The Gilded Age

In differently contexts, two journalists that I greatly respect referred to the government and the current era as the 21st Century “Gilded Age.”

Bill Moyers gave a speech at the Society of Environmental Journalists, How Do We Cover Penguins and the Politics of Denial?, but his speech encompassed more than issues of the dangerous environmental landscape today. Moyers began by providing a historical perspective of the evolution of the environmental movement in this country, with an analysis of the dire situation that exists today based upon the policies undertaken by the Bush Administration, noting, “Our government and corporate elites have . . . set out to eviscerate just about every significant gain of the past generation.” Moyers then turned to the central underlying philosophy of the reigning party and the powerful forces behind the government, which transcends the environmental movement. His words provide a clear-cut distillation of the conflict:

“So if the environmental movement is pronounced dead, it won't be from self-inflicted wounds. We don't blame slavery on the slaves, the Trail of Tears on the Cherokees, or the Srebrenica massacre on the bodies in the grave. No, the lethal threat to the environmental movement comes from the predatory power of money and the pathological enmity of rightwing ideology.”

“Theodore Roosevelt warned a century ago of the subversive influence of money in politics. He said the central fact in his time was that big business had become so dominant it would chew up democracy and spit it out. The power of corporations, he said, had to be balanced with the interest of the general public.”

“They say denial is not a river in Egypt. It is, however, the governing philosophy in Washington. The President's contempt for science - for evidence that mounts everyday - is mind boggling. Here is a man who was quick to launch a 'preventative war' against Iraq on faulty intelligence and premature judgment but who refuses to take preventive action against a truly global menace about which the scientific evidence is overwhelming.”

“The Gilded Age has returned with a vengeance. Washington again is a spectacle of corruption. The promise of America has been subverted to crony capitalism, sleazy lobbyists, and an arrogance of power matched only by an arrogance of the present that acts as if there is no tomorrow. But there is a tomorrow.”

Sidney Blumenthal pens an exceptional piece, the Fall of the Rovean Empire? in Salon (reprinted in Truthout). In his article, Blumenthal pens a concise history of the “Rovean Empire.” He then views the current state of affairs with Rove, and wonders whether the decline and fall of the Empire is here. Although the subject is completely different from that addressed by Moyer, Blumenthal also observes the existing state of the political landscape:

“Some have referred to this model as crony capitalism; others compare the waste, extravagance and greed to the Gilded Age. Call it 21st century Republicanism.”

“The party runs the state. Politics drives economics. Important party officials are also economic operators. They thrive off their connections and rise in the party apparatus as a result of their self-enrichment. . . . An oligarchy atop the party allocates favors. Behind the ideological slogans about the ‘free market’ and ‘liberty,’ the oligarchy creates oligopolies. Businesses must pay to play. They must kick back contributions to the party, hire its key people and support its program.”

“For decades, conservatives created a movement to capture the Republican Party and remake it in their image. Under Bush, Republicanism as a system dominates.”

Blumenthal believes that tomorrow has arrived for the Republican Party. He concludes:

“With astonishing arrogance and bravado, the Republican oligarchy wired politics and business so that they would always win. But in believing that they actually possessed absolute power they have overreached. Now their project teeters on the brink.”