It appears extending Professor Turchin’s secular (> 100 years) analysis of agrarian societies’ behavior in the elite part of society during the disintegrative phase to the post-industrial United States is roughly accurate:
Last week, Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin went further to divorce the government from supporting the economy in this perilous time. He announced that he was suspending the Treasury’s lending powers at the end of the year, taking away a crucial backstop for businesses and local governments. He is also clawing back from the Federal Reserve about $250 billion appropriated under the original coronavirus relief bill in an apparent attempt to keep it out of the hands of the Biden team. That money will go back to Congress, which would have to reappropriate it in another bill to make it available again, which the Republican Senate shows no sign of being willing to do. Republicans have expressed concern that the Biden administration could use the appropriated money to bail out states and local governments, which by law cannot borrow to tide them over. [Heather Cox Richardson, Letters From An American]
Welcome to the “internecine wars” among the elite that Professor Turchin observed historically occurred again and again. And, unless you are a member of the elite, you are the fodder. And if you are elite, you may still be the fodder. In many historical cases, the losing side of the elite didn’t just lose power, or even their status – they lost their lives.
And the Republicans really don’t have a leg to stand on in terms of government structure. Among the many roles of the Federal Government is that of managing and providing resources during times of national crisis. Think World War II – were the States expected to each provide a response to the bombing of Pearl Harbor? No, it’d be simply ludicrous.
Steve Mnuchin and wife photographed with their God.
Similarly, strong leadership and extra resources in the time of pandemic is the role of the Federal Government. Republicans who try to defend this move will be made to look foolish. Mnuchin’s maneuvering appears to be the blatant pandering of a weak, weak man. Professor Richardson isn’t the only one to recognize this damn sillinesss for what it is, as she notes:
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce objected strongly to Mnuchin’s actions. In a public statement, it said: ““American businesses and workers are weary of these political machinations when they are doing everything in their power to keep our economy going. We strongly urge these programs be extended for the foreseeable future and call on Congress to pass additional pandemic relief targeted at the American businesses, workers and industries that continue to suffer. We all need to unite behind the need of a broad-based economic recovery.”
If the Republicans continue these political wars, they may find more and more of their allies are walking away. This may turn into a long and drawn out political suicide maneuver. The Chamber of Commerce is obviously worried, and, for that matter, what happened to the National Rifle Association (NRA) during the last election? I didn’t hear a thing about them. I have to wonder if they have effectively dissolved under the management of their long time leader, Wayne LaPierre. The actions of numerous sports teams to make their facilities available for voting in the recent election should also be a warning to Republicans that their social utility is under reevaluation by substantial portions of the corporate world – and may be found wanting.
Even moves in the last few years to downplay the primacy of investors and recognize the importance of workers and customers in the corporate world, contested as that rearrangement of priorities may be, signals that the Republican Party, and its allegiance to the almighty dollar, are becoming increasingly untied from the American mainstream.
This scorched earth retreat of the Republicans in the wake of their loss of the 2020 Presidential election may not work as well for them as it did for the Soviets in World War II.
