bobbyw24
12-21-2009, 09:47 AM
By: blacker128 Sunday December 20, 2009 7:10 pm
What might actually threaten our predatory governmental-corporate overlords?
A libertarian and recovering Ayn Randian friend of mine and I have been discussing the possibility of a new political formation. For lack of a better term, we are calling it a "left-right convergence." Our initial inspiration derives from the halls of Congress itself: the very first anti-bank bailout coalition, where we witnessed the unlikely bedfellows of House progressive Democrats and (mostly) libertarian-leaning Republicans in opposition. Though defeated on its second try after the application of (I’m sure) massive pressure, this unlikely opposition coalition, it should be remembered, WON the first vote. One could practically audibly hear the power elite shaking from that initial set of "nays." The second great inspirational event was the Alan Grayson-Ron Paul House Committee victory regarding transparency at the Fed. This, too, seemed actually to present a refreshing challenge to our predatory power elite..
What might actually threaten our predatory governmental-corporate overlords? A libertarian and recovering Ayn Randian friend of mine and I have been discussing the possibility of a new political formation. For lack of a better term, we are calling it a “left-right convergence.” Our initial inspiration derives from the halls of Congress itself: the very first anti-bank bailout coalition, where we witnessed the unlikely bedfellows of House progressive Democrats and (mostly) libertarian-leaning Republicans in opposition. Though defeated on its second try after the application of (I’m sure) massive pressure, this unlikely opposition coalition, it should be remembered, WON the first vote. One could practically audibly hear the power elite shaking from that initial set of “nays.” The second great inspirational event was the Alan Grayson-Ron Paul House Committee victory regarding transparency at the Fed. This, too, seemed actually to present a refreshing challenge to our predatory power elite…read on…
There was also the Sanders-Bunning et al. (Bunning: when you’re crazy and have nothing to lose sometimes you speak truth!) et al., Senate "hold" on the Bernanke nomination. And sadly, in many respects, this awful health insurance bill is shaping up as another great left-right convergence possibility as well. There exist lots of further issues that lend themselves to the convergence idea. An important example would be the atrocious eminent domain ruling concerning New London, CT by the US Supreme Court (2005), which allows governmental entities to use their coercive power to evict residents in order to hand their property over to private corporate business interests. My friend and I now regularly email each other possible "convergence" issues as we notice them.
How is it that "extreme" (for U.S. politics) left and right are finding themselves thrown in together regarding, it seems, an increasing range of issues? What I am talking about here is, I’d guess, a good 20-30% of the electorate. (This isn’t scientific, folks, but impressionistic, I’d be happy to update with better numbers.) Think of US politics as a spectrum from far left to far right–or maybe a circle where at least conceptually the anarchist left at some point joins with the libertarian right. Take out the extreme 5% on both extremes. That would mean those who’ve joined up with socialist/Green parties and single issue extremists on the left (God love them, but that’s where they sit on the spectrum), along with birthers and assorted way-out theological and conspiracy loons on the right (5% is probably optimistic: they may be twice that). Then let’s say we have Democrats and Republicans, by which I mean those more or less affiliated with Tweedle-Dee and Tweedle-Dum, making up the middle, say, 40% (20% each). That leaves a good chunk of the electorate, the beloved and mythical unicorn-like "independents," perhaps 20-40% of them, who are disenchanted with the Dems AND the Reps from the left AND right, respectively. (Note: I know this doesn’t add up to 100. I give at least 10% for the radically clueless altogether outside any political loop.)
Now stay with me. On the right, I think these are the people who are essentially libertarian, or, perhaps, you might say "folk libertarian," who say they like "capitalism" yet what they mean is their nostalgic vision of their grandfather’s capitalism, but what it’s actually become, viz., a gargantuan predatory state that serves the larger, already-established corporations and enshrines their aready-existing advantages. Rather, when they applaud "capitalism" they are referencing what in thier minds it OUGHT to be, viz., a sort of small-scale yeoman system of virtuous freeholders who rise and fall in the marketplace according to their individual talent and efforts, etc. Meanwhile, on the left, we have the coastal and urban progressives, including many among ethnic minority groups, who want essentially Scandinavian welfare state policies as single-payer health care, a dovish foreign policy, a return to progressive taxation, serious environmental initiatives, New Deal-esque social programs, and maybe even a bit of "socialism" as far as ‘too big to fail, too big to exist’ and the like.
What ties these two groups together? The closest the mainstream media gets is calling them "populists" and then associates them with the lunacy of the teabaggers, and maybe the fringe-seeming Seattle and Copenhagen-style ultra leftist protesters–and I suppose now, thanks to the White House, the "irrationality" of such as Howard Dean, Bernie Sanders, et al. But, ex hypothesi, what is causing the left-right convergence is deeper than the throwaway term "populism."
