“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of light, it was the season of darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair.”
― Charles Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities

The Big Picture – 
By Glynn Wilson – 

WASHINGTON, D.C. – If this is not a new gilded age I’ll sell the Roadtrek camper van and float down the Mississippi River on a Huck Finn raft.

Charles Dickens described the mid-19th century scene in London and Paris before Mark Twain got around to it after the American Civil War, borrowing from Shakespeare of course.

“To gild refined gold, to paint the lily … is wasteful and ridiculous excess,” or so said Shakespeare’s King John (1595).

They say history repeats itself. But this is ridiculous.

These are the best of times for the rich, the worst of times for the poor, and democracy and the planet are in serious jeopardy.

“These are dark times for democracy,” according to an email blast from Wednesday’s Washington Post, owned by Jeff Bezos, the richest man in the world, and sponsored by Goldman Sachs, which knows far more about capitalism than democracy.

Here’s a hint: They are not one and the same thing.

“Seventy-three countries witnessed an erosion of freedom in 2020, the highest in 15 years,” The Post reports. “In 2021, tyranny triumphed as besieged activists from Myanmar to Sudan faced jail time, exile, torture and death. Chinese jets, meanwhile, are buzzing Taiwan while Russian troops knock on Ukraine’s door. The bad guys, some argue, are winning.”

Since 2015, the total number of democracies has shrunk from 104 to 98, according to the authoritative International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance (IDEA).

Freedom House’s latest assessment of democracy worldwide documented 15 years of decline.

“As a lethal pandemic, economic and physical insecurity, and violent conflict ravaged the world, democracy’s defenders sustained heavy new losses in their struggle against authoritarian foes, shifting the international balance in favor of tyranny,” the organization says.

The White House calls the trend a “global democratic recession.”

But let an American president try to do something about it by holding a “Summit for Democracy,” and they declare, critics as they are: “… the summit is in danger of being dead on arrival.”

“In this maelstrom, President Biden’s Summit for Democracy — a virtual, two-day event kicking off Thursday with about 110 participating countries — would seem the salve the free world needs: An act of renewal by a leader who positioned himself as the savior of America’s own surprisingly fragile democracy.

“Biden — who has portrayed democracies as locked in a global contest against ascendant autocrats — will fulfill a campaign pledge by presiding over an international gathering meant to defend against authoritarianism, fight corruption and amplify respect for human rights.”

Instead he faces a maelstrom of media criticism for who is being included and excluded, so there goes hope for democracy and the neighborhood.

No amount of press criticism could even so much as sully Trump’s Italian shoes, since all he had to say was, “fake news” … “hoax” … “witch hunt.”

But what’s left of the press in this country will beat Joe Biden to a bloody pulp, because, well, Democrats actually care what the press reports, or at least what the talking heads on TeeVee say they report.

Meanwhile, the media news is full of stories about how President Donald Trump tested positive for the coronavirus and knew it prior to the first presidential debate in 2020, a fact revealed in a new book out by former White House Chief of Staff and North Carolina Congressman Mark Meadows. He first agreed to cooperate and testify before the House Select Committee investigating the Jan. 6 insurrection. Then he turned a predictable about face and refused, once again falling back on dubious claims of executive privilege.

No real political punishment will befall him, however, since Trump and his loyal following will stand by him. The entire Republican Party apparatus in Washington will see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil. Trump can’t even post on Twitter anymore, and they are still afraid of him.

Oh for a time when a clearly corrupt, lying, bullying politician would be tarred and feathered and run out of this town on a rail.

In other disconcerting news, it’s been reported that Trump is expected to make a profit of $100 million from the sale of his hotel in Washington, D.C. near the White House, even though the books show it lost millions. Everybody knows he was using it as the headquarters for any and every anybody who wanted to bend his ear about whatever corrupt project — while he was president of the United States and commander-in-chief of the U.S. armed forces.

Running the Republican National Convention from the White House didn’t even phase his followers – or so-called establishment Republicans in Washington.

Unfortunately, none of this matters to those who still see Trump as some kind of gold-plated blonde god-like savior of the white, Christian working man. Out the gilded window go the Christian values of honesty and humility.

And no matter how much Joe Biden breaks with the American ideal of separation of church and state himself — and no matter how white and Christian he is — he can do no right in their eyes, why, because he’s a stinking Democrat.

Never mind the Democrats might actually be interested in helping them in their economic plight. Trump could care less. He called them losers and suckers and they still support him.

The gap between rich and poor in America has never been greater, eating away at the threads of hope for democratic opportunity for all.

The U.S. Census Bureau says 34 million Americans are considered impoverished – 10.5 percent of the country’s population.

The Census Bureau’s conservative numbers were compiled before the COVID pandemic sent the economy into a tailspin, however. Columbia University’s Center on Poverty and Social Policy estimated how the supplemental poverty rate changed on a monthly basis, showing the pre-covid poverty rate at 15 percent. The numbers show the rate peaked at 17.3 percent in August of 2020, only falling to 16 percent two months later.

It would have been much worse without, they say, extraordinary government intervention in the form of federal stimulus checks, payments and increased unemployment benefits.

But of course the wealthy top one percent of Americans are doing better than ever, a gilded bunch if there ever was one.

What if the Trump insurrectionists had gone after them, instead of siding with them? We may have had a new French Revolution on our hands.

The Pew Research Center’s Trends in income and wealth inequality show the growth in income in recent decades has tilted to upper-income households. The share going to middle- and lower-income households is falling. At the same time, the U.S. middle class, which once comprised the clear majority of Americans, is shrinking — from 61 percent in 1971 to 51 percent in 2019.

Among higher-income families, the growth in income has favored those at the very top. Since 1980, incomes have increased faster for the most affluent families – those in the top 5 percent – than for families in the income strata below them. The top 5 percent of families saw their income increase at the rate of 3.2 percent annually from 1981 onward, about the time the Republican Party found a way to flip the South into their camp.

The wealth gap between upper-income and lower- and middle-income families has grown wider in the 21st century. It shows no signs of letting up.

Upper-income families were the only income tier able to build on their wealth from 2001 to 2016. They added an average of 33 percent.

Meanwhile, middle-income families saw their median net worth shrink by 20 percent. Lower-income families experienced a loss of 45 percent.

Upper-income families had 7.4 times as much wealth as middle-income families and 75 times more than lower-income families.

And that was just the first year of the Trump presidency in 2016.

It’s even worse now after the global pandemic and economic fallout, and getting worse.

“The richest families in the U.S. have experienced greater gains in wealth than other families in recent decades, a trend that reinforces the growing concentration of financial resources at the top,” Pew concludes.

So while democracy is on the verge of dying around the world, capitalism is alive and well and thriving, but only for those at the very top.

You would think the American people might be mad about that.

Many Democrats just seem happy with one of their own in the White House, and a slim majority in Congress, as long as they can pay for cable TV. Polls show they are not nearly as engaged about politics as the Republicans.

The average Republican voter, instead of being mad at the very rich, apparently think they are one of them, as long as they are the same color on TeeVee.

As long as the lily is painted in high definition digital color, preferably Trump gilded gold.

It may sound strange, but the best chance democracy may have could rest in the hands of the Supreme Court. If the conservative majority actually goes so far as to overturn Roe v. Wade, women will flock to the polls in record numbers and the Republicans may never win another election.

I know it’s the season for peace and light.

But early next year, the democrats better get mad. They showed they can put aside their petty differences and work together altruistically in 2020. Will we see that again in 2022 and 2024?

Related: The Last Thing We Need is Another Day Which Will Live in Infamy

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