“He can’t
possibly win the nomination,” is the phrase heard most often when Washington
insiders mention either Donald Trump or Bernie Sanders.
Yet as
enthusiasm for the bombastic billionaire and the socialist senior continues to
build within each party, the political establishment is mystified.
Political insiders don’t see that the biggest political phenomenon in America today is a
revolt against the “ruling class” of insiders that have dominated Washington
for more than three decades.
In two very different ways, Trump and Sanders are agents of this revolt. I’ll explain the two ways in a moment.
Don’t
confuse this for the public’s typical attraction to candidates posing as political
outsiders who’ll clean up the mess, even when they’re really insiders who
contributed to the mess.
What’s
new is the degree of anger now focused on those who have had power over our economic
and political system since the start of the 1980s.
Included
are presidents and congressional leaders from both parties, along with their
retinues of policy advisors, political strategists, and spin-doctors.
Most have
remained in Washington even when not in power, as lobbyists, campaign
consultants, go-to lawyers, financial bundlers, and power brokers.
The other
half of the ruling class comprises the corporate executives, Wall Street chiefs, and
multi-millionaires who have assisted and enabled these political leaders – and
for whom the politicians have provided political favors in return.
America
has long had a ruling class but the public was willing to tolerate it during
the three decades after World War II, when prosperity was widely shared and
when the Soviet Union posed a palpable threat. Then, the ruling class seemed
benevolent and wise.
Yet in
the last three decades – when almost all the nation’s economic gains have gone
to the top while the wages of most people have gone nowhere – the ruling class has
seemed to pad its own pockets at the expense of the rest of America.
We’ve
witnessed self-dealing on a monumental scale – starting with the junk-bond
takeovers of the 1980s, followed by the Savings and Loan crisis, the corporate
scandals of the early 2000s (Enron, Adelphia, Global Crossing, Tyco, Worldcom),
and culminating in the near meltdown of Wall Street in 2008 and the taxpayer-financed
bailout.
Along the way, millions of Americans lost their jobs their savings,
and their homes.
Meanwhile,
the Supreme Court has opened the floodgates to big money in politics wider than
ever. Taxes have been cut on top
incomes, tax loopholes widened, government debt has grown, public services have
been cut. And not a single Wall Street executive has gone to jail.
The game
seems rigged – riddled with abuses of power, crony capitalism, and corporate
welfare.
In 1964, Americans agreed by 64% to 29% that government was run for the benefit of all the people. By 2012, the response had reversed, with voters saying by 79% to 19% that government was “run by a few big interests looking after themselves.”
Which has made it harder for ordinary people to get ahead. In 2001 a
Gallup poll found 77 percent of Americans satisfied with opportunities to get
ahead by working hard and 22 percent dissatisfied. By 2014, only 54 percent
were satisfied and 45 percent dissatisfied.
The resulting
fury at ruling class has taken two quite different forms.
On the
right are the wreckers. The Tea Party, which emerged soon after the Wall Street
bailout, has been intent on stopping government in its tracks and overthrowing
a ruling class it sees as rotten to the core.
Its
Republican protégés in Congress and state legislatures have attacked the
Republican establishment. And they’ve wielded the wrecking balls of government shutdowns,
threats to default on public debt, gerrymandering, voter suppression through strict
ID laws, and outright appeals to racism.
Donald Trump
is their human wrecking ball. The more outrageous his rants and putdowns of
other politicians, the more popular he becomes among this segment of the public
that’s thrilled by a bombastic, racist, billionaire who sticks it to the ruling
class.
On the
left are the rebuilders. The Occupy movement, which also emerged from the Wall
Street bailout, was intent on displacing the ruling class and rebuilding our
political-economic system from the ground up.
Occupy
didn’t last but it put inequality on map. And the sentiments that fueled Occupy
are still boiling.
Bernie
Sanders personifies them. The more he advocates a fundamental retooling of our
economy and democracy in favor of average working people, the more popular he
becomes among those who no longer trust the ruling class to bring about necessary
change.
Yet despite
the growing revolt against the ruling class, it seems likely that the
nominees in 2016 will be Jeb Bush and Hillary Clinton. After all, the ruling
class still controls America.
But the revolt
against the ruling class won’t end with the 2016 election, regardless.
Which
means the ruling class will have to change the way it rules America. Or it
won’t rule too much longer.