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Stop the Democratic Suicide
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If the Obama administration doesn’t start to deal with the populist wave headed for Washington, Republicans will tap a reservoir of resentment that could destroy his presidency.
First they came for the bankers. Then they came for the CEOs. Then they came for the liberals. That might be the epitaph of the Democratic Party, if Democrats cannot learn to surf the tsunami of populism created by the economic earthquake.
Already across the world you can hear the rumble. Nations are scrambling to bail out their industries and protect them against foreign competition. The Indian government is slapping restrictions on Chinese imports. In Britain, workers have struck, demanding “British jobs for British workers.” In the US, popular support for “Buy American” provisions is as high as disapproval of the same provisions in the elite press.
As more Americans lose their jobs and their homes, as more businesses crater and banks topple, popular anger is rising like a wall of water over a suddenly quiet beachfront resort. You’d think that the Democrats in Washington would be aware of the danger.
As more Americans lose their jobs and their homes, as more businesses crater and banks topple, popular anger is rising like a wall of water over a suddenly quiet beachfront resort. You’d think that the Democrats in Washington would be aware of the danger. After all, the massive expansion of Great Society spending in the 1960s, followed by the stagflation of the 1970s, allowed the marginal conservative movement to tap populist anger and dominate American politics for a generation. Substitute stimulus for Great Society and years of possible “stag-deflation” for stagflation, and you have a scenario in which the Obama’s overwhelming majority could collapse as quickly as LBJ’s.
To date, however, the Obama administration has seemed more concerned with reassuring Wall Street that it will be protected against Main Street hotheads than in disciplining Wall Street on behalf of Main Street Americans who have lost jobs, homes, and savings. First Obama appointed an economic team dominated by Robert Rubin proteges, like Timothy Geithner, who were considered safe by the Street. Then Geithner put forth a plan which many economists warn might force the public to pay too much for toxic assets held by the banks.
Geithner himself is a lightning rod for populist wrath. Ordinary Americans who fail to pay their taxes can expect strict punishment. When Geithner forgot to pay sizeable sums, he was quickly forgiven and made Treasury secretary. Most Americans cannot afford maids, legal or illegal. Geithner’s violation of US employment laws, in paying an illegal-immigrant maid, was also judged to be a minor indiscretion. After all, he is simply the latest in a series of political appointees with illegal-immigrant maid problems. Let’s be reasonable. Important people can’t be expected to do their own housework, and ten minutes otherwise spent saving the world might be wasted on ascertaining whether their servants are violating US immigration laws or not. As the late Leona Helmsley might have said, immigration laws are for the little people.
The Right Dumps Carrie
Jacob Bernstein is a senior reporter at The Daily Beast. Previously, he was a features writer at WWD and W Magazine. He has also written for New York magazine, Paper, and The Huffington Post.
What's Joe's Problem?
Lloyd Grove is editor at large for The Daily Beast. He is also a frequent contributor to New York magazine and was a contributing editor for Condé Nast Portfolio. He wrote a gossip column for the New York Daily News from 2003 to 2006. Prior to that, he wrote the Reliable Source column for the Washington Post, where he spent 23 years covering politics, the media, and other subjects.
Geithner's Stock Plummeting
Jeff Madrick is a contributor to the New York Review of Books and a former economics columnist for the New York Times. He is editor of Challenge Magazine, visiting professor of humanities at Cooper Union, and senior fellow at the New School's Schwartz Center for Economic Policy Analysis. He is the author of Taking America, The End of Affluence (Random House) and The Case for Big Government.
Obama's Midwest Blunder
Michael Lind is the editor of New American Contract at the New America Foundation in Washington, D.C., and the author of The American Way of Strategy. He has been a staff writer or senior editor at the New Yorker, Harper’s magazine, the New Republic, and the National Interest.
What He Should Have Said
Michael Lind is the editor of New American Contract at the New America Foundation in Washington, D.C., and the author of The American Way of Strategy. He has been a staff writer or senior editor at the New Yorker, Harper’s magazine, the New Republic, and the National Interest.
