“I’m starting to think that the Left might actually be right.” At the Telegraph, Charles Moore has an epiphany:
It has taken me more than 30 years as a journalist to ask myself this question, but this week I find that I must: is the Left right after all? You see, one of the great arguments of the Left is that what the Right calls “the free market†is actually a set-up.
The rich run a global system that allows them to accumulate capital and pay the lowest possible price for labour. The freedom that results applies only to them. The many simply have to work harder, in conditions that grow ever more insecure, to enrich the few. Democratic politics, which purports to enrich the many, is actually in the pocket of those bankers, media barons and other moguls who run and own everything.
All together now: Duh.
Moore is still clueless about some things:
Last week, I happened to be in America, mainly in the company of intelligent conservatives. Their critique of President Obama’s astonishing spending and record-breaking deficits seemed right.
But I was struck by how the optimistic message of the Reagan era has now become a shrill one. On Fox News (another Murdoch property, and one which, while I was there, did not breathe a word of his difficulties), Republicans lined up for hours to threaten to wreck the President’s attempt to raise the debt ceiling. They seemed to take for granted the underlying robustness of their country’s economic and political arrangements. This is a mistake. The greatest capitalist country in history is now dependent on other people’s capital to survive. In such circumstances, Western democracy starts to feel like a threatened luxury. We can wave banners about “life, liberty and the pursuit of happinessâ€, but they tend to say, in smaller print, “Made in Chinaâ€.
One more time, from Thom Hartmann:
After just the first decade of Reaganomics, we went from being the world’s largest exporter of manufactured goods to being the world’s largest importer; we went from being the world’s largest creditor to being the world’s largest debtor.
The guy ends the column by gurgling about “the Left’s blind faith in the state,” meaning he’s still getting all of his information about what “the Left” thinks from right-wing propaganda. But he got a glimmer. Maybe he thinks the moguls will save him from the moguls.
Nicholas Kristof makes the point that if outside influences were doing to our nation what Republicans are doing to our nation, we’d be calling it terrorism and be enraged by it. Or, put another way — who needs al Qaeda when we’ve got the GOP?
Update: One more — Didja ever notice righties screaming their heads off that Social Security is at risk and will bankrupt itself and the country by sometime next week if it isn’t privatized at once? I seem to remember that. Anyway, now that there is some question Social Security can continue to make payments if the debt ceiling isn’t raised, suddenly Social Security is as solid and safe as your Grandma’s lap. Maybe solider.
Update: Michelle Malkin still refuses to acknowledge that she and Rubin and other knee-jerkers were fanning the flames of mob hysteria by jumping to the conclusion that the Norway violence was the fault of Islamic terrorism. And somehow, if something is wrong, it’s liberals’ fault. A triple putz-lutz, indeed!
Moderrn republican policies favor the ‘free market’ scam to enrich the few about 99% of the time. Corrupt and/or stupid democrats embrace policies which favor the ‘free market’ scam about 50% of the time. Which party will do a better job of representing me?
Describe the ‘free market’ scam? “a global system that allows them to accumulate capital and pay the lowest possible price for labour… The many simply have to work harder, in conditions that grow ever more insecure, to enrich the few…” The function of good govenment policy must be to break up the cartels before they become monsters beyond the reach of governments. Second, the government should function as a referee in the natural competition between labor and management to guarantee the opportunity for a fair deal in developed nations and deny markets to products produced where fair deals between labor and management are denied.
The right would say that we did not cut taxes enough, we were not pure enough, not a sufficiently distilled version of Reaganism. Libertarians would say that if only government had not interfered with the market everything would have been fine. Yet none of them would ever think to look around for examples and counter-examples and try to understand what those who fared significantly better might have done differently. They can’t do that because it would refute their shaky premises.
I’m hoping for a return to common sense and something a little less wide-eyed and a little more grounded. But before that will happen we’re going to have to start listening to different types of people than we have been.
“if outside influences were doing to our nation what Republicans are doing to our nation, we’d be calling it terrorism”
Could you imagine what the right would be saying if it was the left that was threatening the full faith and credit, I’m sure we’d be hearing alot about national security and the like, and they’d be right. Not sure why the Obama administration don’t make the same aurgument?
