The Party of Delusion

It's not as if Democrats don't delude themselves plenty, but delusion is not the central feature of that party and its principal policies as it is of the Republicans.  And as usual, Chaos has amped it up so far that he is pushing the entire world into crazy territory.

On Friday, the Bureau of Labor Statistics released new and revised figures that showed a weakening job market, harbinger of a weakening economy.  The downward revision of new hires was particularly steep. Chaos responded by firing the chief statistician, claiming political bias in the numbers.

I've seen several different analyses for the meaning of those numbers--a couple of the more credible suggest that the uncertainty brought about by the capricious on again/off again Chaos tariffs is discouraging employers from investing for the future.  (One story also suggested that the numbers had to be revised so sharply because the Bureau was shorthanded, thanks to the Chaotic cuts of 20% of its employees, so gathering the statistics in the first place was troubled.)

Analysts suggest other contributing factors to these weak numbers, such as immigration chaos affecting entire sectors, and the effects of withdrawn federal funds on employment in education. The only growth was seen in the health care sector, which seems unlikely to last, as hospitals and medical providers disappear thanks to major Medicaid cuts.

But the Chaotic response to these numbers by firing the chief statistician and casting doubt on the integrity of her permanent successor may prove most costly.  By firing a impartial professional for political reasons (or ego, which for Chaos amount to the same thing), the integrity of future numbers is now in doubt, and everyone sees this already--judging from the quoted comments of business executives and conservative politicians. Global capitalism depends to a large extent on a set of numbers that rightly or wrongly, corporations depend on in making their decisions.  Whatever their rhetorical support for anti-government politics, they also depend on basic stability, on confident consumers and stable costs that suppliers can depend on.  Especially now that the real or imagined tariffs are coming into effect, Chaos is coming to the world economy.

(Business also, by the way, depends on the rule of law to keep a level playing field, as well as government support for common services, like highways.  Not that some capitalists can't exist in a lawless world of corruption and force, but maybe not in an economy like the one we depend on now.)

Chaos has governed by means of lies and intimidation, but also with heavy emphasis on delusion.  Things are what he and his minions say they are, and whether he really believes what he says or not, those who accept his words are accepting delusion.  What he says about South Park or even Jeffrey Epstein may not matter much, but when he cast doubt on the reality represented by honest (if flawed) numbers, it's a different disorder of things. 

But the Republican Party has been trading on delusions for decades.  In the 48 years between 1932 and 1980, Republicans held the White House for all of 16 years.  FDR was first elected in 1932 and saved the country and the western world, twice.  He did so by effectively confronting the Great Depression, and then the fascist threat in World War II.  His policies were embattled but popular, because they worked.  He simultaneously created jobs that supported families in real time, and by creating that employment through building to meet current and anticipated need and opportunity, he built the infrastructure for a larger, modern future. 

In some ways, Republican President Eisenhower continued that work, for example with the Federal Highway program.  Even President Nixon, while expanding a ruinous war, did not substantially undermine the role of the federal government in the FDR consensus domestically.

But in 1980, Ronald Reagan won the White House on the basis of a few feel- good delusions, like government was evil and cutting taxes for the wealthy would still result in higher revenues to finance the remaining government functions .  After eight years of those tax cuts plus privatization and cuts to services for the poor and middle class, the federal budget deficit ballooned.  

So the economy George Bush the First inherited was weakened and eventually resulted in recession. Despite the demonstrable fact that cutting taxes for the rich did not increase tax revenue but helped cause big deficits and economic downturns, every Republican since Reagan insisted it would work. With the election of Bill Clinton in 1992, a pattern emerged so simple that it calls into question the cognitive abilities of the voting public.  After Republican administrations increased deficits and debt and trashed the economy, a Democrat would be elected and would spend 8 years or (in Biden's case) 4 years fixing the mess he inherited. And then voters would fall for it again and elect a Republican. (Although in the case of George Bush II in 2000, there needs to be an asterisk called the Supreme Court.)

Meanwhile all those tax cuts did was fuel a disreputable trend: from 1981 to 2021, over fifty trillion dollars moved from the bottom 90% of the American public to the top 1%.

