Comments on: New York’s Gilded Age: Past and Present http://www.dissidentvoice.org/2007/12/new-york%e2%80%99s-gilded-age-past-and-present/ a radical newsletter in the struggle for peace and social justice Sun, 06 Jul 2008 10:26:15 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.5.1 By: Deadbeat http://www.dissidentvoice.org/2007/12/new-york%e2%80%99s-gilded-age-past-and-present/#comment-11067 Deadbeat Mon, 17 Dec 2007 19:07:13 +0000 http://www.dissidentvoice.org/2007/12/new-york%e2%80%99s-gilded-age-past-and-present/#comment-11067 In order to be able to make a demand you need proper analysis and political cohesion. I think the biggest problem today is the lack of political cohesion on the left. Krugman is right about how racism divided the working class that permitted the rise of Reaganism. However, I think most people are weary of Reaganism (Clintonism) and with the Iraq War are ready for progressive remedies. However there is a major inability on the left to present an organized front. The irony is that Krugman was able to identify one type of racism that divided the working class. He hasn't been unable to identify the racism that now keeps the left divided. In order to be able to make a demand you need proper analysis and political cohesion. I think the biggest problem today is the lack of political cohesion on the left. Krugman is right about how racism divided the working class that permitted the rise of Reaganism. However, I think most people are weary of Reaganism (Clintonism) and with the Iraq War are ready for progressive remedies. However there is a major inability on the left to present an organized front. The irony is that Krugman was able to identify one type of racism that divided the working class. He hasn’t been unable to identify the racism that now keeps the left divided.

]]> By: hp http://www.dissidentvoice.org/2007/12/new-york%e2%80%99s-gilded-age-past-and-present/#comment-11064 hp Mon, 17 Dec 2007 18:41:18 +0000 http://www.dissidentvoice.org/2007/12/new-york%e2%80%99s-gilded-age-past-and-present/#comment-11064 What's truly needed is the gilded edge of the guillotine(s). What’s truly needed is the gilded edge of the guillotine(s).

]]> By: Robert B. Livingston http://www.dissidentvoice.org/2007/12/new-york%e2%80%99s-gilded-age-past-and-present/#comment-11056 Robert B. Livingston Mon, 17 Dec 2007 16:50:21 +0000 http://www.dissidentvoice.org/2007/12/new-york%e2%80%99s-gilded-age-past-and-present/#comment-11056 Yesterday I listened to Paul Krugman talking to Bob McChesney (should be available today at: http://tinyurl.com/p8k58). Krugman knows better than anyone what constitutes a "Gilded Age"-- and has repeatedly warned us of a coming new one which may already be here. In the program yesterday he largely blames racism and the shift of white southerners to the Republican Party for being mostly to blame for our current state of political affairs-- and who is to say he is wrong (especially when thinking how President Clinton learned to "triangulate" etc. to capitalize on those trends)? At the same time-- he and his host talked only of "realistic" ways of turning the tide against the Republicans in power. Rather than support candidates who might stand for what they really believe in, they both are already pragmatically thinking of how to influence people like Obama, Edwards and Clinton-- warmongering candidates who would never dare talk about single-payer national health coverage. Krugman said of Kucinich simply-- he cannot win... so why "let the perfect be the enemy of the good"? Where have we heard that before? Although I agree that supporting Kucinich is probably futile... I still did not like hearing about it for the reasons they had. I became angry, really. It seemed to me that Krugman would rather not allow people to vote their conscience. By the end of the program, Krugman and McChesney had shored up their mutual admiration society and their resolve that realpolitik would take precedence over idealism or constructive imagination. Once again, the blueprints are being drawn by leading progressive-liberal intellectuals to back the lesser of two evils-- whoever that may turn out to be (and I am beginning to believe, not by anything said in this program, that it will be Barack Obama). What is galling and most frustrating to me is to hear Krugman lament our state of affairs with each passing year-- as things become worse-- but then to prescribe, always, the same medicines. He is right about so much, and his (and I believe McChesney's) heart is a good one-- why can't he see or understand that "Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will." David Cay Johnston in the NYT: http://tinyurl.com/3xm8eu Competition in the New Gilded Age: http://tinyurl.com/25fky2 A Christmas Sentiment: http://tinyurl.com/yt9t54 Can anyone help Krugman out? http://tinyurl.com/38fn9j Yesterday I listened to Paul Krugman talking to Bob McChesney (should be available today at: http://tinyurl.com/p8k58).

Krugman knows better than anyone what constitutes a “Gilded Age”– and has repeatedly warned us of a coming new one which may already be here. In the program yesterday he largely blames racism and the shift of white southerners to the Republican Party for being mostly to blame for our current state of political affairs– and who is to say he is wrong (especially when thinking how President Clinton learned to “triangulate” etc. to capitalize on those trends)?

At the same time– he and his host talked only of “realistic” ways of turning the tide against the Republicans in power. Rather than support candidates who might stand for what they really believe in, they both are already pragmatically thinking of how to influence people like Obama, Edwards and Clinton– warmongering candidates who would never dare talk about single-payer national health coverage.

Krugman said of Kucinich simply– he cannot win… so why “let the perfect be the enemy of the good”?

Where have we heard that before?

Although I agree that supporting Kucinich is probably futile… I still did not like hearing about it for the reasons they had. I became angry, really. It seemed to me that Krugman would rather not allow people to vote their conscience.

By the end of the program, Krugman and McChesney had shored up their mutual admiration society and their resolve that realpolitik would take precedence over idealism or constructive imagination.

Once again, the blueprints are being drawn by leading progressive-liberal intellectuals to back the lesser of two evils– whoever that may turn out to be (and I am beginning to believe, not by anything said in this program, that it will be Barack Obama).

What is galling and most frustrating to me is to hear Krugman lament our state of affairs with each passing year– as things become worse– but then to prescribe, always, the same medicines. He is right about so much, and his (and I believe McChesney’s) heart is a good one– why can’t he see or understand that “Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will.”

David Cay Johnston in the NYT: http://tinyurl.com/3xm8eu
Competition in the New Gilded Age: http://tinyurl.com/25fky2
A Christmas Sentiment: http://tinyurl.com/yt9t54
Can anyone help Krugman out? http://tinyurl.com/38fn9j

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