Kimball Shinkoskey

Woods Cross

In school, Americans were taught that the world works on the basis of education, science, law, honesty, goodwill, elections, free enterprise, corporate responsibility, government ethics, service-oriented political leadership. You get the picture.

Except for brief periods of time, all that good stuff has never really materialized in the lives of most citizens and leaders, and certainly not since World War II. Today we work almost entirely on the basement instincts of humankind. These are the kind of exploitative instincts that are made possible by foolish constitutional and economic backsliding and cultural/spiritual shifts that happen in every democratic nation over time.

Decisions were made on a very democratic basis in America up until the time of America’s first certified anti-democracy tyrant, Andrew Jackson. That was in the 1830s, folks! After then, only an occasional president, an occasional Congress and an occasional Supreme Court pushed for maintaining the foundational political values.

Money, and the luxury life and political power it brings, has long been the ruling civic value in America. That is what motivated southern plantation owners to hold onto slavery and what northern Robber Barons believed in so lustily.

Anyone familiar with deep history knows that it always comes down to exactly this in a democracy: A wealthy aristocracy with special privileges cordons themselves off from everybody else and runs the country however they want. Nations get tired of trying to build a democratic classless society where equality and opportunity rule the day, and where there is considerable upward mobility for town and country dwellers, immigrants and native residents alike.

That is what many in America worked to build during the first 200 years of our republic. However, that whole scene took way too much education, faith, hard work, law, family, democratic principle, sit-ins, marches and demonstrations to be able to sustain in today’s world.

Ours is the transition that happened in ancient democratic Mesopotamia, Israel, Greece and Rome; in medieval or pre-modern Venice, Switzerland, Germany and Holland; in highland tribes in Scotland and France; in low-land tribes in Africa, the Far East, ancient America and other places across the earth.

Today, the entire country is just giving into a much cleaner and easier division of humanity into aristocracy and commoners; gated-community billionaires vs. those outside the gates; 1/10 of 1 percent-ers vs. 99.9 percent-ers; people who bury their families in pyramids vs. people who bury their loved ones in six-foot holes. This is the way Europe operated during the Dark Ages, and it is coming back with a vengeance all over the world today.

In this “new” world, there is no such thing as common sense, reliable science, justice, mercy and good faith. There is only arbitrary rule by the very glamorous celebrity class who get whatever they want whenever they want, as everybody else gawks and worships.

Republicans today are demanding things similar to what the landed Senatorial class won in ancient Rome — like almost automatic gerrymandered office-holding for the wealthy.

Donald Trump demanded and got the very special political privilege of the right to absolute immunity from prosecution, just like the Stuart monarchs in England asserted in their demands for unlimited prerogative on the throne.

Chief Justice John Roberts, once committed to equal justice for all under the law, has now decided it is okay for one super-human being to be free of all the constraints of law to commit as many high crimes and misdemeanors as his heart desires while in office.

In addition, Judge Juan Merchan provided candidate Donald Trump with an “unconditional discharge” from all 34 of his felonies so he could go about his business without paying any consequences for his misdeeds.

Republican Congresspersons like Mitt Romney, of Utah, and Thom Tillis, of South Carolina, have retired to the sidelines because they could not stand the heat of being dissenters in Congress.

Former Presidents like Barack Obama, Joe Biden and George W. Bush have been hiding under a rock since finishing off their terms of office, refusing to provide the public with their expertise and experience in a time of great need.

Newspapers like the Washington Post and Los Angeles Times, once providing sturdy opposition to authoritarian government, now join in with all the political collaborators of the regime.

There is no reason to be confused about how things work today. Money buys and naked force takes everything it wants.