Last night, inspired by the generally unsatisfying, incomplete, and often vacuous nature of the tweets I keep seeing from both Left and Right about the “Occupy Wall Street” movement and the ongoing economic calamity — and also by this National Review article, among other big-picture economic pieces I’ve read recently — I went on another one of my extended Twitter monologues of political pessimism and #PANIC. Before it disappears into the nothingness of Twitter’s terrible archive system, I thought I’d post it here for posterity. Warning: some profanity.
Ken Gardner (@kesgardner): America is exceptional and I cherish the system that makes us so: capitalism. I like working hard and being rewarded for it. #iamthe53
Me: Do you like the stagnation in real wages since 1973? #iamconcerned MT @kesgardner: I like working hard and being rewarded for it. #iamthe53
How did we collectively fail to notice that, economically, the American Dream has been moribund for decades? #IAmStagnantRealWagesSince1973
I am not the 99. I am not the 53. I am sick of rigid ideological perspectives that obscure what matters. #IAmStagnantRealWagesSince1973
I am not a number. I am worried about my girls inheriting a crappier America than mine. I am angry at failed leadership & failed ideologies.
I am angry that a broken political system, a worthless press, demagoguery, ignorance & fairy tales prevent America from fixing its problems.
I am sick of a politics dominated by rigid ideologues, Left & Right, whose misplaced self-confidence is exceeded only by their utter myopia.
I hate the inadequacy of our politics AND the sniveling self-regarding Bloombergian vacuousness of many who posture against that inadequacy.
It’s not that we need to be more “bipartisan.” Pitched battles are fine, when informed by facts & reason. The problem is WE NEED TO SOLVE SHIT.
For DECADES we’ve had an energy crisis, a health care crisis, a debt crisis… crisis after crisis. WTF happened to us? We won 2 world wars!
The American Dream was a thing once. Now it’s not, but we pretend it is. Our “leaders” tell us fairy tales while leaving our crises unsolved.
In the end, the problem isn’t Obama, or Bush, or Congress (though they all suck). The problem is us. All of us. Not Left, not Right. Us.
Or maybe the problems of the modern world are just too complex to solve. But again I go back to, DAMMIT WE WON TWO WORLD WARS.
#TeaParty and #OccupyWallStreet have more in common than they’ll ever know. They see a tiny sliver of the truth & think it’s the whole truth.
Why does our binary political system force us to choose who’s f**ing everything up, government or the private sector? What if THEY BOTH ARE?
I have three daughters. I fear they will inherit from my generation a poorer, crappier America, in decline. For this, I blame everyone.
I boldfaced that “more in common than they’ll ever know” tweet because I particularly like it. I really think that’s true. The Tea Party isn’t wrong about our unsustainable debt; they’re just wrong in their myopic focus on that one crisis among many, and in their blind adherence to rigid conservative ideology in seeking solutions to our many problems. Likewise, Occupy Wall Street isn’t wrong about financial sector greed and malfeasance and how it’s screwed us over; they’re just wrong in their myopic focus on that one cause among many for the current mess we’re in, and in their blind adherence to rigid liberal ideology in seeking solutions to our many problems.
Anyway, at the above break in my rant, I walked away from the computer for a few minutes, intending to go to bed. But of course I was drawn back in, to add…
At some point, won’t people like me – not #IAmThe99 liberals, not #IAmThe53 conservatives, but #IAmAnAngryDad non-ideologues – also rise up?
Where is the movement for people like me? Not #NoLabels, that’s bullshit. Not mushy feel-good bipartisanship. Trans-ideological rage.
Travis Mason-Bushman (@polarscribe): @brendanloy The problem is, what can “trans-ideological rage” agree on?
@brendanloy Everyone’s angry, but half the people want to do something diametrically opposed to what the other half want.
Me: That sh*t’s f***ed up? 😉 RT @polarscribe: @brendanloy The problem is, what can “trans-ideological rage” agree on?
Travis: This is true. RT @brendanloy: That sh*t’s f***ed up? 😉 RT @polarscribe: The problem is, what can “trans-ideological rage” agree on?
The problem is, as soon as you get past the point of agreeing that everything’s screwed, you start arguing over how to fix it.
Me: @polarscribe Yes but, aside from committed minorities on either side, most are just going along for the ride with their chosen tribe re: solutions.
@polarscribe People need a fact-based, reason-based alternative to appealing false clarity of the #TeaParty, #OccupyWallStreet, etc.
@polarscribe But of course that’s a pipe dream. Reason & rage don’t go well together. Even though, in this case, the facts are enraging. *sigh*
Finally, this morning, a brief postscript:
David K. (@krizoitz): @brendanloy You act as if both sides are equally to blame. Neither is perfect but one has been far more responsible.
Me: @krizoitz In the last several years, yes, but over the last 4 decades? Neither party has led, both tell fairy tales and utterly fail to lead
@krizoitz And We the People don’t demand anything better, in part because we view everything in binary partisan zero-sum terms.
@krizoitz If GOP sucks 90% of the time and Dems “only” 70%, that’s not a reason to vote Democrat, it’s a reason to blow up the damn system.
@krizoitz Rhetorically, of course. 🙂 #OldTone #DontArrestMeFBI
@krizoitz And now I sound like Ralph Nader. #LesserOfTwoEvilsPANIC! Someone else who sees a sliver of the truth.
