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Tea Party U.S.A.: It’s Still the Economy, Stupid!
One factor that the Times article tiptoed around, but which undoubtedly plays some role, is racism. For some white Americans of a certain age and background, the sight of a black man in the Oval Office, even one who went to Harvard Law School and conducts himself in the manner of an aloof WASP aristocrat, is an affront. While President Obama’s approval rating has fallen in almost all groups, the biggest slippage has taken place among whites, especially middle- and working-class whites. A Gallup poll identified this trend last November, and it surely played a role in Scott Brown’s victory in Massachusetts.
Another factor, which rarely gets mentioned, but which appears obvious to people who didn’t grow up here, such as myself, is that many Americans reach adulthood with a set of values and sense of self-identity that is historically inaccurate and potentially dangerous. If you have it banged into your head from the cradle to adolescence that America is the chosen nation—a country built by a rugged and God-fearing band of Anglo-Saxon individualists armed with pikes and long guns—you are less likely to embrace other essential features of the American heritage, such as the church-state divide, mass immigration, and the essential role of the federal government in the country’s economic and political development. When things are going well, and Team USA is squashing its rivals, this cognitive dissonance is kept in check. But when “the Homeland” encounters a rough patch and its manifest destiny is called into question, the underlying tensions and contradictions in the American psyche come to the fore, and people rail against the government.
Not all Americans are subject to this unfortunate mental condition, of course. Many, perhaps most, of our citizens are pragmatic, open-minded, and justifiably proud of the nation’s cultural and ethnic diversity. But at any period of time, there is a certain segment of the population—a quarter, perhaps—that provides fertile ground for what Richard Hofstadter, back in 1964, called the “paranoid style” of American politics, which trades in “heated exaggeration, suspiciousness, and conspiratorial fantasy.”
All countries have some disaffected folk, of course. But the real danger to any democracy comes when military conflict or economic dislocation swells the ranks of the permanently alienated with legions of people who are temporarily disadvantaged or angry. And that, I think, is what is happening now. My thanks to the indefatigable Brad DeLong and Matt Yglesias—do these guys ever sleep?—for bringing to my attention these two charts that John Sides, a political scientist at George Washington University, posted on the blog The Monkey Cage:
The first chart confirms that suspicion of the federal government isn’t anything new. For decades, pollsters from the American National Election Studies have been asking people this question: “How much of the time do you think you can trust the government in Washington to do what is right, just about always, most of the time, or only some of the time?” The chart shows that Americans started to lose faith in Washington during the nineteen-sixties and seventies, with the percentage of the population expressing trust in the government falling from the high seventies to the low thirties. Since then, the figures have moved up and down broadly in line with economic conditions, falling during the recession of the early nineties, rising in the subsequent period of prosperity, and falling sharply in the past few years.
The second chart, which plots the level of trust in government against annual changes in per capita disposable income, provides more evidence to support the idea that economic developments are key. Most of the data points are arrayed in a north-easterly direction. This strongly suggests that when people’s incomes are rising they are more likely to have trust in the government; when their incomes are stalled, they lose faith in Washington. And the fact that most of the individual date points are close to the straight line—the regression line—demonstrates that this relationship is statistically robust. (For all you wonks out there, the R-squared is 0.75 and the t-statistic is 5.44.)
Now, this analysis doesn’t imply that Americans aren’t furious about the political paralysis in Washington—they are—or that Obama doesn’t bear some blame for allowing his Administration to be portrayed as a tool of Wall Street and failing to articulate a coherent policy agenda that could overcome the lobbyists and right-wing naysayers. It does mean that, given that he took over during a deep recession, the President was always going to have a tough first couple of years. As a crotchety German pointed out long ago, “Men make their own history, but they do not make it as they please; they do not make it under self-selected circumstances, but under circumstances existing already, given and transmitted from the past.”
Looking forward, Sides’s statistical evidence strongly supports the view, cogently expressed by my colleague James Surowiecki, that what matters most for Obama’s political fortunes, and for the overall political health of the country, is ensuring that the economic recovery continues and broadens. Reassessing their legislative strategy and trying to entrap their Republican foes on Capitol Hill is all very well for the President and his advisers, but they should also be reaching out for advice to James Carville, who, last I heard, had moved to New Orleans. Doubtless, he would tell them that really counts is what happens to employment and income growth in places like Michigan, Louisiana, and Nebraska.
