"McCain Antoinette"

Students of history recall a critical event in history said to have been a primary incendiary spark that ignited the French Revolution: Marie Antoinette of the French aristocracy responded to reports that the peasants were starving – Why then, let them eat cake!

John McCain will accept the mantel of standard bearer for the GOP aristocracy in his bid for the Presidency of the USA next week. By most reports, McCain seems as out of touch with reality and the circumstances on the street as was Antoinette. McCain states that the country has made “great progress” under the George W. Bush administration. He says that the economy is strong, despite the fearful commentary by the great majority of economic experts. McCain’s chief economic advisor, former Sen. Gramm, called the nation a “bunch of whiners” in a mental recession rather than an economic one. McCain stated that he defined “middle class” as someone earning less than $5 million per year, and he could not even recall how many homes he owns with his multi-millionaire wife.

At the same time, news reports surface everyday that remind us that the world we actually live in is not as rosy as the view from McCain’s windows. Today comes a report of a proud 80 year old woman who, after health setbacks, is forced to do something she had never dreamed of doing, file for bankruptcy. Hundreds of thousands of families, including a disproportionate number of single women with children, are forced into foreclosure and ejection from their homes. Food prices are escalating to levels that force many families to choose which of their standard 3 meals per day to forego. An unprecedented number of children in the country are without even the most basic health care insurance. College loan sources have dried up substantially forcing families to scramble to find alternative financing to keep their children in college. Too many will have to inform their children that they will have to take at least a year off from school because the family can no longer afford higher education.

At the same time, the US budget has sunk into a 2-3 trillion dollar deficit that does not even include all the funding committed to the Iraq conflict. More than 60 percent of that US foreign debt is held by China. The US voluntary military forces are stretched so thin that soldiers with documented mental conditions and physical infirmities that would usually make them unfit for combat duty are being sent back for third, fourth and even fifth tours of duty in Iraq and Afghanistan. Russia engages in undeterred aggression in Georgia, presses for annexation of former satellite areas and threatens Poland with nuclear attack knowing that the US is currently powerless to do anything other than bluster disapproval.

Next week in the Twin Cities, McCain and the GOP elite will gather with Bush and Cheney to pat each other on the back about what “great job” they have been doing for the country. We are reminded of Bush's congratulatory pat on the back to the former FEMA agency head - "Great job Brownie!" - after the Bush administration's disgraceful response to Hurricane Katrina New Orleans is still in shambles and currently threatened by Hurricane Gustav with the levees still not adequately repaired three years later. Great job indeed! One thing is fairly certain, there will be as many dissenters inside the GOP convention as were rebellious peasants inside the French palace where Marie Antoinette made her political commentary. The local police have engaged in a series of pre-emptive raids on protest groups to harass and intimidate them, lest they seek to disrupt the RNC festivities.

Logically, it is obvious why such clueless and uncompassionate remarks by Marie Antoinette touched off a bloody rebellion that resulted in angry beheading of much of the French aristocracy. A government that is so out of touch with and unresponsive to the needs and concerns of the public does not deserve to stay in power. But much of the last eight years have been spent cultivating a culture in which education and an understanding of the lessons of history are considered “bad” or “elitist.” So by playing to largely irrational fear and distortions of fact the McCain campaign has maintained a relatively close race with Obama for the Presidency. As PT Barnum proclaimed, however, “No one ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of the American public!” In other words, the American public is stupid enough to buy anything. When Americans are swilling gruel these days, we will see how well the GOP message next week proclaiming cake and candy for all goes over.

Historians will recall another lesson. Nero is reported to have been happily fiddling while ancient Rome and his entire realm fell into destruction. While they do garner a measure of fame, history ultimately has not been very kind to clueless and unresponsive leaders. Fortunately for the Bush-Cheney-McCain aristocracy, the American form of removal from power is less physically challenging than was utilized in the French Revolution.