After last nights speech, pundits on the right are screaming about how Obama is trying to move America to the left. The folks at Faux News and politicos like Sen. Mike Lee dont know what they are talking about. The left, the real left, is way more radical than President Obama - or anyone in the Democratic Party. The real left wants to nationalize industries and redistribute the means of production so that workers control the economy. The real left rejects capitalism as a system designed to enrich the wealthy on the backs of American middle class labor. All Obama wants to do is tweak the edges of a completely out-of-control jungle-capitalism system and put into place changes that will make our economy a little fairer for working people. Thats not left-wing. In fact, that was mainstream politics in the US from 1932 to 1981. During that time, students in many states could go to college for free, there were publicly-owned utilities, the workforce was unionized, and families thrived on a single income. But ever since the Reagan era American politics has moved drastically to the right. Historically speaking, Obamas move to the left is simply a return to the middle. For example, the 1956 Republican Party platform called for raising the minimum wage, endorsed equal pay for equal work, supported collective bargaining rights for workers, and celebrated the GOP’s role in expanding Social Security. For much of the 20th century, America was a much more progressive place (in terms of economics) than it is right now. Few can argue that things are better now. But Republicans want everyone to believe that what we really need to do is head in the other direction. They see the time between 1981 and 2009 as some sort of economic Golden Age we need to return to - the era of bubble economies and recession and financial collapse and the single largest transfer of wealth into the hands of only a few in the history of the world. Obamas proposals seem downright conservative by comparison.
Posted on: Thu, 22 Jan 2015 00:27:21 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015