That is what one blog reader thinks I am. After reading my last blog in which I echoed the thinking of one of the great commentators of our time, David Brooks, the reader wrote:
"I wish I could believe in your optimistic vision of a groundswell movement that will arise and renew and re-energize the best American values and cure the ills of our political system. My experience of the American system is that it swings from one extreme to an another and it manages to balance out the extremist views only over long periods of time and only after much distress and pain.
Ameirican industrialists fought for half a century against the right of workers to organize to fight oppresively low wages and horrible working conditions yet by mid 20th century, after a World War and a Great Depression, when unions finally gained legal rights, labor used their new found power to force their employers into accepting unreasonable settlements that hastened the decline of American industry and ultimately led to the bankruptcy of the American automobile industry.
Now the pendulum has swung in the opposite direction. The weaslth of the nation is once again in the hands of 1% of the population, just as it was in 1929 before the crash. This time however, big business and other private interests have built a powerful fortress to protect their dominance including a network of Lobbyists who spend vast sums of money to support politicians who support their self-seeking interests,"grass roots" organizations financed by ulta-conservative billionaires and a nationwide media empire powerful enough to dwarf the bully pulpit of any sitting president. In the process they have created a political party that has moved so far to the right they are convinced that the business of the United States is business and nothing else matters. Any position that conflicts with this ideology is trash, compromise is out of the question and the opposition party is an enemy to be destroyed if possible and defeated at all costs.
Yet, to my great astonishment, in the wake of the worst economic upheaval since the Great Depression - the American voter has overwhelmingly rejected an administration that has struggled against intractable opposition to right the ship and protect the interests of the middle class and the planet on which we all live. Sorry Ted, I cannot believe that help is on the way and the nation will right itself anytime soon. The American people have spoken and they have said, things will have to get a lot worse before we figure out what to do about it".
Like to know what you think. I remain optimistic and believe that out current president can take us through. He does need our support and that of the feint hearted democrats in Congress. The predictions are that the republicans, afraid of the tea party, will move right and continue to blockade progress on jobs, energy, immigration and climate change. We, friends can not let that happen. Please think how you may get involved to have your opinions count!
HAPPY THANKSGIVING
and
MAY GOD BLESS AMERICA
Wednesday, November 24, 2010
Monday, November 15, 2010
The Choice is Ours to Make
The only thing we have to fear is fear itself. Ever hear that? Well, folks I think it is all about attitude from here on in. We either pull together or we are doomed to third rate former empire status.
David Brooks from the NYTimes says it very well below. Are we to have two years of meaningless congressional investigations? Two years of "just say no" so that the president has no chance to move an agenda or be reelected? Two years of failing to enact both an immigration policy or energy policy? Is this what we mean when we say less government, less regulation, less taxes?
Here is a thought. What if climate change is not man caused? Does that mean that we should let the oceans rise 3 feet in the next 15 years? Wouldn't that have devastating effects on the coast lines and people along them on every continent in the world? Say goodbye to New York City, Venice and the Netherlands to name a few.
Here is David Brooks in yesterday's NYTimes:
"So we continue on the headlong path toward a national disaster. And along the way our dysfunctional political system will leave all sorts of other problems unaddressed: immigration, energy policy and on and on.
Yet, I’m optimistic right now. I’m optimistic because while our political system is a mess, the economic and social values of the country remain sound. My optimism is also based on the conviction that serious, vibrant societies don’t sit by and do nothing as their governments drive off a cliff.
Over the past few years, we have seen millions of people mobilize — some behind President Obama and others around the Tea Parties. The country is restive and looking for alternatives. And before the next round of voting begins, I suspect we will see another mass movement: a movement of people who don’t feel represented by either of the partisan orthodoxies; a movement of people who want to fundamentally change the norms, institutions and rigidities that cause our gridlock and threaten our country.
You can’t organize a movement like this around pain — around tax increases and spending cuts. But you can organize one around a broad revitalization agenda, and, above all, love of country.
It will take a revived patriotism to motivate Americans to do what needs to be done. It will take a revived patriotism to lift people out of their partisan cliques. How can you love your country if you hate the other half of it?
It will take a revived patriotism to get people to look beyond their short-term financial interest to see the long-term national threat. Do you really love your tax deduction more than America’s future greatness? Are you really unwilling to sacrifice your Social Security cost-of-living adjustment at a time when soldiers and Marines are sacrificing their lives for their country in Afghanistan?
Like the civil rights movement, this movement will ask Americans to live up to their best selves. But it will do other things besides.
