Friday, January 20, 2017

Empire of the Pig: Day One, Overture

We can't count on liberals and their cherished institutions or standard of decorum and responsible governance they keep hoping against hope the Republicans will come back to embracing.
But of course, the whole post war amity between Republicans and Democrats was based on shared assumptions about liberal democracy and the need to give the American people a real stake in their nation's success. Plus a real and disturbingly successful looking - at the time - alternative model from an enemy they felt they had to compete with in wealth expansion and social welfare.
The fight against fascism rubbed their noses in the dangers of both ethnonationalism and extreme economic equality. To greater and lesser degrees both parties agreed with an activist state and yes, wealth redistribution. That and an explicit recognition of the value of trade unionism and loosening of the legal blockades to workers organizing created the single biggest expansion of wealth and health in human history. It was an activist state and unionized workers that created the middle class.
As World War II recedes from living memory the global right slinks back to ethnic scapegoating and gilded age style robber baron exploitation like a dog returning to its vomit.
There's no common ground, no basis for cooperation or trust in institutions to protect the shredded post war consensus.

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