Enron Republicrats
 The
bankruptcy of Enron signaled not only the
destitution of thousands of workers, not only
the elimination of life savings for thousands of
investors, not only the eradication of $70
Billion in shareholder equity, it also
pronounced the total collapse of Republican
conservative ideological positioning.
Reagan marched into the presidency with the
carefully formulated position that governmental
regulatory control was the problem with America.
The so-called free market would police itself.
If a company was inefficient, it would collapse.
The rigors of market competition would bring
everything in line. He did not say that
corruption would cause companies to collapse,
not competition. He did not say that these
companies would buy favors from Republicans, and
where necessary from Democrats in order steal
billions of dollars from the taxpaying public.
He did not say that that these companies,
through deregulation would accumulate gigantic
sums of money that would then be used to corrupt
the democratic process and actually buy the
presidency as happened after Reagan marched into
the presidency.
The other side of deregulation was and is theft,
corruption, lies, graft, fraud, political
payoffs, and political intrigue. That was left
out. Reagan, of course, did not formulate these
positions; he merely acted out the role assigned
to him by far more powerful and devious people.
The other side of Republican ideological
positioning was euphemistically styled as wedge
politics. Capitalism or market politics could
not and would not mobilize a majority of the
populace. While government was to be eliminated
in terms of regulating business, it would be
expanded in regulating individuals. Women would
not have the right to choose, religion would no
longer be a matter of individual, private
decision but would be imposed by the state
including requiring children to adhere to state
sponsored prayers, African-Americans would not
be allowed to have an even playing field in the
search or jobs and other opportunities, workers
right to organize would be attacked and
eliminated if possible. Sexual preference, of
course, was never considered a private
individual matter; the state would make those
decisions. One observer characterized the
Republican platform as a program to get
government out of the boardroom and into the
bedroom.
To say the least, this platform is a hard sell.
It does not serve the interests of a majority of
the people. Taken as a whole, this platform is
against both the economic interests and the
individual preferences of a majority of working
people. It could never mobilize the energy and
loyalty of millions of working people.
Brilliantly, the Republican ideologues devised a
strategy of hate and . ruthless assault on all
principles of decency. The plan of attack
reached full fruition with the “southern
strategy” articulated by Richard Nixon.
What we see today is political unity between the
most reactionary elements of the country and a
section of capital. This was accomplished by the
use of wedge politics with a concentration in
the South. Wedge politics is essentially a
euphemism for hate politics. By driving a wedge
between white and black workers, between men and
progressive women, between straight and gay
workers, even between national minority workers
and other workers, Republicans backed by a
section of capital were able to create one issue
Republicans. By being blinded by hate or anger
or fear, one issue Republicans can be convinced
to vote against their own economic
self-interest.
The base for wedge politics is racism. That is
why the first and most successful use of this
strategy occurred in the South. Attacking
liberals as rich eastern capital, the Republican
Party was able to posture itself as the friend
of the white working man. Thus, the term
limousine liberal. This strategy mobilized white
men by opposing affirmative action first. Of
course, code words were developed; opposition
was to quotas, not affirmative action. Then,
having demonized those in “favor” of quotas, the
right wing then demonized those in “favor” of
affirmative action. The same process was used
for those struggling for women’s rights. First,
attack feminists. Then, the right to choose.
First, oppose restrictions on hunting then all
restrictions including assault rifles. Then, the
right wing always had its ace in the hole by
attacking sexual preference. But taken as a
whole, the entire program was and is one of
hate. White working men could only be mobilized
against their self-interest if sufficient anger
would blind them and hate is a blinding force.
That is why demagogues are so successful.
The right wing spent years in ideological
bombardment. During the 1960’s and 1970’s, even
words such as altruism, compassion, and
generosity were under attack as the positions of
knee jerk liberals. Any effort to address the
needs of working people was attacked as
wrongheaded , at best and probably evil.
The other side of this ideological attack was to
demonize welfare recipients thereby convincing
the white working man that his economic problems
were caused by a government that catered to the
poor, not working people. The facts never got in
the way. Whenever welfare was discussed, the
recipient was black thereby combining two
sources of anger even though a majority of
recipients are white. Most welfare recipients
work when possible but that fact is never
discussed. Most importantly, there was never any
discussion of the fact that capitalism cannot
and will not provide full employment and there
must be a reserve army of the unemployed to keep
wages down. Then it would be recognized that
welfare payments help working people, especially
the white working man.