“Of course the economy is not the only important factor,” Sides writes. “But it gets far less attention than it deserves when the hand-wringing begins. So, sure, perhaps we can and should tinker with the political process. Clip lobbyists’ wings. Get leaders to make nicey-nicey with the opposite party. But the process is less important than outcomes. More people will trust the government again when times are good, even if government ain’t.”
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61 Comments so far
Show AllSmelled a rat in that chart too. The theory may be sound enough, but the correlation is false. Funny numbers again. But doesn't discredit the main thesis itself -- which I think is valid -- that increasing membership into a middle-class (if actually inaccurate income-wise) leads to identification with a Good Old Days mentality. Which weren't for many people, like blacks and women. But those are pesky facts.
Gary
"One man's theology, is another man's belly laugh."
-- Robert A. Heinlein
Whether or not the correlation is meaningful statistically, the point is that when people feel they are doing well, they are less likely to be angry. Gunnar Myrdal pointed this out in the 1940s in his book American Dilemma, about the effects of racism in the U.S.
It is one thing to convince people that a war is justified - we know that can be done. But if I were jobless and saw countless articles in the media that the economy is improving, I don't think I would think that my situation was improving.
I doubt that the guy who is about to lose his unemployment benefits pays much attention to whatthe stock market is doing..
yes, there are several problems with it. the split between people who don't trust the government because right wing images and talking points are seeping into them 12 hours an day probably have less of a rational basis to mistrust the government, which has been increasingly responding to their philosophy for decades. Yet they don't trust it. People on the left however, see government being increasingly reponsive to money and corporations and the right and have much better reason to mistrust, but don't as much (I think.) People who see or sense that disposable income is going up ON AVERAGE yet have a harder life are less likely to trust the government; the people increasingly likely to be in a position to be polled are doing well.... yeah, it's a complicated story. not obvious or clear at all.
The meaning of the term "per capita" is "mean", ie what most people term "average".
There is no need to spell out how it is calculated, since the meaning of term already spells it out.
Median is a far better measure of "average" than mean / per capita.
Pity. The New Yorker used to publish good stuff. But this one lost credibility when he remarked on the "economic recovery continues and broadens." Recovery? What recovery other than bailed out Wall Street?
Still, he raised up valiant pints, About a third of America is way behind the socialization curve, still strongly racist, authoritarian, and paranoid as hell. Polls consistently show this. And most are Republicans. A few Independents and almost none Democrats. So there is SOME difference between the parties at least socially. If not politically.
I predict some of these people will indulge in violent attacks against that "socialist nigger" g'ment. So be careful out there.
Gary
"If Jesus had been killed twenty years ago, catholic kids would be wearing little electric chairs around their necks." -- Lenny Bruce
great quote. LOL
"About a third of America is way behind the socialization curve, still strongly racist, authoritarian, and paranoid as hell."
And why are they so far behind? I suspect they are poorly educated, have lousy jobs, and feel insecure. So they "cling to guns and religion" and traditional values and ideas. A few decades ago people like these mostly voted for the Democrats, and almost certainly the great majority voted for FDR. But, beginning in the late 1960s, the Republicans used the social/cultural issues to make a play for them, and the Democrats virtually abandoned them. So the corporatist Republicans kept on gaining with them, which helped the Republicans bash labor unions and reduce union membership, creating a feedback loop leading to labor continually losing ground (and other feedback loops leading to weaker educational systems and a greater degree of ignorance among the population), and eventually labor was so weak that the Dems mostly abandoned it and became as pro-corporate as the Republicans.
If the left is to ever regain any footing, it must have a strong labor movement and to do that it must make a play for these folks. No matter how beautiful one's political theories and proposed policies are, actually winning elections is an ugly business.
I believe the left never will make a play for these people, and that the US is heading toward a fascist dictatorship. But I could be wrong.
I used to believe that Democrats would have to concede on guns and abortion but in some elections, they lost anyway. In 2006 and 2008, there were some Democrats who won in the otherwise Republican districts and they credit refuting gun control and reproductive rights for their victories. This distorts the picture as to what really made them victorious because they will not detect that the voters could have been liberal on labor but not speak out as loudly on that as they do on guns and abortion.
