But surely the biggest lessons of all should have been learned after the Great Depression when Roosevelt's new deal rescued the US from the robber barons and speculators who had run the country into the ground? And yet the candidates don't seem to invoke his memory all that often. Have the American people forgotten? Do they not realise what it took to fix the country last time around. Are the candidates correctly judging the mood of the electorate when they rule out such a Rooseveltian discourse as part of their campaign strategy?
And yet the candidates don't seem to invoke his memory all that often. Have the American people forgotten? Do they not realise what it took to fix the country last time around. Are the candidates correctly judging the mood of the electorate when they rule out such a Rooseveltian discourse as part of their campaign strategy?
American public discourse had shown a great art of ignoring some particular issues and questions. That art surely improved in the last decade, with monopolization of the media and further monetarization of electoral process. Big money is behind this art, you may bet.
Don't Americans realize the situation? Why the candidates keep mum on this? For one thing, most Americans are too busy with keeping their jobs, saving their investments and mortgages. If they have time to realize, they are just happy that they are not so hopeless (yet) as others. In their thinking, all that matters is having some competitive advantage somewhere; so long as they do not feel as belonging to the negative half of a Gaussian bell curve of any sort, they prise themselves as certain achievers. As they notice how hard it is to keep "middle" living standards, they respect those at the top tail a lot assuming proportional "hard work". What teachers, preachers, bosses, TV anchors and electable politicians talked relentlessly all the time for 30 years, that gets imprinted deeply. Taking care of anything but your self-interest has become a tabu. Americans may run from "nanny" government with revulsion, but they embraced a dependence on "invisible hand" (whatever it is) fully.
I would say adopted to "political reality" eagerly and well. McCain is not exactly the same man as in 2000, and the Clintons learned to love power interests willingly. Outright discussion of real economic developments and social consequences was tried so long ago that no one know how that works anymore. The best we can imagine is Obama stealthily planning sane economic policies when in the White House. But he is not the favorite of the deciders anyway, and their confidence that Obama can be beaten is growing. Just wait till he gets the nomination...
It's a Welfare State - If You're Rich
The best we can imagine is Obama stealthily planning sane economic policies when in the White House. But he is not the favorite of the deciders anyway, and It's a Welfare State - If You're Rich
Great comment, great links. Thanks for this. I particularly liked the National Review comments about Obama's speech lacking absolute moral reference points - and the second link which measured everything in terms of what the "markets will like". It seems that money IS the THE absolute reference point for conservative morality.
And the market is their preferred measure of value because there you get one dollar one vote - whereas in politics you only get one person one vote - extremely unfair, if you have lots of dollars.
Once you make money rather than people your God or primary reference point, all of the neo-conservative discourse follows as a natural progression. The task of a truly humanitarian politics is to transform the paradigm into one where politics becomes ascendant over economics, and where Government acts as if people actually mattered.
Those who have sold their souls become neo-cons. But the devil they worship will also destroy them, because once pou've bought, you can also be sold. (With apologies to poemless...) "It's a mystery to me - the game commences, For the usual fee - plus expenses, Confidential information - it's in my diary..."
das monde:
... planning sane economic policies when in the White House. But he is not the favorite of the deciders anyway, and their confidence that Obama can be beaten
and is growing. Just wait till he gets the nomination...
I see that I made a significant omission myself. The last big paragraph should start with
I would say politicians adopted to "political reality" eagerly and well....
Don't Americans realize the situation?
We do, but there is no action because there is still so much to lose. You are not going to take a week off of work to go protest in DC when you'll lose your job in the process and never get another job when you have a conviction on your record.
During the labor movements of the 19th and 20th century, the workers had bargaining power and little to lose. There is no bargaining power today when there is unlimited labor (in terms of the size of the world market it services) available in Asia for 20% of the cost. That cannot be competed with outside of the high end white collar workers that Asia cannot provide enough of along with some high end manufacturing. Many people today do live paycheck to paycheck, but a job loss doesn't mean starvation - that was less certain 100 years ago.
Fox News didn't hide the fact that the recent $30 billion given to JP Morgan was a straight seizure of middle class assets. Some commentators described it as necessary, others, importantly, did not. There is a "reality" threshold at which the American media will report the truth - that threshold was hit after Katrina and we're hitting it again. Still nothing changes, and that's a triumph of early 20th century propaganda that taught us that this is the way things must be, which is now part of our culture. This is the main driver of inaction. It's not coming from the same language still being used today.
DailyKos isn't run by early 20th century propagandists or the corporate media, but the minds of the users were formed by them through the culture the users grew up in. And it shows. "Bootstrap deprogramming" - relearning our interests in this case - will take a generation. That's one reason it's pointless to rail against the American public, and let's be honest about what purpose these diaries serve - we're all getting an ego boost by writing our "told you so" pieces. Europe needs to remember it lives in the same world. Sarkozy's election is the most recent proof.
you are the media you consume.
