The New Grapes of Wrath

In 1939, John Steinbeck published “The Grapes of Wrath.” The novel tells the story of a family who is forced to leave its home in the midst of the economic apocalypse of the 1930s in the United States. In the search for work and dignity, the Joad family members are forced to go into exile and endure the loss of their rights and the abuse caused by the authorities they have chosen to represent them.

Seventy-two years later, history threatens to repeat itself. In this nation, which is itself an exaggeration, the apocalypse is never far away. Fifty-nine percent of Americans think the events described in the Book of Revelation will take place just as they are foretold. A Texas Republican once said to me — in order to save my soul from sin — that many people thought that George W. Bush would be able to “delay the arrival of the Antichrist a little bit longer.”

There is always a plague of locusts on the U.S. horizon. So when Obama pledges to “avoid Armageddon,” there are good reasons to pause and think. However, the truth is that unless Obama reaches an agreement with Republicans before the August 2 deadline to raise the debt ceiling, a series of terrible events will take place.

The U.S. government would run out of money, and would go into default, not because it cannot pay its bills — like Greece — but simply because it will not pay them. Last week, Obama said “[t]here are about 70 million checks that go out each month … I cannot guarantee that those checks go out on August 3 if we haven’t resolved this issue, because there may simply not be the money in the coffers to do it.”

The president is anything but an alarmist. Nonetheless, those checks are for social security retirees, veterans, people with disabilities and poor people — particularly Latinos and African Americans. Taking into account the increase in discrimination against Latinos by several states, the arrival of another depression would make the odyssey described by Steinbeck a reality. And this is just the beginning: The rise in interest rates and collapse of the dollar would mean the end of the end for the rest of the world.

The problem is not financial but political. Questions about the common good are political by definition. We choose representatives and get involved in politics to define if something does or does not have a price. The Republicans are not only playing Russian roulette as if they were an ultra-left group, but it also seems that they are favoring those who can pay the price. And the others can be sacrificed on the altar of the market, which appears to be the only true God.

The message of Steinbeck’s novel is simple: When someone falls below the poverty line, they fall below the line of humanity. If Republicans decide to bring this hell to the world, we will be the victims.