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| Freshmen GOP - 2010 |
Paul Krugman recently questioned the sanity of Congressional Republicans who, he contends, have inflicted such a level of dysfunctionality on the federal government as to leave America ungovernable.
Robert Reich, however, seems method in the madness of the "Party of No."
The real answer, I think, is they and their patrons want unemployment to remain high and job-growth to sputter. Why? Three reasons:
First, high unemployment keeps wages down. Workers who are worried about losing their jobs settle for whatever they can get — which is why hourly earnings keep dropping. The median wage is now 4 percent lower than it was at the start of the recovery. Low wages help boost corporate profits, thereby keeping the regressives’ corporate sponsors happy.
Second, high unemployment fuels the bull market on Wall Street. That’s because the Fed is committed to buying long-term bonds as long as unemployment remains high. This keeps bond yields low and pushes investors into equities — which helps boosts executive pay and Wall Street commissions, thereby keeping regressives’ financial sponsors happy.
Third, high unemployment keeps most Americans economically fearful and financially insecure. This sets them up to believe regressive lies — that their biggest worry should be that “big government” will tax away the little they have and give it to “undeserving” minorities; that they should support low taxes on corporations and wealthy “job creators;” and that new immigrants threaten their jobs.
What Reich is claiming is that the House and Senate Republicans are waging a covert war on working class Americans, blue and white collar, - the masses - for the direct financial benefit of their richest of the rich patrons - the few.
Does Reich's take sound extreme to you? Maybe you've got a better explanation for the insanity Krugman describes as a willful effort to render America ungovernable.
There's a coup underway in America, one that will oust democracy and install a fascist corporatism in its place. Congressional Republicans are the spear carriers of the plotters and, so far at least, they appear to be winning.
For a deeper insight on the coup that has befallen America, read Paul Craig Roberts' "In the Grip of Tyranny."
9 comments:
Corporatism has been around for quite a while, Mound. It is the big corporations who puppeteer both the government and public -public through the fear of losing jobs.
Middle class has shrunk in U.S making corporations job easy. Harper is trying to do the same in Canada i.e. to shrink the middle class.
Democracy is just an illusion now.
Yes it has been around for a while, LD, but it's also been beaten back in the past. The Americans did it with the Progressive movement. Republican president Theodore Roosevelt championed it. Democratic president Franklin Roosevelt fostered it and paved the way for the ascendancy of America's post-war middle class.
The job today is to return to progressivism and fight this scourge to the ground yet again.
It's not like the modern Democrats have any real beef with this agenda. But in the longer term, it's very bad for the US as a country overall. Our problem in Canada is, the Titanic's going down, we're in this little tour boat, and Stephen Harper is steering us close to point out the impressive paintwork and trying to tie up. We're like to go down with them.
Yes, PLG, Harper is consistent in failing to see trouble coming no matter the direction.
I'm just finishing "The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists" by Robert Tressell. It's amazing how much we are spinning towards what was the misery for most at the turn of the last century. Here's a Wiki version of Cole's Notes:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Ragged-Trousered_Philanthropists
I found that very interesting, BY. Thanks. So, armed with what you see, what you know and what you've recently read, what response would you advocate to arrest "spinning towards what was the misery for most at the turn of the last century"?
Who wants to stand alone?
That certainly is a challenge, dear MoS. Tressel/Noonan was dying of TB or consumption as they called it when he wrote the book and was justifiably angry.
I am not in his state of misery yet but I try to agitate when I can, but always subtly (maybe not so much when I was younger but that's another story). I just make sure I knock a misconception down to its knees every time I get an opportunity.
For example: if some dear kind soul who feels bad for the Aboriginals and calls out on the corruption of their Chiefs and government, I say that may be the case but it doesn't nearly compare to some of the corruption we've seen from accused, and even prosecuted, mayors across the country.
It's not much, but any such re-focusing that I can accomplish on a daily or weekly basis, feels somewhat good.
I did a bit of soul-searching recently, B.Y., that was focused on this blog, its fairly broad focus from environmental to political and economic to security matters, and what was the point of it all. The conclusion was that I've been doing this all these years to try to inform opinion of like-minded types based on sound information, not biases, fears or manipulation.
I too hope this agitates people or motivates them to explore issues that I might raise in these posts that might otherwise have been overlooked.
I am reposting a comment by me on one of your earlier blogs. Like B Y I try to agitate where I can. "One thing that I have picked up from Diamond's book and now this TED talk is something he won't say." An interesting answer to your wonderment MOS is Gene Sharp (born January 21, 1928)He is the founder of The Albert Einstein Institution, a non-profit organisation dedicated to advancing the study of nonviolent action, and Professor Emeritus of political science at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth.[3] He is known for his extensive writings on nonviolent struggle, which have influenced numerous anti-government resistance movements around the world. In his book "How to Start a Revolution", he documents case studies where nonviolent action has been applied, and the lessons learned from those applications, and contains information on planning nonviolent struggle to make it more effective. Sharp has been called both the "Machiavelli of nonviolence" and the "Clausewitz of nonviolent warfare."[26] It is claimed by some that Sharp's scholarship has influenced resistance organizations around the world. Most recently, it is claimed that the protest movement that toppled President Mubarak of Egypt drew extensively on his ideas, as well as the youth movement in Tunisia and the earlier ones in the Eastern European color revolutions that had previously been inspired by Sharp's work, although some have claimed Sharp's influence has been exaggerated by Westerners looking for a Lawrence of Arabia figure". Sharp claims and has proven one person can make a difference...this book is a very encouraging read.
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