I hear you when you say that people have too much to lose and still have an often diminishing vested interest in the system. If your pension is dependent on your investments you are much more invested in the success of the system than (say) a French civil servant, who has a state pension as of right, and doesn't have to care whether the economy goes down the tubes or not.... (What do I have to say to get Jerome's dander up these days?)
But if its the economy you're worried about, why support McCain? He has almost no economic or administrative record to speak of, and at least Bill Clinton had some track record on that front. Why trust the neo-cons when they no longer trust each other and refuse to lend to each other?
Believe me, this diary has nothing to do with any egotistical "I told you so" pleasures. I won too many arguments and lost too many wars to fight that sort of caper. What happens in America effects us all, and yes, Sarkozy/Blair show we too can get things wrong. We have our own neo-con tendencies to resist, and it doesn't help one bit if another one wins in the US. The EU simply isn't designed to fill the leadership vacuum that now exists in world affairs.
But we need a completely new kind of leaderhip, and part of that has to be a recognition that the currently dominant neo-con ideology has failed. And yes, we need Americans to live up to at least a small part of their idealistic self image and stop acting like the big bully on the block. "It's a mystery to me - the game commences, For the usual fee - plus expenses, Confidential information - it's in my diary..."
The rich deserve the money they have, and the poor deserve what they have (or not) as well. It's simple. In the long run, we're all dead. John Maynard Keynes
The market led reforms ideology which you so elegantly critique in your Anglo disease series conveniently edits out these other factors and concentrates on the tax cuts - one factor amongst many. However France could also learn a lot about the mechanisms and institutions which Ireland has evolved to resolve conflicts of interest. Your ideas of conflict resolution seem still to revolve around burning cars at barricades 1968 style... That should get you going!
As for communists, no we only have the pinko smoked salmon socialist variety here, some farmed, and some wild. Arguing that the state has a duty to act in the interests of its citizens is hardly communism, is it? It is politics 101.
As a business manager throughout the 1980's and 1990's I was always amused to hear my more Thatcherite colleagues extol the virtues of self-interest and "greed is good". But woe betide a Union leader who sought to do the same for his members! That sort of idiocy has long passed out of mainstream business thinking in Ireland, and I would hope out of Europe as well.
What I have advocated above is quite simply that the State has no business in under-writing the profits of the rich. If the public interest requires that certain risks be covered off and insured, the state has a duty to ensure its taxpayers will also reap the benefits when taking those risks pays off. That is simple business logic that any business person would apply to the same process if s/he were taking on certain risks.
The notion that only the private sector can make profits, and only the state should bear the losses is so infantile, it beggars belief. It is the ultimate nanny state ideology - for capitalists. Who's state is it anyway? Since when was a democracy not of and for the people?
The triumph of the neo-liberal agenda is that it has persuaded people it is in their own interests, moral and otherwise, to carry the risks of economic activity, whereas capital is entitled to a virtually guaranteed rate of return. Real business isn't like that, and doesn't require military interventions around the globe to make profits possible. You should ask the Irish! "It's a mystery to me - the game commences, For the usual fee - plus expenses, Confidential information - it's in my diary..."
Arguing that the state has a duty to act in the interests of its citizens is hardly communism, is it?
That's the key point, and it's the proverbial dead wildebeest on the table - economic exclusion isn't just an attack on personal prosperity, it's a denial of citizenship.
As Clinton keeps implying - some people don't matter. To the extremists on Wall St and in Washington, no one matters. Other people certainly aren't equal participants in the 'unreal economy' - they're useful chattels who can be robbed and then disposed of when no longer needed.
This is about bedrock democracy, not just cash flow.
The language has been so corrupted that it is hard to imagine a political discourse where your points could be made. In contrast to the USSR and Orwell's state, the US elite have privatized the debasement of language - with awe-inspiring results. Our mainstream "media" are poisonous.
Of course people can make you feel inferior without your permission. People aren't hermetically sealed psychological objects, with perfect freedom of action.
Subject any culture to a propagandistic noise machine, cut education, eliminate outside sources of news, repeat talking points tens of times every day, play up baser instincts and ridicule or scorn kindness and collective responsibility, and you'll be able to turn almost any barbarity into common wisdom.
The Black Consciousness movement in the US and in South Africa under Apartheid was all about not accepting the dominant (white) definition of who and what you are. And yes it isn't easy. Torture and discrimination were rife in both instances. But most American's haven't been to Abu Grahib or Guantanamo either, and the deprivations they endure are nothing in comparison to what many peoples have endured in many countries subjected to imperialism and war.
In fact the US is almost uniquely privileged in that it has had over 150 years of relative peace, with no major war fought on its soil, no foreign domination or exploitation. It ill befits the American people to now play the victim, 9/11 notwithstanding, and I for one think they are a much greater people than that. They have brought an amazing inventiveness and energy to many fields of science and commerce. It is time they addressed the obvious flaws in their polity with equal energy and vision.
We do them no favours by asking any less of them. "It's a mystery to me - the game commences, For the usual fee - plus expenses, Confidential information - it's in my diary..."