Now Chaos has taken this to a new level with the latest tax giveaway to the 1%, accompanied by deeper cuts to programs supporting not only the 90% but the entire American economy.  As well as the slash and burn to the foundations of the federal government, the rule of law.  

What's next?  Well, democracy. Another delusion that has a long Republican history is that Democrats are cheating at the ballot box (as Heather Cox Richardson recently pointed out.)  There has been zero evidence that any but a few individuals have cheated--and often enough they were Republicans, including officeholders-- but that hasn't deterred the selling of this delusion either.  And the selling of that delusion is about to get worse, as will the actions to control those elections.  It's going to be a major focus for Chaos as the 2026 congressional elections get closer.

Chaos brings sinister new delusions to this process, but in fact Republicans have been very focused for years on obtaining and institutionalizing electoral supremacy, regardless of the popular will. They've been working at it especially at the state level, controlling the gerrymandering of congressional districts to increase their advantage.  That also continues again, with threats of mid-decade redistricting.

And part of the intended effect of the whole anti-D.E.I. campaign (aimed especially at blacks) and the terrorizing of brown people by ICE is political: to discourage and actually get rid of minorities that traditionally vote Democratic.  It's also a factor behind getting rid of the Education Department and firing a huge proportion of federal government workers .  Fewer jobs in education and in government means fewer members of the big teachers' unions and government workers unions that usually support Democrats, both with money for campaigns and with actual votes.  It worked very well in the Reagan era--when deindustrialization plus active anti-union policies greatly diminished the labor unions that had supported Democrats since FDR.

Delusions are at the heart of Republican policy--and that's even before we get to policies on the environment, energy and the Climate Crisis.  But in Chaos they've created a monster that might be going way too far--like the vacuum-cleaner monster in The Yellow Submarine that vacuumed up the entire world and then itself.  The novelty of the moment is that it's the capitalist business sector that normally supports Republicans now fearing chaos, and Chaos.

Chaos is the king of delusion--living and breathing it relentlessly every moment of every day. His enthusiastic support for cryptocurrency and especially AI is perfectly understandable because the first is the delusion of money and the second could well become the greatest and most pervasive purveyor of delusion the world has ever seen.  When an increasing proportion of what's on the Internet is phony and delusional, what else is AI going to organize, express and provide?    

Postscript: My use of the word delusion is of course a charitable one.  It may well be grievous deception in many if not most cases.  An additional key to what it is about is the assertion that the American economy is now dependent to large degree on the excesses of spending by the very rich.

A Tale of Two Pirates

 Today four players were inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame, including Ichiro Suzuki (who I saw play late in his career in San Francisco) and Dave Parker, a name perhaps only diehard fans, or diehard Pittsburgh Pirates fans remember.  But I sure do.  He once personally threatened to beat me up.

Dave Parker died on June 28, less than a month before he would belatedly be inducted.  He was a key player on the Pirates 1979 World Championship team that won the World Series between two Pittsburgh Steelers Super Bowl championships, inaugurating Pittsburgh as the City of Champions.  

His accomplishments are major: National League Most Valuable Player, two batting championships, seven All Star appearances, including (if I remember correctly) an All Star MVP. He was a complete player: he hit for power as well as average, he fielded well and especially had a rocket arm, something he shared with the right fielder for the Pirates he succeeded, Roberto Clemente.

But he was not altogether a popular player in Pittsburgh.  Pittsburgh has had complicated relationships with its black athletes over the years.  It seemed that for every hero they loved, there was a villain they irrationally hated.  The beloved hero in those days was Willie Stargell.  Not only was he a superstar but he was a warm, magnetic personality, with a big smile and a generous reputation.  He was loveable, especially in these mature years..  

Dave Parker was not so easily loveable.  He was younger and brash, always with something to say. He got called arrogant and ungrateful.  He was the first million dollar a year player in sports and some fans resented him for it. 

In 1980, on Willie Stargell Day, during the eighth inning of the first game of a doubleheader at Three Rivers Stadium, someone in the stands threw a 9 volt battery at him as he stood in right field, almost hitting his head. He took himself out of the game.

