Why The Washington Gridlock?

Why The Washington Gridlock?

There are an increasing number of politicians, columnists, pundits and ordinary citizens who are indignant over the inability of the two parties to come together on solutions for the countries most pressing problems. The deficit, health care, social security, unemployment, or if you like, “the time of day.” They cannot seem to find agreement. I have lived long enough to remember periods of time when Republicans sat down with Democrats and found solutions to any number of pressing social and economic problems. I have been asking myself, what has caused the change?

If I go all the way to the 1930’s there was fierce resistance to much New Deal legislation but there also were Republicans who would sit down and work out solutions with the Democrats. That spirit lasted up until the collapse of the Soviet Union and the end of the Cold War. Then slowly but surely the two parties seem to degenerate into anything the other guys propose we are against. So what does one thing have to do with the other?

As long as there was a threat to the system of Capitalism the common good required that both parties react in the best interest of the system. This is best exemplified during Depression when there was not only the threat of the socialism from afar but from a local vigorous pro socialist movement within the country. Wether it was real or not the ruling class, capitalists perceived it as such. Here I am reminded of a trip I took to Sweden in the late fifties.

In the course of that trip I met the Swedish Government economist, Mr. Meisner. After an extended visit I made to a variety of workplace experiments around Sweden we met for dinner in the Old Town of Stockholm at the Guildener Frieden. (I mention this because at a later date I would have the very rare opportunity to attend a meeting of the Bellman’s Society at the same place” Oh I have to write about that some other time.) One observation I made to Meisner was, “I don’t understand why the government here is so quick to fulfill any demand workers make even before they are able to raise up a real honest campaign? Your depriving them of their sense of winning something as a result of their demand.” His response helps supports my notion of capitalist insecurity.
Meisner said, “Listen we live a very few kilometers away from the Russian border. We know that our workers are very interested in the experiment going on there. Our owners of industry have figured out, “that it is better to compromise on socio economic issues than have social unrest leading to a revolution.” There you have it. It is far better to make concessions to workers demands than risk social unrest. What we had in the 1930’s was social unrest on a grand scale and that gave birth to the New Deal.

With the collapse of the Soviet Union and with it the demoralization of the left especially in the US there is no one to organize any social unrest. Oh yes there is the Internet and all these voices, including mine yapping away out here but I don’t believe that registers as social unrest. On the contrary I believe it works against it as people feel like they have made the protest with a one sentence comment like “your full of bullshit” so there I said it and that takes care of my protest. Sorry but that is not the same as getting thousands of citizens into the streets or into Washington to protest unemployment. And boy does the ruling class ever know that.

Just look at the contrast in the way the Congress jumped into save the Wall Street bank crowd compared to the home foreclosure crisis. The first one had to do, as they said, “to save the banking system,” integral to the functioning of capitalism. The second had to do with poor citizen, suckers who were coaxed, seduced into buying homes they couldn’t afford anymore than me trying to ice dance with my wife at the Olympics.

So there it is. I believe that the two old parties of capitalism see no urgent reason for them to come together to salvage the system. Primarily because there is no movement out there that in any way can be described as threat to the existing order of things. Quiet the contrary everyone including the critics are on board to keep the old capitalist train just running on. Hence no need to heed President Obama’s search for “Lets all work together” stuff. It ain’t a never gonna happen. Cause the system is doing just fine So why pray tell why do we need to make concessions?