Dana Blankenhorn

Rope a Dope

You may be too young to recall, but the greatest fight in history occurred in 1974.

“The Rumble in the Jungle” was more noteworthy for the tactic of challenger Muhammad Ali than the result. Ali called it the “rope a dope.” He held his forearms against his body and let George Foreman punch himself out. Ali won in the 8^th round.

In the war against Trumpism, Joe Biden is using the same tactic. It requires patience, discipline, and getting hit a lot. But a politics based on always attacking exhausts the attacker. It leaves them open to a counterpunch.

To make the rope a dope work, you must take some hits. Gandhi knew that. Dr. King knew that. People must see the cliff they’re falling into. Not just what the monkeys on Fox News claim, the world organ grinders like Rupert Murdoch are shaping.

The Tragedy of Herschel Walker

There are many tragic figures in the politics of 2022.

For me the most tragic is Herschel Walker.

Democrats don’t see it this way. More’s the pity. That’s because Walker represents the apotheosis of Jim Crow 2.0, a system of institutional racism that has been making its way across the south since I moved here in 1981.

It’s like this. Give blacks some places. Give them their own places, like Atlanta. Use thinly veiled racism to maintain white discipline and control in the suburbs. Use state policy to ghettoize the places with black majorities and encourage corruption. Meanwhile, take some with exploitable talent and raise them up. Coddle them, make them think they’re as good as white, so they become the new system’s avatars, black faces on a white system.

See, we’re not racist, look at X. Whose idiocy justifies the racists’ instincts.  

Reject Panic

The best reaction for investors to what is happening in the stock market today is no reaction.

Traders and speculators should feel free to panic. People who own cryptocurrency should feel free to panic. If you define your wealth by your market position on a day-to-day basis, panic away.

But investors? No.

The underlying strength of the American economy is obvious. Moore’s Law runs in every direction, from clouds to chips to software to systems. Entrepreneurs are constantly finding ways to turn these resources into savings, into value worth buying and owning. America has never been stronger.

The Climax of the Story

Most Americans are taught that the climax of the Civil War came at Gettysburg, and that of World War II on D-Day.

These were turning points. Just as last November was a turning point.

Contemporary accounts tell a different story.

The climax of the Civil War came when Atlanta fell in September 1864.  Atlanta was the center for Confederate manufacturing. Birmingham hadn’t been invented yet. Wars are won by logistics. Without weapons or ammunition the Confederacy was toast. Lincoln was an underdog for re-election before Atlanta. After that he romped to victory.

The climax of World War II came with the Battle of the Bulge. News of the result didn’t come until practically the New Year. Even then the headlines were filled with the bloodier battles of the Pacific, which high school historians now ignore.

I believe we’re now at that point in the current struggle with fascism.

Kherson will be our Atlanta.

The Straight Ticket Election

Senate passage of the Inflation Reduction Act was the final act of political policy season. It was the opening of campaign season.

Midterms are usually a verdict on the President, a simple game of inside vs. outside. That’s not true this time. Both parties have done things and it makes both parties incumbents. Republicans hold most state houses and the courts. Democrats hold the Presidency and the Congress. It’s finely balanced.

Both parties are also more united than at any time in American history. There once were liberal Republicans. There once were conservative Democrats. This is a straight ticket election.

We are at War

The simplest explanation for this year’s events is one we don’t want to admit.

We are at war.

We are at war with Vladimir Putin’s Russia.

We were in a state of Cold War with Russia for years. Trump was part of it. Brexit was part of it. Putin subverted democratic processes, subverted the Internet, and subverted markets long before his invasion of Ukraine.

The invasion made this a hot war.

There is no alternative to Ukraine’s complete victory. Anything that leaves Putin in power only means we’re going to be here again. He isn’t like Hitler. Putin IS Hitler. It no longer matters that he has nuclear weapons. He may use them if we retreat, he may use them if we advance. We can’t limit our response to his threats. Putin’s victory would destroy humanity in any case, wrecking the climate in a global conflict of all-against-all.

It's time to go all-in.

