Sunday, September 21, 2008

Tired of being a Washington outsider? Take Washington to Alaska and keep repeating "Maverick" like a cereal slogan. The McCain campaign, now with more "Maverick" (but don't read the ingredients).

Free Market Capitalism not working for you anymore? Nationalize debt, but find a way to drive up fear about the other party's socialism. (And suggest deregulation of health care companies to boot -- that worked so well for the banks, thanks much).

Our national way of life, and the global way of life based on it, is changing. It has to change -- again. An Historical state of affairs, it is subject to change. The way we do things is really only relatively recent in comparison to American history, and it's been untenable since at least 2001 by all markers. As one commenter remarked, since then, publicly and personally, we have been impoverishing our future (or our children's future, which has been the Bush policy) to be wealthier today.

And then the future arrived.

We are in a future that requires us to redefine ourselves -- the "free market capitalists" thing isn't accurate, it isn't working and it isn't true. Rugged individualism isn't the same as rampant unregulated Capitalism, and neither is a virtue.

Those feelings of anxiety, of impending doom -- that some have been tying to Obama and "the left" -- appear to me to be instead the deep fear not that something is going to go wrong, but that something already has.

This is perhaps why some have called the new national institution to buy out bank losses (American and UK) at mark-downs (reverse auctions) "Paulson's Monster." But it ought, really, to be called "Our Monster."

3 comments:

Erin said...

I'm so frustrated and angry with this adminstration. it is NOT practicing what it preached, and I've never been more angry with my country, my president. How could the nation sell us out like this. It goes back to 1992 with the deregulation of banking, and while I'm normally anti-regulation it is SORELY needed right now.

aj said...

Hi there! I'm a friend of Keely's and I love your blog. This is a little off-topic, but I thought you'd like this article:

http://www.dmagazine.com/ME2/dirmod.asp?nm=Co re+Pages&type=gen&mod=Core+Pages&tier=3&gid=B 33A5C6E2CF04C9596A3EF81822D9F8E.

Sorry I don't know how to make it a link!

--Amanda

abebech said...

aj, thanks! I made it a link in its own post for easier access.