Too bad. Unemployed badly need a stronger national network...
Fwd: One Truly Is The Loneliest Number
Dear UCubed Leaders and Activists:
One truly is the loneliest number. Only one UCubed member stepped up to run for UCubed State Director in exactly one state. Consequently, the scheduled 2011 elections must be cancelled.
Perhaps, by this time next year, UCubed will have sufficient mass -- and sufficient intensity and drive -- to elect its own leadership. Until then, we will build our organizational infrastructure by appointing activists who will aggressively represent the Union of Unemployed and its members at the state and regional levels.
Here at the Union of Unemployed, just like in your personal lives, each obstacle is simply another challenge to be met… as we continue our fight for the jobless.
In Unity – Strength,
Rick Sloan
Executive Director
Ur Union of Unemployed
Monday, March 7, 2011
Thursday, March 3, 2011
Cutting the Wrong Deficit
Why doesn't the "soak the rich" line work? Even when Reich giving it his all, it lacks the ring of conviction.
Because there *is* an economic problem.
But it is the trade deficit, not the budget deficit.
In a sense, the "common sense" right-wingers are not entirely wrong: we cannot indefinitely continue to be a nation which produces less than it consumes. Of course, they've got their facts mixed up about the cause of the deficit (hint: it wasn't caused by lazy people), and, therefore, are way off on workable solutions.
But right-wing populists have caught wiff of a stinking fact of the system, they are right not to let it go.
So they've been set loose on the wrong deficit, and the "solutions" they're being offered funnel down the to level of personal allegory: the grotesque spectacle of flogging of public sector workers.
But politics is largely a matter of stagecraft, and if you want people to let go of one thing, you've got to give them something else to bite on.
But isn't that what "soak the rich" is? Red meat for the masses?
Only a nincompoop like Reich could think that it was. And there's nothing more insulting to a red-blooded plebian than trying to pass off this political tofu as red meat.
Ultimately, the "soak the rich" line derives comes from an underlying belief that there is no big problem, that this is all a manufactured crisis.
That may be easy for Reich to say, but I don't think I'll join him. It's an attitude comes from complacency, and only lead to complacency. Hardly the secret to Democratic "relevancy" (or is it)?
Because there *is* an economic problem.
But it is the trade deficit, not the budget deficit.
In a sense, the "common sense" right-wingers are not entirely wrong: we cannot indefinitely continue to be a nation which produces less than it consumes. Of course, they've got their facts mixed up about the cause of the deficit (hint: it wasn't caused by lazy people), and, therefore, are way off on workable solutions.
But right-wing populists have caught wiff of a stinking fact of the system, they are right not to let it go.
So they've been set loose on the wrong deficit, and the "solutions" they're being offered funnel down the to level of personal allegory: the grotesque spectacle of flogging of public sector workers.
But politics is largely a matter of stagecraft, and if you want people to let go of one thing, you've got to give them something else to bite on.
But isn't that what "soak the rich" is? Red meat for the masses?
Only a nincompoop like Reich could think that it was. And there's nothing more insulting to a red-blooded plebian than trying to pass off this political tofu as red meat.
Ultimately, the "soak the rich" line derives comes from an underlying belief that there is no big problem, that this is all a manufactured crisis.
That may be easy for Reich to say, but I don't think I'll join him. It's an attitude comes from complacency, and only lead to complacency. Hardly the secret to Democratic "relevancy" (or is it)?
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
