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They Still Don’t Get It
How loud do the alarms have to get? There is an economic emergency in the country with millions upon millions of Americans riddled with fear and anxiety as they struggle with long-term joblessness, home foreclosures, personal bankruptcies and dwindling opportunities for themselves and their children.
The door is being slammed on the American dream and the politicians, including the president and his Democratic allies on Capitol Hill, seem not just helpless to deal with the crisis, but completely out of touch with the hardships that have fallen on so many.
While the nation was suffering through the worst economy since the Depression, the Democrats wasted a year squabbling like unruly toddlers over health insurance legislation. No one in his or her right mind could have believed that a workable, efficient, cost-effective system could come out of the monstrously ugly plan that finally emerged from the Senate after long months of shady alliances, disgraceful back-room deals, outlandish payoffs and abject capitulation to the insurance companies and giant pharmaceutical outfits.
The public interest? Forget about it.
With the power elite consumed with its incessant, discordant fiddling over health care, the economic plight of ordinary Americans, from the middle class to the very poor, got pathetically short shrift. And there is no evidence, even now, that leaders of either party fully grasp the depth of the crisis, which began long before the official start of the Great Recession in December 2007.
A new study from the Brookings Institution tells us that the largest and fastest-growing population of poor people in the U.S. is in the suburbs. You don't hear about this from the politicians who are always so anxious to tell you, in between fund-raisers and photo-ops, what a great job they're doing. From 2000 to 2008, the number of poor people in the U.S. grew by 5.2 million, reaching nearly 40 million. That represented an increase of 15.4 percent in the poor population, which was more than twice the increase in the population as a whole during that period.
The study does not include data from 2009, when so many millions of families were just hammered by the recession. So the reality is worse than the Brookings figures would indicate.
Job losses, stagnant or reduced wages over the past decade, and the loss of home equity when the housing bubble burst have combined to take a horrendous toll on families who thought they had done all the right things and were living the dream. A great deal of that bleeding is in the suburbs. The study, compiled by the Brookings Metropolitan Policy Program, said, "Suburbs gained more than 2.5 million poor individuals, accounting for almost half of the total increase in the nation's poor population since 2000."
Democrats in search of clues as to why voters are unhappy may want to take a look at the report. In 2008, a startling 91.6 million people - more than 30 percent of the entire U.S. population - fell below 200 percent of the federal poverty line, which is a meager $21,834 for a family of four.
The question for Democrats is whether there is anything that will wake them up to their obligation to extend a powerful hand to ordinary Americans and help them take the government, including the Supreme Court, back from the big banks, the giant corporations and the myriad other predatory interests that put the value of a dollar high above the value of human beings.
The Democrats still hold the presidency and large majorities in both houses of Congress. The idea that they are not spending every waking hour trying to fix the broken economic system and put suffering Americans back to work is beyond pathetic. Deficit reduction is now the mantra in Washington, which means that new large-scale investments in infrastructure and other measures to ease the employment crisis and jump-start the most promising industries of the 21st century are highly unlikely.
What we'll get instead is rhetoric. It's cheap, so we can expect a lot of it.
Those at the bottom of the economic heap seem all but doomed in this environment. The Center for Labor Market Studies at Northeastern University in Boston put the matter in stark perspective after analyzing the employment challenges facing young people in Chicago: "Labor market conditions for 16-19 and 20-24-year-olds in the city of Chicago in 2009 are the equivalent of a Great Depression-era, especially for young black men."
The Republican Party has abandoned any serious approach to the nation's biggest problems, economic or otherwise. It may be resurgent, but it's not a serious party. That leaves only the Democrats, a party that once championed working people and the poor, but has long since lost its way.
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165 Comments so far
Show AllBob Herbert is a lone voice of reasonable outrage out there. It's a miracle he's on the NYT. He is always on the right side of humanity and progressive politics with his analysis.
The current political situation in America is criminal. The Democratic party is most criminal, simply because they have, as he mentions, abandoned their historical constituencies - working people, poor people, the middle class.
The statistics he sates are indeed startling "91.6 million people - more than 30 percent of the entire U.S. population - fell below 200 percent of the federal poverty line, which is a meager $21,834 for a family of four." That should be intolerable to all of us.
I know people on this site would rather philosophize about the flaws in the system, or that the system is by its nature corrupt, and worst of all, resign themselves to the belief that the end is near. But I hope some of us can focus on what can be done now for the millions in pain.
