Don't Hate the Player, Hate the Game
Where Golden Political Calves Get Slaughtered
- By The Notorious CFP®
The Political Backdrop
Investors are human beings, and modern humans are quite "malleable."
For instance, plenty of people were led to believe for many years that President Trump was the source of their problems. Now I am hardly a fan of the former President and did not vote for him, but it's become quite clear that this mental dysfunction was an early indicator of the mass formation psychosis that we referred to in a previous post.
While many people have become so politically jaded that they simply lack the intellectual capacity to see beyond their flawed narrative and/or continue to view their political ideology as their primary "religion," it's been my perception that a some are finally starting to realize the level to which they have been gravely misled over the past six years (I guess that's how long it takes for folks to finally figure facts out these days.) Trump did enough to cost himself re-election, he doesn't need a bunch of trained seals barking at CNN each night to state-sponsored disinformation to help him out.
This phenomenon is not dissimilar to the experience of the Obama administration, when so much personal anger about the economic destruction of the previous administration, the social fracturing of society in the previous one and the decline of the country was laid at his feet, when it was primarily Congress - as well as the Justice Department and the Supreme Court and the Department of Education and the Department of Transportation and the Federal Reserve and the Treasury... and decades of widespread government bloat and mismanagement, that inflicted the vast majority of the damage to the fabric of the republic during his term.
Presidents are rarely the source of the problem and more often the symptom. We get the politicians we deserve. The President is truly just a single cog in a very complex machine of graft, corruption and incompetence. That's why we keep picking Presidents that best represent that ethos and the Washington Redskins were forced to change their name to the Commanders (In Chief). Today, the term commander is more commonly equated with fecklessness.
Today, many have turned their focus towards - some would say obsession on - President Biden, a candidate that - as has become apparent to virtually everyone by now- is not in charge of his own faculties, much less the country. Are we really so intellectually deficient to believe he is making any of these horrific decisions himself? The answer is of course, no. Or, to quote him, "No, D-O-T..."
So why would we not direct our ire and condemnation instead on the people telling him what to say and do? The previous Presidential couples and their staffs- the power brokers in Washington?
It's becoming increasingly clear to all but the most obtuse that this man was tragically (s)elected specifically to a.) depose Trump and b.) and be thrown under the bus, a fact that crystalizes more and more each day. His deteriorating condition has presumably caught even his handlers by surprise, and created a greater and greater cognitive dissonance, political tension and social unrest within the masses. The only question that remains for me is which White House press secretary will be the first to (ghost)write the memoir that stabs him in the back? I predict KJP for sure, 'cuz she's gonna' be pissed when she realizes she was set up to fail as well.
Yes, I know they pump him full of the world's most powerful steroids and trot him out every couple of weeks to eat ice cream. But that's primarily to pacify the liberals, troll the conservatives and build the future case that he is responsible for the 2022 midterm beatdown. Just like they did to George Bush, Jr., who was most-assuredly NOT calling the shots during his two terms. (Remember when we all used to make fun of his stupidity?)
Sadly, as a voting base, we're simply not that smart - we need to believe that effects have a singular cause and problems have a single person to blame. But that's not how life works, it's one of our biggest shortcomings, and why the ruling class still walk free. Real problems are complex and full of nuance. They are always the result of a cascades of missteps and failures, which is why their solutions so often confound us.
Biden's declines were somewhat humorous at first, the latest in a half century of gaffes and personal humiliations. Perhaps his greatest skill has to been to endure shame that would have hobbled more intelligent men. But surely, our time and energy is better spent somewhere other than picking on this decrepit old man so we can focus on identifying the true culprits of this galactically asinine political policy that threatens to destroy his once-great party, as we all suffer through gas prices doubling (though temporarily paused as they drain our Strategic Petroleum Reserve), historic social division, inconceivable levels of crime that make Bush Sr.'s CIA-funded crack epidemic look tame, mortgage rates tripling, retirement accounts halving, and all of us enjoying the highest inflation rate in forty years.
When you see your 401k lose significant value, I suspect it's because your soul recognizes that's literally years of your life - time you spent working for society and your family- disappearing into the ether like breathe escaping a dying man. If that doesn't produce the same levels of anxiety within you, then it's because you labor was not nearly as valuable as mine. And all of this because of human error.
