Re: Down with the government

  On 10/15/2010 4:23 PM, Dan Minette wrote:
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: brin-l-bounces-r0TUnz/JSrZWk0Htik3J/[email protected] [mailto:brin-l-bounces-r0TUnz/JSrZWk0Htik3J/[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