The state of American politics can only be described as a mess. And this question hangs in the air, "Can we find a solution in time?", with its ancillary question, "Can we conjure up the political will to institute any real solution?" The recent likelihood of an open trial about the Hunter Biden allegations adds another element to the growing mess and leaves little room for any clear and helpful resolution before the next election. It is a quandary.
Not that American politics, and perhaps any politics, has ever been pristine, but over the last several decades we have watched American politics devolve into something that can now only be described as a huge mess. It has become such a mess that American democracy seems to be on life support, nearly ready for the last rites.
We can watch this mess beginning in the 1960s with the three assassinations of democratizing political leaders, JFK, Martin Luther King, Jr. and Robert Kennedy. That became a period filled with mass protests, racial uprisings and finally the police riot at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago in 1968. At that point the Republicans saw an opportunity to step in with Nixon and the "law and order" solution. The 1970s was also a time when the Powell memorandum to the American Chamber of Commerce weaponized American business to enter politics and become a dominant political force for the growth of free-market capitalism.
At that point the attempts at political manipulation begin to become increasingly blatant as was shown when the Watergate trials exposed a plot to subvert the entire electoral process to secure the permanent dominance of the Republican Party. From then on, the manipulation and corruption of American politics became more and more blatant while big money became central to the political process and conflicts of interest began to be normalized.
We watched that growth through the Reagan and Bush years with the destruction of unions and the change of the tax structure, from progressive to regressive. We saw the rise to dominance of the economic and financial sectors of the economy. And we saw rising financial corruption from the Savings and Loan scandal to the political abuses of Iran-Contra.
Much of it comes to a head with the coming of the new millennia when the Supreme Court installed George W. Bush to the presidency, with another tax cut for the rich and powerful, with growing corruption and with the debacle of the second war in Iraq.
Fast forward to the present situation. Our news cycles, which are now 24/7, have been dominated by Donald Trump, the new P. T, Barnum, and his shenanigans since somewhere in 2015. The corporate media fell in love with the entire spectacle, which led to his presidency, and it has grown to become the best-watched soap opera in the nation, and perhaps in the world.
And the Democratic Party, not to be left out, had its own measure of drama and manipulation undercutting the candidacy of Bernie Sanders in the 2016 election in favor of the candidacy of Hilary Clinton with all her baggage and the blessing of the corporate Democrats.
We saw the result. Hilary not only lost but had absolutely no coattails as the nation became bright red and the Democratic Party was left as wreckage beside the campaign trail. Their only response was to search far and wide for someone, or something to blame for Hilary's loss. As in cases like that, they looked everywhere but inside the party. It was Russia, it was Bernie supporters, it was Wikileaks and whistleblowers. And finally, above all, it was the basic corruptness of Donald Trump.
In some ways the national Democratic Party has been wandering in the desert ever since, looking for the oasis, the water to slake their ravaging thirst for revenge and retribution. Their primary goal has been to discredit Trump and find ways to prove his corruption. And now it has ended up in the courts.
Most recently all eyes have been on Donald Trump and his legal issues, the final comeuppance of that person who caused Hilary's demise. Finally, the courts will do what the Democratic Party could not do over the last 7 years.
But wait, this is the legal system known for its slow working, especially for powerful defendants, and now it is very likely that much of it may not be resolved before the 2024 election. In any case, the appeals might finally end up at the rogue Supreme Court with all its Trump judges and economic corruption. Or Trump could be elected, leave our democratic heritage behind, pardon himself and purge the government of all who opposed him.
To the Republicans, now thoroughly dominated by Trump, this whole legal mess is seen simply as a political scheme by the Democrats to discredit a Republican candidate so the Democrats can win the election.
There seemed to be a sliver of moral high ground for the Democrats to stand on to declare their moral superiority. But breaking news! The Hunter Biden plea deal will not pass muster and it will all now, very likely, go to trial. Any hopes for a quiet settlement of his issues, under the radar and before the campaigning begins, are dashed.
So, in the midst of an upcoming presidential campaign, in which some polls, before the Hunter Biden bombshell, were showing a dead heat between Biden and Trump. We will now be in the midst of dueling trials of varying degrees of corruption, with a whole raft of red and blue spectators and the 24/7 news sources commenting and giving a play-by-play analysis of the entire process. It will be like the Super Bowl of American politics. What sport! What spectacle! But it has become, as Shakespeare said, "A tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing." We are left with an empty and meaningless spectacle. It is a mess.
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