Continue
http://seminal.firedoglake.com/diary/20027
What might actually threaten our predatory governmental-corporate overlords?
A libertarian and recovering Ayn Randian friend of mine and I have been discussing the possibility of a new political formation. For lack of a better term, we are calling it a "left-right convergence." Our initial inspiration derives from the halls of Congress itself: the very first anti-bank bailout coalition, where we witnessed the unlikely bedfellows of House progressive Democrats and (mostly) libertarian-leaning Republicans in opposition. Though defeated on its second try after the application of (I’m sure) massive pressure, this unlikely opposition coalition, it should be remembered, WON the first vote. One could practically audibly hear the power elite shaking from that initial set of "nays." The second great inspirational event was the Alan Grayson-Ron Paul House Committee victory regarding transparency at the Fed. This, too, seemed actually to present a refreshing challenge to our predatory power elite..
What might actually threaten our predatory governmental-corporate overlords? A libertarian and recovering Ayn Randian friend of mine and I have been discussing the possibility of a new political formation. For lack of a better term, we are calling it a “left-right convergence.” Our initial inspiration derives from the halls of Congress itself: the very first anti-bank bailout coalition, where we witnessed the unlikely bedfellows of House progressive Democrats and (mostly) libertarian-leaning Republicans in opposition. Though defeated on its second try after the application of (I’m sure) massive pressure, this unlikely opposition coalition, it should be remembered, WON the first vote. One could practically audibly hear the power elite shaking from that initial set of “nays.” The second great inspirational event was the Alan Grayson-Ron Paul House Committee victory regarding transparency at the Fed. This, too, seemed actually to present a refreshing challenge to our predatory power elite…read on…
There was also the Sanders-Bunning et al. (Bunning: when you’re crazy and have nothing to lose sometimes you speak truth!) et al., Senate "hold" on the Bernanke nomination. And sadly, in many respects, this awful health insurance bill is shaping up as another great left-right convergence possibility as well. There exist lots of further issues that lend themselves to the convergence idea. An important example would be the atrocious eminent domain ruling concerning New London, CT by the US Supreme Court (2005), which allows governmental entities to use their coercive power to evict residents in order to hand their property over to private corporate business interests. My friend and I now regularly email each other possible "convergence" issues as we notice them.
How is it that "extreme" (for U.S. politics) left and right are finding themselves thrown in together regarding, it seems, an increasing range of issues? What I am talking about here is, I’d guess, a good 20-30% of the electorate. (This isn’t scientific, folks, but impressionistic, I’d be happy to update with better numbers.) Think of US politics as a spectrum from far left to far right–or maybe a circle where at least conceptually the anarchist left at some point joins with the libertarian right. Take out the extreme 5% on both extremes. That would mean those who’ve joined up with socialist/Green parties and single issue extremists on the left (God love them, but that’s where they sit on the spectrum), along with birthers and assorted way-out theological and conspiracy loons on the right (5% is probably optimistic: they may be twice that). Then let’s say we have Democrats and Republicans, by which I mean those more or less affiliated with Tweedle-Dee and Tweedle-Dum, making up the middle, say, 40% (20% each). That leaves a good chunk of the electorate, the beloved and mythical unicorn-like "independents," perhaps 20-40% of them, who are disenchanted with the Dems AND the Reps from the left AND right, respectively. (Note: I know this doesn’t add up to 100. I give at least 10% for the radically clueless altogether outside any political loop.)
Now stay with me. On the right, I think these are the people who are essentially libertarian, or, perhaps, you might say "folk libertarian," who say they like "capitalism" yet what they mean is their nostalgic vision of their grandfather’s capitalism, but what it’s actually become, viz., a gargantuan predatory state that serves the larger, already-established corporations and enshrines their aready-existing advantages. Rather, when they applaud "capitalism" they are referencing what in thier minds it OUGHT to be, viz., a sort of small-scale yeoman system of virtuous freeholders who rise and fall in the marketplace according to their individual talent and efforts, etc. Meanwhile, on the left, we have the coastal and urban progressives, including many among ethnic minority groups, who want essentially Scandinavian welfare state policies as single-payer health care, a dovish foreign policy, a return to progressive taxation, serious environmental initiatives, New Deal-esque social programs, and maybe even a bit of "socialism" as far as ‘too big to fail, too big to exist’ and the like.
What ties these two groups together? The closest the mainstream media gets is calling them "populists" and then associates them with the lunacy of the teabaggers, and maybe the fringe-seeming Seattle and Copenhagen-style ultra leftist protesters–and I suppose now, thanks to the White House, the "irrationality" of such as Howard Dean, Bernie Sanders, et al. But, ex hypothesi, what is causing the left-right convergence is deeper than the throwaway term "populism."
Continue
http://seminal.firedoglake.com/diary/20027