On 10/15/2010 4:23 PM, Dan Minette wrote:
-----Original Message-----
From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On
Behalf Of Doug Pensinger
Sent: Friday, October 15, 2010 1:54 PM
To: Killer Bs (David Brin et al) Discussion
Subject: Re: Down with the government
Leftists should recognize the right has a valid
argument about wasteful government spending.
I would argue that the right (the one that was in power anyway) was
the one doing all the wasteful spending. The idea that the right is
fiscally conservative _in practice_ is a farce. I'm not saying that
the left has it completely correct either, far from it, but if you
vote for the GOP because you want to curb wasteful spending, you're
barking up the wrong tree.
That's what makes the Tea Party so interesting. They are actually small
government believers. I don't say I agree with them, I have strong
differences with them, but their candidates do have a self-consistent
message. I think most folks at their rallies don't think through their
viewpoints.
I think a little historical perspective can be helpful here. I don't
think there is any argument against the fact that some government
spending is wasteful, just as some corporate spending is wasteful, some
private family spending is wasteful, etc. Simply saying that is not
particularly insightful, but I cannot take seriously a claim that the
Tea Party represents a disagreement about spending levels and
priorities. When large numbers of people start questioning whether Obama
is really American, when the Republican health care plan from 1993 is
now described as a descent into socialism, and a totally white group of
people start talking about "taking OUR country back," you have to face
the fact that this is much deeper than a budget disagreement.
What I think is really going on is that we are going through a period of
rapid and intense change, and a whole lot of people want to stop this
and turn the clock back. I think we all know it is not going to happen,
long term, but in the short term a lot of fear and anger (and that is
what the Tea Party really represents) can perhaps cause a hiccup on the
path we're headed on. It is not a new phenomenon. One could compare the
current moment to the transition from an agrarian to an industrial
society a century ago. A way of life that most people thought would last
forever was disappearing before people's eyes, and being replaced by
something strange and "unnatural". Then ,as now, people looked for a
scapegoats who could be portrayed as "un-American". This was also the
first period of intense anti-Immigrant agitation . Only then it was not
Mexicans. In my family I grew up hearing stories about signs in the
windows of Boston establishments "Help Wanted - No Irish Need Apply."
The changes that are coming are pretty clear. Whites will be a minority
in America in a few decades. Young people today not only are much less
racially biased, they also don't see the point of homophobia, they tend
to think women and men should work together more equally, etc. And they
came out in force to help elect the first black President in 2008. In
other words, we have a continuing culture ware against a backdrop of
change that is rapidly making the old culture obsolete. And I would
suggest the economic difficulties, which are very real, are best
understood within this context, as just another example of everything
going haywire. The Republican party is basically the party of old white
folks, and there are fewer of them every day.
I don't think they will win in the long run. In my lifetime, I saw
people lynched in the South, and we now have our first black President.
The numbers of women in top positions is generally increasing, even if
some of them make me wince (Sarah Palin). But it is still a notable
change. And there is no doubt in my mind that if we had not elected our
first black President in 2008, we would have elected our first female
President (Hillary Clinton). And I don't see much of that progress being
reversed, even if the Republicans stage a temporary comeback.
There are some notable things about this year that are very interesting.
Thew first is that while the Republicans are likely to take over the
House of Representatives in this election, their approval rating is
still abysmal, and in fact lower than Democrats. The second is that the
policies the Republicans advocate are not very popular. In particular I
am struck by the fact that the general concept of health care reform is
about even in the polls, but if you poll on the specific measures within
the legislation they poll much higher. What that tells me is that this
election is not about polices, it is about "Stop the world, I want to
get off." And that is something the Republicans simply cannot deliver.
Regards,
--
Kevin B. O'Brien TANSTAAFL
[email protected] Linux User #333216
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