It's been a long time - much too long - since posting anything to this blog. Life got up-ended a bit. I had to go off-salary for a while to keep my ship afloat. I took the time to finish a new cabin and move out of an older one. The gold price spiked (I'm a prospector), calls came in, and I was able to get back to work in July. I had little time nor energy to keep at this. I'm sure many of you have been through something similar. I hope you're doing better.
Coming up for air at the end of July, it seems like we're watching a descent into chaos. When the COVID virus struck, people instinctively did the right thing well in advance of any political directives. They headed for cover, returning home and holing up to see what might happen. Our scientific folk got out in front, issuing conflicting and sometimes contradictory rules and recommendations, convincing many of us they probably didn't know much more than we did. Politicians in our major parties took the opportunity to capitalize on the fear either issuing draconian and sometimes foolish rules or stoking false hopes of a quick recovery with quack ideas or by encouraging people to "get on with life" in the face of something obviously serious.
The COVID virus was an unknown but the reaction was our decision and we'll live with the consequences. The lockdowns have disproportionately affected those on the bottom of our social pile. Working from home is no biggie if you're in the top 20% - pecking away on a computer, having Zoom meetings and above all receiving a steady paycheck. The rest - starting with the foot soldiers in Nevada's hospitality, gaming and travel industries - took this in the teeth. They caught and spread COVID more readily; lost their jobs and income; and got cooped up in less-than-fancy accommodations to wait this out. A lot of small businesses are teetering on the edge of ruin with owners facing the specter of losing their life's savings and decades of work. A whole generation of young people who had recently entered a buoyant job market with every hope of doing better felt a trap door open under their feet. As the weeks dragged on, hope turned to despair and fear spread. People reacted differently. A few headed to the desert; others went into total isolation; snitches ratted out "violators" and some ripped off their masks and protested against the rules. Most people did as they were asked and felt they should, staying at home waiting this out.
Of longer term consequence, our politicians went on a spending spree but at least this time (unlike 2008/9) they tried to put the money in the hands of ordinary Americans. The Fed blew out our balance sheet turning every crappy bond they could get their hands on into "money". We've finally cut the tether and created true fiat currency. There isn't a prayer savers will ever see better than 1% interest from a bank in the near future and all likelihood that the things they really need - like food - will cost a lot more even as we are assured "inflation is under control."
In this atmosphere tinged with fear and hopelessness, it was no surprise to me that a tiny spark could spark an intense conflagration. The militarization of our police forces is a problem and the issue of bad apple cops is always with us. The reaction to George Floyd's killing by a police officer however seems to be more an explosion of inchoate rage than a focused response to an awful incident. There has to be a deeper cause and it seems to me it reflects a reaction from many people on the bottom of the pile to what COVID has done to their lives. While there are many non-white protesters, it is notable to me that so many are young white people involved. I suspect in this crowd there are more than a few recently unemployed baristas, retail sales people, low level clerical folk and free-lancers all with huge student loans to pay and perhaps facing eviction.
People at the top of the pile - corporate CEO's, tenured intellectuals and those in the media - have deflected and channeled this rage into a weird sort of Salem witch hunt or American version of Mao's Cultural Revolution. They have stoked the "cancel culture", with justification of looting, assault and murder; and a wholesale attack on virtually all American institutions. I suspect was done out of fear of what might happen should this rage be turned against them. Billionaires and perhaps our new trillionaire can't sleep soundly at night watching what is going on around them. It's always easier to turn people at the bottom against each other.
Politicians in our established parties have responded with either opportunism or cowardice. The Democrats are stoking the current unrest with their rhetoric, seeking to channel it into a massive repudiation of the Republicans in November. The Republicans are running scared with the President showing every sign of cracking up and likely to lose by a sound margin. They're afraid of getting sucked down the same toilet. Only a handful of politicians on either side have shown the courage to stand up and speak for ordinary Americans profoundly upset at what they see happening.
I wish I could say I thought the Alliance Party was the way out but I really can't. We've spent the last couple of years building infrastructure but no heart. What constitutes our "platform" is mush - a smorgasbord of ideas cherry picked from the two main parties in the hope of straddling some mythical middle ground. Our presidential candidate seems defined primarily by ambition not by principle. Americans want and need a vision of what the country is and stands for. I think we used to have one but have lost it.
I honestly believe that America has to look back into its history and realize it is founded on Judeo-Christian principles, values that were the recognized bedrock of our political culture. We didn't fight a Civil War, leaving 600,000 dead, over some politically correct concept. At the heart of it was the belief that all of us are equal in the eyes of God and were given the fundamental freedom to work out our destiny. Any system which denies that is evil. All of us should have the fundamental right to be born, to live our lives to their natural ends, free to do good. Houses and political parties built on quicksand will fall. What passes as political moderation these days is still based on these principles but without recognizing them, fleshing them out and sticking to them - we'll be in the ditch. History is replete with examples.
Going into this election cycle, I feel like I'm facing a choice between the terrible and the awful. The results of the 2016 election tell us Americans are hungry for change and are fed up with cynical politicians backed by amoral power brokers and wealthy manipulators. If the Alliance Party is really going to amount to anything, it had better wrestle quickly of the issue of what it stands for, tell America and be prepared to defend it. If it wants to, it had better get on with the job.
This constitutes my last posting to this blog. To those who may have been following it, I offer my very best wishes and thanks.
- Mike Power
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