 I was there that day, on assignment to the New York Times Magazine for a story on the relationship of Pittsburgh's championship teams to the city, otherwise reeling from the collapse of its steel industry.  I saw him in the locker room afterwards, a sad and sobered man.

Earlier--maybe that day, maybe an earlier game--I was in the locker room before the game.  It was a notoriously raucous scene, loud and a little crazy.  Someone smashed one of the wooden stools they each had in front of their lockers, and someone else picked up the big round seat of it and threw it across the room like a discus or a frisbee.

I was trying to interview players.  I think I only succeeded getting a quiet Bill Robinson to talk to me. Dave Parker was among the loud and rambunctious.  He told me that he was hated, that tires on his Mercedes were slashed and similar acts, but warned me not to print this or "I'll come after you, Big Bill."  The last had a mocking tone--he was clearly much bigger than me.  

But I do recall it was after that double header when in a much softer voice he apologized.  I hadn't taken him seriously, I thought it was funny.  There was something about him--he was exuberant, not a bully--that communicated itself to me. 

About five years later he testified against a local drug dealer, admitting that he had been a cocaine user, and the conduit for coke in the Pirates locker room.  Somehow that wasn't a surprise.  The difference of his affect before the game and after it told the story.  

I still think of him as one of the most dynamic players I'd ever seen, certainly up close.  But when he left Pittsburgh as soon as his contract was up also wasn't surprising.  He never got his due there.

Another vintage Pittsburgh Pirates star I saw play a number of times was also in the news this summer. For some reason, this year everybody wrote about Bobby Bonilla Day.

That same dynamic, of the beloved black star and the reviled black star on the Pirates, was repeated when Bobby Bonilla and Barry Bonds patrolled the outfield on a 90s team that was always in the playoffs but never quite made it to the Series.  This time it was the glowering Bonds who was the villain, and the sunny, smiling Bonilla the hero.

Just as a fan in the stands, watching Barry Bonds hit was amazing.  I recall a game when I was in the upper deck looking down at the diamond, watching him spray six scorching hits to all fields.  But on a lucky day I got a special thrill watching Bobby Bonilla hit, entirely because of where I was sitting.

I was living and working in the city of Pittsburgh then, and on impulse I walked over to the ball park one sunny afternoon.  Since I got there after the game started, a scalper outside was desperate to sell his ticket, so I got a very good seat for a pretty good price.  I recall barely sitting down just a couple of rows behind home plate when Bonilla came up.  A switch-hitter, he was batting left handed which, when I played as a kid, was my side of the plate.  A pitch came screaming in at his head, and he dived and fell in a cloud of dust.  But the next pitch he hit a line drive home run.  I was so close when he swung and connected, and I could follow the ball more or less from his point of view, all the way to the right field stands: it was the closest I could ever come to feeling what it was like to hit a big league homer.

Bonilla was in the news because July 1 is now famously called Bobby Bonilla Day.  Years ago when he signed a contract with the New York Mets and they mutually agreed to part company, they made an unprecedented bargain.

  Bonilla was owed nearly $6 million.  But he made a deal--he would take exactly nothing.  Nothing at all, for ten years.  But after that, he would be paid annually based on the accrued value of what they owed him, which eventually came to a total of over $1 million a year, every year until 2035.  So every July 1, he gets this annuity.  In New York it became known--ironically if not cynically-- as Bobby Bonilla Day.  By now however it's become something else, a little more joyful.

Deferred payment has since become a thing for sports contracts and contracts in other fields. Today's biggest star, Ohtani, has a deferred contract with the Dodgers--he gets a measly 1 or 2 million a year, but many years from now, that balloons to something like $50 million a year. It makes sense for him--he can get all the endorsement money and other fringe benefits from his current fame, but after his playing days, he's got an assured very decent retirement income, even if grocery prices continue to go up at their present pace.

Bonilla, who was a great hitter for the Pirates and even later, is proud of that contract, not only for what it means for his family, but for the example it set and suggests beyond baseball--about the benefits of a guaranteed income, and security later in life.