Divide and Conquer

Divide and Conquer

“Divide and rule, the politician cries; unite and lead, is the watchword of the wise.” – Johann Wolfgang von Goeth

By J.M. Hamilton  (3-1-14)

I was watching The Square on Netflix over the weekend, a documentary about the Egyptian Revolution, and it’s clear to me that there are forces at work in the U.S. that are not dissimilar to Egypt’s ultimate power broker, the Egyptian army.

In The Square, the 99% overthrow the highly corrupt, and Western backed, Mubarak regime; the Egyptian people of all religions band together, due to economic and political oppression, to oust the dictator.  The economic and therefore, political power in Egypt is the Egyptian military, which own broad swaths of the economy (as I’ve noted before, not unlike Iran’s Revolutionary Guard). 

We’ve seen in Egypt and in other parts of the world, and increasingly in the U.S., when too much economic and political power is concentrated into too few hands, stagnation, malaise, and social upheaval ensues.  Rising food prices set off much of the Arab Spring, and global warming may have played a part.  However, some bright economist should look at the highly possible and probable correlation between the Fed’s quantitative easing, massive global capital flows into BRICS and the developing world, increased commodity speculation, rising food and commodity costs, and subsequent global revolution(s) and revolt(s).  But I digress.

The key point for me in the movie is how the Egyptian military took a highly popular revolution and peeled off the Muslim community, and in particular the Muslim Brotherhood with promises of power, in a divide and conquer strategy.  Once the Muslims, with delusions of grandeur, were separated from everyone else, it was easy for the army to crush secular, agnostic, atheist, and Christian Egyptians still is revolt; once the Muslim Brotherhood were peeled away, and everyone else was cowed and put down, the Brotherhood were ultimately rounded up, persecuted, imprisoned and slaughtered by the Egyptian army.  Had everyone stayed together, the outcome may have been different than today’s Egyptian result, a military dictatorship.

Remember a popularly elected Egyptian President named Morsi?

In this country, we often see forty and fifty year old social issues, like yes, abortion, birth control, women’s reproductive rights, and gay rights, still dividing this nation; and quite frankly, I believe the economic and political power elite like it this way.   These and other social issues are all a highly convenient, and still a highly charged, distraction from the nation’s true problems: the concentration of economic and political power into too few hands (in the incarnation of monopolies, cartels, and private equity – supported by our two party system); a government that is for hire to the highest bidder; the elderly sucking up all the social services at the expense of the youth and our nation’s future; a run away military industrial and intelligence complex, along with run away deficit spending; a two tiered legal system that benefits the plutocracy; and the lack of economic opportunity and social mobility.   

(None of this is to say, that the aforementioned social issues weren’t worth fighting for, but my argument is they have already been won.  Only a rapidly fading core of GOP and social conservative diehards remains to fight a rearguard action, against these battles that have already been won.  Demographic trends tell us that LGBT and women’s rights are won, and will remain won.)

That said, if U.S. citizens could learn to live and let live, when it comes to social issues; if we could all band together to fight economic oppression, instead of each other, the 99% in the U.S. just might have a fighting chance.  If you want to be a fundamentalist Christian, great be one; if you want to be liberal and possibly secular, that’s great too.  The problem occurs when either side, generally - and in recent decades the Christian right, attempts to legislate morality. 

Politicians and the U.S. power brokers eat this social stridency up… because it burns up the legislative clock, and keeps truly serious economic matters (like underfunded education, tax breaks for private equity and the wealthy, and free trade agreements that ship jobs off shore) off the proverbial front pages, and prevents them from being debated by the American public and the Congress. 

It’s classic!  Divide and conquer!  In football, they call it “misdirection.”  Buy into the political chicanery at your peril.  The good news, or the bad news, depending upon one’s perspective, is the core Republican base will have passed on, within the next twenty to thirty years.  At that time, the Democratic Party will have a political monopoly.  Probably not a good thing, but good or bad, the future – and the present - looks a lot like one party rule.



