Category Archives: Social Commentary

Excellent article from Hal Crowther in “The Independent Weekly:”

The people have spoken. But what did they say? I wish that President Obama, besieged by conservatives warning him to heed the voice of the people, could summon the impudence to say what I might say, in his place, about the midterm elections of 2010. Maybe this is the way he’d answer his tormentors, if he dared: “When you can explain to me why Americans who have so little join forces against me with those who have way too much, then I might begin to understand what the electorate is saying.”

He would never hear an honest reply. The dishonest one, a mantra on the right, is that all those Americans, rich and poor, share an unshakable belief in the free-market economy—which in the case of blue-collar tea-baggers is the same as an unshakable belief that they will win the lottery. The great Republican resurrection of 2010 makes no sense whatsoever where traditional logic prevails. A cartoon by Dan Wasserman of The Boston Globe shows the shell-shocked donkey and the jubilant elephant sitting at a bar. The donkey says “They voted you back into office out of anger over the mess you created?” and the leering pachyderm replies, “You don’t believe in recycling?”

The midterms make exactly that much sense unless you concede that they mark the most successful manipulation of the gullible by the cynical that this deceitful republic has yet witnessed. Billionaires and “undisclosed” corporate donors poured kings’ ransoms into relentless attack ads against vulnerable Democrats. Right-wing broadcasters circulated myths and lies that would have made Joseph Goebbels blush, and every racist and xenophobic impulse threatening to a nonwhite president was exploited without apology. The secret money served it up, and the logic-impaired tea party irregulars swallowed the poisoned bait with relish. The net result of the vaunted populist rebellion of 2010 was a sharp turn toward corporate feudalism, as the House of Representatives and many state legislatures and governor’s mansions reverted to a rudderless but ruthless Republican Party that has never been less deserving of another chance.

It’s really worth clicking the link, below, and reading the entire article:

More:   Gone missing: The country’s conscience, brain and heart | Hal Crowther | Independent Weekly.

Great article.  This is Nicholas Kristof’s follow-up to his “Banana Republic column last month.

Here is a brief excerpt.  I encourage you to click the link to the full column.

But there is also a larger question: What kind of a country do we aspire to be? Would we really want to be the kind of plutocracy where the richest 1 percent possesses more net worth than the bottom 90 percent?

Oops! That’s already us. The top 1 percent of Americans owns 34 percent of America’s private net worth, according to figures compiled by the Economic Policy Institute in Washington. The bottom 90 percent owns just 29 percent.

That also means that the top 10 percent controls more than 70 percent of Americans’ total net worth.

via A Hedge Fund Republic? – NYTimes.com.