It will have to restore the social norms that prevailed through much of American history: when narcissism and hyperpartisanship was mitigated by loyalties larger than tribe and self; when competition between the parties was limited and constructive, not total and fratricidal.
This movement will have to build institutions to support the leaders who make the hard bargains. As in the civil rights era, politicians won’t make big changes unless they are impelled and protected by a social upsurge.
Most important, this movement will have to develop a governing philosophy and a policy agenda. Right now, orthodox liberals and conservatives have their idea networks, and everybody else is intellectual roadkill. This coming movement will have to revive the American System: a governing philosophy that believes in targeted federal efforts to arouse growth, social mobility and responsibility.
Like the chairmen’s report, this movement could demand that Congress wipe out tax loopholes and begin anew. It could protect federal aid to the poor while reducing federal subsidies to the upper-middle class.
The coming movement may be a third party or it may support serious people in the existing two. Its goal will be unapologetic: preserving American pre-eminence. It will preserve America’s standing in the world on the grounds that this supremacy is a gift to our children and a blessing for the earth.
David Brooks from the NYTimes says it very well below. Are we to have two years of meaningless congressional investigations? Two years of "just say no" so that the president has no chance to move an agenda or be reelected? Two years of failing to enact both an immigration policy or energy policy? Is this what we mean when we say less government, less regulation, less taxes?
Here is a thought. What if climate change is not man caused? Does that mean that we should let the oceans rise 3 feet in the next 15 years? Wouldn't that have devastating effects on the coast lines and people along them on every continent in the world? Say goodbye to New York City, Venice and the Netherlands to name a few.
Here is David Brooks in yesterday's NYTimes:
"So we continue on the headlong path toward a national disaster. And along the way our dysfunctional political system will leave all sorts of other problems unaddressed: immigration, energy policy and on and on.
Yet, I’m optimistic right now. I’m optimistic because while our political system is a mess, the economic and social values of the country remain sound. My optimism is also based on the conviction that serious, vibrant societies don’t sit by and do nothing as their governments drive off a cliff.
Over the past few years, we have seen millions of people mobilize — some behind President Obama and others around the Tea Parties. The country is restive and looking for alternatives. And before the next round of voting begins, I suspect we will see another mass movement: a movement of people who don’t feel represented by either of the partisan orthodoxies; a movement of people who want to fundamentally change the norms, institutions and rigidities that cause our gridlock and threaten our country.
You can’t organize a movement like this around pain — around tax increases and spending cuts. But you can organize one around a broad revitalization agenda, and, above all, love of country.
It will take a revived patriotism to motivate Americans to do what needs to be done. It will take a revived patriotism to lift people out of their partisan cliques. How can you love your country if you hate the other half of it?
It will take a revived patriotism to get people to look beyond their short-term financial interest to see the long-term national threat. Do you really love your tax deduction more than America’s future greatness? Are you really unwilling to sacrifice your Social Security cost-of-living adjustment at a time when soldiers and Marines are sacrificing their lives for their country in Afghanistan?
Like the civil rights movement, this movement will ask Americans to live up to their best selves. But it will do other things besides.
It will have to restore the social norms that prevailed through much of American history: when narcissism and hyperpartisanship was mitigated by loyalties larger than tribe and self; when competition between the parties was limited and constructive, not total and fratricidal.
This movement will have to build institutions to support the leaders who make the hard bargains. As in the civil rights era, politicians won’t make big changes unless they are impelled and protected by a social upsurge.
Most important, this movement will have to develop a governing philosophy and a policy agenda. Right now, orthodox liberals and conservatives have their idea networks, and everybody else is intellectual roadkill. This coming movement will have to revive the American System: a governing philosophy that believes in targeted federal efforts to arouse growth, social mobility and responsibility.
Like the chairmen’s report, this movement could demand that Congress wipe out tax loopholes and begin anew. It could protect federal aid to the poor while reducing federal subsidies to the upper-middle class.
The coming movement may be a third party or it may support serious people in the existing two. Its goal will be unapologetic: preserving American pre-eminence. It will preserve America’s standing in the world on the grounds that this supremacy is a gift to our children and a blessing for the earth.
Saturday, November 6, 2010
Food for Thought
The election is over and the people have had their say. It is said that for the democrats, the election was theirs to lose and they did. The one thing the democrats really can not stand, it seems, is to have the opportunity to achieve their agenda. Our president, as I and others I have published here have pointed out, failed to either recognize the depth of this recession or lacked the courage to do what needed to be done to stimulate the economy.
He seems to be a pragmatist rather than a balls out leader. I am hoping he finds his cojones now that he has nothing more than a second term to lose.
