The Secular Religion of Neoliberalism

The origins of the term Neoliberalism goes back to the late 19th century. The term refers to economic systems with little government intervention, minimal taxation, and maximization of competition. The term became popular in the United States in the 1940s. Later on, the economist Milton Friedman, a Neoliberal zealot, tried to put those beliefs into action in South America to disastrous results. As words often do, Neoliberal has morphed into a different meaning. It’s often used to describe the “new Liberals” of the Democratic party. There are many who still refer to the original meaning, but the focus here is on the new meaning.

What exactly is the New Liberalism? At the surface, it is thought to be about equality, but that is not an accurate descriptor. At its nucleus it is an allegiance to the US Security State, the intelligence agencies, Wall Street and the censorship complex. Neoliberals, like Republicans, take massive donations from and are run almost exclusively by the richest people in the country. Republicans don’t try to hide this, but Neoliberals do. Neoliberals will protect themselves by leveraging dishonest bigotry accusations, censoring or destroying the lives of anyone who tries to report their real actions.

That the Democrats irrevocably turned to the right during the Clinton years is not news at this point. Many have watched the Democrats’ turn their backs on unions while taking corporate and Wall Street money. Clinton promised to “end welfare as we know it” and he delivered on that promise. His welfare reform ended up canceling the Aid to Dependent Families program and kicking about 60% of the United States welfare’ recipients to the curb. Clinton also signed NAFTA into law which was vicious policy that sent many jobs overseas.

Let’s not forget the recall of the Glass-Steagall act. This act, passed after the Great Depression, was put in place to keep banks from engaging in risky types of investments. The act had been watered down over time and was repealed in 1999, with Bill Clinton’s blessing. This deregulation led to the 2008 economic meltdown, as it opened the doors for banks to engage in high-risk financial products. As Nobel Laureate Joseph Stiglitz stated:

It’s not generally realized how much more concentrated our banking system has become in the last ten years, after we repealed the important law called the Glass-Steagall Act, which separated investment banks from commercial banks. Investments banks are designed to manage rich people’s money, and commercial banks are the payment mechanism of our economy. Commercial banks should be conservative, since they are taking and managing ordinary people’s money,

Neoliberalism continued and worsened under Obama. Despite his promises to “take down the fat cats of Wall Street” and end the forever wars, Obama hired the crew most responsible for the economic meltdown, including Tim Geithner (as head of the treasury) and Robert Rubin. The logic at the time was that they created the mess, they would know how to fix it. Using that logic, we should have hired Osama Bin Laden as the head of the DHS. Noam Chomsky once quipped that the lineup hired by Obama “should be getting subpoenas, not cabinet positions”.

Perhaps the most damning of Obama’s policies was his vast increase of the drone strike program that began under George W. Bush. The drone strikes ended up killing many innocent civilians. His program also intentionally killed at least one American citizen living abroad. There was no presumption of innocence or due process, only murder based on suspicion only.

Obama seemed to find drone strikes amusing as he joked to the Jonas Brothers sitting in the audience at a dinner:

“Sasha and Malia are huge fans, but boys, don't get any ideas. Two words for you: predator drones. You will never see it coming."

Obama, further breaking his promise to end the wars, bombed eight countries in his eight years in office. Our continued involvement in most of these countries remains a quagmire for the nation.

Perhaps the most frightening of all Obama’s polices was the expansion of the NSA’s surveillance program. Obama authorized a program to tap and record all cellphone data from a multitude of countries, including the United States. The program was not only a constitutional violation, but it put us into shocking new territory. The NSA was meant to surveil foreign entities and wasn’t meant to be turned loose on the American public. It’s a dangerous line to cross, one that sets precedent that will undoubtedly have unfathomable consequences.

One would think members of the Democratic party would stand up against all this, the way they did in the 1960s as they spoke up for civil rights and in opposition of the Vietnam war. Not this time. If anything, Edward Snowden instantly became the enemy for his brave and selfless work of exposing these programs. Whether the surveillance he exposed posed a danger to the public was lost in the shuffle as the anger was turned on the messenger. The anger appeared to be focused more about Obama looking bad than the actual violation of our civil rights.