Obama Owns the Room
Michael Lind is the editor of New American Contract at the New America Foundation in Washington, D.C., and the author of The American Way of Strategy. He has been a staff writer or senior editor at the New Yorker, Harper’s magazine, the New Republic, and the National Interest.
"If the Obama administration doesn't start to deal with the populist wave headed for Washington, Republicans will tap a reservoir of resentment that could destroy his presidency."
That's the GOP game plan, all right, but as SNL made the point on Saturday night - the guy's only been President for 3 weeks. The American people aren't that dumb.
It's said the tipping point is when taxes go above 50%. We're there.
Nope. Usually when people discuss taxes in a meaningful context, they mean the 'National Burden Ratio' -- the ratio of total national and local tax revenues to national income. The US 'boasts' one of the lowest among the industrialized nations. We're still in the mid-30% range.
Something to consider next time you discuss taxes.
This article desperately needs a strict editor with a sharp pencil.
There may be some valid points in there, somewhere, but who has time to wade through the muck to find them?
DB- Like you, I quit reading the thing upon entering one of the dense, overly long paragraphs. But he could have summed up the whole populist enchilada by not referring to Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan Chase as "wall street".
The populist tsunami is being powered by Americans seeing our noses pushed into the sand, while watching Billions and Billions, and Billions of dollars disappear into the pockets of the good old boys running the show: Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan Chase and their big investment bank brethern!
We, who live in the heartland, who DID vote for Obama have come to realize that we bought a pig in a poke. He was already in the banker's pocket before his rocket left its launching pad.
kilroy:
You're kidding, right? Quoting SNL about all things GOP? Pathetic. You might be correct, however, in that "American people aren't that dumb." It's Liberals that are the idiots. Don't you get it? You may hate Republicans because that's what you've been brainwashed to do, but they are no worse than the Democrats. All of these political hacks are cut from the same corrupt cloth. Obama is a puppet, as was Bush, Clinton, etc., etc. The only way things are going to really "change" is if we have another viable political party. Look to Campaign for Liberty to ensure that happens by 2016--if not 2012. I just hope the U.S. hasn't been destroyed by the Democrats and/or the Republicans by then.
blah blah blah liberals blah blah blah shut up already.
Nonsense. We're going to give this guy years. As long as it takes.
Obama doesn't have " years. " More like one term and done.
Small businesses will collapse under the weight of Cap and Trade
and those small businesses will lay millions more off.
When Obama suffocates innovation with his narcissistic
government power grab, and obscene tax hikes, 57% in New York;
Americans will wake up,
no longer blinded by the agent of change and his charisma.
He wasn't kidding when he said he would change America.
As China and India grow and become more like us,
under Obama we are regressing into some government controlled
socialized community with the head " organizer "
destroying any last remnants of free enterprise by swallowing
private industry.
Interesting halo around Obama's head in the photo.
Fits that out of control ego of his.
How dare anyone question the man.
Pretty soon that aura of invincibility is going to wear off.
Pretty soon all the liberals on the Upper West side will
have to leave the city because they won't be able to afford
to live there, thanks to Obama's out of control budget,
four times more than incompetent George W.
But Obama is so cool. Yah, well cool ain't gonna pay your bills.
This comment has been removed by The Daily Beast's editors.
RIP
RIP
This comment has been removed by The Daily Beast's editors.
RIP
EdinNJ:
Seriously? This coming from someone who goes out of his way to leave a comment calling the people on this blog--and Michael Lind--irrelevant, moronic, arrogant, pretentious and a douchebag? Talk about deflection.
Lind provides an astute analysis from the non-crazy left -- see examples of crazy-left thinking in the comments above -- that I fervently hope the Obama administration ignores.
The pic with the blurred seal symmetrically placed around his head and shoulders --- LIKE A HALO! -- is the most off-putting part of this off-putting blog.
Don't go there folks. It will end badly.
