New Orleans Whether regular politics or the tactics of terrorists, the common message bridging the extremes in this time of exacerbated inequity seems to be the impotence of the elites. They can take care of themselves, but the rest us are somewhere between hamburger meat and dog food.
The daily breast-beating of pundits and politicians whether on the Trump phenomena, Brexit, or any number of other standard assumptions, is gee-whiz look how badly the so-called, presumptive leaders of the world, the movers-and-shakers, the rich and well-born have climbed up in the clouds without realizing that there is no one under them and no one following them. Report after report beats the drum that there is no way any of this could have happened? Don’t they understand the consequences? Don’t they see that Trump is a buffoon or that leaving the EU would be disaster? Don’t they get it?
Seems clear that they do, and that they are sending a message as clear as a tattooed forehead, that they do get it and they don’t like it. There is no trickledown. The one-percent gets theirs and we don’t just get the hindmost, we get nada, nothing, zilch. Shut up and be happy is now being met by a message that goes something like, “oh, really, see how you like this! Hope you can sort out the mess we’re putting you in, even if you could never fix the mess you put the rest of us in.”
The muddle and mayhem seems to be catching elites on all sides in the same befuddlement. In the UK, it’s not like Labour and Jeremy Corbyn are able to seize the time, fill up the vacuum, and take advantage of the huge mistake of the Conservatives. In the USA, Hillary Clinton is sitting on a pile and some good polls, but no one, literally no one, yet sees her able to widen her lead and deliver a beat down. And, no one, literally no one, seems to be very clear exactly what Senator Sanders is up to now, so another opportunity may be turning fallow.
The same message is being sent by terrorists of the Al Qaeda and ISIS set. Hit the middle class where they are vulnerable at their favorite meeting spots, airports, coffee shops, and restaurants. The elites are secure and sequestered, but they can’t protect you. Unless you are willing to live in fear and hide in your house, you’re not safe, the government is a farce and the elites view you as nameless, faceless, fodder.
These are desperate and depressing messages for sure. Worse is that no one seems to have been really to come up with real answers yet.