In case you hadn't noticed or just tuned in, I'm a left Democrat. I do not like, in any measure the idea of bailing out the plutocrats who've raped this country ever since St Ronnie sold this idea to the gullible American public. I'd like to do very nasty things to these people. I am sick of this same old same old state of affairs with the politicians in the pockets of the plutocrats. This whole mess is the architecture of the Republicans, although Bill Clinton to his discredit, signed some of it. Today the Republicans claimed their hurt feelings for being called to account screwed the deal. The stock market dropped like a sack of cow manure.
I have a good friend who advocates letting this just play itself out, no matter how bad the economy gets whacked in the interest of restructuring the whole mess, with everyone seeing how bankrupt our entire system is, ethically and intellectually. Emotionally I agree. The problem with this idea is that when our system tanks a lot of people get badly hurt. If we go, we take the world's economy with us. It is not just a matter of hitting a messy reset button for the US, the world gets reset along with us. A complete breakdown of the world economic system means chaos and severe suffering. This has consistently been the recipe for revolutions and warfare and the advancement of unprincipled demagogues.
The White House is scared bloodless by the approaching crisis, these ideologue that presided over the rush into this have entirely switched directions. The free marketeers have suddenly become socialists. There is a reason for their switch, they have looked at what is coming down the road and know what an absolute disaster it is. The electoral prospects of their party would take a massive hit from approving of this and they've measured the fallout to be of more significance. The most politicized Executive Branch in history is dedicated to political disaster in the face of this crisis. That has some significance.
If we were talking about a bloodletting of the plutocratic class I might be in some favor of letting this thing just hit the wall. That is not what the outcome is, the outcome is that ordinary Americans will die. That is not exaggeration, the economy is so connected to credit that production and transport will come to a screaming halt. Some of us in rural communities may weather such a thing better than the urban areas, but food and other services will evaporate and dealing with that is means extremes. Bad ones, ones that will cascade across the world.
Republican House members sank the deal. They've pouted about Nancy Pelosi making a partisan speech. They've put forward ideas that everyone with credible expertise cannot figure out how to work. They've driven the economic truck into the ditch and set it on fire and want to continue to throw gasoline on the flames with the same driving tactics that crashed the damn thing. They propose that this is a principled stand, that screw the economy means principles. Their principals won't suffer, the wealthy will continue to so and in fact improve their strategic position in crushing labor. The Daryl Issa's will go home to the ignorant Reichwingers and their plutocratic masters and say, we've put taxpayers (code for wealth) first and when it is corporate/wealth contribution time. This nutjob will get reelected and if Barack Obama gets elected this is an example of who he'll get to have to deal with.
I loath the current iteration of the Republican Party and I'm willing for some fairly bad things to happen to crush them. But, Judas Priest, I'm not willing to see my friends, family, and most of the rest of the population take it in the shorts to smack these folks around. I'd have thought that the road to here should have done the job, I'd have thought that the discredited nonsense spewed by these people since St Ronnie would have done it but McPOW being within 20 points of Obama and less than half of the Republican seats in serious jeopardy the issue is apparently still open. Somehow the message isn't getting from the smashed fingers to the hammer wielder that stopping the swinging is in order or that the finger should be moved. Expect more pain.
Oh yeah, John McCain was a POW so he's excused.
6 comments:
I guess I should really learn to hunt and grow some vegetables. Granted, my Mossberg 500 with the 18.5" barrel, red dot sight, and an M4-style collapsible stock was built more for home defense in mind than hunting, so I might want to invest in a proper rifle and some reloading equipment...
It pisses me off when a coworker comes in claiming the failures are because "banks were forced to give bad loans". And it pisses me off even if I was raised to be a good little conservative Republicans. All those years of taking Limbaugh's small gov talk to heart in the 90's really set me up to be horribly disappointed when I grow up to see what it really was all about. I was very much in John Cole's shoes, though my turn came when GW was upholded as the "busnessman's choice".
Sorry if this seems a bit scatterbrained. I am entering this from an iPhone while waiting on a dr appointment.
Barney Frank has the best take on the collapse of the bailout deal: http://thinkprogress.org/2008/09/29/frank-republican-feelings/
And as for Nick's point, here's an interesting post at Lifehacker, arguing that this could be a renaissance for the self-reliant among us: http://lifehacker.com/5056069/the-greater-depression-can-be-a-diy-renaissance"
bn
You do not want to go there. I promise. I'm a country boy, a hunter and fisherman, and damn self reliant. The urban landscape and sociology won't support it. It would last a bit longer out here, but still the inevitable is disaster. It is too late to plant this year, there is little chance you have enough dirt to grow self sufficiently and the prospect of trying to defend your patch should be horrifying.
Not scatterbrained, Nick
You are right, Chuck, I don't want to go there. Anything even resembling the Argentine economic crisis scares me to death. But it's like having a jack and a spare tire in the car. I don't have those because I hope to get a flat...
In any case, I am *far* from self-reliant. I'll be the first to admit that.
In anycase, I am with you with wanting to letting this play out and kicking the ass of those who propagated this situation, but not letting the innocent suffer should take a higher priority, even if the instigators get away as a result.
The problem with this idea is that when our system tanks a lot of people get badly hurt.
As Studs Terkel wrote in " Hard Times" If you are not on that ladder of success there's no falling off. In place now is social security, a prime pump, also Welfare, what's left after the Clinton rape, also a prime pump. None of these existed in '29 or until FDR came to power.
The infrastructure could easy prime the pump like WPA did in 30's.
Beware the shock syndrone...bad legislation usually occurs.
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