It is my understanding that labor unions themselves are in disarray that the Left has given up on winning their support except on the money. In yesterday's article on Randy Shaw, I posted a link to his blog where he discusses some of the damage labor has done to itself even before the Democratic Party did the rest of it. It remains to be seen if strong labor will come from a party that strongly supports it or if labor musters its own strength regardless of which party rules.
Inotherwords, what it all boils down to is compromising or giving up one's principles of what's right or wrong is a prerequisite for acceptability in our society. If that really be the case, then we're in more trouble as a society than many people realize.
You would be surprised to find out the percentage of Democrats who still believe that we have to compromise like that. Even in the inner cities, voters still believe that only electing pragmatic Democrats will move the country to the left. I have no idea what it will take to enlighten our side out of this.
The Tea Baggers are the party of law breaking and terrorism. Using them to attack Obama is disingenuous. The Tea Baggers are lazy welfare queens trying to elect Republicans. Suit yourselves tea baggers but don't complain when you're broke.
The stimulus might have saved some people's jobs no doubt but in the minds of the millions that are still out of work and the hundreds of thousands still losing their jobs, homes, health Ins, etc. it hasn't had very much of an impact. It's been perceived as another bail-out, this time for those already with mostly Gov't jobs that it has preserved. Add this to the bail-out of the people on Wall st. that caused much of this man-made calamity and u get a significant no. of very sour folks and not all of them are Reich wingers. Obama's public bragging that he saved us from another Depression might or might not be true but he certainly has done little so far to soften it for those of us who have already joined the ranks of the unemployed.
The anger is genuine, it is based in reality--but the Democrats can't really speak to it because they have abandoned many of these people. Obama is a perfect representative of the elitist Democratic party of today with no populist appeal. Not only in his aloof coldness, but he lectures and talks down to people--even Blacks, blaming them for their plight. And maybe some of these people even voted for Obama, hoping for inclusion, only to be betrayed, only to see their Medicare cut, only to hear that we have to all make sacrifices--meaning no help for them, while they see trillions go to Wall St.
There is populist anger out there and the Democrats can't channel it because they can't connect, can't relate and give the impression that they don't care enough to even make the effort.
Sure there are still racist Troglodytes, but they get far too much attention in my view. The majority of people do not have a problem with Obama being black, but with the course his administration has taken, and particularly the interests that it unabashedly serves.
chessgames56,
I believe you are correct.
After all, many voted for Obomba.
Sure there is a segment of the population who are racist and even if Obama
were doing a good job, they would slam him based on racism--but that must
be a smaller amount of the population as he carried Mass. during the election.
I personally know of over twenty grad students in Boston who voted for Brown
in protest of Obama. They are all Democrats--racism no,sheer anger, yes.
-"heated exaggeration, suspiciousness, and conspiratorial fantasy"
Yes, area 51, faked moon landings and yes...building 7, you guys are conspiracy central.
I don't disagree with the main point that Obama supplying bread and circuses to the masses will boost his numbers. I disagree with the war-like way the Democrats are going about it. America is caught in a death-spiral of ever diminishing returns from their plunderings in the middle east.
jlocke123,just by paying our taxes U.S. citizens are giving 60% of their contribution to the federal budget to the military.The taxpayer is therefore paying for state sponsored war/terror regardless of the legality, or the taxpayers' beliefs or religion.This makes every taxpayer a terrorist by proxy.It also violates our free speech and religious freedom to be forced to pay for endless war and occupation against our will.I support the "Religious Freedom Peace Tax Fund Bill" H.R. 2085 but I doubt it will ever come up for debate.As an anti war voter ,I hope the "tea partiers" will get the focus shifted toward larger war spending issues.
starve the beast for peace
Perhaps true, but remember that most who pay are coerced into doing so. The IRS mafia has its army of accountants and thugs to make sure you pay up or go to jail (or go hungry). That's not much of a choice, especially with those with families to support. They'd have to pay for your 'sacrifice' as well. Now if we can find a way to work and thrive under their radar, that would be a better than trying to take them head on--just ask Joe.
