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Both Liberals and Conservatives Hate Corporate Socialism (Where the Federal Government Favors Giant Corporations at the Expense of the Little Guy)
President Obama has "compromised" on everything from financial regulation and healthcare to taxes.
Obama
claims that all of his "compromising" shows that he's getting things
done. After all, politics was long ago defined as "the art of
compromise".
On it's face, it makes sense that if both
conservatives and liberals hate legislation, it must mean that there was
give-and-take, and it ended up somewhere in the middle.
But that isn't necessarily true.
Specifically, as I pointed out last month:
Conservatives tend to view big government with suspicion, and think that government should be held accountable and reined in.
Liberals tend to view big corporations with suspicion, and think that they should be held accountable and reined in.
Okay, stay with me here for a minute ...
Conservatives hate big unfettered government and liberals hate big unchecked corporations, so both hate legislation which encourages the federal government to reward big corporations at the expense of small businesses.
As an example, both liberals and conservatives
are angry that the feds are propping up the giant banks - while letting
small banks fail by the hundreds - even though that is horrible for the economy and Main Street.
The
Dodd-Frank financial legislation wasn't a compromise where things
landed somewhere in the middle between liberal and conservatives ideas.
Instead, it enshrines big government propping up the big banks ... more
ore less permanently.
Many liberals and conservatives
look at the government's approach to the financial crisis as socialism
for the rich and free market capitalism for the little guy. No wonder
both liberals and conservatives hate it.
And it's not just the
big banks. Americans are angry that the federal government under both
Bush and Obama have handed giant defense contractors like Blackwater and
Halliburton no-bid contracts. They are mad that - instead of cracking
down on BP - the government has acted like BP's p.r. spokesman-in-chief
and sugar daddy.
They
are peeved that companies like Monsanto are able to sell genetically
modified foods without any disclosure, and that small farmers are
getting sued when Monsanto crops drift onto their fields.
They
are mad that Obama promised "change" - i.e. standing up to Wall Street
and the other powers-that-be - but is just delivering more of the same.
They
are furious that there is no separation between government and a
handful of favored giant corporations. In other words, Americans are
angry that we've gone from capitalism to oligarchy.
So
if both liberals and conservatives hate something, it doesn't
necessarily mean it's a compromise. It may mean that they feel disenfranchised from a government that is of the powerful and for the powerful.
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i am with mahatma ghandi on this one, find something that is really important to TPTB, and boycott it. Their is literally a buzzillion issues out their to make your head spin. Voting with your wallet is by far the easiest undertaking of all, because it just requires a decision. No voting booths required. BUT IT REQUIRES CONCIOUS EFFORT. Even then, it is not really that difficult.
it's not the right or the left - it's the right and the left. helps to think of it as punches thrown by slave master.
Liberals and conservatives SAY these are their positions, but they evidently are no longer--at least not the liberals and conservatives in Congress. Our elected people on Capitol Hill now only pay lip service to these prior tenets.
In addition, the GOP have spoken out against the Dems in the past, criticizing their "tax and spend" policies. But it seems to me the only thing worse than "tax and spend" is what the GOP has been actually doing since the Bush tax cuts--"spend what you don't have, and don't tax". This has led to our current massive deficits (of course, with Obama's active help and blessing).
Double post because ZH server is choking a bit.
Obama's contribution to the deficit, historically, is tiny compared to Reagan and Bush(I&II). The National Debt (and those lovely interest payments) is mostly their doing. Obama at least has a Global recession as an excuse.
no 'represenatives', save one or two, address the root of the problem. The problem is Debt owed to the super-elite as a result of exponential (expected rate of return) slave creation via the fractional reserve system. The politically expedient answer, by those unknowingly (or not) serving the cartel has been neo-liberalism; extending the ponzi and feeding the fire. Mongering keynesians like professor Obama - no different. A tool perhaps........(?)
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Chris88 believes that deposit insurance caused banks to take excessive risk. I understand the argument, but I don't understand why it took over 75 years for the consequences to follow the policy. We had deposit insurance in 1935 but no housing or financial crisis until 2007. Care to amend your theory?
