“Oceania was at war with Eastasia: Oceania had always been at war with Eastasia.” — George Orwell, “1984”
Watching recent political theater reminds me of the novel “1984.”
Let’s play a little game. Who said this about Bear’s Ears? “It’s an unconstitutional land grab! No president should have that much power.”
The answer? Both sides! Republicans screamed it last year when President Obama created the national monument by executive order and Democrats were apoplectic this year when President Trump used the same process to shrink it.
Called one of the most influential pieces of English literature, dystopian novel “1984” is set in the superstate of Oceania, a country caught up in never-ending war. The government controls the media, education and even thoughts, with the “Thought Police” looking for an excuse to arrest and eliminate anyone with an independent thought.
The novel’s central character centers on Winston Smith who works for the “Ministry of Truth” rewriting history to match the party line. At a “Hate Week” demonstration at the beginning of the book, people are gathered to decry their enemy Eurasia and celebrate their alliance with Eastasia. At the last minute, the speaker changes the name of the enemy from Eurasia to Eastasia and asserts it has always been that way. The people hurriedly crumple their banners of protest, not wanting to be on the wrong side of history and wander away convinced they were wrong.
No matter who is wielding the pen, it’s not just the process of presidential executive orders that are disturbingly alike.
The process this behemoth of a tax reform bill has undergone is eerily similar to the process used to pass Obamacare. “You have to pass this bill to find out what’s in this bill,” isn’t just a Nancy Pelosi statement. When Speaker Paul Ryan, known as a fiscal hawk, was asked on the Today Show if the tax bill would create enough economic growth to offset its cost, his answer was, “Nobody knows.”
Democrats are openly advocating for fiscal restraint and not adding $1.5 trillion to the deficit while Republicans are saying the equivalent of, “Elections have consequences.”
Instead of the Obamacare Cornhusker kickback for (former) Sen. Ben Nelson, a Democrat from Nebraska, this bill has a Bob Corker kickback, a Republican senator from Tennessee, pushed through by our own Sen. Orrin Hatch.
Rammed through without a single vote from the other party, both bills saw thousands of lobbyists advocating for the companies and organizations that can afford to hire them. The Center for Public Integrity analyzed lobbying disclosure forms and found 4,525 lobbyists working to influence health care bills in 2009, or eight for every lawmaker. The number of lobbyists registered to work on tax policy this year? It was 6,243, or 11 for each lawmaker.
Both were crafted in secret, with last-minute changes done so hastily they were hand-written into the margins of the bill.
Both Obamacare and the Trump Tax were and will be used as fundraising pitches (both for and against) and both were and will be used as campaign fodder.
On Tuesday’s Doug Wright show, Boyd Matheson, president of conservative think tank The Sutherland Institute, said, “Republican leadership in the Senate really lost control of the message.” Only 1 in 6 Americans think these reforms will help them and 76 percent think this bill is just for big business and the wealthy.
Matheson said further that many Republicans felt this tax bill had to be pushed through before Christmas so that Republican politicians can “do well before the 2018 midterms.”
That’s the “way of the swamp,” said Matheson, “saying, ‘We are going to solve a political problem, not the American people’s problem.’”
Another “1984” quote seems apropos: “The Party (or political ruling class) seeks power entirely for its own sake. We are not interested in the good of others; we are interested solely in power, pure power.”
Beware Big Brother.
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Holly Richardson is a columnist for the Salt Lake Tribune and a jaded political activist. She most definitely does not love Big Brother.
