through the TV, I think his ratings and the Republicans’ ratings would be in the 20s, if not lower, but that’s not coming through…unless it’s repeated, hammered away, day after day, on the big media outlets, it may be on the public record but it’s not in the public consciousness. And that’s all that matters in politics: What is in the public consciousness.
There is something deep down in our lizard brains that has us searching for Gods. We look to the dark, fearful of Hades, Satan, and Russia. We search the skies for Zeus, Jesus, and Bob Mueller.
[T]hose that set the rhythm of repetition that determine the public consciousness — in this case, the media outlets like MSNBC and CNN, which today play an absolutely central role, even more important than the old Walter Cronkite broadcast back in the ’60s and ’70s, and [Dan] Rather in the ’80s, ’90s — they have seized on this Russia scandal as their theme. They want to attack Trump. They want to go after Trump. But they devote vast portions of their airtime to speculation about this Russiagate scandal, to the exclusion of hammering away on all these other themes about the outright decimation and crushing and theft of the American working class at the hands of this administration.
And a lot of people look at that, you know, all that Russia stuff and the Stormy Daniels and they say: “Well, yeah he’s a corrupt guy, he told us he was a corrupt guy. But, I don’t know if this is fair, I don’t know what they’re doing to him, I don’t know if this is entirely fair.” And it’s enabled him to keep his head above water politically in a way that he would not be able to do if just the hard, established, clear facts with no speculation were being hammered day after day about what he’s doing to the health of Americans, to the environment, to the basic rights of Americans.
Look, Trump is a guy who’s guilty of almost everything, in a meaningful sense. Yet, here, the Democrats have pinned the political future of the world on nailing him for the one thing of which he may in fact be innocent: Russia collusion. I mean, he’s guilty of just about everything else. But maybe there is no hard proof of Russia collusion. And my God, what a bitter, disgusting irony that would be if the whole edifice of opposition to Trump comes crashing down, if that speculative bet that that can be proven fails to pay off. It’s irresponsible to devote the majority of your political resources to that when so many other things are more substantively important, and also beyond debate.
Later, Nairn has some sober words on impeachment,
Let’s say the Democrats get control of the House and even get control of the Senate — if they get control of the Senate, it would be by one or two seats, maybe three seats at absolute best.
They get control of the House. OK, then they impeach Trump. Then it goes to the Senate. In order to convict Trump and remove him from office, you need a two-thirds majority of the Senate and that means that the Democrats, having taken control of the Senate by a couple seats, would need roughly an additional 15 Republican senators to vote to convict and remove Trump from office. That’s an extremely tall order.
Based on the currently known facts surrounding the Russian matter, no way in hell are they going to get those votes to remove Trump from office.
And remember what happened when the Republicans impeached Bill Clinton and failed to remove him from office in the Senate? Clinton’s approval rating rose to an all-time high. He was in the stratosphere, because people felt he had been abused, including many rather conservative people who had voted against Bill Clinton. And he reached a peak of popularity that was only matched by moments like when Bush attacked Afghanistan, Bush Jr., after 9/11.
So the impeachment, it’s a very questionable road in practical terms.
I want to back up and highlight this line,
But maybe there is no hard proof of Russia collusion. And my God, what a bitter, disgusting irony that would be if the whole edifice of opposition to Trump comes crashing down, if that speculative bet that that can be proven fails to pay off. It’s irresponsible to devote the majority of your political resources to that when so many other things are more substantively important, and also beyond debate.
Okay, to continue,
But if the Democrats do get control of the House, they can stop a whole series of additional Republican programs that would involve further gutting of the regulatory agencies, further massive transfers to Wall Street. They could have an important role in writing the national budget. And, especially if the get control of the Senate, the Senate in a sense will be even more important, because if they get control of the Senate, then they would have the potential to block new Trump Supreme Court nominees, and there’s a fair chance that Trump would have a shot at an additional one, or even two, Supreme Court nominees in the following two years of his term. And that can be an absolute disaster…And that’s where things will be determined in November. This November congressional election is absolutely pivotal. It’s one of the decisive America elections in all of American history.
Nairn is 100% correct. And I urge you to read the whole interview, because he really lays out what is at stake. It is not Trump or Russia or the NRA or even missing children — all of that is important, yes — but the prize here is institutional control over our country. That absolutely means restricting corporate influence in every level of our politics, but first it means winning elections. I think we are in a special moment where anti-corporate/corporate-critical politics can win elections. Christ, in many ways, Trump campaigned as a corporate anti-corporate anti-politician politician. Still, our desire to stomp Wall Street cannot prevent us from winning 2016. Nairn again,
I think that’s necessary for people who consider themselves decent is to apply a principle. In Indonesia, there’s this saying which means essentially, “have a warm heart and a cold brain.”
So, when you’re dealing with something like politics, you have to think coldly and objectively. So, on the congressional level, you fight like hell to get a very good nominee. But if it so happens that the Democratic nominee in your district is a corrupt tool of the local corporations: Vote for him anyway, campaign for him anyway in this particular election, because that potential one-vote majority in the House, that potential one-vote majority in the Senate can save vast numbers of lives. It can make a difference in the entire future direction of the country. You have to be very calculating and tactical in seeing with clear eyes the political situation that is before us right now.
