“He is a self-made man and worships his creator.” John Bright
“He uses statistics as a drunken man uses lamp-posts… for support rather than illumination.” Andrew Lang
“There is no greater fallacy than the belief that aims and purposes are one thing, while methods and tactics are another.” Emma Goldman
“It is the people who scream the loudest about America and Freedom who seem to be the most intolerant for a differing point of view.” Rosanne Cash
“Most truths are so naked that people feel sorry for them and cover them up, at least a little bit.” Edward R. Murrow
All about us these days we see constant witnesses to The Culture of Wealth. I do not say this to condemn just anyone with money. I’ve known lots of folks with quite a bit of money, and pretty generally they shared the same values I hold. Those I’ve known or met have mostly all been citizens of the United States, hailing at least originally from the “midway cities” of our country or the agricultural environment that surrounds us who live here. So, instead of referring to wealth itself, or using the phrase Culture of Wealth, let’s just acknowledge that there now exists a political culture best called Wealthism.
I’m pretty sure of my ground here, but with one caveat…sometimes folks of some wealth who do not share the values of Wealthism, nevertheless find it hard to see how a culture of wealth holds different values and how those values have “bought” the votes of many of the inhabitants of those same cities, farms, and ranches, and done great harm to people less fortunate than the wealthy.
Indeed, sometimes the bridge from wealth to Wealthism is simply that those with wealth don’t consider themselves fortunate. For one reason or another, they figure their wealth is merited and other’s lack of it is deserved.
The skewing of the political spectrum—read “the buying of votes”—by Big Money coupled with Wealthism has, in fact, been blatant. Signed, sealed, and delivered, as we once said.
Lots of people of wealth do not think money can or should be able to buy everything, but the power of money to buy anything and everything is an essential factor in Wealthism. Many people of wealth do not think that the accumulation of wealth proves that they are smarter or better than other people, but feeling exempt from the rules that apply to others is at the heart of Wealthism.
Nationally, Wealthism is easily seen in displays of greed that would be comical if they were not so devastating. Where liberals were once suspicious of even such wealth as gave the country great museums, libraries, concert halls, and art galleries, the so-called conservative today, part of or beholden to the culture of wealth, lauds the ostentatious displays of luxury travel, yachts, private jets, space rockets, and enough hired help to avoid living like other people.
Sure, you are right: that includes way too many of our elected representatives and the people that they, in turn, have seated on the bench of the Supreme Court. I’m certain it does not include all of the CEOs of major American industries and companies…but it includes way too many of them.
Wealth comes, of course, from profit; profit itself is not a villain in this scenario. But behaving as though only profit matters in the choices companies make, behaving as though all other values must give way to the one value, profitableness—that is a sure sign of the Culture of Wealth. So is price gouging under the cover of inflation. So is blaming the lack of enough people in the work force on the general laziness of workers.
That there aren’t any folks too lazy or too coddled by support available because of other’s profit—that would also be a lie. Even if you haven’t accumulated much, wanting to make an easy buck off the work of others is not the sole province of corporate executives. That trait is shared by those who wish they were wealthy and try to get theirs off someone else’s hard work.
But that factor is only one of many that have created the problems of the work force today. Wealth without a moral compass is inevitably destructive of the very economy it relies on, and so must always be protected by stacking the deck with unearned privilege and passing the privilege off as the price we pay to avoid that great bogey of American politics—socialism, usually meaning any sense that the wealthy should carry their share of the load.
In the United States, you can see the depredations of Wealthism in almost every aspect of our national life: it is “constitutional” to forgive the debts of major banks and industries, but not to forgive the debts of students to predatory lenders. No money available to address the horrible disparities in the safety of pregnancy, but plenty of money available to address abortion. Great clamor that Affirmative Action is itself racist, the clamor raised by people who were never bothered by how many admission’s standards ruled out anyone except elite Whites and Asians. A prominent figure in the circles of Wealthism sits on the Supreme Court because of the Affirmative Action he now denies to others.
Racism is after all color blind…it only sees green.
And here are just some ways Wealthism rears its ugly head here where we live.
Dark money comes to the front to help organize opposition to anything dark money doesn’t like. No problem if all that means is seeing that ideas are put out there for people to consider and accept or reject in a free and honest forum such as an election. But what it actually turns out to mean is many people leaving offices they have held rather than see their businesses suffer and their own legitimate wealth disappear. Why serve, for instance on the school board, if dark money will make sure your business will suffer because you aren’t 100% one with the money’s political agenda? One thing for sure: this has affected Democrats for sure, but also Independents and legitimate Republicans. I guess that is a new kind of non—partisanship…based sadly on making everything a partisan issue.
What next? A political litmus test for coaching little league baseball? For EMT’s arriving at your house in “the unit”? For pastoring a flock? Too late: there are already reports of that being exactly what is happening. The point is not allowing everyone to be free to espouse whatever “ism” they like; the goal is for only one “ism” to run everything. That is how a Wealthism works.
A case in point: In the last gubernatorial race—and I can still hear the voice of Phil Harris of Phil Harris and Alice Faye fame asking for the name of the goober running for office—Trump money backed a fellow from another state named Herbster. We are only opposed to carpet baggers when they are Democrats. Rickets money backed the winner, Jim Pillen, who’s claim to fame had been that, as a Regent, he opposed the university teaching any race history that made students or their parents uncomfortable.
