"It's Time To Shove The Arugula Aside & Talk About The Realities Of Class"

[Joanne98]

From Thomas Frank (it's great news that he's now a columnist for the WSJ ... if you haven't read his book, "What's the Matter With Kansas" (available here), you should):

Things would go better for Democrats if they recognized the culture war for what it is: a debased form of class war, a false populism in which an "authentic" America rises up against its would-be masters, an effete bunch of arugula-eaters who say "Happy Holidays" instead of "Merry Christmas." ...

Consider the current economic catastrophe, which has been building for a year. Just as it has taken down Countrywide, Bear Stearns, Indymac, Freddie, Fannie, Lehman, Merrill and Lord knows who else in the weeks to come, it has also pulverized the reigning conservative shibboleths of the past 28 years.

There is simply no way to blame this disaster, as Republicans used to do, on labor unions or over-regulation. No, this is the conservatives' beloved financial system doing what comes naturally. Freed from the intrusive meddling of government, just as generations of supply-siders and entrepreneurial exuberants demanded it be, the American financial establishment has proceeded to cheat and deceive and beggar itself -- and us -- to the edge of Armageddon. It is as though Wall Street was run by a troupe of historical re-enactors determined to stage all the classic panics of the 19th century.


Thomas Frank & Rachel Maddow on McCain's deregulation record By the way, this is the same system the Republicans would still apparently like to put in charge of Social Security . The same system that is minting millionaire CEOs, that is holding the line on wages, and that we will be bailing out for years.

On Monday, John McCain blamed the disaster on "greed by some based in Wall Street." It's a personal failing of some evil few, in other words, and presumably capitalism will start working again once we squeeze the self-interest out of it. In the weeks to come, maybe Sen. McCain will also take a bold stand against covetousness and sloth.

But the structural changes of the past 28 years that have made all this possible -- the waves of deregulation, the takeover of government itself by business interests -- these haven't made too much of an impression on him. In March Mr. McCain actually called for more deregulation in response to the crisis, and at the Republican convention two weeks ago an ebullient Mitt Romney promised that Mr. McCain would take "a weed-whacker to excessive regulation." Just for good measure, this former management consultant also called for yet another round of attacks on the unionized federal workforce, deploring its "tyrannosaurus appetite."

Some tyrannosaurus! Thanks to the party of Romney and McCain, federal work is today so financially unattractive to top talent that it might as well be charity work. It's one of the main reasons -- other than outright conquest by the industries they're supposed to be overseeing -- that our regulatory agencies can't seem to get out of bed in the morning.

There has scarcely been a better time to shove the arugula aside and talk about the realities of class. It is heartening to see that Barack Obama is beginning to do just that, but he must keep hammering at the point until everyone in America understands the choice that lies before us.

http://www.ablueview.com/2008/09/its-time-to-shove-the-arugula-aside-talk-about-the-realities-of-class.html

[HereSince1628]

1. The reservoir of American wealth is breached...

Yeah, we are all united now. Everyone wants to refill the reservoir, but what we have is no insurance, hectares of mud, a washed out berm and a future of global climate change. Once wealthy vacationers we now look at what remains and ponder waiting for a new future. If it seems discouraging that's because it is.

Those who ate pork medallions in orange sauce accompanied by arugula salads now stand in the same basin with those who have always eaten kielbasa & kapusta or ate their pork with collards & sweet potatoes. Everyone begs for understanding, unity, and regulation. The iron taste in our mouths isn't from e-coli contaminated spinach.

The honest truth is that the existence of the reservoir, the vast reserve of American Wealth, was taken for granted by republicans and democrats alike as they tried to figure out ways to please those who sought only to maximize their exploitation of it. That was a mistake decades in the making and it turned out just like Lake Delton.

All that wealth is now working downstream, driving mill-wheels and making livings for other folks.



remember Lake Delton?
http://www.channel3000.com/news/16551812/detail.html