A decade late, a trillion short
It's sort of nice, in a theoretical way, to see exactly two of the writers at NYRO finally detecting the financial crimes of the last decade. Namely Walsh and Williamson.

Way too late, of course. The Repooflicans had a chance to be a meaningful opposition party from 2002 through 2006, when they held all branches, but they did absolutely nothing to move toward "small government". No tort reform, no reductions in corporate welfare, no SS/Medicare fix, no cuts in regulations or departments. Nothing. Nothing. Nothing.

Instead, they did everything Teddy Kennedy wanted. Expanded Medicare hugely, enacted Teddy's own education program, and finally committed the greatest financial crime in history. All for the banks.

Quite a few former Repooflicans (including me) were gradually repelled by all of those inactions and actions, and then permanently cured of Repooflican Syndrome by Shotgun Paulson's Theft Of A Nation. But NYRO kept defending the criminal syndicate until just last month, and the majority of its writers are still loyal consiglieri.

The comboxes are especially enlightening. Sounds like many of their criminal readers think Walsh and Williamson should be fired for revealing the crime. So far it appears that the management is holding firm, but I don't know how long that will last.

Separation might be a good thing, though. There's an empty niche for a serious publication that defends real capitalism from both sides of its Gramscian enemy: a forum that stands roughly in the Santorum or** Buchanan position. Which is also the FDR position, if you know your history.
[**Turns out I was right about Santorum in the first place: He's not really for American business. Compared to Traitor Romney, he's a bit less treasonous, but that's all.]


We already have lots of websites and radio talkers defending the raw feral Randian side of Gramsci while giving lip service to the values of tradition and culture.

We already have plenty of TV networks and newspapers defending the Leninist side of Gramsci (secularism, homosexualism, feminism) while giving lip service to the values of work and industry.

We don't have anything that opposes both parts of Gramsci.

[Takimag and FrontPorchRepublic occasionally hit the target, but both spend entirely too much space on weird post-modern irony and weird metaphysics.]

= = = = =

Misc thought: 'It's a Wonderful Life' was the perfect Gramscian dystopia. We're living in George Bailey's nightmare.

It's not just Mr Potter owning everything and starving everyone to enrich Every Square Inch Of His Most Glorious And Holy Naked Body. That's the Randian side of Gramsci. Individual Liberty. Potter has Liberty to steal the universe; all others have Liberty to die.

It's also the theater turned into a strip joint, Violet turned into a crack whore, Martini's turned into a Hard Place Where Hard Men Drink Hard. That's the Leninist side of Gramsci. Human Rights. Anything goes, except self-control and normal families.

Bets and debts. The anonymous writers of the movie saw it more completely than Huxley or Bradbury, even more completely than Percy.

How do we get back to Bailey's own world, a place where business and politics pay some attention to human needs, a place where negative feedback keeps business and politics within some equilibrium? How do we re-close the loop?

We probably can't, because nobody can countermand Potter-aka-Goldman. Potter-aka-Goldman owns everyone in positions of authority.

But if we could, we'd need to follow Turkey. Or hell, even follow Canada to get started.
  ¶ 5:49 PM