The Yawning Sarcophagus of Common Sense

The problem with the Tax Day Teabag Protests was that no alternative was offered. Some of those interviewed called Obama a fascist but could not articulate why they felt this way. The governor Texas threatening to secede is apparently signaling his constituents that it’s okay to hate America again. I understand the bipartisan frustration of tax dollars insuring that the wealthy stay wealthy, but middle class truck drivers and factory workers complaining about tax increases is way off the mark. These people didn’t complain when their dollars were funneled to Bush and Cheney cronies amid the privatization of the Iraq War. It’s basically the same thing.

There was a great essay (not posted yet) in this month’s Harper’s by Garret Keizer which drills down to the values of conservatism and Democratic values by citing a letter of St. Paul’s to the Galations in the Bible: We need to bear one another’s burden and then some verses on, he says that everyone shall bear his own burden. “These two imperatives, that of self-reliance and social responsibility,of the Republican heart and the Democratic heart in their purest forms, are the crux of any sustainable community. Neither value makes sense without the other, nor can it be fulfilled without the other.” Earlier he says:

“I want the Republican Party to drop dead. Inasmuch as it differs too little form the competition, I want the Democratic Party to drop dead with it. What interests me is the politics that might emerge from their respective deaths and resurrections, what might happen if each were to glance at the yawning sarcophagus of the other and spot a naked body that it liked.”

• Swan song of the UAW likely coming soon.
• Financial Times’ Martin Wolf mostly agrees with Simon Johnson’s Atlantic Monthly piece: US (and the entire bailout) controlled by financial capital. You can also listen to Simon Johnson’s appearance on NPR’s Fresh Air.
• Hard questions about the Goldman Sachs windfall.
• Déjà vu all over again in Afghanistan.
• Joseph Stiglitz says bank plan doomed to fail due to Wall Street/White House ties; “kicking the can down the road…”
• Ken Silverstein explores the secret world of the oil fixer.