America has been undergoing a king-of-the-hill battle between two changes. And it is neither the best of times nor the worst of times for either change: Change-1 and Change-2. However, under CEO Trump, Change-1 is on the road to the best of times while Change-2 is swiftly diving toward the worst of times.
Before describing Change-1 and Change-2, we need to discuss the above label for Trump. While the nation has experienced the 'No-Kings' protests, it seems that, overall, Trump is acting more like a CEO than a wannabe King. He sees our nation as a business that seeks to maximize its profits and assets. And therefore most, if not all, of his policies, both foreign and domestic, are transactional for either the nation or himself. That makes him a value-less leader--which is something that my fellow believers in Christ should take note of. And so his attempts to silence wokeism, CRT, the Left, and so forth are done purely out of profit seeking motive. He knows that silencing the beliefs opposed by a religiously conservative Christian dominated, social conservative sector secures a strong political base for maintaining political power.
Now for Change-1. Change-1 is a reactionary response to Change-2 which partially includes and then goes beyond a return to any past time in America's history. Certainly Change-1 wants to combine a return to the glory days of the 1950s and before with, what Marx would call, a 'bourgeoisie dictatorship. That could be an oligarchy in today's terms. And when it comes to choosing between that dictatorship and Change-2, most of my fellow religiously conservative Christians support the former rather than the latter because we religiously conservative Christians have a strong penchant for authoritarianism.
On a societal level, Change-1 wants a social hierarchy that privileges religiously conservative Christianity above all other religions and ethnic groups. The goal of Change-1 is to base many, if not all, of our laws on Christian beliefs. Of course, that is the polite way to describe it. In reality, Change-1 wants religiously conservative Christianity to be able to impose many of its personal moral values on the general public through legislation. That is the goal of Christian Hubris. It does so because many who support Change-1 believe that a non-Christian society poses a moral threat to the Church and especially to the chidren of "good" Christians. BTW, I use the term Christian Hubris as a label for both Christian Nationalists and those religiously conservative Christians who, in principle, oppose the idea of Christian Nationalism while seeking to accomplish the same task of imposing their religious values on society.
We should note that Christian Hubris is not monolithic. It includes those who want theonomy, those who advocate an updated version of Christendom, and those who simply want a Christian paternalism. The difference between those groups lies in the degree of control that Christianity would exercise over society with those who support theonomy as wanting the greatest control and those who vie for Christian Paternalism as wanting the least control.
Though such Christians would like to think that they are in the driver's seat in advancing Change-1, they are mistaken. The current, and shadow, driver for Change-1 is a corrupt oligarchy. We should note that a corrupt oligarchy is the logical consequence of Neoliberal Capitalism. And Neoliberal Capitalism is not the form of Capitalism that my fellow baby-boomers and I, and at least some aging Gen-Xers, grew up under. Neoliberal Capitalism, as pointed out by a past article (click here for the article), is epitomized in the Genesis story of Cain who after killing his brother Abel, tried to rhetorically ask God if he was his brother's keeper. Neoliberal Capitalism promotes Social Darwinism. And that means that everyone is solely responsible for their own perdicament regardless of their starting point. And so Neoliberal Capitalism promotes the idea that none of us, especially wealthy elites, are our brother's keeper. Being our brother's keeper would only infringe on the profits that businesses could make. It is as Marx described the Capitalism of his day when he said the following (click here for the reference):
'The bourgeoisie, wherever it has got the upper hand, has put an end to all feudal, patriarchal, idyllic relations. It has pitilessly torn asunder the motley feudal ties that bound man to his “natural superiors”, and has left remaining no other nexus between man and man than naked selfinterest, than callous “cash payment”. It has drowned the most heavenly ecstasies of religious fervour, of chivalrous enthusiasm, of philistine sentimentalism, in the icy water of egotistical calculation.'
One doesn't have to agree with Marx's analysis of the capitalism of his day or his proposed solutions to the oppression of the bourgeoisie to see how the above quote applies to our current form of capitalism under Trump. From the beginning of his current term, any policy or law that offered help to the vulnerable which did not result in a net profit for the government was targeted for either immediate or future cuts and/or eventual elimination. His tariff policies sought to put our trade relationships with every nation, but Russia, on a profit making venture. His government has been pursuing policies that increased the profits of business elites, such as big oil, regardless of the costs forced on consumers. And because of what Trump wants to spend on the military, the government, under his control, has been slashing federal funding of social safety net programs like Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, and food assistance programs. Cuts in regulations and taxes also favored wealthy elites who were also beneficiaries of his last rounds of cuts and taxes.