Sorry, you're sadly mistaken. That "populist wave" is what Obama rode to the Whitehouse on. He went in "hanging ten" on that wave; the Big Kahuna baby. AND he's from Hawaii! ha! The populists are not going anywhere until they get satisfaction. The Republicans need to come up with a new song to sing before the little squeaks we're still hearing turn into a faded distant memory. You're fooling with a new generation and you've still got an old message. Obama knew that. That's why he won. Get up to speed with the rest of the nation or risk your own party's demise.
I think you are smoking too much Maui Wowie if you believe that. Obama swept in when people voted against something, not for him. Bush wasn't running, but they voted against him anyway. Now, people are seeing this guy for what he is. The article is correct. Here in flyoverland we've seen auto plants close. Obama threatens to raise our electric bills (only in the Midwest where we use coal), we see industry picking up and saying they can't afford to be here anymore and moving overseas. All for global warming. By the way, the high today here will be 72. We are no longer buying it. Now, Obama wants to take away our parents healthcare with rationing. He will lose so huge next time you are not going to believe it. His welcome out here is worn out.
Lind is just another WASHINGTON DC INSIDER telling those of us OUTSIDE THE BELTWAY what America is "really thinking".
There are two shards of truth in what he writes, and the rest of the "article" is INSIDE THE BELTWAY BS ! !
PS: To me reading this article it is like watching CNBC and listening to all the "analysts" tell us HOW BAD THINGS ARE, and they do it all from a Wall Street perspective. Wall Street GREED started all this, was supported by politicians and administrations, mortgage bankers, and everyone else who was in it for the GREED of money.
F*** all of you!! YOU are the problem with this country, and it is YOU that Barack is fighting.
Enough.
.
BTW, the other nations aren't running to protect themselves from America, they're positioning themselves to get a piece of the pie when our President is done cleaning up this Republican mess Bush made.
You've had your chance to prove that the "answers" are in tax cuts. They're not. It didn't work. It appears the answers may be in paying more taxes so we can fix this mess. That tax-cut-trickle-down thing never worked with any Republican in office except with people who were accustomed to slavery and menial labor and pay and didn't have a problem with it.
This is not that generation. They're gone. For good.
Nowadays, everybody wants their own thing happening and they want to work from home and make their own money, get affordable benefits, and be at autonomous peace; Pres. Obama seems to be on top of it. If corporate America had followed through on that and stopped being controlling and greedy, none of this would have happened.
The only folks that benefited from those Republican tax cuts were the ones making, in McCain's words, more than $5m a year. That represents less than 10% of this nation and the other 90% is tired of getting push aside waiting for Republicans to unzip their pants and "trickle" on us. Even Donald Trump has pitched out. He's a wobbling Weeble though - he might get knocked down, but he doesn't stay down.
BTW, the other nations aren't running to protect themselves from America, they're positioning themselves to get a piece of the pie when our President is done cleaning up this Republican mess Bush made.
You've had your chance to prove that the "answers" are in tax cuts. They're not. It didn't work. It appears the answers may be in paying more taxes so we can fix this mess. That tax-cut-trickle-down thing never worked with any Republican in office except with people who were accustomed to slavery and menial labor and pay and didn't have a problem with it.
This is not that generation. They're gone. For good.
Nowadays, everybody wants their own thing happening and they want to work from home and make their own money, get affordable benefits, and be at autonomous peace; Pres. Obama seems to be on top of it. If corporate America had followed through on that and stopped being controlling and greedy, none of this would have happened.
The only folks that benefited from those Republican tax cuts were the ones making, in McCain's words, more than $5m a year. That represents less than 10% of this nation and the other 90% is tired of getting push aside waiting for Republicans to unzip their pants and "trickle" on us. Even Donald Trump has pitched out. He's a wobbling Weeble though - he might get knocked down, but he doesn't stay down.
How's that 401k doing since Obama? Maybe as a feelgood gesture you should toss out everything you bought during the past 8 years. Cleanse your soul..
Ooops, sorry for the dups at 9:40 and 9:47. I thought it had not gone through.
NO WE JUST THOUGHT,YOU THOUGHT, WE WERE ALL STUPID!!
If you duplicate it a 3rd time...it is still vacuous ramblings. So give it up. before
you look really stupid!
