The American Power Elite

by
Clyde Wilson

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by Clyde Wilson: Two
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American
politics today is quite literally mindless. Think about it. Things
have been tending that way for a long time, but in the last three
decades a state of perfect mindlessness has prevailed. Of course,
there has always been demagoguery, and at least since Martin Van
Buren the predominant political parties have tended to avoid and
obfuscate serious issues and stick to a vague and comfortable
middle. But we have surely now reached a further stage in the
collapse of meaningful self-government.

When was
the last time there was any serious debate, any presentation of
genuine competitive alternatives to the voters, in any presidential
or congressional election? When is the last time there was a presidential
candidate who could be said to be a person of real knowledge and
understanding and of substantial and admirable accomplishment?
We the voters, the people, who supposedly rule, decide nothing
except which celebrity will be raised to office. No significant
issue is ever presented to us for our opinion. In fact, there
is nothing in the national debate and proceedings that constitutes
any genuine politics in the true sense of that word. Since at
least World War II, hardly any major government action has been
decided by the will of the people. Or even by their elected representatives
after serious debate rather than herd stampede.

The top political
figures in our “democratic system” are creatures of
telephone calls and briefings, without any significant knowledge
of the world except what is presented to them in capsule form
by dubious “experts.” They are marketed like toothpaste
and beholden to make-up men and ghost writers. In plain fact,
political power is today entirely unrelated to knowledge, intelligence,
or ability to lead and govern rather than to “manage.”
(Of course, George Bush did confess to reading one book, an egregiously
bad and un-American one.) While European leaders are not exactly
exemplars of great statesmanship, at least they are literate,
have realistic experience in dealing with other countries, and
do not suffer from adolescent delusions that they are all powerful
and ever benevolent.

Managers
juggle what is presented to them. They lack the knowledge or incentive
to consider any significant alternatives. Thus the end of the
Cold War resulted not in a peace dividend but merely the continuance
of the military-corporate regime under new pretexts. Thus the
catastrophic national debt cannot be addressed except by short-term
subterfuges. Thus the proletarianization of the middle and worker
classes and the replacement of the American population by immigrants
are long-term issues that cannot even be noted, much less addressed,
because the status quo is profitable to the actual rulers of our
country. As C. Wright Mills observed more than a half century
ago, the American regime is one of “organized irresponsibility.”

One is tempted
to suspect that the real brains and power of the country rests
in little-known people who merely co-opt the less intelligent
of their ruling class associates to represent them in politics.
What else can possibly explain George W. Bush holding the top
political position in the world for eight years? Or such mental
giants as Nelson Rockefeller, Danny Quayle, and Al Gore being
a heartbeat away from the White House? A few years back, one of
the elite, Averill Harriman, caught off guard when he first heard
of Jimmy Carter, blurted out: “He can’t be President. I don’t
even know him.”

The rise
of Obama indicates that the minority elite has been admitted into
at least the second level of the establishment. Despite all its
radical rhetoric, the minority elite is patronage-oriented and
offers no threat to elite power. Indeed the minority elite has
always actually supported and comforted the rulers and would not
exist without their support. The same is true of the “mainstream”
media, invariably the obedient servants of power despite their
claims of independence. Utterly dependable in relentlessly marginalizing
any public voice that questions the regime.. It seems, however,
that our rulers are afraid of “rightwing extremists,”
i.e., Americans with a traditional sense of freedom and justice.
We can expect the campaign to spread fear and hatred of such to
increase and measures for their suppression to be presented.

The elite
usually stick together. No member of the ruling class is ever
punished for failure. George W. Bush and his accomplices lied
to justify an unwise and illegal foreign invasion which they then
badly managed. Yet none of them seem to have suffered any serious
loss of public position because of it. The Supreme Court, extremely
unrepresentative in its personnel, hands down one unconstitutional
ukase after another and there is no challenge but rather mindless
submission.

Caught
up in the hurly burly of phony contests, we have failed to note
the unprecedented strangeness of the basic situation. The old
folklore that we have a government of, by, and for the people,
and that the two parties offer a real competition, dies very hard.
We should note that the ruling elite of our country today are
interchangeable. They move from the corporate world to the international
banks to the military to political office (usually appointive)
and back again. Who has selected them to rule? What accomplishments
can they exhibit other than a resume’ and having been silently
co-opted into the elite without ever being submitted to the people
for vetting.? Why do they, as far as we can tell, all think alike,
accept the current regime as the only possible one, and collude
to prevent any real issues from debate?

Yet these
are the people who exercise by their own will the greatest national
power the world has ever seen.

March
16, 2013

Clyde
Wilson [send him mail]
is a
recovering professor. Now that he is no longer a professor of
history he can at last be a real historian. He is the editor of
The
Papers of John C. Calhoun
.

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© 2013 by LewRockwell.com. Permission to reprint in whole
or in part is gladly granted, provided full credit is given.

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