Alexander Hamilton
Many of the issues we face are left over from the period just before World War II, a war whose nature was such that the social problems and inequities could be forgotten...for a while.
I have written that the size and scope of the war required the participation of every individual, the fact that the war did not drag on too long did not exhaust and deplete even the victors, and the finality of the end - unconditional and complete surrender - left no grey areas, nor anyone to say nay to the newly established international order of the triumphant allies.
In the USA, we boomed, and we all received some benefits thereby.
When that boom ended, the USA did not respond in a creative way, instead letting newly emergent powers take over manufacturing lock, stock, and barrel; for example, the USA auto industry could not compete anymore against the new international competition, and lost domestic market share steadily to imports.
We had illusory dreams of being a service society - serving the financial and technical needs of the world: the financial dream did not work out well, and there was no way to monopolize the technology....
One of the things that made America great was the stark fact that when we made a mess of things, there was always the frontier, and we could move on to new lands - making sure the aboriginal inhabitants were "pacified" - and there we re-start the cycle of exploitation of seemingly inexhaustible resources.
We no longer have that frontier. The "frontier" was what a number of us took for our "exceptionalism" - what made us somehow "better" than other folk - and what we used as the basis for our quaint belief that God had tilted things to our side...a vast frontier of possibilities, vast tracts of land and possibilities only restricted by the laws of physics and nature, not the laws of kings, tyrants - no, nor even legislatures and politicians...
Our military is still expanding, but now it is overseas, and our community can no longer follow the sword, as it did in the past. Now we have expanded from sea to shining sea, and are left to find a way to live a good life, without the escape route into the frontier. We are in a Time of Regularity, no longer on the edge of creative chaos; we are caught within the web we spun, and now must deal with it, and there will be no World War II to deflect things, because there are no enemies adequate to the roles of those of the 1930's and 1940's - no matter how desperately our rulers try to fit themselves and us into the pantomime horse of "war on terrorism".
First item is the nature of the US Senate.
An article in E!Sharp:
http://www.esharp.eu/Web-specials/Washington-s-House-of-Lords
Washington's House of Lords
As the US Senate begins debating healthcare reform, Steven Hill argues that America's upper house is in desperate need of reform
"...Minority rule in the Senate has been with the nation for a long time; in fact, it is widely blamed for perpetuating slavery for decades (between 1800 and 1860, eight anti-slavery measures passed the House, only to be killed in the Senate). For all these reasons, two of America's most revered founders, James Madison and Alexander Hamilton, opposed the creation of the Senate, with Hamilton warning in Federalist Paper no. 22 that equal representation in the Senate "contradicts the fundamental maxim of republican government, which requires that the sense of the majority should prevail...."
"...The Senate has reached its Hurricane Katrina moment. The US remains the only advanced nation without healthcare for all, so it is not just the senators' credibility on the line if they fail to provide to all Americans with a similar level of healthcare benefits that they themselves enjoy as senators. It is the very democratic legitimacy of the body in which they serve. How long are Americans going to ignore this constitutional defect? "
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5 comments:
I like your thoughts about the frontier and how it is over. Now we have to face what is.
I've been thinking about how citizens of other countries take to the streets in protest. If the price of rice goes up a few rupees, Indians march out the door with fists raised and clenched. The outrage of a fraction of the citizens in our land has not spilled off the couch and out the door.
I am dreading the outcome of Copenhagen. No matter what Obama or anyone decides, bills will have to be written and gotten through Congress. What is left at the end will be a diluted soup that does not do enough to bring the earth's temperature down quickly enough. What we face on so many fronts should have us all in Washington shouting. Ugh.
Exhibit A: the piece of rancid hash the Congress will dish up and call healthcare reform. A guy I read all the time, Chris Hedges, says don't blame him, he voted socialist, i.e., Nader. When I reflect on my long history of participation in presidential elections, it occurs to me that I've voted outside of the two major Tweedledum-Tweedledee parties almost half the time. I hereby declare that I'm finished with the Democrats. I'm reverting to my past self. I'm a socialist anyway, so why should I pretend otherwise.
Yes, indeed, why pretend?
But where, exactly, are the Socialists these days?
I don't know. I shall go back and start reading again from the writings of the young Marx...
Back in 1991 when the USSR fell apart, it was very clear that socialism and communism were to be heard from in the future...
What made it clear was the shrill voices from our side which proclaimed their death, and the shriller it was, the clearer it became that we were headed for our own reckoning...
The end of the USSR was not a surrender, like that of Japan in WW II; the benefits which accrued to us were miniscule - the paltry and short-lived peace benefit, for example - and we had no vision of the future, imperfect or otherwise, for the world, other than NATO as a latter-day Athenian empire with the USA at the helm.
And China's turn is coming on apace...I remember hearing of the female Imams in Xinjiang 4 years ago...and that is unheard of in most Islamic countries, but in Xinjiang the Chinese made it difficult, so the women were the religious leaders in places...then Xinjiang erupots in riots this year, and now the Chinese have executed some Uighurs...
A democratic socialist I might have said, if that brings more clarity to the true place I stand on the political spectrum. Seems to work well enough in any of several European countries. I would have voted for Eugene Debs. I think Bernie Sanders is the most honorable of our senators.
People first. The needs of people first. Corporations are not people. War is a fruitless exercise; no war. Progressive taxation. Ironclad defense of personal liberties. That's my socialist agenda in a hundred words or less.
Good Lord! I have been thinking of Eugene Debs for the past month or so, every time I read your posts.
I guess I did not, because it was such a long time ago: who remembers Eugene Debs?
Who remembers Debs and G.B.Shaw standing up against the First World War?
Yeah. You've been reminding me of Debs all this time...bloody wobbly!
I bet no one remembers what a "wobbly" is.
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