There are some interesting points made n this article but there is one of the most important parts of american history which is not discussed. It is no accident that not a single important piece of social legislation passed in america since 1965. When the south went republican because of racial resentment starting with Nixon's election in 1968 they have played a key role in making america a backwater of democracy. The south has always been the most bellicose region of the united states and are always willing to go anywhere to start a war. They hate the federal government,civil rights laws and unions and want cheap labor and unregulated commerce. They have their own peculiar vicious form of christianity which they seek to impose on people and government. Now if all this sounds familiar that is because it is the republican platform of today.
Yup, the "Southern Strategy." Thanks for reminding us of some more important points.
We live in a country where people arrogantly feel that unless it doesn't happen to them, the economy is still good. Insecurities may mount but as RichM describes, we are a passive populace that relies on "faith" to get us out of it.
"Another factor, which rarely gets mentioned, but which appears obvious to people who didn’t grow up here, such as myself, is that many Americans reach adulthood with a set of values and sense of self-identity that is historically inaccurate and potentially dangerous."
Sorry, but this begs the question how the author grew up in some pristine environment where only the real truth is taught. For me the idea that fundamental understanding is a given for ONLY the author and others who grew up outside of the US is ludicrous. I have no doubt there is a false sense of identity for many American, but to say the same isn't true for people raised outside of the US, regarding the US, is laughable.
I was reading an article the other day that talked about tourism in the poorest nations as a booming business. That is tourist simply visiting the slums viewing how the poorest people live.
Then I thought, this is the republican dream for America. Just think of it since 1980 many throughout the world hate Americans, thinking all are rude, brutal, idiotic, dogmatic, republicans that have no morals, values or ethics. So the real republicans(corporate America) could make a killing attracting tourist to the American slums which have grown faster than private prisons (although not by much).
The republicans could schedule tour-busses through ghettos and slums throughout the US They could see the big city ghettos and more importantly the quaint small town and rural slums that have been totally decimated by the latest Wall Street derivative scam.
These rural areas would be particularly profitable since they would be in beautiful areas spread throughout the nation in the South, Midwest, east and west (however not so much on the coasts). Not only the scenery would be beautiful but the real selling point for foreign tourist would be that those that live in the squalor vote for republicans. They could talk to and meet these morons in person. For a few extra bucks the republicans that benefit from the republican agenda about (probably about 1,000,000 people that own and control everything in this country) could make the tours so the foreigners could spit and piss on the small town hicks.
If any of these hapless idiots complained the corporate owners would simply say they will take the “good” tourist (minimum wage no benefits) jobs to a different town where the morons will be thankful for the jobs and be happy to get spit and pissed on. I’m ready to invest… God bless Jesus and God bless America.
This is the America the tea-baggers are promoting.
Just google "slum tourism in US" and you will see that it is already in place. There is also "Gang tourism" in one of California's cities. Really, it is big business to see "how poor people live."
I wish you people would stop invoking the RACE card at every chance you get.
It is tired, old and untrue.
Sure, are there racists who do not like Obomber, yes?
Does this mean that every person who disagress with him is a racist? NO!
Has everyone forgotten that Obomber is HALF WHITE. His Mother is WHITE. He was raised by a WHITE mother and a WHITE Grandmother.
All this talk of race, to me seems like a tool being used to further divide the gap.
We have enough divisions and wedges in this country, that journalists do not need to add to the fire.
I am sure you have some deep rooted white guilt complex, lodged in your brain. Maybe your family were early settlers in America and themselves were slave owners and now you are trying to make right by it by condemning racism.
Only problem here is that RACE is NOT The issue here. Bad leadership, Lies, the continuation of the BUSH Regimes foreign policy, the continuation of the loss of jobs, homes, savings, etc etc etc - this could be fueling the hatred, the anxiety in the country. You ever think of that?!
There are plenty of Blacks who disapprove of Obomber. Just check out the site
http://www.blackagendareport.com/?q=content/black-america-loses-gamble-electing-first-black-president
Does this make them racist against their own skin tone?
Or, are they racist against the Half White part of Obomber?
