After Carter was elected I was rather pleased and a more savvy friend of mine said, "Just wait, he's merely a brief respite."
Wherein I relate a sobering thread of comments between myself and another Kossack that reveals my own and perhaps others' source of discouragement with the current administration. And wherein it may appear prudent to support said administration while at the same time criticizing the hell out of it and looking for alternatives.
The following comments were in response to the diary Attacked: My Newspaper Op-Ed Causes Wealthy Crying
Wolf:
Yes, big finance capital is sucking wealth out of the system with no equivalent creation of value. It should be returned to productive use through taxation. We should probably throw in some jail time for good measure.
Peter:
Unfortunately, I think we've gone beyond a tippin
point here...the financial sector appears to own enough of the political system that they will never pay for the damage they've done, either fiscally or personally.
And their sense of entitlement is likely to grow exponentially as this continues...the doctors, lawyers, and engineers who make good money while actually working for a living will be co-opted to provide a friendly face for the billionaires who will in the end own everything worth having.
Think of it as the immensely rich preparing for the near-term, resource-limited future.
Wolf:
Hope yer wrong; fear yer not. eom
Peter:
You and me both... :(
Wolf:
what do you think of Reich's Aftershock scenario?
This is a hypothetical development described by Reich and quoted in a DK review of his book, Aftershock.
Aftershock: a book review by Susan Gardner
The platform of the Independence Party, as well as its message, is clear and uncompromising: zero tolerance of illegal immigrants; a freeze on legal immigration from Latin America, Africa and Asia; increased tariffs on all imports; a ban on American companies moving their operations to another country or outsourcing abroad; a prohibition on "sovereign wealth funds" investing in the United States. America will withdraw from the United Nations, the World Trade Organization, the World Bank, and the International Monetary Fund; end all "involvements" in foreign countries; refuse to pay any more interest on our debt to China, essentially defaulting on it; and stop trading with China until China freely floats its currency.
Profitable companies will be prohibited from laying off workers and cutting payrolls. The federal budget must always be balanced. The Federal Reserve will be abolished.
Banks will be allowed only to take deposits and make loans. Investment banking will be prohibited. Anyone found to have engaged in insider trading, stock manipulation, or securities fraud will face imprisonment for no less than ten years.
Peter:
Unfortunately, there are all sorts of horrible
ways this could develop, especially since I really don't think we're even halfway through this, and in addition it's likely to run right into Peak Oil and Climate Change issues as we start a recovery.
One thought (not a cheerful one) I will put out is that Robert Reich has quite a good track record at calling trends early.
Wolf:
Perhaps my view is darkened
as a result of being largely shaped in the 60s and 70s during the golden age of U.S. support for third-world fascist coups. We are now dealing with the politically ascendant ideological descendants of those corporatist cronies.
I worked with victims of the Chile's Pinochet regime and recall Laura Allende saying she was surprised by the [U.S. instigated, right-wing]coup because she had not realized "how much they [the Right and the U.S. ruling class] hated us."
I fear that Obama and most Democrats are the Neville Chamberlain's of America's internal politics. Let's hope he doesn't become its Salvador Allende. And let's hope the tradition of military deference to civilian control holds as well. The Left needs time to get itself organized into a more militant and powerful electoral force. We just aren't there yet.