If anyone ever doubted that “drudge rules” elite discourse both left and right, the celebrity driven shallow panic of Left Blogistan over the last few weeks should settle the question. Tim “Timmy” Geithner is apparently a tool of the banksters and rejects the revolutionary line promulgated by Paul Krugman. The “Swedish model” is delightful and the Japanese zombies should make us shiver in fear. Typical of the genre, Jane Hamsher informs us that the Geithner plan’s devious effort to avoid FDIC type liquidation will help the people who caused the crisis to make even more money; She illustrates Geithner’s perfidy without any awareness of the irony by showing how a top ex-Countrywide executive is making bundles of money — from a FDIC bank liquidation.
At the celebrity-fanzine level of analysis “Timmeh and Larry” are bad guys, Wall’s Street’s bitches who are “bending over” and so the public will “get reamed”. The economic crisis is reduced to a media product – a weirdly sexualized drama with cliffhanger suspense and a sense of utter urgency. Along with this drama we get a world view in which Wall Street and finance and the big shots of Wall Street and DC are the actors of a spectacle that we consume as we cheer or boo. Labor unions? Organized citizens? Working scientists and engineers and small business owners? Local officials? Who cares? Jim Cramer is on (boo) and Nuriel Roubini[Edited since Defected] Paul Krugman is speaking (HOORAY!). The shallowness of this supposed “criticism from the left” exposes the intellectual bankruptcy of the “progressive left”: a group that has been trading distressed assets that it calls “ideology” for far too long.
Yes Guy Debord is having a posthumous field day. The fact that Frank Rich, an ex drama critic, has become the preceptor in chief on the NYT’s editorial page is another indication of the theatrical dynamic at work here.
Theater meet lynch mob meets primal scream meets total collective passivity coupled with constant entertainment demands…
Like I’ve told you before I cheer on your obvious disdain for average Americans. I see your bitterness as leading to the inevitable downfall of a party that is corrupted to the core by Wall Street financiers.
In other words. Bring. It. On.
This is the political battle the country needs to have and unfortunately either the Democratic party needs to come tumbling down or there needs to be a revolution from within the party. Thanks for doing your part trying to wed the party to conservative supply-side economic ideology. This clearly lays out the battle lines for the average person to see. You have won up to this point; you suckered what was once a great party, a party that stood up for working Americans, into a party that is now a wholly-owned subsidiary of Wall Street financiers.
What is amusing to me is that you assume you’re the smarty pants and those that disagree with you are acting in bad faith and too stupid to see how awesome YOUR ideology is. That you know what’s best for the plebes; give more money to your banker friends that own the Democratic party and the riches rain down on the rest of us. You fail to see that it is you that has swallowed the foolish supply-side Randian Reaganomics that has been so prevalent in both parties the last 25 years; you are the blind ideologue (along with the media and D.C. class that has also swallowed this hogwash all these years). And now that you’re in power, now that your centrism (really conservatism) finally paid off in one measly election victory, you and your DLC ideologues have decided to double down on the ideology and you’re emboldened into foolishly thinking there is a mandate for center-right (really conservative) politics. You live in a bubble. Even Greenspan is smart enough to disavow the supply-side Randian ideology–you guys, not so much–you’re going down with the Randian supply-side ship. And here’ hoping you guys don’t tread water so well.
The fact you see the people’s anger at getting ripped off for 25 years as shallow ideology (and intentionally distort the arguments) is so awesome to me I can’t tell you. Nothing would be bettter for me than you conservatives intentionally ignoring the righteous anger of average America. I think it’s about time people expressed their anger. Just keep telling people you and the bankers know how to fix this mess and keep robbing the Treasury. We’re now at the point were you guys will probably burn this shit down before it gets better and at least the people are getting the message about the conservative Democrats and their Wall Street pimps.
The good thing is the people are learning the right lessons from this so far; the current Democratic party is rotten to the core and owned by Wall Street.
O M G … I hadn’t realized rootless2 is one of the many pseudonyms of Dr. Evil!
And I support Randian Ideology! Who knew?
Heh!
By the way, Roubini’s now out of favor because he’s backing Geithner’s plan:
http://www.nydailynews.com/opinions/2009/03/25/2009-03-25_give_credit_to_timothy_geithners_new_tox.h
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Had to update.
the “democratic” party is a joke; I’ve been saying so for some time now over on the orange site.
the coming failure of EFCA (the one lone republican supporter, Specter, is of course flopping over to the Chamber of Commerce side of the battle) and single payer health care, in spite of the “democratic” majority in congress, will be the be the proverbial straw that broke the back of the middle class- and force the formation (thank the gods) of a true second political party.