A Letter from The Chief... Barack's Back - And Why I Don't Have It

Growing economic disparity worldwide, suicidal as it is, remains a tactical problem...

(DAYTONA BEACH) - I received a letter from the President, on White House Stationery - seriously. It was headlined "Have You Still Got My Back?" It consisted of three pages about why the two of us should be proud of what we've accomplished since 2008, while Page 4 simply gave me the option of sending a check, a money order or my favorite credit card numbers - I suppose to celebrate our mutual pride of accomplishment in bringing the Union to its present State.

His request can't be to fund a third Presidential campaign to match our twin triumphs in '08 and '12, and it can't be personal, because he does make 400 grand a year, which is not bad for walking-around money, even though he's not a Koch Brother, or even a Coke Brother like Buffett. On the other hand, it's not too soon to be thinking about his retirement, along with the mandatory Presidential Library. Not to mention the dire need of the Democratic National Committee. (DNC, to insiders like me.)

But in the words of the immortal Ron White, I don't think so, Scooter. It's true that somebody should "have your back," if only to ward off the innumerable knives that threaten it, wielded by all the Cassiuses and Brutuses (Bruti?) around Capitol Hill these days.

I tell you what, Barry (I call him Barry), I have to think about this. And when I think about it, I have to be reminded that of late there's another back that I'm thinking of covering. You must have had your eye on him as well, because you have an eye for such things. I'm talking about Bernie Sanders, Independent Senator from Vermont, of all places, and I'm voting for him in 2016, whether he runs or not, whether he's on a Democratic ticket or not, and whether he's even allowed to debate, to get funded or be on the ballot, or not.

Since you'll be a civilian by then, you might consider voting for him yourself. You don't owe Hillary anything, and don't forget how Bill put you down during that last campaign.

But I'm not even going to think about or mention any other presidential candidates, Barry, and I'll tell you why. The plain fact is, it's no longer good enough to say you're better than the Republicans. It's no longer good enough, like MSNBC, to parade an endless series of good-guy commentators who support you, and at the same time continue the endless litany of what idiots they are on Fox News, even if they are. Led by Roger Ailes, who's the biggest one of all.

And speaking of media, there's no good guys and bad guys there either, because they're all corporate controlled and they all tell us just what they want us to hear.

I'm convinced you tried hard to do what you promised in '08, about presque-criminal lobbyists and stupid defense budgets and irreversible climate change, and I fully appreciate the stacked deck you've faced, from an obdurate Congress and a 19th Century Supreme Court. But the fact that you haven't really accomplished Thing One is really irrelevant now. I'll tell you what is, and it's bigger than both of us.

America today is looking down the twin barrels of a 12-gauge shotgun that some time soon is going to blow us away -along with the rest of the planet, not gradually or with a whimper but suddenly and with cataclysmic force. And both barrels are interrelated and working together.

We face accelerating climate change globally that is an Augean stable beyond belief, and it's made worse by a virtual financial Goliath that ignores that danger far beyond simple denial, but makes it worse daily by deliberately pursuing a culture of growth, increased profit at any cost and tearing the earth apart with insatiable greed. Either and both together, corporate greed and climate desecration, are going to trash life for our grandchildren - perhaps sooner - and nobody, including you, Barry - are really doing anything substantial about either problem. The world's population and those who purport to lead them are in fact standing around with one thumb in their mouth and the other you-know-where.

That's it in a nutshell. That's why for you to ask me to "have your back" is a non-sequitur.

The climate change catastrophe is a good illustration of why the good guys are no better than the bad guys.

Wes Stephenson, writing in The Nation (February 24) put it this way: "It's an odd thing, really, in certain precincts of the left... our accelerating trajectory toward the climate cliff is little more popular as a topic as it is on the right."

