August 1, 2011--The Beginning of the End of the "American Century"
Someone said that if the United States were to default on its sovereign debt--has its national credit rating downgraded and cannot pay interest to those who hold our T-Bills--this unthinkable event would be forever etched on our national timeline.
The one that we remember from high school history which graphically shows the establishment of the Jamestown Settlement (1607); the landing at Plymouth Rock (1620); July 4, 1776; the war of 1812; the outbreak of the Civil War (1861); the American intervention in World War I (1917); the 19th Amendment that granted Women the right to vote (1919); the beginning of the Great Depression (October, 1929); December 7, 1941; the passage of the Civil Rights Act (1964); the end of the Cold War (1989); the day on which the U.S. defaulted.
That day, even with a deal that defers the debt debate, will also signal the beginning of the end of the American Century, which was declared at the end of the First World War in 1918. So after nearly 100 years we will be pretty much right on schedule.
We are also about to no longer be able to chant with credibility that "We're Number One."
"We're Number Two" will henceforward be more appropriate--China will sooner than they should become Number One; and not too long after that we'll only be able to claim that "We're Number Three" as India zips by us.
All accelerated by defaulting, as at some point we likely will. With that we will become the laughing stock of the world since this will be a self-inflicted crisis engendered by Congress. By both parties. Though mainly by Republicans who in the first place amassed most of our national debt, want to blame it on Obama, and now do not want to do anything balanced about it other than cut spending and taxes.
In fact, the real agenda for the right-wing of the GOP, not much discussed as we obsessed about the Boehner plan versus the Reid plan versus the Gang of Six plan is that for Tea Party fanatics--and that is what they are (more about that in a moment)--what they are in fact working to accomplish is the effective end of government. To roll back the New Deal and the Great Society
Not to reduce and eventually liquidate our debt (Bill Clinton had us on that road until George W. Bush began his unfunded spending for wars and massive tax cuts for the wealthy) but by not routinely raising the debt ceiling to pay for things already legislated and approved--like student loans, like cancer research, like Medicaid, like food stamps, like unemployment insurance, like the Internal Revenue Service, like . . .
Like pretty much everything the government pays for with the exception of defense, including preemptive wars against Islamic countries. For this there will always be enough money, even if we have to borrow it.
While the extremist right has itself effectively mobilized, we liberals have been, well, enjoying life.
The dirty little secret is that liberals, me included, because we on average are more credentialed and are disproportionately found in lucrative professions have been among the major beneficiaries of the last decades' fiscal and tax policies.
I could total it up for you, but my progressive friends, who earn at least as much as I, have saved many thousands of dollars because of the Bush tax cuts. More than most Tea Party members.
And we have even done better than most of them in regard to the value of our real estate. Yes, values have come down off their highs of three-four years ago, but those of us with vacation homes and condos are still, in comparison, way ahead of the game, in spite of the real estate bubble bursting.
And we have more in our tax-deferred 401(k)s than the average right-winger. Reagan-to-Bush tax policies have seen to that.
Since our children go to college and graduate school in greater numbers, we have benefited from federal programs that support higher education and offer various forms of subsidized student aid. This further advantages us.
We take more vacations; we have better health care; we have more discretionary income to buy stuff than most Tea Partyers, all thanks to tax and fiscal policies put in place largely by Republicans.
While political fundamentalists have been getting frustrated and angry and, key, getting successfully organized to take control of local, state, and federal governments, we have watched them disdainfully from the sidelines while enjoying our lifestyle, much of it provided by their Republican friends and colleagues.
During the Vietnam War, liberals were mobilized until the draft was ended. When we no longer could be inducted, we wiped our hands of the whole thing and let others--in effect, low-income American mercenaries--do our fighting. Just as now when less than one percent of the population is either serving in Iraq and Afghanistan or has a family member in the military.
So, frankly, we don't care, we haven't mobilized. Life is too good.
Now it looks as if our good times may be coming to the beginning of the end. Ours as well as the country's.
If Tea Party members who are holding the rest of the GOP hostage (threatening to run candidates against them in primaries next year if they do not do their bidding), if they have their way--and to me it looks as if they ultimately will--we will see the slow asphyxiation of our social safety net and the end of government as we have known it since the 1930s.
Tea Party folks are not interested in compromising since this apocalyptic scenario is exactly the outcome they are seeking. They are also acting out of a version of political religious fervor. To them, Thou Shall Not Raise Taxes is an article of faith, their 11th Commandment. Literally, as they struggle to resist their leaders' threats and blandishments, after having had their arms twisted, they together march over to the chapel in the nation's Capital--why there is one there is another undiscussed issue--to pray to God for His advice about how to proceed in regard to the debt and to help them keep true to their secular faith.
