"Admit nothing. Deny everything. Make counter accusations."
That's the slogan on a t-shirt featured in certain military surplus/survivalist catalogs. It also could serve as the war cry of the Economic Elite and its Republican shills as they battle the challenges of the Economically Depleted for a more equitable distribution of the economic pie.
The counter-accusation is, of course, socialist wealth redistribution. The word 'socialist' is intended to scare off any red-blooded American who might harbor any inkling that the current economic order is in fact 'in-equitable'.
The theory of asymmetric warfare is that combatant forces of significantly different capabilities in resources and strategy will wage war that best leverages their relative advantages against the adversary's relative vulnerabilities. They will not engage each other in a head-to-head brawl, but rather will attack the other's flanks, rear or any other exposed dimension. We have witnessed this in Iraq, and are experiencing it again in Afghanistan, whereby a seemingly inferior enemy in technological and resource terms is inflicting major cost disproportionate to its own numbers.
This is also evident in the class warfare that has been waged in the United States by the Economic Elite against the middle class. By my own estimate this war has been successfully waged by the Economic Elite since the late 70s when it became evident that the math of corporate health-care and pension programs was not workable in the long run. Thus began a series of corporate 'restructurings', outsourcing, off-shoring, automation, consolidation, with a major driving factor being the squeezing of the 'human resource' cost factor to a condensed form.
The result is statistically well known by now:
- a decade of stagnant wage growth;
- a steady rise in families without health insurance;
- a decline of US living standards as measured by international parameters in life expectancy, infant mortality, education;
- a concentration of wealth in a relative small percentage of population that begs justification.
That last item, the concentration of wealth, is the touchstone of the discussion. It coalesces all the other measures into a single reality.
Cadillac conservatives will argue that this simply reflects Capitalism bestowing just rewards on the meritocracy. We must remember, The Markets know all and reward the best and brightest, according to the Capitalist catechism.
But let's entertain for the moment an unthinkable blasphemy: that The Markets are not perfect; that they are subject to error and possibly, dare we say, manipulation. The true Class Warfare may in fact be perpetrated by the people most capable of waging it: the folks who finance the lobbyists, skew tax and other legislation to their benefit, can proactively plan their entrance and exits from markets and 'situations' at times and in ways of their choosing, leaving their other stakeholders (employees, customers, communities, but sometimes even investors) to react with much less benefit of time or resource or contextual awareness.
It is reasonable to infer from the economic statistics that class warfare has in fact been waged for some time; that the entitlements of greatest burden and offense are not medicare and social security and unemployment benefits, but the tax breaks, the inflated government contracts, and other sweetheart deals which the Economic Elite have engineered for themselves, frequently to the detriment of society.
Can this condition perpetuate, or does it beg a response? The Tea Party, ironically, may be evidence of the imperfect application of Sir Isaac Newton's Third Law of Motion: for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction, except that asymmetric warfare is rarely equal or opposite.
The Tea Party poses an interesting challenge for the Economic Elite. It appears to be a two headed monster, one of the Elite's creation; and one a rogue mutant that refuses to be controlled by its puppet-masters, but has little sense of direction other than blind rage against The Government. The first head will serve the Republican party as its 'bad cop' hand-puppet in the new Congress, making the Republican establishment look sane and reasonable by comparison. But the second head? That one will be interesting to watch.
I have no respect for the Tea Parties ( for apparently it is not a party, but merely a loose confederation of ill-informed and angry cranks who make even the Democrats look organized by comparison). I can understand their anger, but I have to wonder just what rocks they've crawled out from under after all these years to become suddenly enraged at what they see. My measure of their ignorance, and likely ineffectiveness, is that they see the government as the enemy, when in fact, the government is nothing more than an arena of competing, and, recently, combating interests, of whom the Economic Elite most definitely have the advantage.
So, what happens when the rogue element of the Tea Party eventually learns that their simple-minded solutions lack broad popular support (once the populace comes to understand the consequences), and they learn that they are co-opted in Congress? What follows the Tea Party?
The American middle class remains largely brainwashed with the myths of 'proper' class behavior that have been subtly and systematically injected into their sub-conscience. They remain largely huddled in their family rooms, quivering at the gathering economic storm, sensing its approach, but remaining essentially silent as the neighbors who peered down on the brutal murder of Kittie Genovese, but dared not intervene. They wake to discover that yesterday's neighbor has suddenly departed. Who would have guessed? Maybe they were just one of 'the losers' as defined in the Gospel of Rick Santelli?
It is tempting, but likely foolish, to regard the Economic Elite as one monolithic conspiratorial force. Elites are no different from other tribes. They just have more bling. But they too subscribe to a herd mentality; a 'safety in numbers' mentality, though the numbers are fewer and sooo select. Still there must be some among them who fret the consequences when Santelli's Losers reach critical mass, and begin to congeal into a mass more substantial that the Tea Parties of today, and no less angry.
When the successors to the Tea Party realize their numbers, and find their focus, the Republicans will have likely denuded the government of much remaining stature as a puppet adversary. When there is no longer a meaningful government to rage against, where will the Losers turn?
If the Economic Elite believe that they are entitled to all the marbles, regardless the consequences, then they have already lost the most important ones.
Onward.
Comments