Personally, I think that Hamas, the Taliban, Al Qaeda and the rest are fascists who want to turn back the clock to the Dark Ages--to a past that never was. I don't think of them as liberation movements in the progressive sense, no more than the fascists who took over Iran after the 1979 revolution. Nor can I ever imagine them being sane and rational negotiating partners, or even able to understand the concepts of negotiation and compromise at all. That said, I have always agreed that the Palestinian Arabs have a moral right to their own country, while recognizing that …
All 20 comments by...
mcmchugh99
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PS I consider myself part of the social democratic left, broadly speaking, but have zero interest in following any party line or joining any particular clique or faction. I do my own reading and thinking, and can only advise everyone else to do the same. I'm also just not all that sociable by nature....
Posted to Israel, Gaza and the Left
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This has been a toxic issue for decades. I remember when I was in college 30 years ago, and the same arguments over the same toxic issues were going on--interminably. If there is a better answer than the two-state solution, I haven't heard it yet, and the partition proposals go back to the 1920s and 1930s. None has ever succeeded. Not one, and so this toxic issue never ends. As you might guess that I'm thoroughly sick of hearing about it, and I am by no means alone in this. My main problem if that I don't believe that Hamas and …
Posted to Israel, Gaza and the Left
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I've heard all the arguments on here a million times. All I'm interested in any more is: where is the end to this? When does it end? Where is the solution that will finally result in two states? I've yet to see any answers to these questions. Essentially, I think it ends with a Palestinian state, not controlled by Hamas, that is economically and politically viable. It should be linked more to its Arab neighbors than to Israel, although I have long thought that the US should increase its aid to Jordan, Lebanon and Egypt. Since we are no longer strong …
Posted to Israel, Gaza and the Left
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Personally, I never thought there was much of a possibility of revolution in America. I mean, if we didn't have one in 1932, for example, then just when would the conditions be right for one? Even today, with capitalism in a global meltdown, I don't see any sign of revolution in America. Certainly, there is plenty of discontent, anger, alienation, and all that, but it's not really new. In the late-1960s, when middle class was much larger, and the welfare state and organized labor still existed, revolution in America was a truly delusional proposition--just the well-known youthful radical chic of Baby …
Posted to You Say You Want a Revolution
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Obama is the best president in my lifetime, and has done more for ordinary people in this country in a month than all the other presidents in my lifetime. I was born in 1963, so admittedly this is not a very high standards, and naturally as a progressive and social democrat, I wouldn't mind at all if he started to break with capitalism and move moved toward a mixed economy. I don't care if some of these big banks are nationalized and operated as public services, for example. I also have a lot more trust in him than any of the …
Posted to 67% of Americans trust themselves more than Congress on economic issues, according to a
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I do think we are in a major reform wave of the type that only comes along every 30 to 40 years. In the last century these waves have been the Progressive Era, the New Deal and Great Society. That last was followed by a very long and deep reactionary era, basically a greedfest of 19th Century capitalism allied to 19th Century religion of the type not seen since the 1920s. For the next eight years or so, there will be more room for progressive reform than at any time since 1968, and the economic depression should ensure that many of …
Posted to Mind the Gap
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One ides I had is simply to sell GM and Chrysler to the workers, let them become emplyee-owned cooperatives. They could hardly do worse than the management that has run the auto industry into the ground over the last 30 years. This current recession could be an opportunity to expand the whole cooperative sector of the economy, if it had proper government support, such as a revived National Cooperative Bank,.
Posted to Obama's Labor Pick Is Good News for Workers
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As I wrote earlier, one did not have to be a genius to predict this present crisis. You could have picked up any history book about the 1920s or the First Gilded Age and made a predicted about how our Second Gilded Age would end. These big free market phases of capitalism have always ended in a crash and consolidation--and the government always has to step in to pick up the pieces. When the history is finally written of this whole era from the 1970s until now, it will be described as another Gilded Age, full of instability, economic decline for …
Posted to We Told You So
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I am always leary of reviving anything resembling the New Politics or counterculture of the 1960s, lest economic issues go to the back of the bus again and be replaced by "cultural" issues and limousine liberalism. I am a progressive and a social democrat, and I think we need improved public education, a national health care system, a fair tax code, a lot more low cost housing, investment in green technology, high speed rail and mass transit, and also that certain industries and banks should be nationalized and run as public service corporations. All the poor will benefit from programs like …
Posted to Obama Needs a Black Agenda
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I have lived overseas for 14 years and there are beggars everywhere in this world. That is all part of the system. There is always an oligarchy, aristocracy or whatever you want to call it. That is history. Even in the South, with the so-called White Power Structure, some whites were far more equal than others. As a historian, my opinion is that teh elite has always used race, religion, nationalism and so on to manipulate the lower classes and maintain its own power. To me, this is not even a theory: it is what I have actually seen in operation …
Posted to Obama Needs a Black Agenda
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What is there to say about this man? When the Founders provided for impeachment, it was with exactly this type of politician in mind. There is nothing else to be done unless he makes a deal and resigns, like Nixon.
