How the System Works
Peter Schultz
Below is a
link to an article in the Washington Post entitled “Congress approves budget
plan to advert shutdown; Trump to sign it and seek wall money elsewhere.” These
actions by both parties in the Congress and the President illustrate fairly
well how our political system works and why it works that way. That is, both
parties are winners, as is the president, which is why the system works as it
does. The only losers are a goodly portion of the American people. But, no matter
about that, because it looks like both parties and the president are taking
care of business, which they are: Their business.
The
Democrats are winners because they have, apparently, stymied Trump’s desire to
have the Congress appropriate money to build his wall. The Republicans are
winners because McConnell looks as if he got Trump to sign the legislation and
avoid another government shutdown. And Trump is a winner because now he will
help avoid another shutdown, declare a national emergency, and demonstrate that
he is a president not afraid to use his powers to accomplish his goals even in
the face of congressional opposition.
The budget
contains billions of dollars for what is called “the defense budget,” although it
is difficult to say that what our military is doing these days is “defense.”
But no matter: Any monies spent by the Department of Defense must be for “defense,”
right? Of course. Our label for that department was more honest when it was
called, as it was for a long, long time, the Department of War. But no longer.
And very few even bat an eye.
The
Homeland Security Department will receive even more money for its activities,
including of course spying on the American people, while ICE will go unchecked
in its ability to detain as many undocumented immigrants as it desires to
detain. All attempts to limit ICE and its power were defeated, so its “weaponization”
will continue, leading to more abductions of children and deportations of even
long term residents in the US.
So, as
noted above, the power brokers, the Democrats, the Republicans, and the President
win, while a good many Americans will lose. But if you haven’t noticed before,
this is pretty much how the system has been operating for some time now. The
few, usually the wealthy few, prosper while the rest of us do not. And this won’t
change as long as the system rewards the few for their machinations.