There was lots of money, lots of ads, lots of TV spots, with no real need for mudslinging since the truth about either candidate was damaging enough. Lies there were nonetheless, since, well, that’s what liars do by default. One feature of the race was that one of our state senators, who couldn’t think of a greater honor than serving our state in the U.S. Senate, resigned his seat for the greater honor of becoming the DeSantis-blessed President of the U. of Florida.
Ricketts boasted how he would not appoint himself to Sasse’s vacant seat, then bought an election for Pillen who—why yes you guessed—appointed Rickets to the seat. Subterfuge does not run very deep in our state…a thin veneer is often enough. The Platte these days is a very shallow river.
Our legislature snuck through the last legislative session a nowhere near thinly disguised voucher system for supporting private schools with public money. On the surface it is system of dollar-for-dollar relief from your state tax burden (as opposed to a much less profitable tax deduction) for every dollar given to support scholarships for kids to go to private schools, one of which incidentally was just recently created by the former governor. A thin veneer to gull the gullible in the more than half our counties that have no private schools anyway.
It is true that this session gave a huge windfall to public schools—mostly money left over from Federal Covid funds, and so not renewable for the future. A welcome way for school districts to lower the property tax levy? Well, yes and no. The Open Sky Institute has crunched the numbers and found that this works to the good for some districts but not for others, often neighbors. See https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/#inbox/FMfcgzGsnLNNXfhNsTpsZCBZhQHTgRJF .
Regardless, the cost the first year of the shell game with public money for private schools will just be like an ante in a poker game, but then the stakes go up. The school district in which I was raised estimates it will eventually cost their public schools just short of three quarters of a million dollars. Underfunded public schools not measuring up? The Wealthism solution? Fund them even less.
One of the great things about Nebraska is a strong state-wide teachers’ organization, and one of its benefits is that the teachers in every little town or small consolidated district have someone to speak for them. Our NSEA cried foul and are undertaking a petition drive to contest the legislature’s decision and get the matter on the ballot. Nancy has been collecting lots of signatures…legitimate signatures given under the watchful eye of the opposition…sometimes paid-for eyes. Another great thing: by the design of one of the greatest Senators to ever represent any state, Senator George Norris, designed our unicameral legislature so that, functionally, the people are the “other” house beside the elected Senate. The power of this other house includes the right to petition that refers a Senate law to the people to approve on a ballot…or, in this case, very likely not.
Enter the dark money once again. Senator Linehan is now bemoaning that some of the money to support our public schools’ cause has come from outside the state, conveniently ignoring that even more of the money invested in bilking the public schools has been coming from outside the state for some time. That’s Wealthism for you—it’s okay if it’s my money, but not if it’s yours.
At any rate, there is now a massive Deny to Sign the petition initiative, all its major talking points far afield from the truth but, no matter, very liberally funded…only n now, in a state that has traditionally fought hard for its public schools, maybe dark money will not be enough to defeat the petition which allows the people to decide.
Our poor schools, once a matter of pride to Nebraska citizens, have made the big mistake of thinking schools ought pretty generally to teach the truth, whether about race or gender or politics or economics. And Truth is one value that Wealthism cannot tolerate. It is a badge of honor for our public school system, fulfilling the mandate of our state Constitution, that they are the brunt of the attacks dark money supports.
One footnote: years ago, when the US Senate decided to recognize the five greatest senators in its history, the most highly favored for a special niche was George Norris. You won’t find him there because the two Republican Senators voted against him…they couldn’t forgive his being an Independent…early signs of the weed of Wealthism.
The state has defeated these well-heeled denizens of Wealthism only once recently: in the mayoral race for our capital city. The then former and now current mayor was approved by too many voters for the dark money to defeat. But only at the expense of depleting the coffers of many, thus assuring their backing would be diminished for other future races. Out-spend-them has its advantages even when it fails. In fact, that was often the goal of the Karl Rove game plan: attack your opponent’s strengths and hope this means they have to waste their time and money defending themselves.
So what if the race for Mayor of Lincoln was lost—we won the race over the in-play congressional seat—with the most lavish amount of money ever spent in Nebraska for a single race.
And here is another big surprise: the people buying votes in Nebraska are the same people who whined the most when “poor” Justice Thomas and Justice Alito were being held to account for accepting (and not reporting) lavish vacations and assuring us that, despite the gifts coming from people or companies with interests before the court, there was nothing wrong with accepting and not reporting them.
You know how hard the print on red tape is to read when you are trying to hide what amounts to a bribe!
I always end reflections on the state of the state by making it clear. I grew up among honorable conservative folks, not a few of which were people of some means. They would to a person be appalled at how their party has pitched its tent on the pavilion of the Culture of Wealth, and would find completely laughable the idea that this Wealthism stands for anything that could by any remote stretch be called Conservativism.
I know, I know. Conservative and Crook begin with the same letters, but that don’t make them bedfellows. Well, maybe on certain kinds of beds it does.
PS Clarence Thomas’s wife Ginny is a Nebraskan. Her folks belonged to the John Birch Society in Omaha. Her marriage to a scoundrel was yet another proof that the fascists among us are most certainly not racists! You wouldn’t have to waste much time if you just wanted to tally up the number of wealthy Nebraskans who have raised any public objections. The silence of some of the wealthy is the ally, witting or unwitting, of Wealthism
Kearney, Nebraska (a Midway City if there ever was one)
July 2023
Chuck Peek
Next blog; August—end of summer observations, or not
capeek 