I'm going to quote this post from Delawareliberal in its entirety, because; (a) it's short enough; and (b) nobody outside Delaware would believe it if I didn't. From The Great Depression is here:
This is a fascinating use of both the politics of fear and the exterminationist language that our liberal and progressive friends so thoroughly abhor. What a great way to turn a serious situation with both short and long-term routes in the structure of the American economy (long-term roots that far, far predate Ronald Reagan) into noting more than the usual political football, to be approached without any imagination or creativity beyond massive Federal bailouts and the election of the candidate who has--over the course of his entire Senatorial career--been the largest recipient of lobbyist contributions from the affected firms in our government. Yeah, that will fix the problem.
Massive tax increases, DD? To do what? To nationalize the entire financial sector?
Great kool-aid you're drinking.
The child is coughing, so we'll hold the poor dear under water until he stops breathing.
Notice that not once in all of this rant do we include the voracious appetite for the Federal government--under Republicans and Democrats for gobbling up larger and larger pieces of the available capital in the economy, either to pay for military imperialism, transfers of wealth, nationalization of entire economic sectors, or servicing the debt created thereby.
Notice that we never once discuss the idea that government, instead of expanding to gobble up every organization in crisis, followed by massive tax increases that simply won't pay for the problem, that government ever start to live within its means.
Delawaredem and his cohorts have now become reactive, pseudo-liberal populists, who are so panicked by the rhetoric that the Bush Administration (yes, the Bush Administration) is using to justify the current emergency that they can only advocate a single solution: the State must take care of everything.
What the current situation proves, among other things, is that the huge modern State becomes the playground for both exclusionary political parties to pursue alternating courses of feeding bread and circuses to their own ideological bases.
In this, DD is right: the Republicans no less than the Democrats, as parties, have continually sold America down the river of their own interests.
All the while, both parties continue to suggest--like old whores covering their their sores with make-up--that we have only to establish an exclusive relationship with either of them to get out of this mess.
No.
To get out of this mess we're going to have to do two things that do not come easily to Americans:
1. Think rather than react in horror and fear to sensationalized news stories.
2. Learn some basic economics beyond Republican pilfering and Democratic pandering.
Oh, shit. I just looked back at what I'm asking.
We ARE in trouble.
Because the original post I quoted (along with its knee-jerk cousins from the opposite side of the Demopublican Party) is not an anomaly--it's typical.
Let’s be clear, without this massive bailout, the economic system of the United States would collapse into a depression worse than the Great Depression. The system would “meltdown.” The Dollar would be worth nothing. Senator Christopher Dodd said that is what lawmakers were told last night.
My God.
You fucking Republicans are all to blame. Your advocacy of deregulation for the last 30 years is responsible. The greed that underlies your policies and that invades your supporters was your motivation. You put yourselves and your wallets first, and our country last. You should all be round up and shot. Seriously.
This massive bailout will require massive tax increases on everyone. And I am talking about returning to 70% tax rates on the rich, like before Reagan. The thirty years of fun are over.
This is a fascinating use of both the politics of fear and the exterminationist language that our liberal and progressive friends so thoroughly abhor. What a great way to turn a serious situation with both short and long-term routes in the structure of the American economy (long-term roots that far, far predate Ronald Reagan) into noting more than the usual political football, to be approached without any imagination or creativity beyond massive Federal bailouts and the election of the candidate who has--over the course of his entire Senatorial career--been the largest recipient of lobbyist contributions from the affected firms in our government. Yeah, that will fix the problem.
Massive tax increases, DD? To do what? To nationalize the entire financial sector?
Great kool-aid you're drinking.
The child is coughing, so we'll hold the poor dear under water until he stops breathing.
Notice that not once in all of this rant do we include the voracious appetite for the Federal government--under Republicans and Democrats for gobbling up larger and larger pieces of the available capital in the economy, either to pay for military imperialism, transfers of wealth, nationalization of entire economic sectors, or servicing the debt created thereby.
Notice that we never once discuss the idea that government, instead of expanding to gobble up every organization in crisis, followed by massive tax increases that simply won't pay for the problem, that government ever start to live within its means.
Delawaredem and his cohorts have now become reactive, pseudo-liberal populists, who are so panicked by the rhetoric that the Bush Administration (yes, the Bush Administration) is using to justify the current emergency that they can only advocate a single solution: the State must take care of everything.
What the current situation proves, among other things, is that the huge modern State becomes the playground for both exclusionary political parties to pursue alternating courses of feeding bread and circuses to their own ideological bases.
In this, DD is right: the Republicans no less than the Democrats, as parties, have continually sold America down the river of their own interests.
All the while, both parties continue to suggest--like old whores covering their their sores with make-up--that we have only to establish an exclusive relationship with either of them to get out of this mess.
No.
To get out of this mess we're going to have to do two things that do not come easily to Americans:
1. Think rather than react in horror and fear to sensationalized news stories.
2. Learn some basic economics beyond Republican pilfering and Democratic pandering.
Oh, shit. I just looked back at what I'm asking.
We ARE in trouble.
Because the original post I quoted (along with its knee-jerk cousins from the opposite side of the Demopublican Party) is not an anomaly--it's typical.
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