The revolution maybe be coming, but 2010 is right around the corner. When Herbert laments "The idea that they [politicians in D.C.] are not spending every waking hour trying to fix the broken economic system and put suffering Americans back to work is beyond pathetic." But most of our "representatives" are themselves millionaires. How can they, by their very nature feel all that pain?
So there is one thing I'd love to see us try before giving up altogether and hoping for political turmoil that may not go our way anyhow. Given the current political climate, a population in uprising could just as easily tilt us toward Fascism as it could toward progressive solutions.
How about we fire them all? Republicans and Democrats alike. Why not fill the US Congress with Progressive Independents? No party. No agenda but ours. Thats something we can do ... and we have the time.
If you don't know any, develop some. If there aren't any out there, become one. We have the power of the Internet, which has made the difference in all the elections we've had since it's been part of our lives.
Vote Independent, Progressive Independent in 2010. If you don't know any, develop some. If there aren't any out there, become one. And run. And fight.
"They Still Don’t Get It"? Bob, I beg to differ. OF COURSE THEY "GET IT". You are correct that the elite are indeed "out of touch" with the crises out there, BUT THE ELITE AREN'T INVOLVED IN, OR INTERESTED IN, THOSE CRISES. It doesn't matter how loud the alarms get -- the elite aren't listening.
They're focused in money and power. From the elite perspective, whether 'Republican' or 'Democrat', things are going just fine. Every day, more money and power flows to the UPPER LEVELS, and the Supreme Court just opened a new pipeline. If a few million peasants lack health insurance, go broke, lose their homes, what of it? Peasants are disposable.
Tell me one thing, is any one here that has posted a comment an American citizen. It sounds to me like you already have a party to vote for, and that is the communist party.
President Obama: November 21, 2009
Dear Mr. President,
The time has come that we the people of America demand a government that represents all of America's people; a government that can not be bought off. An idealistic thought indeed, but a good thought nonetheless.
Coming from the lower east side of Cleveland, I have a unique perspective of America that I would like to share with you.
It is a perspective that needs to be seen if you intend to keep your promise of a real change for America and a reelection shoe in.
I would imagine that most of the Great Lakes cities are in dire need of infrastructure reconstruction. I know that the City of Cleveland, on many levels, is in disrepair and blight. The blight in our neighborhoods has perpetrated a youthful
blighted mindset which does nothing good for our country. It is a mindset that has no hope and no work ethic. It is a mindset that keeps entrepreneurs and investors alway from our inner cities. At some point America must look at the problems of the inner city and the economic hopeless situation with which our youth are faced. I believe that time is now.
I have a proposal for you, Mr. President. It is a proposal which will help all of America through an effort to reinstate our inner city youth with something substantial, something which is spiritually rewarding, and something that will stop the blight.
A work and educational program will bring carpenters and other unemployed tradesmen to our inner cities to help with construction and renovation. Simultaneously, this will teach a trade to disadvantaged youth. Hope will come back to the table. That will bring something to our cities that is truly needed for our youth ~ pride and self esteem. It will regenerate a pride in our country and a pride in our cities. It will bring visitors to the Great Lakes region to spend their money and bring a livable economy back. This will also help with how we feel towards our government and your reelection.
I call this project ~ Project for Renovation and Pride. It will be inspired by the work and the word of a great carpenter. It came to me through carpentry and I pass it on to you through my love for Cleveland. Some call our potentially great city The City of Deliverance, which I believe is quite appropriate. If this brings success, as I believe it will, we will see a real change in America; change that will have an uplifting spiritual reawakening that will hopefully eliminate the corruption which holds US down. Come to Cleveland and we will help you keep your promise.
I believe in miracles, Mr. President, and I hope this letter helps you to believe in them as well.
Yours truly, Alan Baker Schultz
p.s; bring the boys back home
GENERAL STRIKE
On a given day, no one, but only those who take care of sick people, will go to work.
You won't drive, use your electricity for necessities, kids stay home from school, teachers stay home, cops stay home except to monitor their own neighborhood in uniform, emergency services need not be denied...shit happens.
The stores will be closed. No taxes will get paid. No bosses will fire cause they'll be home too.
This would require complete cooperation by the millions, country wide. Do you know what one day of income tax means to the government?
If the one day doesn't phase them, then 3 days, then a week. By then their corporate coffers will have depleted so far they'll beg for mercy.
YOU THINK YOU DON'T HAVE THAT POWER? We sure as hell do.
P.S. It's called sanctioning your governement according to the Declaration of Independence...redress.