After Obama vs. McCain, Michigan May See Cherry vs. DeVos
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Barack Obama
John McCain
Political scuttlebutt has it that the sides already are shaping up for the Michigan gubernatorial campaign of 2010.
Rumors are that Dick DeVos will make another run (what's another hundred million here or there?).
Meanwhile, Democratic lieutenant governor John Cherry is quietly moving around securing support from key Democrats at the county level.
Unfortunately, if DeVos uses his big bucks to grab the Republican nomination for governor, it may derail some good GOP candidates like Attorney General Mike Cox, a populist with good public service instincts, and Sen. Mike Bishop, Senate majority leader. Then again, if DeVos can use his influence to return Michigan to economic prosperity . . . who knows?
And, I have a feeling after just watching Hillary Clinton speak in Washington, DC, just from the tone of her voice when she mentioned the SUPREME COURT, that's where she is headed. I will go out on a limb on that one just on a hunch.
In that secret meeting with Hillary the other day, perhaps Mr. Obama, flush with campaign cash, agreed to pay her campaign debt of $20 million or more and promised her his first Supreme appointment -- if he is in fact elected.
John McCain and his handlers will have a lot to say about that, and we will be listening carefully which one of these horses will run, which dog will hunt and who appears to be the better choice for all America.
So, Michigan, it looks like you're in for several straight years of political wrangling of epic proportions.
Make no mistake, these are not Democratic versus Republican fights. No, deep down they are a struggle between aristocratic and democratic philosophies.
Just like the McCain vs. Obama race that we will be subjected to over the next four months. Everything is political, and everything is personal.
As I have predicted before in this column, you will see nastiness you never imagined could come from Americans. I fear that some may slip into violence, so strong are these political feelings.
The "October Surprise" of this election cycle may be the killing of Osama Bin Laden, who the Bush Administration has had "in the bank" for several years waiting for the appropriate political moment designed to keep Republicans in power. What other explanation could there be for failure to act against him?
Regarding human relations on the macro scale, nothing has really changed since the American Revolution, and the French Revolution.
In France, the aristocrats were known to hang a man for failing to remove his hat when a royal procession passed by. Even after several revolutions, only one person in 10 could vote. A third of Paris was on the dole.
In America, the ruling British levied taxes, impressed soldiers and sailors into the British army and navy and treated local American officials like lackeys.
Ancient examples, yes, but illustrative of a state of mind that has persisted over centuries and is still wriggling its evil tail.
Why would the most prosperous nation in the world not provide health care for all its citizens?
Why would some politicians not vote for an increase in the minimum wage and support tax cuts for the wealthy who don't need them, never asked for them and made no additional contribution to society as a result of them? Why?
Why would gasoline prices skyrocket, sapping the ability of ordinary working people to travel to their jobs and totally immobilizing many others?
In 2000, this nation abandoned oil speculation controls that had been in place since 1922. Now, the chickens are really coming home to roost. And those responsible will be in comfortable retirement on federal pensions before anyone can bring charges against them.
No politician has lifted a finger to change a situation that is sapping the lifeblood of the American economy.
Testimony in the Senate Commerce Committee last Tuesday revealed that removal of just one loophole, that would make Dubai and other countries subject to regulation, would drop the price of oil 25 percent.
The enablers perpetrate the hoax that additional drilling in this country is necessary to bring down the price. Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Florida, displayed a chart showing that drilling permits have risen dramatically over the past five years but the price has risen even faster.
This nation is being systematically robbed and tortured by speculators who are taking advantage of the last days of the Bush Administration to enrich themselves. Even Republicans like Sen. Olympia Snowe of Maine were sputtering with fury in the hearing because so-called "regulatory" agencies have enabled mass theft.
The price of gasoline is not being hiked because of shortage of supply and excess demand, testimony revealed. The actual cost of a gallon of gas is about $2.25. The gasoline retailers are going broke, along with wholesalers, farmers and others whose livelihood depends on motor vehicles, while the speculators and hedge funds are dripping with cash and giggling as they gouge the market.