Our president can also not call the wars in Iraq or Afghanistan Bush's wars any longer; nor can he explain why we are in Afghanistan at all at the cost of $200 mm dollars a day. I am a supporter of this president; but I have been saying for some time that he missed the severity of the recession and should already be out of Afghanistan.
It is also clear that while he had both houses he was abandoned by the independents and the so-called blue dog democrats. For example, good old Ben Nelson from Montana rode his horse in, had his mask on, his guns out and held up the president till he got what he wanted. Great support Mr. Senator! Along the way he made himself and the president appear as though they are wheelers and dealers willing to compromise beyond propriety and good sense.
There were and are three issues: Jobs, Jobs, Jobs!
The president, using the advice of the trio who brought us the recession, Summers, Geithner and Paulson, under estimated the recession and simply did not create a large enough stimulus package. And the one he did create never reached the ordinary working person. Stimulating the economy really amounts to spending money until business, which is sitting on $2.5 trillion in retained earnings, invests in its companies again. Thereby creating jobs, thereby putting money in peoples' pockets, who then spend it and voila, the economy is stimulated.
Now we shall see the likes of Rove, Cheney, the American Enterprise Institute, McConnell, Palin, Bachman, Boehner and Paul run the country. Here is their mantra: reduce the size of government( agencies that regulate- hmmmm been there done that haven't we!), cut all discretionary spending across the board, keep the Bush tax cuts intact, and repeal the health care reform law.
Couple of hints on what this means. Cut discretionary spending means cutting everything but Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security and Defense( 70% of the budget). This means cutting education, monies allocated for research and development grants, monies for infrastructure projects. Anybody seen the shape New York City's East river bridges are in lately? And, cutting monies dedicated to alternative fuels. Oh well, we don't need them anyway since climate change is a political ploy invented by liberals. Every one agrees they can cut earmarks which frankly amounts to a rounding error considering the size of the U.S. budget.
Here is the light at the end of the tunnel: the republicans put up Palin as the presidential nominee in two years. Need I say more? Meantime we go to hell in a hand basket and the American people see that. Watch this next one. We are about to go through redistricting which means with a republican house the democrats will be screwed until at least the next census.
Keep hope alive, please, and push back every where you can. Demand that the platitudes the Tea party and Republicans have been expounding be fleshed out with specifics on what they will do to end the recession and reduce expenses.
A little scary when the republican leadership says their agenda is to be sure President Obama is a one term president. Therefore, they will offer nothing constructive hoping he fails. Then when we have another republican in the white house, we can go back to the care and feeding of the wealthy and perhaps eight more years of Rove, Cheney, a Bush-like president so we can run up eight more years of deficits and find other countries to invade and spread democracy.
Gary Tomei offers a thought:
There are differences between us and every other country, and I'm not prepared to advocate any other country's system, but this does provide food for thought. We should not assume that we can not learn anything from any source that does not originate from within our borders.
Capitalism Uber Alles: How the American Working Class Got Brainwashed
. . . Our country has long been admired for its extraordinary social mobility, but as Arianna Huffington points out in Third World America, Canada, Germany, Denmark, Norway, Finland, Sweden, and France now have greater social mobility -- university education is free, or at minimal cost in Western Europe. Compared to other advanced industrialized countries which all provide universal health care, we are at the bottom in life expectancy and infant mortality. Americans have three months unpaid parental leave -- Swedes have 13 months, paid. Unlike Western Europeans, we have no government legislated paid vacations. In Germany, the world's largest exporter after China, workers get 6 weeks a year off. Americans average 13 days.
American conservatives delight in predicting the imminent demise of socialistic Western European benefits. But these benefits are part of the social contract within which all major European political parties, including conservatives, operate. While large national debts are leading to some cuts in benefits, these cuts do not represent reneging on that contract, just as cuts to education in the U.S. do not represent reneging on government funding for education -- which is part of our social contract.
A look at the divergence in political thinking between Western Europeans and Americans provides much of the answer to why we lag so far behind. . . .
☞ Think about it: We are more than triple their population – and we have all those amazing agricultural exports – yet Germany, with its 6-week vacations, universal health care, and strong labor unions, outcompetes us in the world market. How can that be?
We’re number one! But in obesity. China now has the world’s fastest supercomputer.
Can the solution really be to borrow $700 billion to extend tax cuts on income above $250,000? Get rid of the minimum wage and social safety net, cut back on education, deregulate polluters, and increase military spending?
Food for thought.