There was a housing bubble in the 80's as well. Also, bubbles appear in more things than housing.
I dont know how anyone can deny that deposit insurance causes banks to take excessive risk. People does not care about their bank because they know the government will cover any problem, therefore they dont exercise any control over their banks.
Chris88 likes to pretend he read Human Action.
"Both Liberals and Conservatives Hate Corporate Socialism"
Liberals love the public sector socialism part and hate the private sector corporate part.
Conservatives love the private sector corporate part and hate the public sector socialism part.
So I am not sure there is as much common ground here as the statement suggests.
You sure?
Progressives love corporations. They regulate for them all the time.
And conservatives love socialism. They implemented all the time.
1. Progressives?? Guess you mean "liberals." (Orwell was so right). Why do liberals not like the word liberals?
2. You incorrectly thought by "liberals" I meant Democrats and by "conservatives" I meant Republicans. Which would be wrong.
No, I meant what I meant. Progressives are all about fighting against corporations but then talk about more regulations and more government control, which has always produced more corporatist control.
Liberals (in the USA sense, European liberals are different) are just progressive-lite and democrats are just the real face of both.
Conservatives do not love socialism. Understanding a good number of Republicans may in deed, but not conservatives.
You mean conservatives are agaist Medicaid and Medicare? At least most conservative seem to be agaisnt the Federal Reserve while I dont think a big majority of the whole Republican base is. So in that sense conservatives are less socialistic than the republicans, I will concede tht.
Bob Sacamano?? Guess you mean Nazi. Oh, wait. Rush Limpbag.
Fuck you Bob. I'm a proud Liberal.
Brilliant substantive response.
I am glad (really) that someone is not afraid to call themselves a liberal rather than substituting some other term presumably to spin or hide reality -- well done.
Merry Christmas.
Dont you want to think this again?
Both democrats and republicans are in favor of big corporations. Its just that they use different rhetoric to justify it. Republicans say they are for the free market but end up creating all sort of regulations that benefit corporations, and Democrats say they are against the free market and to control corporations, but end up creating all sort of regulations that benefit corporations.
They both are for the same corporate system.
Good stuff GW. Here is my take on one way that ideology is used by some to divide us:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f2hCk5zokE0
Sound money and NO debt or "credit", bichez! BTW Cleve, Gerald Celente calls it "Progressive Libertarianism". Welcome.
You've hit the nail square on the head. Listen to Alex Jones sometime... Then listen to Amy Goodman at Democracy Now. Preferably open up two tabs and watch one after the other. It's fascinating how much they agree on.
There is a collective epiphany occuring among those who have previously been attached to party labels. We are realizing that the false political dichotomy doesn't work. Worse, it's been specifically engineered to keep us in the dark. If TPTB keep us fighting over trivialities (e.g. burning the American flag or taking down the Christmas manger scene at the county courthouse), we can be easily manipulated.
But this is changing very quickly. To use another example; It was Ron Paul (a Libertarian) and Bernie Sanders (a Socialist) who fought tooth and nail to force some transparency on the Fed by releasing what they actually did with the TARP bucks. I would hazard a guess that they probably don't agree on much ideologically, but I bet they have enormous respect for one another because (at least I believe) both are principled.
So, how does this all play out? I think the biggest fear for TPTB is when the Libertarian Right and the Progressive Left make common cause. I think it's possible for all the reasons outlined above, and the reality is they agree on far more than most people realize.
I predict a resurgence in the study of what most have considered until now the "esoteric" political philosophers -- the Murray Rothbard's, the Noam Chomsky's. How many Americans know what anarcho-capitalists are all about? How about anarcho-syndicalists?
But the truth is the Chomsky's and Rothbard's of the world are head and shoulders above the 535 booger eaters in Congress in understanding and addressing the REAL issues America faces... And they've been warning us for years.
As a former rah-rah, pro-military Republican, I for one, realized (finally) that GWB and most of the narcissists in my party were completely and utterly full of horseshit... Same goes for Democrats. In an overly-simplistic way, I break it down like this: Republicans keep Americans terrified of the big scary world beyond our borders... They all hate us for our freedom, and they're in the pocket of corporate monopolies. Democrats keep us dependent on handouts from the state, and picking the pockets of productive elements of society to pay for it... Scared or dependent -- in essence these are our choices.
