The End of New Deal Liberalism
William Greider
Exactly.
Chris Hedges has also been hammering home the point that the Liberal Class is extinct having sold out to the Corporatist Overlords, and there really is no institutional Vox Populi any more.
As Greider says that from a practical standpoint, and Hedges puts in moralist terms, the only way forward -- for the People -- is for the People to take charge of their fate from the hands of the Unified Corporatist/Government.
While recognizing the problem is good, and understanding that action has to be taken to correct the problem, ultimately the issue boils down to risk and Revolution. Americans are not -- yet -- willing to take the risk of Revolution to re-create a New America.
The TeaBagger Movement may be funded and manipulated by a handful of billionaires intent on using the energy of populism to institutionalize their dream of full corporate control of government. The billionaires are willing to risk the potential for real Revolution inherent in the ignorant mobs they have curried and are unleashing. Historically speaking, these efforts don't work out too well, revolutionary mobs have a way of getting out of control and going off in unpleasant directions. That's just how it goes.
What do the billionaires do then? For example, if the TeaBaggers force government default on its bonds by refusing to raise the debt ceiling, what do the billionaires do? They own many of those bonds after all. What do they do?
Or if, somehow, the 'Baggers are able to get free of their thrall to Corporatist propaganda (some of them at least talk as if they could), what then? What if the 'Baggers turn on their corporate overlords? What do the billionaires do?
And if by some chance the workers of the world actually unite and align with the 'Baggers to force revolutionary change (however that might be accomplished), what do the billionaires do?
Clearly, the Corporate Overlords have rooms full of people thinking these potentials through. Obviously, they have most of the world's governments, not just the United States Government, comfortably in their pockets. Can the unrest among the masses be permanently defused and revolutionary fervor forever channeled into corporate-productive avenues, or will the People finally reach the point of no return -- and turn on their masters?
With no institutional support for the public interest or the public will, not even tangentially, any genuine new populist movement (of which there is none on the Left) faces a hard row to hoe.
But as Greider says, we've been here before, under worse conditions than now. The outcome of the uprisings of the past were not at all what the populists and anarchists and communists and other agitators had in mind, and yet the outcome in this country is what we've come to revere as New Deal Liberalism.
New Deal Liberalism is gone now.
Time for something else again.
Society faces dreadful prospects and profound transformation. When both parties are aligned with corporate power, who will stand up for the people? Who will protect them from the insatiable appetites of capitalist enterprise and help them get through the hard passage ahead? One thing we know for sure from history: there is no natural limit to what capitalism will seek in terms of power and profit. If government does not stand up and apply the brakes, society is defenseless.
Exactly.
Chris Hedges has also been hammering home the point that the Liberal Class is extinct having sold out to the Corporatist Overlords, and there really is no institutional Vox Populi any more.
As Greider says that from a practical standpoint, and Hedges puts in moralist terms, the only way forward -- for the People -- is for the People to take charge of their fate from the hands of the Unified Corporatist/Government.
A century ago the populist rebellion organized farmer cooperatives, started dozens of newspapers and sent out lecturers to spread the word. Socialists and the labor movement did much the same. Modern Americans cannot depend on the Democratic Party or philanthropy to sponsor small-d democracy. We have to do it. But we have resources and modern tools—including the Internet—those earlier insurgents lacked.
[...]
Reformers today face conditions similar to what the Populists and Progressives faced: monopoly capitalism, a labor movement suppressed with government's direct assistance, Wall Street's "money trust" on top, the corporate state feeding off government while ignoring immoral social conditions. The working class, meanwhile, is regaining its identity, as millions are being dispossessed of middle-class status while millions of others struggle at the bottom. Working people are poised to become the new center of a reinvigorated democracy, though it is not clear at this stage whether they will side with the left or the right. Understanding all these forces can lead to the new governing agenda society desperately needs.
While recognizing the problem is good, and understanding that action has to be taken to correct the problem, ultimately the issue boils down to risk and Revolution. Americans are not -- yet -- willing to take the risk of Revolution to re-create a New America.
The TeaBagger Movement may be funded and manipulated by a handful of billionaires intent on using the energy of populism to institutionalize their dream of full corporate control of government. The billionaires are willing to risk the potential for real Revolution inherent in the ignorant mobs they have curried and are unleashing. Historically speaking, these efforts don't work out too well, revolutionary mobs have a way of getting out of control and going off in unpleasant directions. That's just how it goes.
What do the billionaires do then? For example, if the TeaBaggers force government default on its bonds by refusing to raise the debt ceiling, what do the billionaires do? They own many of those bonds after all. What do they do?
Or if, somehow, the 'Baggers are able to get free of their thrall to Corporatist propaganda (some of them at least talk as if they could), what then? What if the 'Baggers turn on their corporate overlords? What do the billionaires do?
And if by some chance the workers of the world actually unite and align with the 'Baggers to force revolutionary change (however that might be accomplished), what do the billionaires do?
Finally, left-liberals need to start listening and learning—talking up close to ordinary Americans, including people who are not obvious allies. We should look for viable connections with those who are alienated and unorganized, maybe even ideologically hostile. The Tea Party crowd got one big thing right: the political divide is not Republicans against Democrats but governing elites against the people. A similar division exists within business and banking, where the real hostages are the smaller, community-scale firms imperiled by the big boys getting the gravy from Washington. We have more in common with small-business owners and Tea Party insurgents than the top-down commentary suggests.
Clearly, the Corporate Overlords have rooms full of people thinking these potentials through. Obviously, they have most of the world's governments, not just the United States Government, comfortably in their pockets. Can the unrest among the masses be permanently defused and revolutionary fervor forever channeled into corporate-productive avenues, or will the People finally reach the point of no return -- and turn on their masters?
With no institutional support for the public interest or the public will, not even tangentially, any genuine new populist movement (of which there is none on the Left) faces a hard row to hoe.
But as Greider says, we've been here before, under worse conditions than now. The outcome of the uprisings of the past were not at all what the populists and anarchists and communists and other agitators had in mind, and yet the outcome in this country is what we've come to revere as New Deal Liberalism.
New Deal Liberalism is gone now.
Time for something else again.
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