Using the derogative arguments, only lowers your opinion to the level of the ones you yourself are trying to demean. You should try using integrity, especially as a journalist, as a writer, unless you are showing your own true colors here, that you would rather see and help to create division.
Read other articles on Obomber supporting Nuclear power and all the comments against him and his motives there, do you call those people racists? Or hate mongers, because they disagree with his policy?
No, you do not. You call them angry liberals who feel betrayed, because Obomber is no more than a twisted politician than George W. Bush.
But, because you do not like the so-called "tea-Baggers" because they play for the "other team" and go against what you might believe in, they are labelled Racists.
Sorry, but that just doesn't hold water for any rational person with real brains in their heads. Enough already. You are making yourself look very ignorant.
peace. love. anarchy
Sorry buddy, but fundamentalist christianity is at the heart of these vicious regressives and it is a form of fascism. And, I never saw a tea-bagger against war, Empire or bring a loaded gun to a George Bush appearance. In fact, had anyone brought a loaded gun to a Bush appearance they would have been freakin detained by the Secret Sevice so fast it would have made your head spin! If they werent tasered on the spot.
You want to align yourself with the Palinites?
Author Cassidy writes, "In the wake of yesterday’s fascinating report in the Times about sixty-something Tea Party activists bracing for a violent counter-revolution, several people have asked me why Americans are so angry."
Bravo for Cassidy for beginning with recognition that the Tea Party movement is (a) violently angry and (b) extremely rightist in its political orientation. (A week or so ago several Common Dreamers tried to impute progressive seeds to the Tea Party manure.) I would argue that their extremism goes beyond "anger" to outright hatred, our most destructive emotion. These are folks who shout and threaten to make themselves felt. The sight of Tea Party stalwarts openly brandishing semi-automatic weapons at town hall meetings should have been a red flag to all; the mainstream media treated such as just more sensationalist fodder.
Cassidy is entirely correct in arguing that recessionary economics is a prime exogenous determinant of Tea Party discontent and confusion. Of equal importance is the exogenous factor of war. These folks are "patriots" (nationalists, which in the USA means imperialists). Their superstitious reverence for military violence is of a piece with their reverent superstition for their violent god--a vengeful and jealous little bigot who tortures folks forever for not believing as he dictates.
The biggest defect in Cassidy's analysis, however, is his failure to specify the prime endogenous determinant of the Tea Party movement. I refer to the class basis of the movement: Petty bourgeois (middle- or lower-middle class), which provides the "mass basis of fascism" described in scholarly studies of classic fascism. Read Erich Fromm's "Escape From Freedom" (1941) and you will behold the social psychology of today's Tea Party crowd.
The correlative class feature characteristic of classic fascism is the "marriage of classes," whereby the real rulers of capitalist society ally with the petty bourgeois rightism that the rot of capitalism provokes. We see early signs of this in the many moves of the GOP to co-opt the Tea Party to the Republican agenda (corporate welfare, militarism/war, austerity for the majority and lies for all).
The Tea Party phenomenon is only now struggling to emerge from its infancy, hence is most accurately described as a protofascist movement. Its development will be optimally incited if both the economy stays sour and Obama plays the war card (Iran?).
In any event, we will be hearing more from these folks in the near future. Mature capitalism in acute crisis breeds fascism like stench on a corpse. Not only can it happen here; it is happening here.
Your analysis (suitably repackaged) might help to counter some of the sweet, touchy-feely comments about the tea party on this site ...
http://moneycentral.msn.com/community/message/thread.asp?board=PoliticsandtheMarkets&threadid=1640423&
boardname=Hide&header=SearchOnly&footer=Show&linktarget=_parent&pagestyle=money1
We need all the help we can get to spread an alternative view to that which dominates the site.
Good post! And when things really start hitting the fan, that is when, independents, moderates, democrats, progressives et al, finally get stomping mad enough to think about getting organized (outside the Democratic Party, that is), the Right will already have an organized (Tea) party, likely with their very own version of a Frei Corps or Brown Shirts ready to bust heads.
Cicero: "Freedom is participation in power."
Not gonna happen unless enough vets with PTSD return to domestic joblessness in the U.S. and link up with the Tea-Baggers in large numbers. The Tea-Baggers are mostly over the hill middle-aged overweight armchair pissants without enough disgruntled vets to turn them into something more dangerous.