I am not making this up. You can read about their search for divine legislative guidance in the linked article from the New York Times.
We're heading for Number Three indeed.
The one that we remember from high school history which graphically shows the establishment of the Jamestown Settlement (1607); the landing at Plymouth Rock (1620); July 4, 1776; the war of 1812; the outbreak of the Civil War (1861); the American intervention in World War I (1917); the 19th Amendment that granted Women the right to vote (1919); the beginning of the Great Depression (October, 1929); December 7, 1941; the passage of the Civil Rights Act (1964); the end of the Cold War (1989); the day on which the U.S. defaulted.
That day, even with a deal that defers the debt debate, will also signal the beginning of the end of the American Century, which was declared at the end of the First World War in 1918. So after nearly 100 years we will be pretty much right on schedule.
We are also about to no longer be able to chant with credibility that "We're Number One."
"We're Number Two" will henceforward be more appropriate--China will sooner than they should become Number One; and not too long after that we'll only be able to claim that "We're Number Three" as India zips by us.
All accelerated by defaulting, as at some point we likely will. With that we will become the laughing stock of the world since this will be a self-inflicted crisis engendered by Congress. By both parties. Though mainly by Republicans who in the first place amassed most of our national debt, want to blame it on Obama, and now do not want to do anything balanced about it other than cut spending and taxes.
In fact, the real agenda for the right-wing of the GOP, not much discussed as we obsessed about the Boehner plan versus the Reid plan versus the Gang of Six plan is that for Tea Party fanatics--and that is what they are (more about that in a moment)--what they are in fact working to accomplish is the effective end of government. To roll back the New Deal and the Great Society
Not to reduce and eventually liquidate our debt (Bill Clinton had us on that road until George W. Bush began his unfunded spending for wars and massive tax cuts for the wealthy) but by not routinely raising the debt ceiling to pay for things already legislated and approved--like student loans, like cancer research, like Medicaid, like food stamps, like unemployment insurance, like the Internal Revenue Service, like . . .
Like pretty much everything the government pays for with the exception of defense, including preemptive wars against Islamic countries. For this there will always be enough money, even if we have to borrow it.
While the extremist right has itself effectively mobilized, we liberals have been, well, enjoying life.
The dirty little secret is that liberals, me included, because we on average are more credentialed and are disproportionately found in lucrative professions have been among the major beneficiaries of the last decades' fiscal and tax policies.
I could total it up for you, but my progressive friends, who earn at least as much as I, have saved many thousands of dollars because of the Bush tax cuts. More than most Tea Party members.
And we have even done better than most of them in regard to the value of our real estate. Yes, values have come down off their highs of three-four years ago, but those of us with vacation homes and condos are still, in comparison, way ahead of the game, in spite of the real estate bubble bursting.
And we have more in our tax-deferred 401(k)s than the average right-winger. Reagan-to-Bush tax policies have seen to that.
Since our children go to college and graduate school in greater numbers, we have benefited from federal programs that support higher education and offer various forms of subsidized student aid. This further advantages us.
We take more vacations; we have better health care; we have more discretionary income to buy stuff than most Tea Partyers, all thanks to tax and fiscal policies put in place largely by Republicans.
While political fundamentalists have been getting frustrated and angry and, key, getting successfully organized to take control of local, state, and federal governments, we have watched them disdainfully from the sidelines while enjoying our lifestyle, much of it provided by their Republican friends and colleagues.
During the Vietnam War, liberals were mobilized until the draft was ended. When we no longer could be inducted, we wiped our hands of the whole thing and let others--in effect, low-income American mercenaries--do our fighting. Just as now when less than one percent of the population is either serving in Iraq and Afghanistan or has a family member in the military.
So, frankly, we don't care, we haven't mobilized. Life is too good.
Now it looks as if our good times may be coming to the beginning of the end. Ours as well as the country's.
If Tea Party members who are holding the rest of the GOP hostage (threatening to run candidates against them in primaries next year if they do not do their bidding), if they have their way--and to me it looks as if they ultimately will--we will see the slow asphyxiation of our social safety net and the end of government as we have known it since the 1930s.
Tea Party folks are not interested in compromising since this apocalyptic scenario is exactly the outcome they are seeking. They are also acting out of a version of political religious fervor. To them, Thou Shall Not Raise Taxes is an article of faith, their 11th Commandment. Literally, as they struggle to resist their leaders' threats and blandishments, after having had their arms twisted, they together march over to the chapel in the nation's Capital--why there is one there is another undiscussed issue--to pray to God for His advice about how to proceed in regard to the debt and to help them keep true to their secular faith.
I am not making this up. You can read about their search for divine legislative guidance in the linked article from the New York Times.
We're heading for Number Three indeed.
posted by Steven Zwerling at
4:49 AM
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