Where We're Headed after 2012

I see the Bush appointments to the Supreme Court doing their intended work with the upholding of the Citizens United suit to allow unlimited campaign contributions by corporations and individuals. It will work very well indeed, flooding the 2012 campaign with Repugligan* and corporate cash. I see the application of the typical Rovian tactic of last minute flooding of the airwaves with negative campaign ads and slanders. The American people being what they are, the election will be bought, yeilding a continued majority in the House, a filibuster-proof majority in the Senate, and of course, the Presidency. Repugligans will then pick up where they left off in 2006 with their program for the destruction of government.

Of course they will keep their campaign promise to to restore exploitive corporate health care profits, but that will be just the first step. Consumer protections, in general, will go by the wayside. Items on the fiscal chopping block include funds for education, environmental protection, infrastructure restoration, veterans' benefits, Medicare, and Social Security. Naturally, warlike posturing by the chicken hawks and cozy deals for their generous buddies in the military industrial complex will be the order of the times. Saber rattling, if not outright war, in the mideast and far east will soon follow. Revival of the cold war with Russia is not beyond them. Defense stocks will soar in the short term.

Education

Public education will of course be defunded completely, with the first step being a voucher program to boost the profits of private schools and make public schools total failures because they can't select their students. After the failure and abolition of public schools, of course, compulsory education will be a thing of the past because you can't require all children to attend school when there are no more public schools. Libertarian free enterprise being what it is, child labor laws will be repealed so that as soon as a child can pick up a rake or shovel, he can be put to work. Education will be for the wealthy owners only while the workforce education level declines to the point where we can no longer be a world leader in technological innovation. Worker productivity will decline due to lower levels of worker education, so corporate profits will decline and bankruptcys will increase.

Labor

Collective bargaining rights will be repealed and unions will be broken everywhere. Strikes will be halted with massive arrests and riots will be quelled by mass shootings by the police, private thugs, and the national guard. Wages will decline to subsistence level and work hours will go back up to 10 to 12 per day, six days a week. Worker productivity will further decline due to poor health care and worker exhaustion, with more American businesses going bankrupt from being unable to compete in a world market.

Public Infrastructure

Public assets such as our interstate highways will be privatized, auctioned off to the highest bidder, and made into toll roads. Traffic will decrease with the declining productivity and the failing economy, so tolls will be increased to the point that only the wealthy will be able to afford to drive on a highway. All trucking traffic costs will go up due to the tolls, so the cost of moving goods in the country will increase making products made in the USA additionally uncompetitive in the world market. To reduce costs and maximize profits for shareholders, the highway owners will neglect maintenance, so that even the wealthy will not like driving on the pothole-riddled roads, highway speeds will decline, and vehicle maintenance costs will increase.

Postal Service

The US Postal Service will be privatized, sold to the highest bidder. With unions abolished, profits will be good for a while, but postal rates will not go down in order to maximize profits. Service to rural areas will be halted because such routes will not be profitable. Many areas will see a halt to home delivery of mail or surcharges for that service.

Military

Privatization of the military will be reinstituted with lucrative mercenary contracts going to private armies. Voluntary military service will be very unattractive as a result, with service members being paid only one fifth what a private soldier makes, so conscription will be reinstituted in order to cut overall costs. As with conscription during the Civil War, the wealthy will be able to buy their way out of the draft. However, after a number of years of Repugligan rule, there will be virtually no middle class left, so that only the top one percent will have the money to do so.

End Game

If the conditions described here come to pass, the American public may finally wise up, but it will be too late. With total control of the government, the Repugligans will never again make the mistake of losing an election. If total domination of the campaign funding doesn't seem to work any more, they will contrive an emergency, institute martial law, and cancel pending elections. It will be the end of democracy in America.

* Same as "Republican" but is a contraction of "repugnant ugly thugs and hooligans" (in the public domain).

Email Richard dot J dot Wagner at gmail dot com