Best book written on this by the way is Barry C. Lynn's - Cornered: The New Monopoly Capitalism and the Economics of Destruction.
Sorry... Didn't mean to hijack your post, but this one touched a nerve.
Great post. Thanks for your honesty and integrity. Cheers and spread your understanding to Republican pals. Your post gave me another shot of hope. The real kind of hope that comes from seeing common cause amongst honest Americans not the hijacking of term by political puppets.
Thanks again for your great post.
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Agree on the fascism concept. Too bad the fascist, apologist media keeps the whole liberal vs. conservative baiting in play. Sad that it works so well, as there's a lot more common ground than one would think.
If virtually everyone in the country hate it, how come there is not the least hint of change forthcoming? Could there be a flaw in the system somewhere?
You think, maybe?
Why do you pussyfoot around and call it corporate socialism? Why not call it by its true name? Fascism.
Capitalism, Socialism or Fascism?
Words have power, as you know. Corporate socialism connotes something nice and polite. It doesn't really mean much. The word "fascism," the marriage between corporation and state, reaches down and squeezes us by our racial memory. It raises the hairs on the backs of our necks. It calls a spade a spade.
Keep hammering at it GW.
You go after the statists on your side and I'll go after the anarchists on mine.
Kinda of a Pincer Movement ;-)
Count me in.
Cool...however, you'll have to get used to getting shot at from both sides...but if nothing else it keeps you on your toes...the anonymous yahoo! junks are the scorecard of hits from our side on them ;-)
Complete bullshit. Liberals and conservatives want their factions to be in power, and they don't give a flying fuck how this is accomplished. That this often takes the form of either fascism or outright socialism in time, matters not. Both are ultimately a boot in the face.
I think the place where we end up is one where both liberals and conservatives hate Obama.
But if you want a government who's interests are aligned with yours, get a government job.
Been There, Done That
I'm voting:
President 2012
[ X ] No
Leave the White House empty...
The White House maid and janitor could do a better job than these last 9 ass hats...
...and I bet you're not the only one. See, he's organizing a community - his biggest yet!
Now that's some William F. Buckley Jr. shit: http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/w/williamfb400600.html
Some one needs to step up from each side to strangle the worthless two party whore fest...
Buckley was a pompous Running Yale-Dog...
I guess this means I'm a liberative, or is it a conserveral? The usual labels only serve to divide citizens who should really be on the same side.
Hacking the baby in half makes a great compromise, but a lousy solution. Obama could do better, but that's not actually his job.
Liberals and conservatives, properly called, yes -- but not Democrats and Republicans. They love corporate socialism, to varying degrees, with minor differences, less than a dime's worth.
As as Liberal, thank you. This is not about political labels. I'm thrilled that Ron Paul is after the Fed. This is truly bipartisan. Eat shit oligarchs.
You nailed it with this article.
The Federal Reserve has recently outed themselves as the real government. They are the shadow government no more, running all policy foreign and domestic. The central banks are calling all the shots here and in Europe.
Telling Ireland they can't hold their national elections until they settle up with the banks? "...You are very, very dangerous people, indeed!" Nigel Farage to the EU
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To find out more about the Imminent Collapse of the Global Economy, watch this video "Who Cares ~ What Could Possibly Go Wrong ??" at (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tTRxN73Iu5M).
by Anonymous
The United States economy is rotten at the core and has been stolen from the American people by the Wall Street Thieves that drove the Titanic into the iceberg in the first place!!
Here I thought politics was the art of lies
Thank you GW for pointing out that the battle between right and wrong trumps any to do with Liberal vs Conservative, which are generally irrelevant.
In the case of most political matters both Dems and Repubs have been wrong and/or bribed to govern against the people, basically only channeling the pork in different directions.
Maybe Ron Paul can finally get a witness.
the conflict in the world isn't right versus left. It's up versus down.