Many Democrats continued to support their party despite significant evidence that conflicted with their belief systems. Their views on issues simply changed to fit the New Liberal model. The wars that they once protested against were now crucial to American survival, bailouts for Wall Street and large corporations that loyalists found repulsive under Bush, were now viewed as critical. Many have been relieved by the “safety” of social media censorship that was to come.

2016 marked the year when intense political sentiment evolved into religious fervor. Trump was running against Hillary Clinton. Clinton was often thought of to “deserve” the presidency after her many years of service. It was often stated that her political career ending without the presidency would seem a failure. Personally, I don’t think people should become president of the United States for therapeutic reasons.

Though Hillary Clinton was treated as the Anointed One by Democrats, they held a fantasy version of who she is. Many of the severest of Neocons, including Bill Kristol and Victoria Nuland suddenly became interested in the Democratic party. Cash flew into the Clinton Money Machine from Wall Street and other large corporations. Clinton’s Middle East policies during the Obama years raised Neocon excitement to the highest levels since the George W. Bush era.

Hillarys’ loss was devasting to her supporters. With an inability to cope with her loss, Hillary supporters gladly took solace when she pointed the finger of blame on others. She blamed the “deplorables” for voting for Trump and Bernie Sanders for “not dropping out of the primary in time”. The idea that Bernie Sanders had to drop out at all proves the point that many believed that Hillary should be coronated, not necessarily democratically elected.

Within a few days of the election Putin and Trump, the twin Satans of the Neoliberal religion, were accused of “colluding” to fix the election in favor of Trump. Democrats pivoted from the “The Anointed One” to “The Savior” in Robert Mueller who was going to send Trump away to jail for decades to come. The Russiagate narrative was taken to the level devoutness of cargo cult religions waiting for their heroes to return. Mueller prayer candles abounded. Even after Russiagate was debunked by Mueller people continued to believe it to be true. The Senate Committee, Bob Woodward, Columbia Journalism, the Durham report and the Twitter files, continued to pound away at the narrative and expose it for what it was. Yet the convenient Russia narrative continues. It is now a common occurrence that news that contradicts Neoliberal ideologies is labeled as "Russian disinformation" and the individual who disseminated it to be branded as a "Russian agent". These accusations are made without any evidence and are expected to be believed at face value.

Great irony occurred after Mueller’s poor showing at his congressional testimony. Mueller embarrassed those who still were clinging to dear life still hoping for the Russiagate narrative to be proven true. He didn’t have answers to many of the questions asked of him and looked as if all he wanted was to go home. Once Mueller failed this test, his status was gone. He fell from savior status to a past his prime old man who shouldn’t have been investigating in the first place. If anyone burned Mueller candles after that it was in effigy.

There are many factors that have led to this orthodoxy. The “#demexit” movement after the 2016 election was certainly a factor. Many saw Hillary’s measures to sandbag Bernie Sanders as a repulsive move. For some, it was the tipping point to leave a party that long ago left them. Additionally, both parties now have about 24% each of support around from the country. Both are left with loyalists who refuse to look beyond the mainstream media. Perhaps Neoliberals do know how much the party has changed but quiet themselves by seeking validation and consolation from cable news stations like MSNBC and CNN.

Biden was elected with Democrats counting on him to “save Democracy”. The motto of “he’s better than Trump” has blinded supporters to his actions. Privatizing Medicare, drilling for oil, picking a fight with a nuclear armed country, presiding over a genocide in Gaza (and acting helpless to stop it), arming Nazi’s in the Ukraine, arming Israel without congressional approval and the creation of a Censorship Complex have not made a dent in their beliefs. Once again these were promises broken by a politician with obligations to the donor class and the security state. How many times can you fall for the same set of lies? for those who want to believe, the answer seems to be forever.

Editorial correction: In the last newsletter “The US has lost the Ukrainian war in every conceivable way”, there was an error. I referred to Serbia as a NATO state when I meant to say Croatia. Mea Culpa.

The Robert Mueller Candle