tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32931256.post7565850655172525775..comments2024-03-22T05:20:44.167-07:00Comments on The Disaffected Lib: How America's Liberals Betrayed Their CountryThe Mound of Soundhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09023839743772372922noreply@blogger.comBlogger7125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32931256.post-48898794467346222902010-05-06T07:15:19.348-07:002010-05-06T07:15:19.348-07:00"meritocracy", now that's arguable. ..."meritocracy", now that's arguable. Ever since Reagan the dice have been so loaded that merit, while it had some place in any event, became legislatively engineered.<br /><br />Corporatism, the driving force behind the enormous gap between rich and poor, has had little to do with merit and far more to do with lobbying.<br /><br />The wealthy class that has emerged in America particularly has burgeoned with the shift to a rentier class - those who make their wealth through finance rather than actually producing anything useful. America's inevitable decline set in when the lion's share of its economy was rooted in the FIRE (finance/insurance/ real estate) industries as its manufacturing base eroded and atrophied. That's 'meritocracy'? Perhaps, if you're a fund manager or a Baron of Wall Street with a 'bought and paid for' Congress at your beck and call. Meritocracy, from the outside, looks much different. Buying Congress hardly seems to have little to do with merit.The Mound of Soundhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09023839743772372922noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32931256.post-68572445264179549982010-05-05T21:14:07.948-07:002010-05-05T21:14:07.948-07:00I clipped this from the end of the article L-girl ...I clipped this from the end of the article L-girl pointed to.<br /><br />"Perversely, our ruling elite today is one of unparalleled diversity, and includes unprecedented numbers of women, minorities, and individuals who have worked their way up to power on brains and determination alone, usually without having inherited connections or wealth. It is a meritocracy much like the one long envisioned by many liberal reformers—and it has decided to capitulate, reap its considerable rewards, and draw the ladder up after it."<br /><br />I thought that part particularly interesting.<br /><br />Seeing the reference to feudalism in your selection Mound, gave me an odd sense of support as I have been refering to our system in that way for some years now. I call it refined Feudalism.<br /><br />Coming from a small market area may have given me the opportunity to recognize the beast earlier than many others. As we have only a handful of corporate giants. The strength of some of them has grown to the point that they no longer care if they are recognized for what they are.<br /><br />Plus it is hard to deny whose blade is being extracted from your back, when they control even the two main political entities and regularly use that power to accomplish their goals. <br /><br />It says a great deal when a company which claims to employ 12% of the population has it's way with government and often the publics assets as well.<br /><br />When a single entity can appropriate up to 1 million to a fund to drive out fledgling weekly newspapers, and owns virtually every newspaper in the province and continues to go unchallenged, there is a clear and definable problem.Okienoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32931256.post-47170758002337269692010-05-05T10:27:12.309-07:002010-05-05T10:27:12.309-07:00Sorry Christo-Facist, you're full of crap. Le...Sorry Christo-Facist, you're full of crap. Let me guess, you're one of those freaks who clings to fantasies like biblical inerrancy. Sorry, the voodoo room is much further down the hall. Nothing to see here, keep moving.The Mound of Soundhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09023839743772372922noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32931256.post-51443385362724261412010-05-05T09:29:47.225-07:002010-05-05T09:29:47.225-07:00More than complicit. Enabling. See the article: &q...More than complicit. Enabling. See the article: "Liberal Progressive Muggers."<br />http://constitutionparti.blogspot.com/Christian Prophethttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10020964652943679070noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32931256.post-69043493447111038132010-05-05T08:06:31.551-07:002010-05-05T08:06:31.551-07:00Anon you've made some good points. Thanks. ...Anon you've made some good points. Thanks. And, L-Girl, thanks for pointing out the Harper's article. It's one of the few magazines I subscribe to and,for my money, one of the very best. I suppose it'd be fair to call it the voice of American liberal thought.The Mound of Soundhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09023839743772372922noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32931256.post-81504706792568493932010-05-05T05:32:47.373-07:002010-05-05T05:32:47.373-07:00I think there is a deeper point than what you summ...I think there is a deeper point than what you summarize. It's not that the liberals have not stood up to the drift to the right, its that the effects of the shift to the right have not affected liberals. In other words, liberals need to redefine liberals to be inclusive of poor blacks, as one example, rather than pretend to be the defenders of poor blacks - because they have not been. Once liberalism includes such people then it will be affected by many of the consequences from the drift to the right. And until it does include them liberals will stand by and let the shift to the right occur, perhaps even support it.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32931256.post-39688312237080321832010-05-05T05:10:14.428-07:002010-05-05T05:10:14.428-07:00Mound, thanks for highlighting this. I also recomm...Mound, thanks for highlighting this. I also recomment Kevin Baker's piece in the recent issue of Harper's, "The Vanishing Liberal: how the left learned to be helpless. It's subscription only (<a href="http://harpers.org/archive/2010/04/0082894" rel="nofollow">here</a>) but it's pprobably online somewhere.laura khttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05524593142290489958noreply@blogger.com