Posted to The Rise and Fall of Rod Blagojevich
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I have long thought that Obama represents a reform wave that probably surprised even him by its intensity. These waves occur every 30 to 40 years, and since the last one was in the 1960s we were overdue. The Second Gilded Age is over, and in fact the writing has been on the wall for some time for free market capitalisn. No doubt, its sudden and dramatic collapse stunned the Republicans and many Democrats who had gone along with the free marketeer consensus for decades. So it was after 1929, as well. My guess is that we are at the dawn …
Posted to What do you think Rahm Emanuel's appointment to Chief of Staff portends?
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One of the things he could do is set up a National Development Bank or something like that, similar to the Reconstruction Finance Corporation of teh 1930s. (And it actually continued into the 1950s.) That could invest in all kinds of industries, infrastructure, schools, hospitals, green technology. If we have to nationalize the auto industry, for example, this could help it reorganize to produce greener vehicles. It would be better than having all these various interests go to Congress directly all the time and ask for bailouts. They should also consider bringing the National Cooperative Bank into this system, to encourage …
Posted to What do you think Rahm Emanuel's appointment to Chief of Staff portends?
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My greatest worry in American politics is how Republicans have been so successful over the last 30 years in using race, religion and nationalism to get working class whites to vote against their own class interests. In the South, especially, there seems almost no way to break through this Republican hold on white voters. In places like Texas, Oklahoma, Alabama, etc, they may simply be unreachable by any Democratic candidate. In this respect, cultural politics have proven absolutely lethal for the Democratic Party in most elections since 1968. In the future, though, I think Obama will be able to expand his …
Posted to Obama and the Union Vote
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My hope is that Mr. Ayers represents a movement whose time has gone, a radical chic counterculture that is fading away with the Baby Boomers. Since 1968, the Right has been running against it, and very successfully most of the time. Basically, they ran in every election with a flag in one hand and a Bible in the other, which made life very unpleasant indeed for politicians like McGovern, Clinton, and Kerry, etc, etc. This didn't work very well aginst Obama, though, partly because he's not of that generation, and partly because the Republican free marketeer ideology has collapsed with the …
Posted to What a Long, Strange Trip It's Been
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I really doubt that Obama is a 1960s-stle radical--or self-styled "radical". To me, the late-1960s had a lot of revolutionary posturing by children of the privileged classes like Mr. Ayers. They never really changed anything and their historical legacy and influence will likley be nil. I know that Obama is not in favor of free market capitalism of the Reagan-Thatcher type, but that system isn't looking too healthy these days. Personally, I'm still a Keynesian, and believe in a mixed economy. We should have a state-owned sector without trying to run everything from cetral headquarters, as well as a regulated capitalist …
Posted to What a Long, Strange Trip It's Been
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I do think we're headed in a more state capitlist direction--although Bush and the Republicans mistakenly call it "socialism". It's more like a mercantilist system, where the state invests in busines and guides the economy, nationalizes some things. Bush and his Treasury Secretary are already doing all this, more than the Democrats would have dared. They are statists, too, but still calling themselves free marketeers. Obama will probably continue these policies, even expand them. Does he even have a choice? He can't let his own voters in the auto industry lost their jobs. He's a northern man, elected mostly by votes …
Posted to What a Long, Strange Trip It's Been
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A free market economist told me recently that the economy had been going along beautifully for last 30 years, but now we were having a little "glitch". I told him thata "glitch" is what you call it when a light bulb goes out. What's happening now is a little bit worse than that. Have you noticed that all over the world, even "conservative" governments are pumping hundreds of billions into the "capitalist" economy? What are they scared of? More than a glitch, I think.
Posted to What a Long, Strange Trip It's Been
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I was amazed taht he won Indiana, the most Confederate state in the North. Even FDR sometimes had trouble winning that one, but Obama did it. That is a good sign. And it wouldn't take too much effort to turn some other southern and western states blue. If I were a Republican, I'd be VERY worried about Obama winning in places like Indiana, Ohio and North Carolina.
Posted to What state were you most excited to see Obama win on Tuesday?
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