Thanks for filling in a few of the blanks I didnt deal with in my posts above.
Sioux Rose
KITAJ: Your points about the authoritarian content of fundamentalist Chrisianity are right-on.
METAL: Your bleak picture of what's going on is all too real. I live in a VERY modest home but I like it, and the inside suits me. All my books are here, fine art, things I've collected from around the world. It strikes me that people like me who can still pay property taxes (though I am considering whether to continue with insurance, they always seem to manage to skate away... once the homeowner, at least in my case, pays the deductible) may see THESE going up to the point (to fill in the lost funds based on the many who can't maintain their mortgage and property costs) where we may lose them due to owed property taxes! I always thought it was immoral to buy a home out from under someone who just owes taxes! It's done all the time. This is where I can see the logical conclusion to Chris Hedge's recent allusion to all of us becoming SERFS. Soon we will be tilling our own land/property to pay all the dues levied against it by "Master," as Lucky Lefty likes to term this unbalanced power relationship.
Cicero: "Freedom is participation in power."
"A week or so ago several Common Dreamers tried to impute progressive seeds to the Tea Party manure."
Way to insult the long-time posters on CommonDreams, soloduff (= one ass).
How do you know those CD posters weren't just transitory "independents" come to poke at the Left-wingers who've regularly posted on CD for years in order to get their pseudo-libertarian kicks by painting the Tea-Baggers as somewhat progressive?
metal: (1) Your logic is faulty. I simply reported that "several Common Dreamers tried to impute . . .," etc. I neither said nor implied anything whatsoever about the further identity (your "transitory" vs. your "regularly posted") of the posters. I have no idea of any such further identity. Ergo, I insulted nobody.
(2) Your manners are faulty. You hurl a childish insult at me, based on your bogus umbrage, begotten of bogus logic.
I have always found that foul language and personal insults contribute neither to understanding nor to peace.
Since the arrival of RWR and his side kick Alan G. Congress has been including Social Security in the Federal budget to hide over spending by Congress . Also WallStreet has wanted to lay hands on the S.S. funds since it's inception so there has been a public assualt on S.S. by the GOP to frighten the public in to thinking S.S. is in serious trouble . But any intelligent person will deduce from this that if S.S. is in serious trouble why is Congress still using the S.S. funds to hide over spending ? Near the end of last year (a few months ago) Congress announced there was zero inflation to reduce the S.S. payouts which favors hiding even more over spending . To Congress there may have been zero inflation but to Seniors and other S.S. recipients the cost of existing has out paced their income . Now that Congress has pegged the S.S. recipients with a zero COST OF LIVING increase this week they announced an increase in inflation . Conclusion ! We have a lying Congress and a colluding media .
Cicero: "Freedom is participation in power."
This article basically asserts that our current government is trustworthy and that there is no long-term economic structural decline at work in the U.S. (even though we just finished a decade with zero net job creation), merely temporarily economically disadvantaged groups.
In fact our current government is almost irredeemably despicable, completely untrustworthy, and played a central role in delivering the bottom two-thirds of the population into long-term economic structural decline.
Very telling when he says Obama must take some blame for "allowing" the admin to be cast as a tool of Wall St.
This administration has serviced Wall St. as well as any Sears Craftsman device ever could - that is no "perception."
People are increasingly angry because they are disenfranchised and the economic situation is making that stark raving clear - whether they are left, right or whatever.
This article embodies the sort of vapid, cynical establishment-speak that has festooned our march into economic oblivion, under both Republican and Democratic governance. The New Yorker should be ashamed.
Cicero: "Freedom is participation in power."
Sort of makes one wonder why CD's editors posted this drivel along with all the other Dim apologist crap they've been on about since Ted Kennedy's seat was lost to a Republican Playgirl bunny.
To the working classes, Work Harder, Faster and for Cheaper wages and watch the Stock Market go up. Don't you get it?
The Financial Elite love it when we are getting screwed.
Obama from Harvard is part of the Elitist Group and he doesn't have a clue. When will the working classes wake up?
Brilliantly put, soloduff and kivals.
And well said, RichM, Stanley1979, chessgames56, Vern and gdgoodman.
