“Over the last month I have tried to describe conservative power in Washington, but with a small change of emphasis I could just as well have been describing the failure of liberalism: the center-left’s inability to comprehend the current political situation or to draw upon what is most vital in its own history.
What we have watched unfold for a few decades, I have argued, is a broad reversion to 19th-century political form, with free-market economics understood as the state of nature, plutocracy as the default social condition, and, enthroned as the nation’s necessary vice, an institutionalized corruption surpassing anything we have seen for 80 years…
When you view the world from the satisfied environs of Washington — a place where lawyers outnumber machinists 27 to 1 and where five suburban counties rank among the seven wealthiest in the nation — the fantasies of postindustrial liberalism make perfect sense. The reign of the ‘knowledge workers’ seems noble.
Seen from almost anywhere else, however, these are lousy times. The latest data confirms that as the productivity of workers has increased, the ones reaping the benefits are stockholders. Census data tells us that the only reason family income is keeping up with inflation is that more family members are working.
Everything I have written about in this space points to the same conclusion: Democratic leaders must learn to talk about class issues again. But they won’t on their own. So pressure must come from traditional liberal constituencies and the grass roots, like the much-vilified bloggers…
The more comfortable option for Democrats is to maintain their present course, gaming out each election with political science and a little triangulation magic, their relevance slowly ebbing as memories of the middle-class republic fade.”
Thomas Frank, Rendezvous With Oblivion, NYT 2006
It’s a big club ! Average Middle Americans are not in it !
I called this play coming in 1980 and was laughed at , ridiculed , jealous etc… ! Meanwhile the largest transfer of wealth was underway in the history of the world from the majority of working Americans to the 1% investor or political class . It was an engineered plan to hollow out our nation economically and weakening every facet of American society . “THEY” succeeded , as now President Trump campaigned with the slogan “MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN” great let’s do it ! “BUT” with what and with who and how long will this take ?? It took 40 to 50 years of intentional neglect from that ever present circle jerk from Wall Street to K-Street to Capitol Street to bankrupt this nation destroy its industry and force the debt created upon the shoulders of those average Americans and their offspring for generations into the future .
Until we see Nuremberg Style trials with executions and confiscations of wealth and property from those who literally stole the birth rite of every American citizen “MAKING AMERICA GREAT AGAIN” cannot ever become anything more than a popular sound byte !
I fly my STARS & STRIPES inverted as the sign of distress and danger . Our nation is ill and I fear any cure offered will now be as bad or worse then the disease infecting us all !
Closing statement a very good summation except for the “slowly ebbing” – iceberg/brick wall dead head.