Free Market: Necessary but not Sufficient

Somewhere along the line, perhaps because of relentless promotion by free marketeers, America has adopted the notion that our democracy must have a free market economy. Capitalism seemingly was advocated by no less than the Founding Fathers as the only possible economic system possible for our nation, if these people are to be believed. The bare fact is that numerous democracies operate quite well indeed using socialist economic principles. I do not say this as a die hard advocate for socialism but to point out that democracy and capitalism are not joined at the hip as some would have us believe.

Another hard fact is that many of our nations most precious institutions are based in socialist economic principles. These institutions thrive because the goods or services they offer have been shown to work best with the government running the show. The postal service, police and fire departments, social security and many other entities do best with government management.

This is not to say that we should eschew Capitalism entirely. Capitalism’s benefits are many, entrepreneurial spirit, innovation, and the drive to raise our selves from poverty to wealth have served this country well over the years. The problem lies in the dark underbelly of capitalism as practiced by unscrupulous manipulators. Left unchecked capitalists seek only that which will benefit them, to the detriment of anybody else. A runaway capitalist influenced government could easily lead to the downfall of democracy as we appreciate it in this great land.

If capitalist and the politicians they control continue to ride roughshod over the democratic principles we cherish, without the protections afforded the people by government regulation with teeth, we could soon live in a country very unfamiliar to those who fought to create us. They have the money but we have the power if we choose to unite and use it.

This is why a large part of the tactical operations of the corporate overlords is involved with keeping us at each others throats. The Tea Party activists are kept in the dark about just how much in common they have with the progressives they revile by nimble manipulation of hot button emotional issues propagated by the right wing echo chamber.

The battles for the heart and soul of America rage. We may lose some along the way but the fight must continue, as the war must be won if America is to have the future envisioned for it by those who founded us. A well regulated capitalist economy, with some socialist institutions where applicable, is a requisite goal of this struggle.

Are we truly all demons?

One of my guilty pleasures is to read the commentary on news and opinion items at my local newspapers online site. Let me first say that this dialogue is dominated by perhaps two dozen diehard enthusiasts who obviously have more time than they know what to do with. There are approximately an equal number of conservatives and liberals, ostensibly, who are among these chronic posters. One means of amusing myself while reading is counting the number of posts before the debate leaves the realm of the topic and becomes quite personal.

There seems to be an epidemic of ad hominem attacks at all levels of public discourse these days. Normal people with valid opinions are consistently called idiots, morons (or morans if you wish) or any number of epithets denoting some level of depravity. I have often wondered what is the source of all this vitriol. Do people truly need to demonize those with different opinions? Do they need to call people names simply to make them feel better about themselves or their own opinions?

I believe everyone wants to believe that their opinions are correct. There is nothing wrong with this. A large part of life is assessing situations and forming an opinion. Where this can all too easily go south is when we make the illogical assumption that those who disagree with us have some sort of mental or emotional deficit.

The media can take at least a modicum of the blame for this phenomenon. Modern media can emphasize the differences between us rather than the things we all have in common as humans and Americans. As citizens we must overcome this tendency to demonize our social and political opponents.

A lot depends on us developing meaningful and conscious dialogue to address our many problems

But Names Will Never Hurt Me ?

Over the last several days since the attempted assassination of Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords nearly everyone in the political journalistic realm has opined on the event. To over generalize, the right has concentrated on portraying the shooter as a crazy man and offering up false equivalencies about how deranged people exist on both ends of the political spectrum and there is vitriolic rhetoric that emanates from everywhere, not just the right. The left has mostly offered that we have a toxic political climate where cross hairs are placed on congressional districts on a website graphic and leaders such as US Senate candidates speak of Second Amendment remedies. They are certain this vitriol inevitably leads unstable people to do heinous things.

In other words, everyone is scrambling to convince us that they are not culpable, that their side is not responsible for this senseless act. The reality is that we are all somewhat responsible. We have all come to accept a level of hyperbole in public discourse that uses war analogies, terms of destruction and the language of mortal conflict to describe our day to day human conflicts. We speak of kill shots and taking out people and wiping out our enemies. This is especially true in sports analogies. We blitz, we take no prisoners, we attack a defense. We have become inured to the use of these terms of war in our everyday syntax. We have taken man’s proclivity for violence and made it an essential part of our daily lives by allowing the language of violence to flourish.

No one is blameless. Yes, the right wing has had more visible leaders give tacit or overt approval to the use of the terminology of death than the left, but the left has been as vociferous as anyone in demonizing those with which it disagrees. We all accept the use of the language of hate as normal.