The Year of Clarity

This is the year the masks came off. This is the year the cold war became a hot one.

Russia’s attack on Ukraine was a mask coming off. The oligarchs who embraced Vladimir Putin for two decades, and all those who pretended he wasn’t the second coming of Hitler, were exposed. Some tried to back away. Others doubled down. It doesn’t matter. We know now who is on the side of freedom, and who isn’t.

It was a clarifying moment. It created clarity across Europe, and in much of America too. Lines have been drawn. On one side lies democracy, liberty, everything we’ve claimed to stand for over 230 years. On the other side lies evil. Yes, many of its ghosts are American, in genocide, in slavery, in racism and eugenics and the rest. But these are ghosts.

At least we pretended they were.

The leak on overturning Roe vs. Wade is a second clarifying moment. That’s not so obvious yet. Many still try to pretend it is politics as usual.

It’s not. It’s a declaration of war.

The Way to Wealth is Tolerance

There’s nothing wrong with wealth.

Wealth is supposed to create a sense of responsibility. Andrew Carnegie understood this after he sold his Carnegie Steel in 1901.  Thereafter he devoted himself to giving all his money away. MacKenzie Scott, formerly Mrs. Jeff Bezos, is doing that today. Bill Gates and Warren Buffett have promised to do that.

They do it to protect the system. In The Wealth of Nations, Adam Smith defended capitalism by positing that wealthy people would be inclined toward the common good. Some are. Others are not.

For every Carnegie there’s a Vanderbilt. The good news is that, after a few generations of profligacy, even a Vanderbilt fortune can run dry. Anderson Cooper is the son of Gloria Vanderbilt but he’s not a rich man. That’s a hopeful story.

The good news is that, so far, 2022 is giving me an 1898 feeling. David Traxel’s book on 1898  describes a nation facing a Populist uprising amid a progressive ferment. It describes a war that was blissfully short, a turning point because it brought to power a man who would get along with Wall Street.

The Progressive movement and Wall Street’s self-interest lined up perfectly. Few people understand this, even today. Utilities for electricity, telephony, for transport, for water and for natural gas, could only be created through regulated monopolies. The late 19^th century’s efforts to create them in other ways failed. J.P. Morgan portrayed the evil trust king in the popular imagination, and Theodore Roosevelt the benevolent trust-buster. But they were working toward the same end. The result was today’s American cities.

Silent Majority

The thing about a Silent Majority is that we’re silent.

We just want to get on with our lives.

There used to be two seasons in Washington. There was political season and policy season. Drunk on the attention of the last few election cycles, Washington reporters and pundits now think it’s always political season. Republicans, the minority party, have indulged them with constant outrage. The insurrection meant to bring down the U.S. Constitution was just the start.

But I can’t see a single issue on which Republican stands represent a majority view. The only way these views get any traction is by filtering everything through a Republican prism. There’s an entire media class, owned by oligarchs, doing nothing but that. Extremism in the defense of liberty is a vice, for in extremism there is no liberty. Moderation in the pursuit of justice is a virtue, for without moderation there is no justice.

Tech Demands Freedom

America dominates the global tech economy because freedom.

The freedom to think what you want, and be who you want, is now the key to economic growth.

This is a point that’s widely ignored by American elites today. Americans love to talk about what’s wrong and have overestimated our global adversaries since 1776.

It’s most obvious now in our economic competition with China.

China is a great manufacturing power. But it continues to trail in software and science. It deliberately put down its Cloud Emperors for threatening the state. It can’t deliver the latest semiconductor technology.

Software is the product of hands and minds. You can’t automate its production, the way you can a car. You can improve productivity with better tools. But organizing a team requires that coaches listen as well as speak. Man management, they call it.

The best scientists, coders, and writers are all motivated by something inside. We’re not doing it for the money, we’re not doing it for an ideology. We each have our own reasons. In my case, it’s a desire I’ve had all my life to be heard, to be seen, to be part of the conversation. If you want to get the most out of us, you must respect that. China’s government doesn’t respect that.