On one side you have middle aged and older people, who are often small business owners, protesting higher taxes, corrupt and ineffectual big government, and wealth re-distribution in a peaceful, even friendly manner. They organized political and are effecting real change in the political system.
On the other you have unemployed young people, usually just graduated (or still in) from college, demanding forgiveness for their student loans, more entitlements and increased re-distribution of wealth in an offensive and oft times violent manner. They have no organization and are now being co-opted by organized labor.
Yep..sounds the same to me.
If they truly were opposed to the influence of Wall Street in politics, they would be protesting in front of the White House.
From the video of the ‘protestors’, they seem to have a lot of overlap with the ANSWER crowd (Act Now to Stop War and End Racism (sic)) … an intersection of them plus MoveOn.org plus Noam Chomsky plus various big unions …
About as jobs-killing a group as one could construct …
If Ear Leader continues as he has been doing recently, he may go down in history as the first Democrat candidate for president to lose DC in the past 50 years ? past century ? past millennium ?
And *that* would be an achievement of which even Jimmy Carter was not capable …
You two are as out to lunch as Herman Cain. No wonder he’s surging amongst the most ignorant of our country.
4) How close is Obama to losing DC?
3) Occupy has an overlap with ANSWER in the fact that they make sense? Do you still think the wars are a good way to spend $2 trillion? If you want Jobs Killing, just cut taxes on the rich, de-regulate the lending practices of banks, and borrow all the money you want for 8 years. Result– Catastrophe. And we keep taxes low for the rich becuase it worked out so well?
2) Since they are doing “Occupy Los Angeles” rallies here in downtown, I’d imagine they’re in DC as well. Of course Wall Street is the group who collapsed the economy through fraud and not a single person has been charged with a crime. Instead, this and the last president rewarded their lack of integrity with TARP bailouts because our anti-capitalist government apparently doesn’t believe in the base premise that if you fail in business, you cease to exist.
1) The Tea Party was started by Ron Paul like 6 years ago, it’s not really the same today. The Occupy movement started 3 weeks ago. I don’t think “lack of organization” is a legitimate criticism.
“Often times violent”? Get a clue.
Sorry … I forgot to include our very own Sandy Underpants in #3 … I forgot to add “… without Sandy Underpants around !” at the end …
Of course Wall Street is the group who collapsed the economy through fraud and not a single person has been charged with a crime. Instead, this and the last president rewarded their lack of integrity with TARP bailouts because our anti-capitalist government apparently doesn’t believe in the base premise that if you fail in business, you cease to exist.
This is probably the most rational thing you have ever written in your life. I can’t believe that I actually agree with you on something.
gahrie, please correctly identify this quote:
“We’re going to close the un-productive tax loopholes that have allowed some of the truly wealthy to avoid paying their fair share. In theory some of those loopholes were understandable, but in practice they sometimes made it possible for millionaires to pay nothing while a bus driver was paying 10% of his salary and that’s crazy. Do you think the millionaire aught to pay more in taxes than the bus driver or less?”
Honestly, you are a strange and rather non sensical man. But the reality is this, charing a lower tax rate for capital gains than for earned income is welfare. It is welfare for rich guys, but it is still welfare same as all the other welfare you piss and moan about expect it’s going to people that don’t have any need for it. At least food stamps nominally help keep people from starving to death.
dcl – please correctly identify this quote:
“Alea iacta sunt.”
(Hint: it’s just as relevant)
When your quote was uttered, loopholes allowed millionaires to pay 0% tax … as far as I know, that ain’t so any more, and hasn’t been for a while …
In current days, even with capital gains tax rate set lower than income tax rate, yer average millionaire pays a lot more tax than yer average bus driver …
Now, you are probably frantically typing while vocalising like a two-stroke engine (but, but, but !) … in absolute dollars, the millionaire pays more … in anecdotal dollars, you *may* be able to find *a* millionaire who pays a lower percentage of his income than *a* bus driver … if you go by IRS stats and averages, however, the average millionaire pays a higher percentage of his income in federal tax than does the average bus driver …
Now, in terms of fairness, explain to us, if you will, how it is fair for close to 50% of the population to be paying *zero* percent Federal Income Tax …
I am not opposed to rich men, wealth or capitalism.
I am opposed to corrupt rich men and politicians engaging in crony capitalism.
By the way…I’d endorse eliminating all loopholes, deductions and credits for a flat, fair tax.
I’d endorse treating capital gains as income and tax it as such if you’d agree to treat government transfer payments as income and tax them as such…..
LOL … leave it to dcl to pine for Reagan’s 1986 proposal to cut the top income tax rate from 38% to 28%!
“The president makes an odious comparison between the Tea Party and Occupy Wall Street, unable to tell the difference between those who work to change the system and those who would destroy it.”
http://www.investors.com/NewsAndAnalysis/Article/588785/201110201821/Sliming-The-Tea-Party.htm
Been rather quiet ’round these parts lately…
Virtually everyday since Brendan’s tweet-rant OWS has provided another example of how they are in no way, shape or form anything at all like the Tea Party. But rather than go after low-hanging fruit, I’ll just pass along this debunking of the myth Brendan apparently bought into that middle class income has stagnated since the 1970s…