Index

Carpetbaggers

There have been a lot of calls, From the Rev. Al Sharpton to the New York Times, for the people of Ferguson to elect a representative government, rather than the (essentially) all-white power structure in a 2/3 black town.  While this is obviously a good idea to everyone but the GOP (no surprise), I do have some questions about how much good it can do.

The first and most obvious problem is going to be finding candidates that are worth electing.  Because the existing power structure has obviously trashed things in Ferguson (“mismanaged” is too polite a term for it) whoever takes any job in the power structure is going to have a long and thankless task ahead of them if they really plan on changing things. The changes that need to be made will take a long time, and those that try to make them will likely be seen as complete failures. This automatically excludes career politicians who are looking to make a big hit and move on.

So how do we find someone to fill this void? Historically, one or more outsiders come and make the situation worse - we call these carpetbaggers after the travel cases carried by the northern vultures that swooped into the south after the civil war. In the Ferguson case, even the usual collection of carpetbaggers won’t come in, at least not until the media attention has died off and they are able to operate in their usual hidden manner.

So what does that leave us? The usual hit-and-run artists - Sharpton, Jackson, etc. - have done their normal public hand-wringing and are long gone. The white power structure with its KKK connections and government hand-me-down firepower is still in place. A few gas stations and convenience stores have been burned down or looted, a requirement for the press to pay any real attention, but the same problems are still there. A few companies made public relations pledges which are likely already forgotten now that the cameras are no longer always on.

The part of this that really concerns me is that, because the power structure has basically ignored the structural problems that created this mess, the next time it flashes over, it will be much worse. The systematic looting of the middle class by the rich is going to produce a lot more impoverished people, and at some point no amount of police or military brutality or electronic spying will be able to quell the fighting. While not fully made public, there are “intelligence” reports pointing this out to anyone that will listen, but nobody that owes their career to the “generosity” of the rich can afford to listen. What are they going to do when these “public servants’” debts come due and their constituents try to collect, publicly, loudly and potentially violently?