By Tom Kando
Not much has changed since
Goldwater, half a century ago. Liberals
always delude themselves into believing that the essence of America is
progressive and that the right-wing is at the fringe.
In fact, it is the opposite. The
right, like cockroaches, never dies. It always adapts. It co-opts new rhetoric and jettisons things
(like its affiliation with the Ku Klux Klan) when they become embarrassing. The
right always comes back stronger than
before: Think of Ronald Reagan’s
triumphs, and what is going on today.
America is a fundamentally
right-wing country, and it will remain so. Rich’s article is upsetting, because it seems true. Here is my initial reaction to it:
Therefore, America will
increasingly fail, and fall behind. America
is wedded to a political and economic system which is less effective
than the more modern systems that are currently evolving.
Ever since the late 19th
century, the world began to experiment with the inevitable next chapter in
social evolution, namely more integrated
and planned systems of social and economic development. Many mistakes
were made, including National Socialism and Bolshevism. However, these errors should not be misinterpreted
to mean that “Socialism” is a failed experiment. By whatever name you wish to
use, it is inescapable that the future belongs to more planned, centralized, “mixed” social
democracies. Western Europe is one possible model, despite its current (but
only temporary) difficulties. China is another. And there is a myriad others -
from Canada to Japan, from India to Australia and New Zealand.
One thing is clear: The world is
moving forward towards such systems, and
America finds itself at the rearguard of history. Its allegiance to
“paleo-Capitalism” and its refusal to evolve towards a mixed system dooms it,
as it becomes increasingly dysfunctional
both politically and economically.
One is reminded of Spain’s
decline from the 16th century onward, when it embraced the defense
of the Catholic status quo as its fundamental mission, while much of the rest of Europe moved on
towards Protestantism, Capitalism and modernity (see Max Weber). leave comment here
10 comments:
Happy days are here again
The skies above are clear again
So let's sing a song of cheer again
Happy days are here again
Altogether shout it now
There's no one
Who can doubt it now
So let's tell the world about it now
Happy days are here again
Your cares and troubles are gone
There'll be no more from now on
From now on...
Happy days are here again
Wow, I guess India, Western Europe, China, Canada, Japan, Australia, and New Zealand had better start preparing now on how they are going to handle all those illegal American immigrants searching for “fairness” and “economic growth”.
Frank Rich has drunk the tea of liberalism for a long time- he is hallucinating. (Not a new condition) What liberals try to discount is the basis of American Exceptionalism which is not the paternalism of Europe or Japan. If the world is moving forward to these "systems" then why is Europe floundering?
Americans are sometimes fooled, as they were when they elected the current president who has consistently tried to "change" our basic fiscal constitution - which has compassion but which also understands that the negative economic growth that Japan has suffered or the paltry economic growth in the EU (which ranged last year from .7% to what the US achieved 1.7) is caused in part by deficits and committing too much to the government sector. As Lady Thatcher commented - "The problem with socialism is that eventually you run out of other people's money [to spend]." We are now spending 25% of GDP on federal functions and 40¢ of every dollar we spend. That is an unsustainable path and more to the point (as we have discovered in the last four years) all that spending will not improve either the condition of the country nor the economic situation of the least well off in society.
Yet some other stats to make the case - In the current economic downturn, middle class African-Americans have lost virtually all the gains they made over the past 30 years, according to the National Urban League. Median annual household income for blacks decline by more than 11 percent between June 2009 and June 2012, according to the Census bureau, twice the loss suffered by whites.
This country is right of center, not right wing. Obama will lose, not because he isn’t right wing; he will lose because people don’t want another four years of a corrupt, incompetent regime.
It’s always gratifying to be acknowledged... There is no such thing as bad publicity. The only thing worse than being gossiped about is NOT being gossiped about (Oscar Wilde). So, thank you all, even though you all disagree.
To first anonymous: haha
To second anonymous: This year for the first time, more Mexican immigrants have actually LEFT the US to return to Mexico than the other way around. So you are not so far from the truth.
To Jonathan: To what extent Europe is going to continue to flounder remains to be seen.
As to African-Americans: For most of the 20th century, their average income has been about 50% of whites. The only time they caught up a bit was during the progressive 1960s and its aftermath, when they went up to about 60%. Thereafter, they went back down. The decline is not correlated with the Obama administration and its policies.
To last anonymous: Corruption and incompetence are relative. In my book, the George W. Bush regime was probably one of the most corrupt and incompetent in US history.
Two misconceptions widely propagated by the Republican Party are that Obama is (1) THE most socialistic president we have ever had and (2) THE worst president we have ever had.
One can debate how socialistic and how incompetent president Obama is, but no sane person can argue that he has been number one in these two respects:
Economically, he has been a prudent centrist and far from extremely liberal. The fact that many on the Left deplore this, is an indication that it is so.
Competence-wise, his record of achievement already puts him far above many of his predecessors.
The only reasonable debating point will be whether he goes down in history as an excellent president (which is what I believe), or just a mediocre one. But THE worst? Give me a break!
Tom-
I look at three things when trying to evaluate economic situations - they are population dynamics (Europe is below replacement rate for population of its native components - that means either fewer people who can do basic tasks OR substitution by populations whose values are fundamentally different), Debt to GDP ratios (Europe's for the most part are disastrous), and unfunded liabilities in the social safety net (again disastrous). If you add in worker productivity it looks even worse.
A prudent centrist would not have encouraged four trillion deficits, a looney health care plan without getting at least some sign off by the GOP (ditto for financial regulation), or the outrages he has committed around the world including in Libya.
Let's hope you and Rich are having a bad day regarding the tea party's future. The tea party politics are strong in the older whiter demographic which is dying out. I have hope for a more enlightened future. But in the mean time moving to Canada might not be a bad idea.
To Jonathan:
1. Europe’s debt to GDP ratio is not nearly as high as that of the US. Ours now exceeds 100% ($16 trillion). Greece’s ratio is higher, but that of most other European countries (Northern countries such as Germany, the Netherlands, Scandinavia, and France as well) is well below ours (and Japan’s public debt is even higher than ours, by the way, yet we don’t hear much panic about that).
2. Europe’s other alleged problems (demographic trends, etc.): I wouldn’t bet on Europe’s collapse, yet. I recommend that you go check out living conditions over there. There is something to be said for empirical observation.
3. Looney health care plan? Just trying to get a more civilized and more public plan, closer to what Canada, Europe, Australia, Japan, and the rest of the advanced world has enjoyed for decades. Aren’t Americans entitled to as good a life as all those other folks?
4. The Benghazi brouhaha is a contrived fabrication. Alas, American diplomats, businessmen and tourists have been murdered overseas as far back as you and I can remember, under Republican and Democratic administrations alike.
5. Outrages around the world? This is truly an absurd statement. If anything, wars, hostility, conflict and killings have been at the lowest ebb in many years, thanks to President Obama. Our relationship with the rest of the world is better than it has been in decades.
Here are my grades for Obama:
1) Domestic Economic Policy: A-;
(2) Foreign Policy: A;
(3) Domestic social issues: A.
To Carol Ryan:
Thanks for your concise and sharp comment. I gather that you and I are on the same side. I, too, hope that Rich and I are wrong. Sometimes it helps to be pessimistic, so as to try even harder to prevail...
Congratulations Tom, your side won...now welcome to the recession of 2013 as businesses cut back.
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