The same enigma applies to the other barrel of our doomsday shotgun, where the economic engines of production, of fossil fuel extraction and of global financial inequality are contributing to the destruction of the earth's ecosystem, where both political parties are equally laissez-faire about their failure to make the proactive changes that are necessary. As we speak, the current administration is still considering approval of such long-term investments in fossil fuel infrastructure as Keystone XL, not to mention lunatic obsolete nuclear power systems, showcased in the last three years by GE's Fukushima project, which is systematically trashing all life in the Pacific Ocean.

All of this lockstep inactivity prevails despite the fact that the International Energy Agency two years ago stated emphatically that corporations and governments needed to alter decisively their commitments to such projects.

Growing economic disparity worldwide, suicidal as it is, remains a tactical problem, while world ecological disaster is strategic because it is ultimate, final. And the latter cataclysm ultimately makes the former nastiness irrelevant.

Just as we're no longer talking about merely doing better than the Republicans, i.e., better than zero, what Bernie Sanders is talking about has nothing to do with the two-party system, that bankrupt legacy - along with the Electoral College and the lock those two dumb traditions maintain on the whole process. In a recent interview, he said:

We are living in the moment in American history where the problems facing the country, even if you do not include climate change, are more severe than at any time since the Great Depression. And if you throw in climate change, they are more severe.

The real political problem, according to Bernie, is in uniting millions of working-class and middle-class people together around an agenda that is relevant, radical and yet infused with common sense for our economy and the world. It really means a basic change, in real government by the people rather than our sorry legacy since the Philadelphia Convention of 1787, and its concept of government of old white rich guys, by old white rich guys and for old white rich guys.

When he talks about government by and for ordinary people, Bernie said in that same interview "it is not just single-payer health care, it’s not just aggressive action on climate change and saving the environment, it’s not just creating the millions of jobs that we need, it is literally empowering people to take control over their lives."

Is this possible? According to Bernie Sanders, it's already happened in one recent and important instance:

How did we win this victory? ... In the Senate we formed the Defending Social Security Caucus which made it clear that Social Security was not going broke, has $2.7 trillion in its trust fund and can pay out every benefit owed to every eligible person for the next 19 years. Our progressive allies in the House did exactly the same thing. Perhaps most importantly, however, was the role played by grass-roots organizations. A massive coalition representing millions of Americans came together including senior groups, unions, veterans’ organizations, women's groups, civil rights groups, disability organizations and others. Petitions were signed, calls to Congress were made, emails were sent and demonstrations and rallies were held. In essence, grass-roots America made an offer that members of Congress could not afford to refuse. We told them we knew what was going on and there would be a political price to pay if they ignored us. And they didn't.

Bernie Sanders thinks America is ready for a political revolution. He may be right, or he may be ahead of his time. For all our sakes, he'd better be right.

I'm voting for him in 2016, third party, no party or write-in. A hundred years ago, Teddy Roosevelt did it with his Bullmoose Party, and came in second, like the fox in the tally-ho where one of the hounds was in heat.

Bill Annett grew up a writing brat; his father, Ross Annett, at a time when Scott Fitzgerald and P.G. Wodehouse were regular contributors, wrote the longest series of short stories in the Saturday Evening Post's history, with the sole exception of the unsinkable Tugboat Annie.

At 18, Bill's first short story was included in the anthology “Canadian Short Stories.” Alarmed, his father enrolled Bill in law school in Manitoba to ensure his going straight. For a time, it worked, although Bill did an arabesque into an English major, followed, logically, by corporation finance, investment banking and business administration at NYU and the Wharton School. He added G.I. education in the Army's CID at Fort Dix, New Jersey during the Korean altercation.

He also contributed to The American Banker and Venture in New York, INC. in Boston, the International Mining Journal in London, Hong Kong Business, Financial Times and Financial Post in Toronto.

Bill has written six books, including a page-turner on mutual funds, a send-up on the securities industry, three corporate histories and a novel, the latter no doubt inspired by his current occupation in Daytona Beach as a law-abiding beach comber.