When reading English newspapers, you have to keep their political affiliations in mind: the Guardian is liberal, the Telegraph is conservative, and the (pre-morlock) London Times is establishment. The fact that someone in the Telegraph said anything nice about the Left is kind of astonishing, even if the rest of the article was a “bash the liberal” rant. Assuming, of course, that anyone except hard-core Righties consider Obama a liberal.
Malkin and Rubin are real gems, aren’t they? Rubin’s non-apologetic acknowledgement of the facts was astonishingly and utterly free of introspection. It bothered me that someone so ‘hard of thinking’ was in a position to influence anyone.
As for Moore, I’m continually amazed at how many on the Right go around with some absurd caricature of “the Left” in their heads that bears no resemblance to any Left I’ve ever seen, and barely any to writings from some marginalized 60s radical. It’s like they generate an image of their opponent as the opposite of themselves, not by, you know, actually observing the Left.
If you’re the leader of the free world, would you please come to the microphone and quit hiding in the basement about your proposals, and come on up and address the American people? Is he chicken?”
Ah!..Looks like Pawlenty’s learned a little about sniping your way into prominence by observing the Sarah Palin method.. Really, grade school revisited!
It’s better to remain silent and be thought a wimp and a loser than to speak and remove all doubt.
How many press conference has the President held these past couple of weeks? I’m thinking three, but I haven’t been counting.
In other words, Timmy: WTF are you talking about?
Well, what he calls “Blind faith in the state” is the pragmatic understanding that a unified ,i.government of the people, by the people, and for the people just might be slightly more responsive to people’s and the nation’s needs than an at best distributed processing corporate system without external controls or an at worst unified corporate state.
I’m just saying…
Yes, the left is always wrong – until people finally realize that its right.
We are not considered serious, as Krugman said, because we catch on to stupidity and lies too soon. We should wait a few years or decades after supporting the BS before we realize the error of our ways – and THEN we’ll be taken seriously.
-We said don’t do NAFTA, because is will further damage Americah manufactureing.
-We said, no let’s keep regulations for the financial businesses, and not do what Phil Gramm wants to do – that way lies disaster
-We said, well since we went into Afghanistan, why not try a Marshall Plan?
-We we said Iraq was wrong from the get-go, rather than years laters.
-We said don’t make the credit too easy to get, the rates to usurious, and don’t make bankruptcy more difficult.
And this list could go on and on and on and on and on…
But no, the “serious” people are either the ones who supported rank idiocy in the first place, and continue to maintain it – even thought they haven’t made a correct call in decades, or those who years later are candid enough to admit they made a mistake in the first place.
But don’t you dare be right ahead of time, you Liberals, you.
You can’t be take seriously.
I’ve written about this before – why can’t there be a scorecard next to each pundits column?
Or a won-lost record on TV when they make an apperance.
For instance, you tune in to Amanpour’s show on Sunday. George Will comes out – his won=loss record is 12 and 2,354. Krugman appears across the desk from him – 1,587 and 16. There’s Cokie Roberts – 9 and 1, 897.
Open up the WaPo and see Krauthammer – 6 and 2,154. And there’s William Kristol – 0 and 1,965.
This way, you know when they write something, or appear on TV, whether you should consider their opinion valid, or go to the nearest bar and find some snot-slinging drunk guy and ask his opinion. He probably had a better chance of being right on his worst day than Bill Kristol on his best.
And the vomit he spews won’t do near the damage that Bloody Bill’s does.
Oh, and maha, thanks for linking back to my ‘Triple Putz- Lutz comment.
I’m not worthy… I’m not worthy… I’m not worthy…
TIMMAHH!, TIMMAHH!, TiMMAHH!!
Hey Maha, I was thinking “Duh!” just before you wrote it.
Sinchronicity?
“Malkin and Rubin are real gems, aren’t they”
More like a pair of kidney stones.(on the way out)
BTW, I’m thinking TSA has tightened up airport security because of the right wing nutter threat. Imagine how many crazy rants and threats to our elected officials NSA , the FBI, and “other” agencys have been intercepting since Obama was sworn in.The same situation that happened in Norway could easily happen here.They are armed, stupid, and sprayed bug crazy.
http://www.commondreams.org/view/2011/07/24-3
c u n d gulag: It seems like the Left has a Cassandra problem; accurate prophesy, never believed. Cassandra got this curse from Apollo, for jilting him. Did the Left jilt someone?