I started writing a comment a couple of hours ago, but it got way too long, so if anyone wants to, they can go see it as a diary... The person who says it cannot be done should not interrupt the person doing it. Chinese Proverb.
This is really just excellent writing, Frank. Really.
When I see McCain taking the lead in Presidential polls I really wonder sometimes what it will take to wake people up. Only Americans can end the hypocrisies and the exploitations, but it would be wrong to say that Europeans do not sympathise with them in their plight. "It's a mystery to me - the game commences, For the usual fee - plus expenses, Confidential information - it's in my diary..."
Frank Schnittger:
Contrast that with the sense of entitlement that Hilary seems to exude: Its our turn as Democrats, and as Women, and as Liberals she seems to be saying. It's about HER, not about YOU. What is remarkable is that financial America is falling apart at the seams - and yet Obama gives it barely a thought. Military America is suffering humiliation in Afghanistan and Iraq - he doesn't go there.
Contrast that with the sense of entitlement that Hilary seems to exude: Its our turn as Democrats, and as Women, and as Liberals she seems to be saying. It's about HER, not about YOU.
What is remarkable is that financial America is falling apart at the seams - and yet Obama gives it barely a thought. Military America is suffering humiliation in Afghanistan and Iraq - he doesn't go there.
What I find strange about this crisis is the seeming disconnect with what passes for political debate in the US Presidential election. Have McCain, Obama, Clinton et al given the slightest indication that they understand the magnitude of what is going on? Does winning the Presidency depend on reflecting the voters apparent denial/ignorance of what is going on? It seems that the reality of the financial meltdown and the failure of the "reform" ideology is so far out of sync with the comfortable cliches of politics-as-you-were that we are in danger of providing a democratic mandate to Neroism - a collective fiddling while Rome burns.
This particular diary came out of the blue, whereas I have perhaps 20 others planned which I may write if time and inspiration permits and if I can do the necessary homework to feel I can say something worthwhile. Maybe sometime I should do a "meta diary" on all the topics I would like to write on but don't yet feel able - and invite everyone else to chip in their topics - and then perhaps a few collaborative diaries might emerge.
Anyway, many thanks. I feel honoured that anyone would read and recall my comments so closely - I'd better be more careful about what I say in the future! "It's a mystery to me - the game commences, For the usual fee - plus expenses, Confidential information - it's in my diary..."
However, regarding comments, at least on this site comment threads are as valuable and valued as diaries. I have a tendency to develop ideas in comments over time, which sometimes results in a synthesis diary. It'd be nice if the battle were only against the right wingers, not half of the left on top of that — François in Paris
Maybe the line of thought with some Americans is that McCain isn't Bush so things couldn't possibly be as bad if he were President and there is a failure to realise that McCain isn't offering any solutions to the problems Bush has caused. Ad astra per aspera
Unlike France, where there is a strongly held view that a candidate's private life is his own business, his/her character is often of the essence in the US. Thus Elliot Spitzer had to resign as New York Governor for engaging a call girl service without almost no consideration of the key role he has been playing in exposing corporate malpractice in Wall Street. Surely the most important current issue in that state.
The debate about the Presidential candidates - McCain, Clinton and Obama almost always revolves around their personal qualities rather than around their policies and party/business/political affiliations and the interests they represent. Part of this is a media creation - it is very hard to interview an abstract concept like an "interest" and most people are bored by the minutae of policy debates.
The personal hatred and vitriol which accompanies "political" debates on US blogs and media is quite shocking to an outsider more used to the concept that people are people and what matters is policy, allegiances and competence.
I also can't help feeling that a lot of this has to do with the very individualistic form of religion which has evolved in the US where it is all about having a personal Saviour and about your personal responsibility and moral probity - as if all else follows from that. Thus Bush was really only doing God's work... "It's a mystery to me - the game commences, For the usual fee - plus expenses, Confidential information - it's in my diary..."
Unlike France, where there is a strongly held view that a candidate's private life is his own business
A pleasure I therefore claim to show, not how men think in myths, but how myths operate in men's minds without their being aware of the fact. Levi-Strauss, Claude
We're now in the midst of an epic financial crisis, which ought to be at the center of the election debate. But it isn't. Now, I don't expect presidential campaigns to have all the answers to our current crisis -- even financial experts are scrambling to keep up with events. But I do think we're entitled to more answers, and in particular a clearer commitment to financial reform, than we're getting so far. ... Hillary Clinton has not, as far as I can tell, made any comparably problematic economic claims. But she, like Mr. Obama, has been disappointingly quiet about the key issue: the need to reform our out-of-control financial system.
Now, I don't expect presidential campaigns to have all the answers to our current crisis -- even financial experts are scrambling to keep up with events. But I do think we're entitled to more answers, and in particular a clearer commitment to financial reform, than we're getting so far.
...
Hillary Clinton has not, as far as I can tell, made any comparably problematic economic claims. But she, like Mr. Obama, has been disappointingly quiet about the key issue: the need to reform our out-of-control financial system.