By attacking the welfare queen, the government
not capitalism becomes the enemy of working
people. The ultimate agenda is to de-politicize
the working class so that it will not grasp its
immediate task which is to unify against its
class enemy. As a result, the white working man
is given a few small privileges and
African-Americans, women and other national
minorities are left to fight among themselves.
But the foundation for this strategy is that the
market will function reasonably well. It will
hand out a few crumbs and for those who are
angry but not greedy that will be enough. The
Republican right wing took the position that the
privileges and stratification that existed with
regulation would continue only the market would
be more efficient in handing out the privileges
and would never attack the existing
stratification. Instead, unregulated capitalism
fostered corruption. It corrupted the corporate
structure itself and then it corrupted the
political system. With the incredible
concentration of wealth, it then turned on the
democratic process itself. It tried to buy the
presidency for Bush II and when that failed the
right wing cabal surrounding Bush II literally
stole the election. The complete and total
collapse of Enron, however, exposed the madness
for what it is. Weakly, the right wing now
argues that it is a bipartisan problem, once
again seeking a shield against the true story.
Not only is this right wing cabal at fault for
the loss of $70 billion, it is wrong as to the
solution.
“The coverage of the Enron
situation has primarily focused on the
disintegration of a powerful corporation due to
the deceit and criminality of those who ran the
company. The few reporters who have looked below
the surface have proven linkage between Enron’s
corruption and its political connections to the
Bush administration.” David Podvin,
Multitrillion Dollar Financial Scandal, http://disc.server.com/discussion.cqi?id=149495&article=18226
The media intentionally hides
the involvement of the Bush cabal in this
scandal. More importantly, it hides the
ideological bankruptcy that caused this scandal.
Whitewater involved $100,000.00 and resulted in
a $50,000,000.00 investigation. This involves
$70 Billion and there is no investigation let
alone impeachment. The program of the right wing
Republicans has set up a situation which can
very well lead to total collapse and certainly
has led to the necessary elimination of the
unregulated economy.
“Enron’s duplicity is an
extreme symptom of a financial cancer that
threatens the health of the economy. The disease
is a malignant accounting method that has
received legal protection from conservative
politicians on behalf of their corporate
benefactors. It is called ‘pro forma’.
Originally intended to allow companies to
compensate for extraordinary events that
distorted their financial reports, the pro forma
accounting method has led to the greatest fraud
ever perpetrated.” Podvin, supra (Emphasis
added).
Because the right wing actually
believes that the market economy will work
despite the evidence to the contrary, the
Republican right wing always ignores and denies
the necessity for governmental regulations. The
market economy necessarily and always creates a
concentration of wealth that is unfair,
oppressive, repressive and exploitative. By
concentrating wealth in the hands of the very
few, capitalism destroys the buying power of the
working people. Working people create enormous
wealth that is then sucked off by the most
corrupt and greedy capitalists as happened with
Enron. The production of goods results in
overproduction because working people have no
money to buy what they have produced. Simply put
the market economy does not work. Never has and
never will. Government enters to make it work or
at least give a semblance of working order. The
first step in making the market economy work is
the redistribution of wealth. But since the
concentration of wealth allows these corrupt
capitalists to buy politicians, the
redistribution is blocked.
Economists dub themselves practitioners of the
dismal science. More appropriately, these
so-called scientists should be dubbed capitalist
apologists, not scientists at all. For a price,
they rename market failure and say it is
necessary for progress. They even have
mathematical formulas to support their hogwash.
Now, their position is that current problems are
temporary adjustments on the road to
globalization which will lead to progress for
all.
These apologists know better. They are no
different than the streetwalker who promises to
go around the world for $50.00. These apologists
promise an efficient system governed by the
invisible hand. They charge huge sums of money
when they know that the invisible hand does not
work and the unregulated market leads only to
hunger, destitution, exploitation, and
disorganization. A system that rewards the most
greedy and corrupt will inevitably lead to greed
and corruption. It cannot regulate itself. At
least the streetwalker is honest in the
assessment of the service.
Regulating capitalism curbs the most harsh
results and reduces suffering. It does not
address the problem which is the market itself
and the concentration of wealth in the hands of
the most corrupt among us.
“Freed from concerns about
regulatory oversight, this country’s biggest
companies became dramatically more ‘creative’
with their earnings reports. Current estimates
for S&P 500 corporations are that they have
collectively earned about $410 billion in 2001
when using the pro forma accounting method.
However, when using GAAP, they have collectively
earned about $240 billion.
Those who claim that Enron was an exceptional
case are technically correct. While Enron
overestimated its earnings by 100%, the average
large publicly held corporation is
overestimating its earnings by only 42%.