This is the stupidest article I have seen in ages. How can he so totally not get that people are angry, whether about Obama's betrayal on the economy, the war(s), torture, rendition, healthcare, nuclear power, drones, his hypocritical peace prize, the endless money to the military, his setting up a governor's council, sending Bush and Clinton to Haiti to add more disgust over the military take over, .... One can't even list all the things that makes people angry.
About the man who flew his plane into the IRS building.
All of us are now aware of the Texas man who yesterday flew his private
plane into a 7-story Austin office building. Apparently, he intentionally
crashed his plane into the building to target the IRS offices that were
housed inside the facility.
As I [Chuck Baldwin]am writing this column just hours after the event took place, there has
not yet been a lot of time for the major news media talking heads to spin
the story. By the time this column is released on Friday, however, I'm sure
we will all have been inundated with copious references to this man, Joe
Stack, as being "off his rocker," or similar assertions. Perhaps our friends
at DHS will label Stack a "right-wing domestic terrorist." However, Mr.
Stack apparently left behind a "suicide manifesto" explaining his actions.
After carefully reading Stack's manifesto, I am quite convinced that he was
not crazy, and he was not a "terrorist." However, he was angry. ...
Stack began his manifesto by saying, "If you're reading this, you're no
doubt asking yourself, 'Why did this have to happen?' The simple truth is
that it is complicated and has been coming for a long time."
"Sadly, starting at early ages we in this country have
been brainwashed to believe that, in return for our dedication and service,
our government stands for justice for all. We are further brainwashed to
believe that there is freedom in this place, and that we should be ready to
lay our lives down for the noble [principles] represented by its founding
fathers. Remember? One of these was 'no taxation without representation' . . .
These days anyone who really stands up for that [principle] is promptly
labeled a 'crackpot,' traitor and worse."
It has been a long time since the average hardworking American has been represented in Washington,
D.C. By and large, the politicians in DC represent only Big Money interests.
Just try talking with your congressman or senator and see how much personal
interest he or she takes in anything you have to say. As for emails,
letters, and faxes, unless they number in the tens of thousands, they are
mostly used as kindling for the fireplace.
"While very few working people would say they haven't had their fair share of taxes (as can
I), in my lifetime I can say with a great degree of certainty that there has
never been a politician cast a vote on any matter with the likes of me or my
interests in mind. Nor, for that matter, are they the least bit interested
in me or anything I have to say."
"Here we have a [tax] system that is, by far, too complicated for the brightest of the master
scholars to understand. Yet, it mercilessly 'holds accountable' its victims,
claiming that they're responsible for fully complying with laws not even the
experts understand. The law 'requires' a signature on the bottom of a tax
filing; yet no one can say truthfully that they understand what they are
signing; if that's not 'duress' [then] what is. If this is not the measure
of a totalitarian regime, nothing is."
"However, this is where I learned that there are two
'interpretations' for every law; one for the very rich, and one for the rest
of us."
According to Stack's manifesto, he earned an engineering degree with the
goal of becoming an "independent engineer." He said this about working his
way through college: "I was living on peanut butter and bread (or Ritz
crackers when I could afford to splurge) for months at a time."
"I decided that I didn't trust big business to take care
of me, and that I would take responsibility for my own future and myself."
"The bottom line is that they may as well have put my name right in the text of section (d). Moreover,
they could only have been more blunt if they would have came out and
directly declared me a criminal and non-citizen slave."
His manifesto clearly reveals bitterness and resentment toward the IRS, the
tax system, the banker and Big Business government bailouts, and the
emergence of police-state attitudes and actions in the aftermath of 9/11. He
expressed disdain for "the monsters of organized religion." He talked about
his move from California to Texas. He referred to a divorce and the way his
savings and retirement had been wiped out after a career of working
"100-hour workweeks."
Stack also noted, "The recent presidential puppet GW Bush and his cronies in
their eight years certainly reinforced for all of us that this criticism
rings equally true for all of the government." I can say "Amen" to that.
Mr. Stack was very sick, your sympathy for his plight, notwithstanding.
