Early Crazy Time

I am having trouble believing that we are already starting “Crazy Time” a year before the actual voting begins. Yes, you got it. I’m talking about the upcoming 2010 midterm election. It used to be that we had a period of rest and rehabilitation from the last voting circus. Now the political circus seems to have been made permanent. (Might have to go to someplace out of broadband reach for some R & R.) How did this permanent political fight come about?

There used to be a political balance of left and right wing politics. Each side had a viewpoint that their opposite could disagree with. Through the Congressional Committee process they would find a way to work through differences. A system was created that permitted give and take through debate. There would be amendments and compromises to pending legislation, but in the end we got something better than stalemates.

That system had a way of moving things along in a constructive fashion. Legislation could always be changed or fixed for better or worse with another administration. For example, during the Clinton years the bankers decided they wanted to get into the investment racket, hence the repeal of the Glass Steagall Act that had been passed during the FDR New Deal days. The idea behind Glass Steagall was to keep a distinction between saving or lending from investment. The whole crisis we are presently in would have been averted if Glass Steagall had not been repealed.

What caused the change? There used to be two major political ideological wings that had a strong influence on the political positions of the two parties. At present we are faced with a single powerful right wing ideology. Its fundamental philosophy is that people can take care of themselves and we don’t need government to interfere in how they live their lives. It always struck me as kind of weird to be spending millions of dollars to run for an office that you don’t really believe ought to be there in the first place. I suppose one could argue they were looking to get elected in order to put the wrecking ball to the house they were serving in. No, that never happened. In fact the opposite occurred once the “hate Washington bunch” got to the Capital. They ended up expanding the very institutions they were earlier attacking. What they learned on the way was the power that is Washington is very addictive.

The real problem in today’s politics is there is no left wing to even begin to counter the right wing. The left disappeared some years ago after the collapse of the Soviet Union. The problem was the false identification between what was supposed to be the alternative to capitalism. What existed in Russia was supposed to be Socialism. Let me make it very clear. What existed in the Soviet Union was not even a resemblance to the idea of socialism. It was the Dictatorship of the Communist Party that tried to give itself a more benevolent appearance of being nice by tagging on the word “socialism,” not unlike what Hitler did with National Socialism. No matter. After the Soviet collapse, the idea that there was an alternative to capitalism disappeared off the radar screen. It was also called "the end of history." What we have left is a fierce right wing that is determined to takeover the reigns of government with all its power and destroy anyone who gets in their way. In essence this is what Bill Kristol advised the right to do with Health Care reform, “Just Kill It.” How’s that for a policy? That’s exactly what they manage to do because they can’t even now get it through their heads that we have a middle of the road Black President.

This is why I see crazy time ahead as we begin to move toward the midterm election. Just one final word on Obama’s situation. It’s easy to see that it ain’t good. Why? As I worried during the campaign, he has had some very sad illusions that he could make nice with the Right Wing. Well, it never happened and it never will. They just hate him because he fly’s in the face of everything they believe in, including the color the person’s skin ought to be the same as the house he occupies in the Nation’s Capital.

Unlike the right wing, there is no left wing to support Obama. Yes, there was an upsurge of Internet support as he ran for office. What he does not have is an ideological base that can support him or any other progressive who needs a solid backing that he or she can call on in times of needed support. That’s what is totally lacking as Obama tries to move some of his campaign promises through the legislative maze called Congress. If he is not able to pass the health care bill and do something soon to start to bring down the unemployment rate, it will be a sad outcome in 2010 and even sadder in 2012. That may be the real price of no serious left wing politics in the country.

Thanks Kate N.H.W.Y