Where is a Franklin Roosevelt or a Harry Truman who would have slapped on price controls? Hell, Herbert Hoover would have been up in arms!
Why would any American, let alone John McCain, not support the GI Bill for veterans? Probably for the same reason some leaders were too cheap to provide proper body armor and protective materials for Army trucks in Iraq.
"We honor you for your service," they parrot, but when it comes to taking care of the troops they are too cheap. Their definition of honor is sadly lacking of validity.
Bottom line: It's a state of mind, aristocratic vs. democratic. And the bottom line is all that counts.
The world's greatest and longest-lasting democracy, unwittingly or purposely, has created a ruling class. That class rules not with troops, but with money. And money buys everything -- elections, court rulings, the publicity that the nation thrives on, etc.
It may be instructive to consider that Republicans have won seven of the last ten Presidential elections over the past 40 years, as Hillary Clinton pointed out in her monumental speech. And two of those Democratic wins were by her husband, Bill Clinton. Yet, little changed with the Clintons in power.
The blame for the dysfunctional governmental and economic system we have created cannot be laid at the feet of Republicans alone, however. Democrats are as complicit as Republicans in failing to honor the American tradition that honors the working class, the family and the voter above all. The two parties have been aided and abetted by lobbyists, financial manipulators, political strategists and pollsters, academic and non-profit foundation ideologues, etc.
The greatest sin? Failure to put the common good first and foremost. Representing only a narrow interest group, be it environmental, liberal, conservative, occupational related, religious or a representing a specific point of view. That's what has divided America over the past 40 years. That creates an atmosphere of excessive partisanship, where the other guy is always wrong even if he or she is right.
We have almost come to accept the Alice in Wonderland world we live in, where the emperor has no clothes and everyone is afraid to mention it.
Nickle millionaires of my acquaintance support the aristocrats, thinking foolishly they are part of that group and accepted by them. Wrong! They are being used to guarantee only that the rich get richer, and there's a lot of difference between the local well-to-do middle class and the super-rich like Mr. DeVos and the Wall Street bankers.
When the General Motors board the other day refused to lower executive salaries or submit pay levels to a test of profitability, that told a story. The aristocrats who control GM will rape and pillage even a failing company and will support their greedy leaders despite their incompetence.
And, GM isn't alone among greed mongers in the corporate world. Excessive, unwarranted executive compensation is the norm. Stockholders and consumers (that's us) be damned.
U.S. Senator Jim Webb, who is a likely vice presidential pick by Mr. Obama, noted in an interview with Tim Russert on Saturday that executive pay in America is 400 times the average wage. Japan and Germany, by contrast, pay executives just about 10 times the average wage.
Here in Michigan we watch the jobs slowly fade away, industrial parking lots empty out, home foreclosures mount, welfare rolls grow, trucks loaded with scrap metal headed for the mill in pitiful attempts to make a buck. Yet, we still soldier on, many of us with little hope but a lottery ticket or a trip to the casino, a sad downward spiral.
Somewhere I read the nation is doomed when everyone is preying on everyone else. Yes, the system is broken, and I'm not optimistic any politician can turn it around. The power of money is too great. This system is so corrupt it has made Revolutionary complaints against the British, taxation without representation, seem almost irrelevant.
It's not that there isn't enough money to go around, it's just that the attitude of I've got mine and to heck with you is too prevalent.
Remember when you were a kid, there was always a bully who wanted all the marbles in the pot? If he didn't win, he would take them away from the other players. The bully didn't need the marbles, he just wanted the power that came from having them all.
Apply that kind of thinking to politics, and you have the kind of atmosphere that America has come to represent. Winner take all and be damned to the loser.
Or, as Marie Antoinette said: "If the people have no bread, let them eat cake."
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