Where Fault Lies

(Where Fault Lies)

As one might recall, there was a Magnitude 4.8 earthquake that struck the New York and New Jersey regions the other morning. Several aftershocks of various strengths were also recorded. Now, while such New York quakes are rare, there is still a fault system that can trigger a ground movement.


Julius Caesar once said that "the fault is not in our stars but in ourselves." Where then is the "fault" in ourselves ? Is it the crass fundraising from both President contenders and the unique segments of celebrity. For President Biden, it had been former Presidents Clinton and Obama at Radio City that cleared some $25 million. And for his part, Donald Trump is having his own Palm Beach fundraising and he thinks he can raise over $40 million with his own billionaire donors.


American politics is being reduced to who can get the biggest bank roll. And as it happens, those financiers can be the most ideologically extreme. For example. New Egland is closing its last coal fired power plants in the near term to make way for a greener wind and solar capacity. Such a policy change is welcomed by the wealthy greens. For everybody else ? For those that live up there ? Electricity bills will be made more expensive because of some utopian vision of a few, who have the means to see it carried out.


Are Republican donors as pernicious as Democrats ? A wealthy Democrat is all but a contradiction in terms. The accumulation of assets is supposed to be anathema. If there is a greater good, however, then monies can be accumulated for a purpose of beating Trump. Republicans are not embarrassed to be rich. What has been the issue so far has been a reluctance to support the former President openly, preferring instead the more establishment GOP types, less volatile than Trump.


Perhaps it was inevitable that campaigns have gotten so expensive with TV advertising, direct mail, employing staff and so on. In the end, it is generally the one that has the most cash that can make a more involved pitch to the public. And if not ? Then that would be somebody else's fault.

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