One thing the media has not done these past few days is turn the microscope on itself. Who is it that has fed us a constant stream of hateful language in its day to day coverage of world events? In a desire to create as much controversy as possible to get as many paying viewers to make as much money as possible the media throws caution to the wind. The goal of media is no longer to inform clearly. Instead it is to entertain, to make money for the parent company. Using the language of hate is just one of many ways so called “news” outlets compete for the hearts and minds of the viewer and/or listener. Lawmakers do not disagree they “clash”.  The other party is not an opponent but an “enemy”.

Until we as a society reject the common use of the language of hate by our media and as it has seeped into our everyday usage we will, knowledgeably or unwittingly as the case may be, continue to create a climate of fear and loathing in public discourse. We need to learn how to disagree without using the language of war and hate. Words have consequences. It starts with you and me and what we allow as acceptable language for public discourse. Perhaps, when debating politics, fewer ad hominem attacks and more respect for those who disagree with us is a place where we can all start.

Sticks and stones still break bones but words CAN harm us.

The Government We Deserve

It is said we get the government we deserve. I take this to mean that whatever expertise and mood is existent in the electorate is reflected in those they choose to govern, through whom they vote for in elections. If we are wise we get wisdom in government. If we are foolish we get fools.

It is early in the morning Nov 3rd, the day after the election fiasco for Democrats that was the 2010 midterm elections. Nationally Republicans took back the House in dramatic fashion and nearly took over the Senate as well. Numerous Republican governor candidates, taking advantage of Tea Party voters, won their states, leading up to redistricting in 2012. Here in Minnesota Republicans took over both houses of the state legislature for the first time in a generation. Unabashed progressives such as Alan Grayson and Russ Feingold were shown the door.

So what does all this mean. First it means more gridlock nationally, as a Republican House will butt heads with a Democratic Executive. Second it means lots of attempts, and plenty of success, at passing draconian cuts to social programs as Republican legislatures and governors rush to outdo each other in legislating “less government” and “fiscal sanity”.

How did this all come about. I believe there are two major reasons. First, swing voters are notoriously fickle, taking on a “what have you done for me lately” mentality. They “swing” back and forth between the parties hoping to find the beat deal of the moment, not realizing how slowly the gears of government can move. They gave the Democrats a whole two years to solve a problem that in many ways had been thirty years in the making. They didn’t get what they wanted immediately and made the Democrats suffer for their “failure”. Second, what we have seen is the first installment of corporatist government, bought and sold by big money by way of the Citizens United ruling. Corporations have been able to whip the electorate into a Tea Party frenzy by massively funding misleading and downright false ads about their progressive enemies as well as secretly funding the organizational efforts of said Tea Partiers.

It is this takeover by corporate interests which I find most troubling. Swing voters are likely to swing back again as they become disillusioned with the other side for not doing things fast enough, as is sure to happen. Corporations, however, will be able to continue to pour huge amounts of dollars into their efforts to dominate society, effectively drowning out their competition, at which they are so well experienced. Creeping Fascism will become more of a torrent. Soon we will be just another corporate oligarchy, another third world nation with a small elite class of undeniable wealth and a large docile underclass, pining for their own chance at the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.

This is the eventuality which really scares me. If this were merely a case of a pendulum swing I would simply spit on my hands and start working to bring about the next shift in political fortunes. The realities of the firm establishment of corporate money as free speech are much more menacing. The true left wing in America, our progressive activists, and sympathetic politicians are in danger of extinction, run out of town on a rail by a population hoodwinked into accepting corporate interests as essential to the health of our democracy.

Capitalists are hell bent on establishing conspicuous consumption capitalism as a necessary function of the American democracy. They are succeeding. American democracy does not have to be dominated by cruel and heartless Capitalists. We can have a non socialist market moderated and regulated by the interests of the common good which is as or more successful than the return to the robber baron era envisioned by the Corporatists. But we, as a nation of free humans, will have to fight perhaps our most vital and important battle ever in our ongoing struggle to create a society bound by the principles of liberty which have so far guided us well. We will have to stand up and resist the machinations of the corporate interests. We will have to reestablish government of and by and for the people.

I pray we are up to the task.

A Fool’s Choice for Voters

Republicans took charge of Congress near the end of Clinton’s last term and did not give it up until near the end of Bush II’s term. Before that Congress was mostly controlled by Democrats, with few exceptions, since World War II. The presidency has vacillated back and forth between parties in that time with slightly more Republicans serving than Democrats.

Recent American politics have been marked by ever more partisan bickering. The two major parties appear to be as far apart philosophically as they could possibly be but in the important area of efficacy they are very similar. Both parties seem to be equally bad at winning and keeping the hearts and minds of the electorate. In 2006 voters began rejecting Republican governance and in 2008 gave the Democrats their strongest majorities in 15 years. Now in 2010 voters appear poised to return titular control of Congress to Republicans. Is the public simply fickle or has there been a significant swing in the mood of America?

What is really happening is that the American public has grown weary of things going poorly, economically and policy wise both foreign and domestic. They have less and less patience with whatever party is in power and consistently give Congress it’s lowest approval ratings ever. They are quick to give the party in power the hook.

