Frankly, Can Things Change Before It's Too Late?

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Frankly, the writing is on the wall for where this country is headed, but too many people are illiterate, so things won’t change.

That is until there is a catastrophe, but by then it will be too late.

For decades, the Supreme Court hasn't just chipped away at voting rights. It has steadily expanded the power of the Executive Branch while weakening the guardrails that were supposed to keep any president from becoming too powerful.

Just this week SCOTUS released several decisions before they fuck off for a few months. Why they can’t release every decision on one day is beyond my comprehension.

One of the biggest rulings further strengthened presidential control over agencies that were designed to operate independently. In a 6-3 decision, the Court ruled that the President has the constitutional authority to remove Federal Trade Commission (FTC) commissioners, opening the door to greater presidential control over other independent agencies as well. The lone exception, at least for now, is the Federal Reserve. In a separate 5-4 ruling, the Court blocked Trump from firing Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook.

One small step for Trump, one giant leap for turning the executive branch into dictator.

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Some people argue that Democrats can simply use these expanded powers the next time they're in office. The problem is they're trying to play by rules that have been obsolete for at least a generation.

Even if Democrats somehow controlled the White House, the House, and the Senate by 2029, they still wouldn't have the numbers needed to amend the Constitution and restore meaningful guardrails. Besides, this Supreme Court has shown that the Constitution is hardly worth the shit it’s been wiped with.

And I don’t even have the confidence that voters are willing to vote in the right people to make change.

Every Republican since Bush Sr. has entered into a pointless war in the Middle East, and that hasn’t been enough to wake people up. Even with the current war in Iran, not enough people are outraged. Gas prices exploded, and people are still coming out and voting for Republicans.

The financial crisis of 2008 should have been a political earthquake. It happened under Republican leadership, yet nearly 60 million Americans still voted for John McCain. Roughly 45 percent of voters looked at the worst economic collapse since the Great Depression and decided they wanted more of the same.

It makes me wonder: even if we enter another major recession will it make enough people wake up? My guess is no, maybe for one election, but then they’ll just go back to apathy or voting for idiots.

An argument can certainly be made that it would take another depression. After all, many of America’s biggest reforms followed the Great Depression. It might require a crisis severe enough to affect millions of people who have never paid attention before.

At least for a while, because the deeper problem isn’t one election or one president.

It’s concentrated wealth.

As long as a handful of extraordinarily wealthy people can finance campaigns, influence legislation, shape public opinion, and effectively purchase political power, the system will always drift back toward kleptocracy. They will find new ways to change the rules and rig the game.

Hell, this isn’t new. Under FDR’s presidency, there was a plot by the wealthy to oust him as president and install a dictator. It’s a similar situation happening now, but they’re running a more successful playbook.

Democracies don’t usually collapse overnight. They slowly decay as citizens become comfortable and disengaged. I’m looking at you, Roman Empire.

We’re entering into uncharted territory of people becoming trillionaires. These aren’t people who are on our side. They're not accumulating unimaginable fortunes because they want a stronger democracy. They're doing it because wealth creates influence, and influence creates even more wealth.

So things won’t change until massive amounts of wealth stop being hoarded. For that to happen, people need to be completely rewired to understand this idea, and stop being tricked by the greedy.

Sure, things can improve for a few years, but none of those victories last if the underlying incentives never change.

Corporations and the ultra-wealthy will continue buying influence and rewriting the rules. They’ll continue delaying action on problems like climate change because short-term profits are more valuable to them than long-term survival.

I hope people can wake up to the threat before it’s too late. But if people can’t stay engaged to keep things trending in the right direction, then apathy will always lead us back.

Greed has gotten us here, and eventually it will lead us to an extinction event. And if it takes that to get people to understand, then it is way too late.