And perhaps we should look at the mindset that Neoliberal Capitalism promotes when examining why members of Congress pass laws that allow them to particularly benefit from their day jobs.
We could also consider that inflation under Trump might have been caused on purpose in order to dissuade lawmakers from increasing taxes that would fund the reversing of his attacks on institutions. We should note that inflation under Biden was not caused by Biden's policies and by the end of his Presidential term was made comparable to infaltion under Trump during his first term in his second presidency. It is funny how commercials for Republican candidates only focus on Biden's first two years while talking about inflation and ignore inflation under Biden's third and fourth years of his presidency. Unlike the inflation under Biden, the inflation under Trump is due solely to his policies.
But what does our nation's economic direction have to do with the battle between Change-1 and Change-2? It is simple. While the former Change, under the Republican Party, is a co-enabler with Neoliberal Capitalism, the other, under the Democratic Party, simply coexists with it.
And so while Change-1 seeks to create a hierarchical society with religiously conservative Christian having the highest position, Neoliberal Capitalism seeks to establish a wealthy elite hierarchy who alone will determine the economic policies of our nation. And so the tie between them is that both favor hierarchy in their respective spheres. Hierarchy is more appealing than equality to those religiously conservative Christians because of their penchant for authoritarianism.
Change-2 seeks to promote equality by bringing more groups out of the margins of society. This bringing groups out of the woodwork really started in the 1950s with the Civil Rights Movement. And though there were movements before Change-2, such as the Suffragettes, it is Change-2 that has the goal of obtaining equality for marginalized citizens. And since Change-2 favors equality, it seems that it can only coexist with Neoliberal Capitalism. However, it seems that the Democratic Party leadership use Change-2 to camouflage their preference for Neoliberal Capitalism.
What most energized Change-1 was the Obergefell decision. That is because with that decision, and help from DEI programs, the LGBT community came, what politically conservaative Christians saw as being, too dangerously close to full equality for that community in society. And for too many of my fellow religiously conservative Christians, allowing those from the LGBT community to move into a neighborhood where equality reigns, especially in terms of marriage, was seen as bringing down the value of that neighborhood's properties--properties such as marriage. For too many of my fellow religiously conservative Christians, they were longing for the good old days when. because of the past marginalization of the LGBT community, they could make invisible those in the LGBT community and thus pretend that the LGBT community did not exist.
And so Change-2 represents the full inclusion of all racial and religious groups, women, the LGBT community and many immigrants into society as equals.
We should note that neither Change-1 nor Change-2 have been pure and innocent in terms of how they wanted people to be treated nor were neither group without valid concern
The benefit that the above partnership of Change-1 and Neoliberal Capitalism is that it gives its ideology a solid political base of support by garnering political support from a good percentage of votes from religiously conservative Christians. Religiously conservative Christians benefit from a smaller government favored by Neoliberal Capitalism. That smaller government both weakens the part of government that infringe. on the goals of those Christians while strengthening the intrusiveness of the Executive branch of government in ways that futher the goals of those Christians. Of course that partnership cannot last. For at some time the personal moral failures of wealthy elites will become visible to those promoting Change-1 favored values. But that won't occur until our democracy is long gone.
And so where does that leave us. As a religiously cnservative Christian, I strongly favor the kind of society that Change-2 promotes. Therefore, despite my pro-life beliefs, I have supported Change-2 with my votes for Democratic Party Candidates. However Neoliberalism leaves us with a mixed marriage of a more less egalitarian society in cultural terms with an economy based on hierarchy. The trouble with that is that it allows Neoliberal Capitalism to foster economic injustices on the nation as wealth becomes more and more paired with political power.
And so must vote for candidates that favor Change-2, which means that we must vote for Democratic Party candidates. And while we fervently strive to gain a current political victory for Change-2, we must realize that our work is far from over should we succeed. For once we secure and maintain that first victory, we must work to undo Neoliberal Capitalism whether that involves a return to the Bretton-Woods System or install some kind of hybrid between Socialism and Capitalism. Perhaps the elimination of Neoliheral Capitalism can at least partially quell the previously mentioned king-of-the-hill battle between Change-1 and Change-2.
We need to fight against hierarchy in society and strive for equality in our nation's economy. However, equality in our nation's economy must be carefully defined. It does not mean that everyone is earning the same income. Instead, equality in our nation's economy requires that the concerns of those from each economic class must receve equal attention and concern so that all groups rise or sink together. It means that, regardless of one's economic class, one must work for the well-being of those in other economic classes and not just for their own welfare. For in doing so, we might provide and example for pursuing and maintaining equality in society.