One day Americans are going to wake up and realize that they are Americans First and Dem/Rep, blue/red, left/right, up/down Second. Forget the differences and concentrate on the similarities? But, maybe if they realized that they are Americans First they might also realize that by concentrating on exactly what an American is and accepting those traits they will minimalize the huge divisions fostered by parties, by groups, by race, religion, nationality, sexual orientation, and by geographical desiginations and become a bonafied American capable of insisting on what is right, not only for themselves, but for their country. Utopian? Pie in the Sky? Probably, but what we have going on right now sure isn't a piece of cake or a walk in the park.
Cicero: "Freedom is participation in power."
One day Amurkans are going to wake up and realize there are two types of Amurkans: One type with ready access to arable land and drinkable well water who are mostly living out by the rural side already, and another type living in the implosive, post-industrial, artificial economy of tremendously overcrowded cities full of millions of people who know nothing about growing their own food or maintaining secure, clean drinking water.
The bottom income earners who make less than $12,500/yr. are currently experiencing 30.8% unemployment and represent a new, permanent economic "untouchable" caste in our new permanent caste system. They are already overly dependent on unemployment benefits and food stamps or TANF. The ones without unemployment benefits are selling their food stamps on the black market to try to survive what is a very grim Depression for them.
Obama is poised to throw $15 Billion dollars at a $10 Trillion dollar home foreclosure problem while roughly a million more homes will be foreclosed upon this year and commercial real estate foreclosures are predicted to accelerate. The economy is still losing net jobs, not creating them--with no end in sight. The numbers of long-term unemployed (already fully 40% of the real unemployment figure) will soar later this year as the huge monthly waves of people who lost their jobs starting in November 2008 reach the Clinton era's "long-term" unemployment threshold.
As Alexander Cockburn put it this week describing Obama's concern for the poor:
"There’s a gift for the grandchildren! Retirement postponed to 72, and [Social Security & Medicare] benefits slashed. Hunker down in your [homeless] shanty next to the new nuclear power plant and spend your last remaining dollars on the mandatory health insurance policy. Thank you, President Obama."
Meanwhile, in socialist democratic Norway, where college education is free and they have some of the most generous social programs in the EU, unemployment is at 4%.
You write about "the huge divisions fostered by parties" but fail to mention that none of that would be effective if the tea-baggers and regressives didnt care about all of that, and all of that isnt fostered by parties but by the Repub party primarily, because that is the party they have primarily worked to take over.
But of course they care, because all of that is a deep part of their warped, fundamentalist worldview, and they aint gonna let these things go. Progressives need to understand one simple fact: they have declared war on us and they aint taking prisoners. They want a Christian State, and the corporate plutocracy will gladly help them get it as this dove-tails perfectly with their plans.
Fundamentalist christianity is a form of fascism, it's that simple.
_Alert! Alert!_
Now China wants in on the Construction, Building and other handyman type work done in the U.S. market. In the preliminary feasibility study China would like the Congress to pass a bill giving China the right to set up Chinese prison camps around the U.S., China would not be locking up any U.S. citizen but would bring Chinese prisoner from China and keep them here. These prisoners would be under Chinese law and discipline like an Embassy of sort. If one of these prisons were in your town and say you needed some work done around your property you could hire a prisoner at around $4 an hour instead of the guy up the street at $8 an hour. This coat savings would then stimulate the U.S. economy.
Alert! Alert!
This just in, Wal-Mart is in talks with China on the new Chinese prison camp deal. If this does pass Congress Wal-Mart would like to locate one Chinese prison camp at each of their Super Wall-Mart stores, thereby bring your one-stop shopping experience to it ultimate climax!
Alert! Alert!
Hard to believe but there is a lot of talk about the other benefits if a deal with China setting up their prison in the U.S., two in particular. First if a store like Wal-Mart where allowed to use prisoners as worker in the store. They could reduce cost so low that U.S. economy would be a world leader again. The other news is since China is permitted to harvest all body parts from prisoners that die or are close to death without any permission from prisoner or anyone else, this would make organ availability in the U.S. skyrocket, But would you sale them in the meat aisle or in the pharmacy? Yes free trade is definitely a great thing.
The inate racism and inflated self-importance of the residents of "god's favourite homeland" reminds me mostly of the Nazi's "God's chosen fatherland"