=
He seems to be a pragmatist rather than a balls out leader. I am hoping he finds his cojones now that he has nothing more than a second term to lose.
Our president can also not call the wars in Iraq or Afghanistan Bush's wars any longer; nor can he explain why we are in Afghanistan at all at the cost of $200 mm dollars a day. I am a supporter of this president; but I have been saying for some time that he missed the severity of the recession and should already be out of Afghanistan.
It is also clear that while he had both houses he was abandoned by the independents and the so-called blue dog democrats. For example, good old Ben Nelson from Montana rode his horse in, had his mask on, his guns out and held up the president till he got what he wanted. Great support Mr. Senator! Along the way he made himself and the president appear as though they are wheelers and dealers willing to compromise beyond propriety and good sense.
There were and are three issues: Jobs, Jobs, Jobs!
The president, using the advice of the trio who brought us the recession, Summers, Geithner and Paulson, under estimated the recession and simply did not create a large enough stimulus package. And the one he did create never reached the ordinary working person. Stimulating the economy really amounts to spending money until business, which is sitting on $2.5 trillion in retained earnings, invests in its companies again. Thereby creating jobs, thereby putting money in peoples' pockets, who then spend it and voila, the economy is stimulated.
Now we shall see the likes of Rove, Cheney, the American Enterprise Institute, McConnell, Palin, Bachman, Boehner and Paul run the country. Here is their mantra: reduce the size of government( agencies that regulate- hmmmm been there done that haven't we!), cut all discretionary spending across the board, keep the Bush tax cuts intact, and repeal the health care reform law.
Couple of hints on what this means. Cut discretionary spending means cutting everything but Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security and Defense( 70% of the budget). This means cutting education, monies allocated for research and development grants, monies for infrastructure projects. Anybody seen the shape New York City's East river bridges are in lately? And, cutting monies dedicated to alternative fuels. Oh well, we don't need them anyway since climate change is a political ploy invented by liberals. Every one agrees they can cut earmarks which frankly amounts to a rounding error considering the size of the U.S. budget.
Here is the light at the end of the tunnel: the republicans put up Palin as the presidential nominee in two years. Need I say more? Meantime we go to hell in a hand basket and the American people see that. Watch this next one. We are about to go through redistricting which means with a republican house the democrats will be screwed until at least the next census.
Keep hope alive, please, and push back every where you can. Demand that the platitudes the Tea party and Republicans have been expounding be fleshed out with specifics on what they will do to end the recession and reduce expenses.
A little scary when the republican leadership says their agenda is to be sure President Obama is a one term president. Therefore, they will offer nothing constructive hoping he fails. Then when we have another republican in the white house, we can go back to the care and feeding of the wealthy and perhaps eight more years of Rove, Cheney, a Bush-like president so we can run up eight more years of deficits and find other countries to invade and spread democracy.
Gary Tomei offers a thought:
There are differences between us and every other country, and I'm not prepared to advocate any other country's system, but this does provide food for thought. We should not assume that we can not learn anything from any source that does not originate from within our borders.
Capitalism Uber Alles: How the American Working Class Got Brainwashed
. . . Our country has long been admired for its extraordinary social mobility, but as Arianna Huffington points out in Third World America, Canada, Germany, Denmark, Norway, Finland, Sweden, and France now have greater social mobility -- university education is free, or at minimal cost in Western Europe. Compared to other advanced industrialized countries which all provide universal health care, we are at the bottom in life expectancy and infant mortality. Americans have three months unpaid parental leave -- Swedes have 13 months, paid. Unlike Western Europeans, we have no government legislated paid vacations. In Germany, the world's largest exporter after China, workers get 6 weeks a year off. Americans average 13 days.
American conservatives delight in predicting the imminent demise of socialistic Western European benefits. But these benefits are part of the social contract within which all major European political parties, including conservatives, operate. While large national debts are leading to some cuts in benefits, these cuts do not represent reneging on that contract, just as cuts to education in the U.S. do not represent reneging on government funding for education -- which is part of our social contract.
A look at the divergence in political thinking between Western Europeans and Americans provides much of the answer to why we lag so far behind. . . .
☞ Think about it: We are more than triple their population – and we have all those amazing agricultural exports – yet Germany, with its 6-week vacations, universal health care, and strong labor unions, outcompetes us in the world market. How can that be?
We’re number one! But in obesity. China now has the world’s fastest supercomputer.
Can the solution really be to borrow $700 billion to extend tax cuts on income above $250,000? Get rid of the minimum wage and social safety net, cut back on education, deregulate polluters, and increase military spending?
Food for thought.
=
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