Zoopolitik

Every word of Daniel Froomkin’s “Obama vs. the Washington Establishment” for The Washington Post bears reading; but for me, the following paragraphs were telling:

After all, since the Reagan era, even mainstream Democratic leaders have internalized the trickle-down, free-market, small-government mentality which Obama now blames for our woes. Few in the Democratic party — or the mainstream media — did much more than watch as the economic playing field tilted further and further to the advantage of the rich.

And yes, it’s true that many of Obama’s initiatives could well be described as pent-up Democratic goals. But you might also call them nearly-forgotten goals, as far as the current batch of Democratic leaders is concerned. Even when they controlled Congress, they failed to block budgets that turned out to be blueprints for disaster. And they either didn’t fight for their principles or flinched in a pinch. I described some of their capitulations to former president George W. Bush in this December 2007 column. These very same leaders may well be motivated to — at least — complicate or modify Obama’s proposals to validate their own previous inaction.

As I have said a multitude of times (and once illustrated to the debasement of my career), trickle-down economics is simply the very rich standing atop the mountain of humanity and urinating a shower down on the rest of us. Whatever trickles down is the only gold we get to keep. At this moment the system is hard at work using existent and nonexistent taxpayer dollars to reward the bad behavior of irresponsible greedheads. And this is the system the Washington establishment wants to continue. Before we hang the onus of obfuscation on Republicans alone, a great many Democrats — especially those lashed to the apron strings of the financial community — are equally culpable.

Unless working class voters rise up as a community and back Barack Obama’s defense of them, he simply will not survive, and the very same piggish thugs and robber barons who got us here will continue feeding at a trough sustained by workers.

Class war? Bring it on. For once I’d like to see ordinary Americans on the winning side.

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Some years ago I recall Scottish comedian Billy Connolly, after delivering a hilarious stand-up routine in an HBO special, warning somewhat seriously that Europe’s biggest concern wasn’t whether North and South Vietnam got back together, but whether East and West Germany did. “Ye’ve got to watch those bastarrrds,” he cautioned, wagging a stern finger in the direction of the camera.

I was reminded of it this morning, after reading that German Chancellor Angela Merkel has blocked a bailout of eastern Europe at an emergency summit in Brussels.

Germany rejected appeals Sunday for a single multibillion euro (dollar) bailout of eastern Europe, even after Hungary begged EU leaders not to let a new ”Iron Curtain” divide the continent into rich and poor.

The swift, strong comments by German Chancellor Angela Merkel dampened hopes that leaders at Sunday’s European Union summit could forge a unified stance to tackle the worsening economic crisis.

As Europe’s largest economy, Germany has been under rising pressure to take the lead in rescuing eastern EU members, but Merkel insisted that a one-size-fits-all bailout was unwise.

I have no horse in the race, so I am neither lauding nor commending Merkel’s position. I do find it interesting that when it comes to their own pocketbooks, even left-leaning nations have a problem “spreading the wealth around.”

The New York Times blog, “The Opinionator,” has a wrap-up of reactions to Barack Obama’s speech last night in “The Critics on Obama’s Opening Night.” Dan Froomkin has other sources, including the loathsome, completely irrelevant ass William Kristol. Here are a few from my reading list:

Matthew Yglesias is still unconvinced:

Obama’s plan for the economy is a three-legged stool—stimulus, housing, banking—but the banking leg is the most important one and it’s also the one on which the administration has been least convincing. I saw a poll showing that 80+ percent of the public feels more optimistic after Obama’s speech. I’ll feel more optimistic when I see a convincing plan for the financial sector.

I’d second that, by the way. One that includes the temporary nationalization of Citigroup and Bank of America.

Steve Benen is more upbeat:

The president wasn’t apologetic about his use of government, it was just a matter of fact. These are times that demand an ambitious federal response and Obama is going to deliver one. We tried pretending that the government is a tool to be mistrusted and used sparingly, and now we’re going to try something different.

Alex Massie calls it “The Age of Obama”:

For better or for worse, this is Obama’s time now. I think he senses that he can be Reagan’s mirror-image: a President who rolls up the political map and draws a new one, redefining an era in his own image. It’s early days yet, but that’s the level of ambition he’s working at. And right now it seems as though the lights of Republicanism are going out and it may be some time yet before we see them again.

It always spooks me when pundits start counting out the Republicans; cockroaches don’t die easy, and they have an uncanny ability to come back in superior numbers, immune to the poison that did away with them earlier.

Josh Marshall live-blogged the event, offering this:

This point about honest budget accounting sounds very wonky. And it is in a lot of ways. But the Obama people are very big on it. It’s actually amazing how much stuff was not included in the Bush era budgeting. Cost of Iraq and Afghanistan for the next 6 or 7 years? Hard to say. So just don’t count it, etc.

Mickey Kaus surprised me:

In general, the speech had its usual effect on me, only amplified this year — which was to make me hate all the senators and representative gathered in the House to unctuously pretend on camera that they’re supportive of the President. They’re not the people who are going to help him succeed. They are the people who are going to conspire, probably successfully, to prevent him from succeeding. That goes for Pelosi’s Democratic troops — who’ll oppose education and entitlement reforms, who’ll oppose ending “programs that don’t work,” who’ve already polluted the stimulus with bureaucracy-building measures — as well as Boehner’s troops who will just oppose.

Digby is glad the new kid’s in town:

And, once again, I’m struck by just how relieved I am. I can’t even imagine the despair we would be feeling if the last regime were still in charge during these troubled times. (Just remembering the glowering visage of Dick Cheney sitting there is enough to send shivers down my spine.) It’s like fate intervened (or just random luck) at the last possible moment. Even the Republicans seem to be letting out a deep breath….

That sentiment was echoed in a tweet by Robb Lejuwaan:

So this is what it’s like to have a true leader as our president — amazing.

On the flip side, Jim McCormick tweeted this about Bobby Jindal’s Non-Response to the Not the State of the Union Address:

Oh. No. Bobby Jindal sounds like he’s a librarian reading to school children. I think the authors at Little Golden Books wrote his speech.

Funny on first read, but even funnier when Nate Silver live-blogged at 10:29:

If it sounds like Jindal is targeting his speech to a room full of fourth graders, that’s because he is. They might be the next people to actually vote for Republicans again.

(In fairness to Jim I should probably add that he is a lifelong Republican who likely agreed with a good deal of what Jindal had to say, though I cannot speak for him.)

Silver has a sharp post about the volcano monitoring Jindal criticized last night. (Ken Rudin at NPR has more.)

Finally, Paul Krugman wonders what Jindal was thinking:

And leaving aside the chutzpah of casting the failure of his own party’s governance as proof that government can’t work, does he really think that the response to natural disasters like Katrina is best undertaken by uncoordinated private action? Hey, why bother having an army? Let’s just rely on self-defense by armed citizens.

The intellectual incoherence is stunning. Basically, the political philosophy of the GOP right now seems to consist of snickering at stuff that they think sounds funny. The party of ideas has become the party of Beavis and Butthead.