How economic crackpots devoured American politics (Jonathan Chait)

[swag]

http://www.tnr.com/docprint.mhtml?i=20070910&s=chait091007

(This article is excerpted from The Big Con: The True Story of How Washington Got Hoodwinked and Hijacked by Crackpot Economics by Jonathan Chait.)

American politics has been hijacked by a tiny coterie of right-wing economic extremists, some of them ideological zealots, others merely greedy, a few of them possibly insane. The scope of their triumph is breathtaking. Over the course of the last three decades, they have moved from the right-wing fringe to the commanding heights of the national agenda. Notions that would have been laughed at a generation ago--that cutting taxes for the very rich is the best response to any and every economic circumstance or that it is perfectly appropriate to turn the most rapacious and self-interested elements of the business lobby into essentially an arm of the federal government--are now so pervasive, they barely attract any notice.

The result has been a slow- motion disaster. Income inequality has approached levels normally associated with Third World oligarchies, not healthy Western democracies. The federal government has grown so encrusted with business lobbyists that it can no longer meet the great public challenges of our time. Not even many conservative voters or intellectuals find the result congenial. Government is no smaller--it is simply more debt-ridden and more beholden to wealthy elites.

It was not always this way. A generation ago, Republican economics was relentlessly sober. Republicans concerned themselves with such ills as deficits, inflation, and excessive spending. They did not care very much about cutting taxes, and (as in the case of such GOP presidents as Herbert Hoover and Gerald Ford) they were quite willing to raise taxes in order to balance the budget. While many of them were wealthy and close to business, the leaders of business themselves had a strong sense of social responsibility that transcended their class interests. By temperament, such men were cautious rather than utopian.

Over the last three decades, however, such Republicans have passed almost completely from the scene, at least in Washington, to be replaced by, essentially, a cult.

. . . much more

[xchrom]

1. recommend -- this is a keystone movement in our country -- and one that must be reversed.

[Prophet 451]

2. k&r

This needs to be brought to people's attention.

[Larry Ogg]

3. Our money system is one scam on top of the other.

Take a look at these two video’s http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-9050474362583451279&hl=en">Money As Debt and http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-515319560256183936&q=money+masters&total=1272&start=0&num=10&so=0&type=search&plindex=0"> The Money Masters combined with this OP, you will have a real good idea of who is running this country and the world, and ware they are leading us.

[Duppers]

4. factor in this

Oil is increasingly being brought in Euros and Yen. The US dollar will suffer further decline.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x2979989

[Larry Ogg]

8. The US dollar will suffer further decline. I’ll bet somebody’s banking on it? n/t

[TrogL]

6. Beware - Gold Bugs

[Duppers]

12. I watched 'Money As Debt' a few weeks ago

BTW.

This country is in such deep dodo.

[Larry Ogg]

14. Deep dodo is what one realizes after watching Money as debt

I would love to hear your euphemism after watching http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-515319560256183936&q=money+masters&total=1272&start=0&num=10&so=0&type=search&plindex=0"> The Money Masters, it is 3:35 hours long, It is a very well done (secrete revealing) factual documentary about those who create and control the money supply.

It’s about the man behind the curtain, the puppet masters controlling the strings of democracies, monarchies and tyrannies for centuries.

It reveals those behind the unfathomable suffering through horrific wars and poverty, mans inhumanity too man for the sole purpose of enriching the few, controlling our destiny and enslaving the world.

It also shows how we will be able too free ourselves from this system and save the world if we choose…

[truckin]

5. Excellent Article.

I would quibble with one point the author makes, though. He states:

"Americans, fortunately, do not have to worry about kleptocrats, political violence, and massive vote fraud."

While we may not have to worry about "massive vote fraud", we do have to worry about just enough vote fraud to keep the supply siders in power.

[bbgrunt]

7. I found this part especially interesting:

" In an unequal society, the majority resents its diminished status. It harbors the expectation of employing elections to drastically overturn its condition. In turn, the wealthy minority fears the outcome that may follow from free elections and the assertion of majority rule. As a result, it resorts to authoritarian institutions to guarantee its social and economic advantage.

Of the many taboos that prevail among conservatives, the one forbidding any serious discussion of inequality is perhaps the strictest. Any forthright examination of this topic will lead one quickly to the realization that American society has been spreading apart rapidly for three decades and that Republican economic policies have without a doubt contributed mightily to this gulf. So conservatives usually ignore the subject of inequality, except perhaps to minimize its scale or importance.

Why, then, did Policy Review, which is published by the staunchly conservative Hoover Institution, open its pages to such apostasy? Well, it didn't intend to. Boix's essay (which was brilliant and widely discussed) concerned the inculcation of democracy abroad and did not deal directly with the United States. And the circumstances Boix envisioned--mainly, developing countries attempting a transition to democracy--are different from those in an advanced democracy. Americans, fortunately, do not have to worry about kleptocrats, political violence, and massive vote fraud."


.....although I find that last sentence quite ironic!

[tom_paine]

10. Ironic?!? It was HIL-A-RI-OUS. Milk-spitting out the nose hilarious

Chait has quite the sense of humor.

[View from Here]

9. Not only economics!

This tendency, of course, is not limited to economics. As M. Washburn recently put it in the New York Observer (summing up the view of E. Shorris), "the conservative movement has been the guiding force in American life for over half a century and it has proven corrosive to our democracy." The latest example of this horror is the Dead Sea Scrolls outrage in San Diego, where a major museum appears to have entered a quid pro quo agreement with Christian fundamentalists to exclude a series of rationalist, secular-minded scholars and distort their findings in the exhibit -- for details, see http://www.nowpublic.com/christian-fundamentalism-and-dead-sea-scrolls-san-diego.

[tom_paine]

11. Totaliatrianism is defined by it's desire to control every aspect of national life

You think this is any less true of the Bushies, in the end, than it was of the Nazis?

All of these Middle Tranisiton incidents, by which I mean where regular people finally begin to feel the sting of BushPutinist Tyranny in their daily, personal lives.

Although it's just started, so we will have to see how fast the Bushies rocket us past and to the Penultimate Phase and Final Soltuions of BushPtuinism.

One nuke in Iraq could speed the process of Bushification/Tyrannization up quite a bit.

[Demeter]

13. The GOP Is Run by Anarchists: Nothing More, Nothing Less

Opportunistic anarchists, who create chaos to conceal their crimes and destroy those they don't like.