Oh, I think the trickle down image is a beaut!
Another pathetic attempt to find a way for the Republicans to "rise again!" Come on. Can't they just - for once - care about the country instead of attaining power. Today, we need problem solvers not crybabies. Just do the right thing and FIX IT!
Pretty scathing re: the Democratic elites and you way over-complicate the issue. If there is no major international flare-up, Obama will be judged only on the progress of the economy. Lou Dobbs' populists and right wingers will be completely shut down if any kind of meaningful recovery comes to America by 2012. Prediction: Obama gets 61% of the popular vote in 2012.
B.S.
Obama rode in on that "wave", so spare us. He has been in office less than 4 weeks and some are saying the Dem' better be careful? are you Joking?.
Anyone interested in the "Conservative Republican" base and what lies in their future needs to watch the Documentary on HBO, quite eye opening but not surprising, these wing nuts are the ones that will insure that the Dem's stay in power for a LONG TIME, short of Obama completely loosing control.
The G.O.P. is the one in trouble, far worse than the Dem's in 94', make no mistake. Their leader is a drug addicted right wing talk show host, Sara Palin was their mascot and Dick Cheney is still loved by the neocon's. The ONLY power the Republicans have is to say NO, if they continue to block Obama's plans they will be the ones that will ensure the wrath of the "angry" populists "wave".
Obama has a lot to do be before he can prove he can handle this mess left by his predecessor but he is already turning out to be a real leader, something this country has not seen in a long time and I'll bet the American people stand behind him.
Mr. Lind - I've never heard of you and don't know what your claim to fame is, but you sound very much like one of the Village voices who never gets out of town. Try it some time. You might be out of your element there, but you there's always the chance you'll learn something.
I've grown so weary of the hyperbole. This article is a prime example of the apocryphal hysteria the media keeps trying to sell us. Those who control the "news" (which is so often these days only biased OP ED cloaked in the form of journalism, and manipulative little soundbites that show their contempt of the general public) -- and those in Congress and the Senate who are hanging on with their fingernails to those good old days when they were thisclose to the public trough -- are doing their best to divide a nation and undermine our strength for the money they can make doing it.
@ swanie: My, my...so much anger. Perhaps you ought to take a step back and re-examine where your anger is stemming from.
Unfortnately for you, Mr. Lind makes some good points in his article. The Democratic party must be careful how much they choose to leverage their newfound power in Washington to accomplish thier own agenda. Move to quickly and strongly, and Obama will be out in 4 years.
You are mistaking the people's righteous anger with what has happened to and in America with a threat to Obama's presidency. That's wishful thinking. We the people intend to give Obama every chance to fix the mess he inherited. If he fails, so be it. The other side failed and lose the election. That's how we do it in America.
I don't know who's responsible for the messiah-like photo, but they ought to be ashamed. It's his detractors, not his supporters, who try to pin the messiah label on him.
He was behind and threw this sub-standard piece together at the last minute. I really hope, I'd like to think you didn't labor on this.
He's right about one thing, the buy American HAS to stay. All the other developed and large economies have similar provisions, but because they are reliant on our economy to peddle their 'stuff' ofcourse they won't agree with Buy American.
A public who gives the Presidency to a cigarette-smoking poseur can't be bothered by a few angry-white-populists. As long as President Kool Kat keeps his Blackberry down-lo, his nose high, and his butt on the veranda, what's the big deal?
Besides, voters were cool with Obama saying he would serve 8-10 years. (you can't make this stuff up)
Is there a point somewhere in your comment or is it just a text-fart?
The American people spoke loud and clear on election day. I don't know why all you pundits think it was a 'temporary" fancy, and that we will all go back to "normal" in a few months when it all wears off.
Listen, nobody cares about D.C. nannies except Fox News...and you, I guess. Everybody knows life isn't fair, it's all about who you know. People in power get away with what others can't. That will never, ever, ever, ever change.
There is real work to be done, most of us are waiting for that progress, not getting caught up in how soon we will grow weary and fall back into the past.
"laugh*
Thank you.
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