Apocalypse Now

Now that I have so arrogantly dissed both major party candidates for their economic plans, I should probably connect up the threads between their plans and the vision I laid out in my own long series (not that anyone has read them or cares what I think.)

We are living in an age where a global economy has supplanted the national economies that were previously paramount.

The problem is that our political leaders still act as if they (and we) have the power to improve our own economic circumstances independently from global forces.

We don't.

In this one sense, I do not care who wins the Presidency. Neither candidate has impressed me with an economic policy proposal that is credible. They both are pandering to their bases, which are filled with scared folks stuck in a vision of life that will never return, a past that will not be replicated ever again -- not only here, in the land of greed and excess, but anywhere on earth.

Think we are suffering? Check ot what is happening in China. We are all now inextricably intertwined. What happens to the least of us impacts the most privileged among us.

Even though we have witnessed the greatest transfer of wealth upwards in history here in America, that is but a temporary state. What do you and I, stuck in the wreckage of what once was known as the "middle class," have in common with these super-rich people.

Nothing.

McCain actually spoke one salient truth in the third debate, when he discussed "class warfare." His error was identifying that outcome with his opponent, who probably represents instead the last, best hope for the rich to preserve their position, by tamping down the populist anger that is sweeping this nation now with an unprecedented momentum.

Unless Obama can establish plans that give new hope to middle class families that their dreams are viable, we are at a juncture in history where the super-rich are going to have to find the equivalent of the impregnable castles of the Middle Ages in order to survive -- and then, only temporarily.

Because walls never hold back history.

A backlash is building in this, and many other countries, that will make the riots of the 1960s look like child's play. When millions of people no longer have anything to lose, their collective fury will destroy anything that stands in their way.

Sadly, that will include much of what makes this country special...