The basic reason for this is that although the parties appear to be largely polarized they have both lost touch with the common man in America and have both sold out to different factions of the same corporate overlords. The American public is not dumb. They know we are being played but their traditional means of rectifying the problem, the vote, no longer gets them anywhere. Republicans ruin the economy. Democrats ruin the economy. Republicans laugh right in the face of the public. Democrats give face time to the people but are laughing behind their backs.

There is good reason Americans are angry. No one, it appears, is listening to them. Both sides of the coin of governance mock them. The polarization among the voters informs who they think is to blame for this travesty. The reality is that vast amounts of time, energy and money are being used to keep folks at each others throats. This is because if they ever found out just who really was to blame and united against them then lots of wealthy people would stand to have their cash cows slaughtered and the hold corporations have over us would be weakened mightily.

Yes, it is the multinational corporations who run the show. Both parties kowtow to them. If the angry conservatives and the frustrated progressives ever realize they both have the same enemy and unite in defeating it we might just have a chance to restore a semblance of a Democratic Republic to our country and survive deep into the 21st Century. We don’t have much time to effectuate the real change needed to give us a fighting chance.

I’m not holding my breath.

Good to Be Here

After my heart attack I simply stayed away from any sort of entry into my blog, save the last. I’m not sure why I shied away. Maybe it was a feeling that my words weren’t being heard. Maybe it was a feeling my words weren’t worth being heard. I don’t really know.

In the last month I have tried to access the site that has hosted this blog for the last 4 years but I could not enter new posts. Therefore I have moved the blog to this site. Perhaps a change of scenery will inspire me to write more and more often. I still feel I have something worthwhile to say. In the face of constant bleating from the right over this, that and everything maybe it is more important than ever that progressive voices speak up and and try to be heard. To that end I will do a bit of promotion for the blog and see if I can attract a few more readers. It is, I think, appropriate, seeing that the blog has moved, to let people know about the move. Lots of folks don’t even know it exists. So there is an “If a tree falls in the forest” thing going on that for the sake of progressive dialog should be overcome, if possible.

I have archived all the posts from the other blog site. They appear under posts from August 20, 2010 if you care to access them. I surprise myself sometimes when I go back and read them again. How did I come up with that stuff? I am thankful for the gifts I have been given and I feel I must continue to work to share them with those who could use them.

Enjoy !!!

It’s Been Awhile 5/10/10

Yes, it has been awhile since I graced these pages with my turgid prose. Part of the reason was not having anything earth shattering to say for some time and a large portion of the reason was my nearly big one heart attack of November 2009. Five stents in two arteries later, plus a new diet and not enough exercise to satisfy my doctors I am still not back to normal normal but am close enough to feel like I have a satisfactory life once again. Like most of us who suffer from heart disease I neglected to take seriously the warning signs until I was nearly dead. Thankfully my local hospital has an excellent cardiac unit and some top rated cardiologists. I received the best care and consider myself an exceedingly lucky man.

Almost dying gives one an unusually acute sense of their own mortality. You notice all of the silly and detrimental things you have done by habit all your life and reassess your uncanny ability to undermine your good health. This ability extends out into our society in many ways. For example it is nearly impossible to dine in any restaurant without having to order food which comes nowhere close to meeting the terms of one’s heart healthy diet. This is especially true for fast food. If I ate one of KFC’s new double down chicken sandwiches without the bun I would be consuming over two days worth of saturated fats. One can of Progresso soup has nearly an entire days worth of sodium. My rant about American food, its production and distribution is for another blog entry but suffice it to say that as Americans we have been given what we crave for a price that is often under the cost of production. Humans crave three tastes, salt, fat and sugar. These items exist in rare quantities in nature but largely because of government subsidies and sophisticated food processing they are made readily available to us in large quantities, easily accessible and inexpensive.

Every day I see people eagerly wolfing down foods that cannot be healthy for their hearts. No wonder heart attack and stroke are major killers of Americans. But the huge corporate food, or as I prefer to call it, edible food like substance, industry just gets us more and more hooked on the worst kinds of stuff. All to make a buck.

Scandalous.

A Votre Sante 6/19/09

Lots of talk is swirling around health care reform. Everyone seems to have an opinion and those with the means to promote theirs are now actively seeking to persuade and influence the public, many of whom do not fully understand just how our health care system works. People with a vested interest in maintaining insurance industry profits deride the single payer option as government control over health care. They say the government will come between you and your doctor in the sensitive area of determining what care is needed. They say there will be rationing and waiting lines. This is clearly the pot calling the kettle black. We already have non-medical personnel in the form of insurance actuaries determining what procedures can be done and we already have rationed care from insurance companies in the form of rejections due to preexisting conditions and from managed care conglomerates choosing which doctors we can see. We already have long waiting lines for specialized care in America. What single payer does not have is almost 30% administrative costs.