IBM reports pro forma earnings. So does Intel.
And Cisco Systems. And Dell. And Sun Micro. And
Motorola. And Microsoft. And. . . By engaging in
such manipulation, with the assent of
accountants and governmental oversight agencies,
Corporate America has conned the public into
investing trillions of dollars based on phony
earnings. Cisco, for example, has used its
artificially inflated stock price as capital to
acquire other companies. Many corporation
empires have been built on such accounting
legerdemain, including General Electric (NBC),
Viacom (CBS), Disney (ABC), AOL/Time Warner
(CNN< Time Magazine), News Corporation (Fox),
the Washington Post Company (Washington Post,
Newsweek), the Tribune Corporation (Chicago
Tribune, Los Angeles Times, and the New York
Times Company (New York Times, Boston Globe).
Enron is the tip of an iceberg on which sits the
entire mainstream media. A national association
of accounting firms has called on the Securities
and Exchange Commission to require all publicly
held corporations to report real GAAP earnings.
The return to ethical accounting standards would
mean that, in order to reflect the current
valuation of the Dow industrials. The average
would fall to 5825. In order to reach the
historical norm based on GAAP, the Dow would
decline to 3300.
A major decline in stock prices would erase
trillions of dollars of investors’ wealth. With
the uninformed public currently heavily invested
in the market., this would have crushing impact
on the finances of the average American.” Podvin,
supra.
The problem is not simply a business matter as
Bush II contends. It is matter of political
ideology proven bankrupt.
“In 1995, Senate Republicans and almost half of
the Democratic colleagues joined to override
President Clinton’s veto of legislation
providing corporations with protection from
shareholder lawsuits. The leader of the effort
to dramatically reduce civil liabilities for
companies that report phony earnings was Wall
Street lobbyist Harvey Pitt, who has made a
career of defending the shady dealings of stock
market thieves like Ivan Boeshy.
Just as his father hid the magnitude of the
Savings and loan scandal until after the 19878
election, Bush is desperately trying to obscure
the truth about Corporate America’s financial
slight of hand in order to defer the tumbling of
the house of cards until after the 2004
campaign. He expects to be helped in this effort
by the man he appointed to be Chairman of the
Securities and Exchange Commission , the one who
is most responsible for seeing that corporations
accurately report their earnings . Harvey Pitt.”
Podvin, supra.
Because the media is totally
dominated by the right wing ideologues , they
have no idea of the effect of their positions.
Nor do they believe anyone will ever decipher
their duplicity. One commentator stated without
the hint of a smile that Bush II is now viewed
as a James Bond type.
Millions of people know the Bush cabal stole the
election, and sacked the American treasury. They
stole the election and now it comes out that
Kenneth Lay of Enron helped to finance the
attack on Florida.
The corruption is like a huge pile of dung with
everyone saying it does not stink. While a level
of pessimism creeps into our work, one must
remember that President Johnson constantly
pointed to his polls as proof that the War in
Vietnam was popular. That the American people
supported the war. Now John Ashcroft states that
anyone who disagrees with him either supports
the terrorists or is a traitor. Johnson could
not maintain his position and that was when
jobs, education, health care and housing were
more readily available to working people than
now. The tax system then was progressive even if
it was unfair to working people. All of that has
been wiped away. Bush II will have considerable
difficulty convincing people that they must
endure this hardship while he gives the country
away to the richest people in the world.
A specter haunts the world today. Even if it is
not the specter of proletarian revolution
outlined by Karl Marx, it is a specter of total
failure of capitalism. Capitalism is destroying
the living environment of the world. It creates
chaos, anarchy, war, terrorism and murder.
Religious fanaticism is countered by repression
and murder. This specter of disaster is
manifested by working people buying water to
drink when they can, getting sick from fouled
air and not having any health care to address
the problems. War and anarchy are not only real
but expected.
The only answer provided by the right wing is
globalization which comes at prices no one can
afford and the product is deficient anyway.
Globalization represents the destruction of
civilization, the concentration of wealth in the
very, very few and the destitution of the
world’s peoples. In return they are given
religious fanatics to lead them out of this
hell.
In these conditions, the Bush cabal will be put
on notice that they will be destroyed in the
wake of the demand for jobs, peace and equality.
Yours in Struggle,
-
Ronald D. Glotta
220 Bagley, Suite 808
Detroit, Michigan 48226
(313) 963-1320
(313) 963-1325 fax
rglotta@glottaassociates.com
www.glottaassociates.com
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