Of course, there is a far greater economic and political power, and a far greater form of democracy, that Americans can exert every day of their lives, than the biennial popular vote.  J.M.H. has argued that both political parties in this nation, outside the convenient social issues that divide and conquer us, really have metastasized into one political party.  A single political party, call it the plutocracy party, that caters and panders to the rich, the cartels, the monopolies, the professional class, and the private equity, Robber Barons.  A constant flood of money into both political parties, unleashed by a Citizens United SCOTUS' decision, insures that our democracy is owned by wealthy individuals and enterprises.

And where can ordinary Americans exert far greater influence over our democracy, than the popular vote?

Here’s a hint:  We do it every day when we vote with our dollars and wallets, not in the political arena, but in what remains of the free market. 

Collectively, Americans through their purchasing power, call it voting with dollars, can influence the behavior of corporations, cartels, monopolies, managment, boards of directors, and in turn, their respective campaign contributions.  If LGBT rights and civil rights (they’re actually one in the same) have taught Americans anything, it is that through boycotting products and services, corporate behavior can be changed; and in turn politicians owned by same businesses can be changed, when corporates cut off, or open up, the political campaign contribution spigot. 

Witness what is going on in Arizona right now, where Corporates are, allegedly, fighting extremist legislation against the gay community.

Don’t like the concentration of power in the proposed Comcast/Time Warner merger, and its impact and decisive control over internet content, or the predatory and monopolistic Comcast rates that are likely to ensue, and already exist…. replace Comcast in favor of Verizon Fios.  Find the social policy, and the treatment of Wall-Mart employees to be unacceptable, boycott Wall-Mart and shop at Target.  Find Koch Brothers politics to be retrograde, machiavellian, and counter to 21st century mores and values, than boycott Georgia-Pacific and Koch Industries products and services.

A vast data trove on business establishments that you shop at daily exists: complete with ownership information, and in the case of publicly traded companies, financial reports themselves.  That data trove is called Google, Yahoo, Bing and of course, the SEC web site.  Get educated on the businesses and establishments that you trade at.  If private equity owns and operates a business establishment, and one finds private equity’s behavior to be inimical to society’s interests (with a few enriched by a business strategy that bankrupts businesses, creates higher unemployment - via layoffs, globalization and outsourcing, which in turn erodes the tax base and creates greater welfare spending, in a never ending fugue, that will ultimately assist in bankrupting the Federal government), than don’t trade at a PE establishment. 

If the voters of the free market act in mass, the impact on corporate bottom lines, and private equity’s returns, could be enormous.

Social media has served to help organize boycotts in the past, and will provide a catalyst for the future. 

In Egypt, the army rules the country; and in America, business and corporations rule!  Have an issue or a problem, don’t complain to your local congress-person… complain and boycott against the businesses, who sponsor, support, and provide campaign contributions to the politician that supports ideas, policies, and legislation that are antithetical to your beliefs and values.  Go to the source.  Business is the true locus of power in America.

Tired of Big Pharma spending R&D dollars for new medicine on stock buy backs, mergers and acquisitions, and the constant drumbeat of drug shortages produced by same…. All at society’s expense? 

Make sure you purchase generic drugs, substitutes, and alternative medicine from Canada and Europe (that is, in markets where Big Pharma pricing is highly regulated).

If you have money, buy shares, buy lots of shares, and get seated on the board of directors, and influence management. 

But hurry!  With the U.S. government, Dems and the GOP, handing out grants of monopoly and cartel to wide swaths of the economy, Americans increasingly, have fewer and fewer options with which to play corporations off upon one another, in a classic economic and political, divide and conquer strategy.

P.S. Some will take this piece as being anti-corporate... far from it.  This piece is merely an acknowledgement that many corporates and monopolies now have the power of nation states, without any of the social responsibility.

 Copyright JM Hamilton Publishing 2014