This is mature politics. It is not “selling out.” It is how you act when you are serious about change. Life teaches us that building things takes work, that success is predicated on failure. We have a zillion clichés that urge us to “try and try again.” Too often we confuse gratification with creation. We think that all this politics stuff happens instantly. “Hillary DNC was mean to Bernie and unfair boo hoo. I’m going home.” No. Pick yourself back up and fight. Make the hard sacrifices and realize that you will be making them for a long time.
I think that most of us realize this stuff by now. I mean, we are staring in the face of a babbling fool, a face which even the most pacifistic among us would love to smash. Yet we keep staring at that face. Stop. Look at what the tiny hands are doing. Look at how busy the tiny hands are dismantling everything. Look how still the tiny hands are when it comes to Puerto Rico.
As we jump into a new hurricane season, we are learning that the “very lucky” people of Puerto Rico suffered a little more under Hurricane Maria than what was officially reported. A recent Harvard study puts Puerto Rico’s Maria body count at 4,645 people, that number up from SIXTY-FOUR or “70 times the official estimate”! Remember Trump football-tossing paper towels to Puerto Ricans, Melania using the disaster tour as a fashion runway, and the president telling Puerto Rican officials that they got off easy, all followed by the usual, “No one lives the Puerto Rican people like…”
The Harvard study says that “approximately one third of post-hurricane deaths were reported by household members as being caused by delayed or prevented access to medical care.” These are what they call “excess deaths,” in other words, deaths that could have been prevented.
More: “On average, households went 84 days without electricity, 68 days without water, and 41 days without cellular telephone coverage after the hurricane and until December 31, 2017. In the most remote category, 83% of households were without electricity for this entire time period.” Note: “on average.” Right now, 5–15% of the island has no electricity. There is not one place on the island where the grid is stable. Lack of reliable electricity means more than no lights or computers. It means no refrigerators, no respirators, no water sanitation, no traffic lights, and so on.
Trump and the GOP didn’t create the hurricane, but these “excess deaths” and the post-Maria rotting of Puerto Rico are theirs. The Republican government’s initial response to Puerto Rico was slow, very slow, Katrina-like slow. However, unlike Bush and Katrina, there has not been a “jump to” moment for Puerto Rico.
There are a few reasons for the stall. The easy, obvious answer is racism and bigotry. Puerto Ricans, for the most part, are of brown and black skin color. Spanish is the language of the island. Though Puerto Ricans are American citizens and American culture owes much to Puerto Rico, Puerto Ricans are often looked at as immigrants.
The island’s colonial status doesn’t help. Neither state nor country, Puerto Rico has its own government but is controlled by the US Congress, which has set the economic rules which Puerto Rico has to live with. For years, US corporations feasted on the island thanks to IRS Section 936, which pretty much turned Puerto Rico into one giant tax-free enterprise zone especially enticing to Big Pharm. In 2006, Section 936 was repealed, corporations fled, and Puerto Rico’s economy tanked.
Now, for a long time, a lot of money was being made on Puerto Rico, but it wasn’t staying on the island. Corporations brought their profits home or on a two-hour flight to the Caymans. High wage jobs mostly went to main-landers who took their money back home. Regular wages were (and still are) depressed due to the island’s low cost of living. Money that was promised to “trickle down” never did. As often the case, the federal tax giveaway put pressure on the island to grant more tax favors, which put pressure on localities to give even more tax breaks. Lack of tax revenue meant little municipal investment in infrastructure. What resources Puerto Rico had were diverted toward keeping corporations happy and keeping tourism alive. Over time, things like Puerto Rico’s infamous electrical system becomes a debt-laden piece of crap.
2007: US economy crashes. The island struggles to keep jobs. The “best and the brightest” move to the mainland. The infrastructure continues to crumble. Republicans in Congress put off calls to help Puerto Rico. The island stumbles along for ten years and BAM! Hurricane Maria hits during the presidential administration of a guy who’d never do anything or anyone if there wasn’t a buck in it for him. Which is where we are at now.
We saw an inkling of the Republican vision for America right after Maria hit. In October, Whitefish Energy, a two-person electrical company run by neighbors of Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke, was awarded a $300 million contract to rewire the island, a contract that was almost immediately voided. This should have been a giant flare to the world that Puerto Rico was now open for business. But, there was one small problem: When a hurricane devastates an area, people kind of expect the government to do something. You know, put a little effort into fixing things. So, Trump put on your ball cap, told the wife to throw on some pumps, boarded a helicopter, and threw some paper towels at the natives. Home again and time to pretend that the island doesn’t exist, confident that half of the US thinks Puerto are foreigners, and until Disney comes up with a Puerto Rican Nemo that will always be the case.
Consciously let Puerto Rico rot, Republicans start laying plans to sell off the electrical grid, go Betsy DeVos on the public schools, and turn the island into a fracker’s paradise. Meanwhile, tech vultures roost. Disaster capitalism is what it’s called (and it is being opposed on the street).
This, my friends, is Puerto Rico. This is Flint. If the Republicans prevail, this will the rest of America. Allan Nairn is 100% correct when he councils that we approach 2018’s elections with a “warm heart and a cold brain.” Everything could turn on this election.
This piece was first published in my newsletter, Soriano’s Comment, №8, on May 30, 2018. Sign up for a free subscription.
