Glenn Beck’s people have it totally wrong
More than a century ago, William Jennings Bryan’s populists saw government as the protector of the little guy. Today, Glenn Beck and his followers see government as the peoples’ oppressor.
Bryan’s people got it right. Becks’ don’t.
GOVERNMENT PROTECTS THE LITTLE GUY
Tags: conservatives, Democrats, Glenn Beck, politics, populists, Republicans, Wall Street, Washington
The ‘Arab Street’ meets the ‘American Street’
The neocon enterprise of changing other cultures by force seems to have hit a dead-end alley with the passions unleashed against a proposed Islamic center near ground zero.
THE MOSQUE AND THE AMERICAN STREET
Tags: conservatives, culture, terrorism
Liberals: Stop waving fingers at right-wing gargoyles
I have a dear conservative friend with whom I have lively conversations. He’s well-read (informed) and listens to others. But every now and then, I get a call from him in which his voice is raised to a near-hysterical pitch, and I can hear Fox News droning in the background. I give him my ground rule: Never call me until Fox has been turned off for at least 30 minutes.
Now, I can understand Dana Milbank’s concern that the gargoyles of the right are sending their paranoids off on violent rampages. But that column, following E.J. Dionne’s on the smearing of Shirley Sherrod, points to an unfortunate trend in which some liberal pundits seem to be regarding the right-wing hustlers as serious news people. (Dionne does makes excellent points on the “respectable media’s” timidity in handling the lies.)
I occasionally watch Fox to check in on the carnival but never worry excessively about its power. Sure it attracts many gawkers. So do car wrecks. Recall that Fox was in full flower in November 2008, when the American people elected a Democratic House, Democratic Senate and Democratic president.
As for the Sherrod case, I don’t blame Andrew Breitbart. He is what he is — a publicity hound dishing right-wing fantasy for money and fame. Discussing his “journalistic standards” is ludicrous.
Waving fingers at Glenn Beck and his like is pointless. Organizing a boycott of their advertisers would be a far more effective approach. Note what happened to Don Imus when he shot his mouth off in a beyond-the-pale way.
Blame for the Sherrod scandal belongs strictly on the shoulders of the Obama administration. That its smart boys bought into that propaganda without triple-checking the facts is what scares me.
BTW, if some nutbag goes off and kills a bunch of people on the basis of a report on Fox, that’s going to be very bad politically for the right wing. Americans, whatever their politics, are generally decent people.
Tags: conservatives, liberals, media, politics
Democratic rout no sure thing
Do we like the direction of the country? No. Are Republicans the answer? Hell no.
REPUBLICAN VOODOO PUT US ON THIS PATH
Tags: conservatives, Democrats, politics, polls, Republicans, Washington
An American general in Paris
Gilbert du Motier, marquis de Lafayette
Gen. McChrystal’s appalling behavior in Paris reveals the streak of boobery in American leaders’ dealings with France.
In preparation for the 4th:
Tags: Afghanistan, conservatives, culture, France
More on Financial Reform
My new column expands on an earlier blog about the romantic conservative belief in ordinary Americans’ ability to bushwhack through the market for complex and tricky financial products, much less the outright frauds.
Here is
HEAVEN MUST WAIT FOR MONEY-SAVVY PUBLIC
Conservative heaven can wait: Lenders need a leash
In the conservative paradise, hard-working Americans save money, care for their health, borrow responsibly and invest for their future needs. They don’t need government telling them what to do or rescuing them from their folly.
I like that vision, but it has little to do with the world we live in. In the world we live in, folks who jog and diet come down with cancer. Careful drivers get hit by drunks. Tornadoes and plagues of locust play havoc with the righteous.
And good, working people fall for misleading promises, downright lies or small print they don’t understand — and go broke as a result. That’s why we need the federal Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, plus a bunch of new state laws, to protect the little guy and not a few bigger guys, as well.
But on finance, conservatives assume a level of sophistication among ordinary people that can only be described as fantasy.
To say that any willing adult may make a contract with any willing lender is like saying that any willing teen may work for any willing pornographer. We have laws protecting minors that don’t apply to adults because they lack the cognitive ability to fend for themselves.
When it comes to complicated financial products, adults need protection, too.
Ture, some people facing foreclosure or in other credit trouble were greedy or too lazy to read their contracts. But many were drawn into risky situations by assurances from our top authorities — including a Federal Reserve Bank chairman — that house prices were merely “frothy” and that adjustable mortgages were a great idea.
Some borrowed heavily due to sudden crisis, such as a family illness. Some were lured into predatory loans by fellow church members or trusted friends. (The friends Bernie Madoff’ conned included some of the most sophisticated investors in America.)
Rep. Jeb Hensarling, a Texas Republican negotiating the financial reform bill, complains that the new bureau would “take choices away from consumers and choke desperately needed credit out of our economy.”
Shall we go back to shabby lending practices, credit bubbles and to all those other things that shattered our economy? Americans — including those of us who never borrowed a dime — are now paying for that free-for-all ten times over. Our world is all too real.