Single payer, simply told, is merely a different way to finance health care. If you were to finance a car and were told you had two choices, one in which 25% of your payment went to administrative costs and one in which 3 % went to those same costs which would you choose. I believe any sane person would choose the plan where more of his payment went to actually paying off the principle and interest. As long as the powerful interests of the insurance industry, big Pharma and managed care companies can hoodwink us into continuing to justify people making profit from financing and providing health care then we will get a broken system. Does the fire department make a profit? Do we not pay for fire protection, hoping we will never use it, but feeling good when our neighbor does, regardless of their economic status? What is the difference between fire protection and health care? Simply put, we have come to see fire protection as a right of all citizens. We have yet to see health care in the same light, largely because it has traditionally been a privileged commodity, subject to the profit driven market, which the wealthy can afford and the poor cannot.

People would be outraged if their neighbor’s home was allowed to burn because they could not afford fire protection insurance. Until we see health care as one of our inalienable rights we will not be able to reform it to the degree that it will cease becoming a greater and greater economic burden. Ask why we are the only major nation in the world without a national health plan and we only need look as far as the continued greed of the insurance industry. If we continue to allow the profiteers to define the health care debate I am afraid we will never get the kind of health care reform we deserve.

Makes for a very sick nation.

Sowing Seed in Good Earth 5/28/09

The American Dream used to involve hard work as a function of reaping the benefits of a vibrant economy. Even in today’s tenuous economy if one sows their seed in good earth and tends to it lovingly one should expect a life giving harvest. It has always been posited that if one works hard and plays by the rules ( The quintessential American state of being) they would be assured of partaking in the fruits of the alleged “Greatest nation on earth”.

This axiom is assumed by many as the recipe for success in America. At least it is sold as such to the aspiring underclass. Work hard, abide by the rules and you too can climb the ladder high enough to perhaps grab some low hanging fruit, something to make life a little sweeter, regardless of your last name or the number of acronyms behind it.

There exists, though, a class of people for whom this time honored method of achieving the American Dream is not good enough. It is beneath them to actually work for anything, having been raised in an entitlement society. This is not the entitlement of the poor to wealth without work as is complained about by so many conservative pundits but rather the entitlement of birth. These people feel entitled to the fruits of the dream simply because they exist. What is really worth something to them is to manifest wealth without working at all. This is what they expect from life and this is their goal. They have been born into wealth and they have been taught from an early age, through example, that making lots of money without working is an honorable and admirable goal. Something for nothing is the only acceptable result of waking up each day for these seemingly ‘tortured’ souls.

These are the ones who look for insider trading deals on Wall Street, who look to use social networking to arrange sweetheart business deals and use the accident of their monied birth to exclude those who can’t get a good tee time from ever having the advantages they enjoy.

When we look at why the American Dream is fading away, before our very eyes, look not to those who still believe in hard work, but have no access to the good earth on which to sow their seed, to assign your blame. Look rather to those with rich, dark earth in abundance that they are all too eager to sell to the highest bidder, never having ever so much as run their hands through it, to understand its real value or appreciate the very fact that they are so lucky as to even imagine it running under their feet.

Making a living without working is a necessary, temporary social safety net for some people. Is there fraud? Certainly there is. But the greater fraud is the wealthy seeking to make a killing without lifting a finger. As long as our goal is to get rich without having to work some may gain momentary riches as individuals but as a whole society our seed will fall on the hard rocks and suffer.

The Spectre of Specter 4/29/09

The recent news that Pennsylvania Senator Arlen Specter has decided to switch parties has dominated the news for the last 24 hours. As the major news story of its time ( They will be on to something else tomorrow, maybe the swine flu once again) this news is, on the surface, a boon to those who would like to see a filibuster proof Senate (Providing there is an eventual decision in the Minnesota Senate race, which is not a foregone conclusion). However if one looks a little closer at the basis for Specter’s decision we find that it is primarily political in nature, as, sadly, most legislative decisions appear to be in this day.

Specter was to be faced with a strong, right wing, primary opponent in 2010 and was advised that he could not win. In his lust to remain in a position of power he determined that his best chance of winning reelection was to run as a Democrat. It’s really that simple. Having seen the writing on the wall he took the path of least resistance.

Those who think that this change will suddenly make Specter a screaming liberal are sadly mistaken. In fact, he has changed parties once before and has always been a moderate who seems to enjoy holding up a wet finger rather than make definitive stands of principle. Anyone who feels that the Democrats will have, with the inevitable seating of Franken in Minnesota, an automatic 60 vote cushion in the Senate will have a somewhat rude awakening. Specter’s disapproval of the Employee Free Choice Act is an indication of how loosely he will toe the party line.

So don’t get your hopes up.