- MENU
- HOME
- SEARCH
- WORLD
- MAIN
- AFRICA
- ASIA
- BALKANS
- EUROPE
- LATIN AMERICA
- MIDDLE EAST
- United Kingdom
- United States
- Argentina
- Australia
- Austria
- Benelux
- Brazil
- Canada
- China
- France
- Germany
- Greece
- Hungary
- India
- Indonesia
- Ireland
- Israel
- Italy
- Japan
- Korea
- Mexico
- New Zealand
- Pakistan
- Philippines
- Poland
- Russia
- South Africa
- Spain
- Taiwan
- Turkey
- USA
- BUSINESS
- WEALTH
- STOCKS
- TECH
- HEALTH
- LIFESTYLE
- ENTERTAINMENT
- SPORTS
- RSS
- iHaveNet.com: Politics
by Arianna Huffington
There was much to mock about the recent
But it would be a huge mistake to dismiss the movement that led to the event.
Yes, some of the
Think of the
In his recent piece about the Tea Parties, The New Yorker's Ben McGrath wrote:
"If there was a central theme to the proceedings, it was probably best expressed in the refrain 'Can you hear us now?', conveying a longstanding grievance that the political class in Washington is unresponsive to the needs and worries of ordinary Americans. Republicans and Democrats alike were targets of derision."
Though this weekend's event had a decidedly conservative bent, it was interesting to watch how during the Q&A session after her speech, both Palin and Judson Phillips, the chief organizer of the convention, proudly informed the crowd that neither of their spouses vote Republican.
And thanks to the botched bank bailout, anti-government rhetoric -- a conservative hallmark since Ronald Reagan branded government the problem, not the solution -- has moved beyond the ideological right.
Indeed, at times in her speech, Palin sounded like the second coming of Huey Long. "While people on Main Street look for jobs, people on Wall Street -- they're collecting billions and billions in your bailout bonuses," she said. "And everyday Americans are wondering: Where are the consequences? They helped to get us into this worst economic situation since the Great Depression. Where are the consequences?"
I was within an inch of singing along: "Yeah, where are the consequences!? You tell 'em, Sarah!"
I've written about how the middle class is teetering on the brink of collapse. And the bleak indicators just keep piling up: a new study found that one in eight Americans received emergency food aid last year -- up almost 50 percent from 2005. The numbers are even worse for kids: one in five. That's 14 million children facing hunger. In America.
Can you hear them now?
Tim Geithner doesn't seem to. There he was again
this past weekend, on
At the same time, on
These other issues he was referring to were jobs and the epidemic of foreclosures. Minor, eh?
Can you hear them now?
Is there anything worse, when you're struggling and mad as hell, than being told to chill out? Geithner's latest tone-deaf pep talk, and Paulson's faith that "ultimately" there will be jobs, certainly aren't going to assuage the anxiety and anger middle-class Americans are feeling.
"Discontent with the present and apprehension about the future have
become the background noise of our politics," writes Tim
Rutten in the
He then goes on to quote historian Ian Kershaw: "There are times -- they mark the danger point for a political system -- when politicians can no longer communicate, when they stop understanding the language of the people they are supposed to be representing."
Maybe that explains the lackadaisical, going-through-the-motions
response of the
Calling the administration's latest proposals "superficial," Simon Johnson laments: "There will be no serious attempt to cut financial institutions down to a size at which they could be allowed to fail. With their incentive structure intact -- they get the upside and regular folk get the downside -- Big Finance is ready to roll into the next great global boom-bust cycle."
In fact, for Wall Street, the next boom appears
to have already started. Our "recovery" might be "jobless," but it's
certainly not bonusless. And, no, poor Lloyd Blankfein
getting a bonus of "only"
How brave of him. I'm sure we'd have no trouble finding someone among the 16.5 million unemployed and underemployed willing to take that gold-plated bullet.
It's ironic: Democrats have been waiting 30 years for a populist movement to counter the Reagan Revolution. And now that it has, Democrats find themselves the targets of that movement, caught in flagrante delicto with the big banks -- and more in thrall to the deficit hysteria sweeping Washington instead of fighting for an aggressive, comprehensive plan to rescue the middle class.
"Washington now has its priorities all wrong," writes Paul Krugman. "All the talk is about how to shave a few billion dollars off government spending, while there's hardly any willingness to tackle mass unemployment. Policy is headed in the wrong direction -- and millions of Americans will pay the price."
And more and more of them, frustrated and convinced that their leaders don't have any empathy for their situation, will increasingly turn to movements like the Tea Parties.
Will our leaders -- finally -- hear them now?
Available at Amazon.com:
The Political Fix: Changing the Game of American Democracy, from the Grassroots to the White House
AMERICAN POLITICS
WORLD | AFRICA | ASIA | EUROPE | LATIN AMERICA | MIDDLE EAST | UNITED STATES | ECONOMICS | EDUCATION | ENVIRONMENT | FOREIGN POLICY | POLITICS
The Tea Party 600: Canaries in the Political Coal Mine | Arianna Huffington
© Tribune Media Services