RE: Impact of Obama

Thank you for that heartfelt response.

Yes Dwayne, I think you are a an enlightened moderate, and I mean that in the nicest possible way. You are certainly not a libertarian, which has undertones of licentiousness.

The problem with being a fiscal conservative is that all worthwhile change costs money and nothing would happen if we all took that view.

May I suggest that you read Thomas Frank’s book What’s the matter with Kansas Its a lilttle old now, but still highly relevant to how you feel.

The selfish attitude of the workers you describe used to be the norm and still is in many parts of the world. You need to have a little capital and be an employer or share holder to see things the way you do. The worker feels that he is entitled to a fair deal from his employer in return for his hard work. He gets no share of the profits of his employer and has no share in decision making, so he feels no responsibility for how well his company is doing. He is simply a factor of production which must be properly paid for.

Thankfully, this attitude has broken down here in recent years as workers have come to understand that if their employer goes down they will be much worse off themselves, so they are willing to make sacrifices in their entitlements to help their employer – well perhaps most are. But we don’t expect the person supplying raw steel to the plant to take less for his product, and the worker is selling a product too.

If we expect our employees to share in the risk of running a business then they should also share in the decision making and the profits.

That book demonstrates well how workers being willing to take hits for the good of their country and company has actually damaged both terribly. They have been conditioned to accept the de-industrialisation of America and the closing down of huge numbers of farms because they are nonviable and cannot compete, because workers get too much in this country.

Remember that red and blue map during the election. Everyone noted how red it was in the centre with just tiny patches of blue in the snotty, liberal, blueblood, bookish north east and the decadent far west. Most of that red is in counties that used to be strongly liberal. The mid west and great plains areas. They gave the country socialists like Eugene Debs, progressives like La Follette and unionists like Walter Reuther. They spawned the UAW and IWW who convulsed the country in often bloody industrial disputes. Radical farmers organizations like the militant Farmer’s alliance or Farm Labor Party or the Non-Partisan League enlisted farmers in radical protests. The NAACP even ran its seminal desegregation case, Brown v. Board of Education, on friendly home ground in Topeka. Almost all these organizations no longer exist.

I think that is bad. No one wants the conflict of aggressive radicalism, but it indicates to me that these were proud hard working Americans who thought they were worth something and were prepared to fight for it. A country like that has a competitive advantage. Today they are all just willing to suffer for the common good and watch all that was achieved in the past flow down the drain.

When conservatives are running for office they do it on emotional things like gun control, abortion, gay rights, family values etc. They make resounding speeches against these things and appeal to good, honest but simple folk, who believe that we need reforms in these areas and that these guys will give it to them. But the great dream of the political conservative professionals is to get a popular workers movement that will roll back all the “socialist” gains that have been won for workers over the last century and so make business more profitable. They also want to get rid of all that pesky regulation that has crept in to try to overcome market failure by forcing fair competition and consumer benefits. So the conservative voter never gets protection of babies from abortion, more liberal gun laws, etc, but he gets banking and stock market de-regulation and a lower basic wage, and fewer social security benefits — all at the time when he is starting to need those things because his income and quality of life is slipping and unemployment is looming.

I am to become a grandfather for the first time in February so I share your excitement about your new arrival: warmest congratulations. I am more optimistic about the future of this country. We do have the collective smarts to get ourselves out of the situation we have put ourselves in, but it is going to require faith in ourselves, and some radical politicians who will need to spend a lot of our tax dollars doing it. We need to be brave.

That Russian is just indulging in wishful thinking. I have heard those claims often in Eastern Europe since 1989 and I have argued with the people making them. They are envious of us, and want us to fail. The Third world war is over. It took place, fittingly, in the Third World with most of the fighting done by proxy, and it was won (as usual) by the strength of the American economy, not by our military or moral superiority.

Our opponents hate us for this. Perhaps they got their hopes up when we elected an obviously stupid person as president who seemed to be fulfilling their dreams, breaking the country, and accelerating its demise. We are dragging ourselves out of that mess and it is vital to support the leaders who we feel are taking us in the new direction. This is why I defend Obama on ON.

My prediction is that Europe will become stronger, but an even more powerful economic block will form in eastern and southern Asia. When China, India, Japan, Indonesia, and Vietnam get into their economic stride the US economy will look like nothing more than a market for their exports. America will soon not have the strongest economy or the most powerful military, but it will still be prosperous and able to defend itself.

Personally, I would welcome closer ties with Europe and that may well be a response to the Asian Development. The Canadians and Australians will go that way before us because they are already closer. I am talking about economic union and not federation. The Europeans have had more time than us to adjust to the loss of their empires and see themselves as they really are. We need to become like that too.

America might even be a better place to live and watch our grandchildren grow up.