If you're one of my clients, you probably focused on "the average 401k plan had only $135,000 at the start of this year..."
His constituents are now left asking themselves, "Were we misled?.. Did we mislead ourselves?.. Do we even care? Has our life improved in the past two years, and is this really better than any alternative?.. Is there a single aspect of my life, society or the country that is better than it was in 2019? Was there - and is there- anyone outside of his 2019 DNC primary competition that presents a viable leader? Has our collective folly and political ideology cost us another era of power and more liberal Supreme Court replacements? Are we in greater freefall than even the GOP?
All of the above represent crucial questions that must be asked by the Democrats before they can hope to repair the damage that has already been done so quickly, as well as forestall the nightmare scenario hurdling toward them, both in November and in the aftermath of the mid-terms, which could and may divide and destroy their party, and will almost certainly start the clock on President Biden's eventual premature departure. It's unclear how the Democrats will orchestrate that. But what is clear is that what we are doing to this man is inhumane and dangerous. To deny otherwise is to acknowledge you've lost your bearing on reality. That's not a political statement, that's just common sense.
If you voted for Biden, that's fine. If you voted for Trump, more power to you. As long as everyone will be honest in admitting they don't really like their candidate all that much and they were primarily voting against the other guy. Which is the same reason as the folks you oppose, as it was in 2020 and 2016 and shall it be again in 2024, Amen.
Just remember all of this the next time you judge those harshly who disagree with you politically. Yes, they are dumb. Yes, they are directly complicit in the rot and corruption that has infected this country. And yes, they are nihilists intent on dismantling the America that saved the world. They are tragically disabled by their disdain for themselves, other people and the country and their blind adherence to their dysfunctional political ideology...
However, like you and me, our political adversaries are operating from the same position of fear and their own undiagnosed childhood trauma as the rest of us. It's humbling and reflective - if you have that level of intellect (which most people admittedly do not)- to realize that your political adversaries perceive you in the same way you do them. They may be in the wrong, but it's just a less version of wrong than you. Because I can guarantee that your 2016 and 2020 preferred candidates were both no-talent ass clowns, only slightly less odious and more electable than the competitors they were running against.
I'm sorry to break it to you- no one gets on the stage of the primaries of either party without selling their soul to many entities, namely the people that the people that tell the President what to do have to answer to. (Did you have to read that twice? Good, that's the point.) Presidents aren't even in the top five most powerful people in the country, even when they're sentient. And when you understand that, you're well on your way to enlightenment.
Some of you are still hung up that I called your candidate an ass clown, I get it. Truthfully, anyone that touches women the way these men have are beyond clowns, so that's my kind and gentle side showing through.
BTW: Am I the only one that marvels at how - in our hyper-gynocentric, third-wave feminist society - we ended up with three straight US Presidential candidates that are the most (in)famous politicians for abusing women of the 21st century?... Hillary's decades of bullying Bill's mistresses; Trump's rampant misogyny, womanizing, Epstein friendship, and the Access Hollywood audio; and "Creepy Joe" Biden's well-known predilection for touching young girls? And let's not even start on society's disregard for the Epstein client list that includes plenty of DC denizens. Honestly, how does that happen, with women in control of the country? Perhaps that's a conversation (on hypocrisy) for another novel blog post.
Such is the degree of rot in our two-party system that no one gets elected President on their merits anymore, and it's become clear that the winner will usually be the one who is most effective at making the election a referendum on the other guy (Trump's narcissism and trashiness, Hillary's criminality with her Foundation crime syndicate, Biden's well-known and documented lifetime of abject failure domestically and politically, etc.)
Unless you believe that unarmed, underemployed and incompetent January 6th Vikings and Q-Anon Shamans stealing Nancy Pelosi's lectern is still a legitimate threat to democracy and deserving of more oxygen in fall 2022, and Congress is still dragging out these hearings in the pursuit of truth and justice (and not to shamelessly distract from their own ineptitude by trying desperately to make this election about a fat, orange man living rent-free in their heads two years after he left office.)
And if you do, all I can say is "Bless your heart, [blankety, blank blank...]"
"The time has come for everyone to clean up their own backyard, before they go knocking on their neighbor's door.." - House of Pain, Salutations