On the New York Times front-page right now, right under the headline about Scott Walker’s comfortable victory, there’s this:
Voters in California Appear to Approve Pension Cuts
As Wisconsin residents voted on Tuesday not to recall Gov. Scott Walker — who has become an enemy of labor unions nationwide — two California cities dealt blows of their own to organized labor.
In both San Diego and San Jose, voters appeared to overwhelmingly approve ballot initiatives designed to help balance ailing municipal budgets by cutting retirement benefits for city workers.
Around 70 percent of San Jose voters favored the pension reform measure, with almost 80 percent of precincts reporting. In San Diego, 67 percent had supported a similar pension reform measure, with more than 65 percent of precincts reporting….
This endless economic downturn is exasperating for Americans. Right-wingers have absolute moral certainty about who the enemies are, but I see no evidence that the rest of America does. Most Americans, I think, just want someone to pay.
The Democratic Party sure hasn’t given the public a villain.
Would we be going after unionized government workers with such fervor if, after the collapse, we’d had a series of arrests of financial fat cats? I suppose it’s possible, but I wonder how much that would have satisfied the public’s (fully understandable) desire to find someone to blame and to punish, and to change something about the way we do things in America.
The nature of political campaigning in America today means, of course, that politicians simply can’t afford to take on Wall Street, unless they want a rapid end to their political careers. Even the press plays along, gasping in horror at any unkind words directed at financiers, as if those financiers are like the little kid with unlimited powers in the old Twilight Zone episode “It’s a Good Life,” and currying favor with the financiers is the only way to avoid being banished to the cornfield.
We desperately want someone to pay. We’re never going to make the rich pay, so this will have to do.
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ALSO: This.
(X-posted at No More Mister Nice Blog.)
One of my favorite Twilight Zone episodes.
Of course, these two cities in California are two of the most conservative.
The linked article is interesting. It makes the point that I have tried to make to people over and over. People always complain about public sector unions and say “Why should they get benefits I don’t have?” Of course, the question they should be asking is “Why can’t I get the same benefits they have?”
Over the years, Republcians have been very good at fomenting the former, and Dems have done a lousy job of encouraging the latter.
BTW, according to the exit polls in WI, the majority had a positive image of public sector unions.
Regarding:
Must mean that a few of the 37% of union households that voted for Walker don’t totally hate their union brothers and sisters, but they still want them to be weaker and poorer.
And that they think recalls are illegitimate .. enough so to vote for Walker .. I’ll never understand that
>>Of course, these two cities in California are two of the most conservative.
San Diego and San Jose are not similar politically. San Diego is conservative, San Jose is not. Santa Clara county reliably votes for Democrats.
It would be interesting to see where we’d be if we could rewind the clock and do it again with real leftist anti-banking aggression.
So many things would be different. A lot of them would be better, but a lot of them would be worse.
Without question, we’d be the divided party, for example. Obama would popular and unpopular with different people and for different reasons. The economy might be on safer ground, but it also might be in far worse shape.
A lot of known unknowns here. And quite a few unknown unknowns, too.
Who in the Democratic Party would be pissed if the President had taken on the banksters? Both former CoS’? F both of those two clowns!!
you seem to think that Democratic politicians relish the idea of making an enemy of Wall Street. This may explain your constant confusion about why the Democrats don’t act like progressives.
Democrats already are considered enemies by Wall Street, unless they’ve been personally bought.
And sometimes even when they have been.
You seem to think that Democratic politicians relish the idea of making an enemy of Wall Street.
Where did you get that idea? You should know where I stand by now, Boo. The Democrats are in dire straights because they aren’t taking on the banksters. They are beholden to a lot of the same people Scott Walker is. Why do you think a lot of people think that there is hardly any difference between the two parties? Because both parties are beholden to the banksters!! Look who the Democrats elected as VP. The guy known as the Senator from MBNA!!
That’s a very awkward counterfactual because there’s essentially nobody who ever proposed anything of the sort in Congress or within the administration.
Not even Bernie Sanders’ amendments went anywhere near what you’re describing. There aren’t any leftists, so how the fuck is leftist policy to arise?
Partisans have been trying to have it both ways and saying what a genius Tim Geithner is for having TARP cost next to nothing. But the reason why it doesn’t cost anything is because nothing was “purchased.” We didn’t “buy” a new financial industry. We “bought” a new automotive industry, which ended up costing billions. Management was rooted out, brands and facilities and dealerships were shuttered. Costs were restructured. The business was changed.
The banks, however, were guaranteed, new private capital was forced to be raised, the Fed poured money in from all directions, and then that private capital was used for buybacks to immediately wind the program down. You can’t praise the Treasury’s speed in “fixing” the system for no cost, and then bemoan the fact that the industry’s business practices were left largely unchanged. TARP was a get-in and get-out operation. Changing industry practices was decided to be done through regulatory rulemaking by the Fed, FDIC, SEC and now the CFPB after the bailout was resolved, which will necessarily take a very long time and be watered down and yanked and stretched in every direction. So it goes.
The usual result of a disaster, reward of the guilty and punishment of the innocent. Bankers get government funded multi-million dollar bonuses and underpaid local government workers get the shaft. Republicans would have us become a banana republic where government workers are primarily paid with bribes.
i believe this is what scott walker referred to as “divide and conquer”.
and it looks like it’s working.