MURDER, POLITICS, AND THE END OF THE JAZZ AGE
by Michael Wolraich
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MURDER, POLITICS, AND THE END OF THE JAZZ AGE by Michael Wolraich Order today at Barnes & Noble / Amazon / Books-A-Million / Bookshop |
Senator Elizabeth Warren at the National Press Club in Washington on Tuesday launched into a blistering attack on unfettered corporate power in America but waffled when asked about military spending and Israel’s recent brutal reaction to Palestinian resistance.
Comments
Lulu, I think what this complains about is pretty uncontroversial - Warren is and as far as I remember always has been fully aligned with standard establishment positions on foreign policy. It's on domestic economic and social policy that she chimes with more progressive viewpoints. I don't think the position she hand-waves towards in this piece is a sign of movement one way or another. I find it somewhat disappointing that she takes on that typical democratic defensive crouch posture in the way she defends her position. I wish she would just have the courage of her convictions. It would be more credible and respectful of voters.
by Obey on Wed, 08/22/2018 - 10:58am
What I see the article complaining about is the important stand that Warren, like almost every single other politician, will not take even if they believe it to be the correct position. My support for Warren and Sanders is higher at this moment and has been for some time than for any other potential Presidential candidate. I agree that Warren is fully aligned with standard establishment positions on foreign policy. Without going into the many reasons, I will reaffirm my longtime stand that our nation's foreign policy is a mix of illegal, immoral, counterproductive, and unsustainable intentions and actions. So, I occasionally post articles like this which point out weaknesses in the position of even the politicians I support. If she has an admirable position on foreign policy or the Israeli/Palestinian situation I too wish she would just have the courage of her convictions and show that courage by promoting it. I would then be much stronger in my support for her.
by A Guy Called LULU on Wed, 08/22/2018 - 11:42am
Awful - did she not present a plan on fracking? How about micro-plastic in water? Thorium reactors? Space colonization? Breast-feeding vs bottle-feeding? Tide pods? Micro-aggression on campus? Cultural appropriation? Generic drugs and patents? 3D printed gun designs?
Pocahantas is shirking her duty by not giving us answers to these important questions today if not yesterday, along with a ready list of Republicans who will support her on these issues.
by PeraclesPlease on Wed, 08/22/2018 - 1:54pm
My main problem with the article is that I don't believe this premise of the article is true:
The public would probably also be shocked to learn that funding perpetual war, unauthorized by either Congress or the U.N., is already against the law.
I want to say: got a link for that?
As to what Warren and Sanders support, that's actually easy: they are both U.S. Senators with voting records.
Further on Warren. Warren started her trip into public life as a consumer advocate law professor with clear moderate capitalist sympathies but feeling that the scales had been tipped to corporations and away from individuals. She was a specialist in bankruptcy and commercial law and started to fight for more rights for personal bankruptcy when they were being taken away (Consumer advocacy included a section at TPMCafe working with her students!) From doing that, she found out how truly awful the lobbying situation was with the federal government.
Ideologically, she's moderate and despite how the right and Trump characterizes her, is not the type to lead with ideologically leftist ideas. She's very pragmatist, very. Probably the thing she cares most about is representative democracy working. When she talks "the system" she means: clean up the lobbying system and everything should work as it is and representatives can represent the true will of the people they represent, and not skewing to special interests.
From that: I really doubt she thinks that the majority of Americans are isolationist peaceniks. I also doubt she thinks a lobbying group like AIPAC, or any other lobbying group with undue influence about what happens with foreign policy represents what the majority of the people want.
by artappraiser on Wed, 08/22/2018 - 2:32pm
I think you misidentify the premise of the article.
by A Guy Called LULU on Wed, 08/22/2018 - 2:42pm
Did you misspeak, make some political form of Freudian slip, or do you actually agree that AIPAC has undue influence on U.S. foreign policy?
I hope, would like to think, that AIPAC's influence does not represents what the majority of the people [in the u.s.] want.
by A Guy Called LULU on Wed, 08/22/2018 - 3:09pm
Well she did sign that AIPAC letter in 2016 siding with Netanyahu against Obama. (Yes the letter was more subtle in wording than that, but the message it sent was blunt).
She has long been regarded as a foreign policy hawk. I'm not sure whether "Warren keeps doing what she has always done" is worth printing.
by Obey on Wed, 08/22/2018 - 3:02pm
I would counter that all of that is only because she thinks that's what her constituents want
by artappraiser on Wed, 08/22/2018 - 3:06pm
Not sure I get your meaning. You are saying she signs AIPAC letters because that is what her constituents want all while not believing that "AIPAC represents what the majority of the people want".
I'm sure there is a way to parse that without producing an outright contradiction but it's pretty darn close.
by Obey on Wed, 08/22/2018 - 3:13pm
state of Massachsetts vs. all Americans, see below
by artappraiser on Wed, 08/22/2018 - 3:13pm
Ok got it. Didn't realize Massachusetts was such an AIPAC stronghold
by Obey on Wed, 08/22/2018 - 3:17pm
plus I haven't looked at related polls that much lately, but aren't most Americans still pro-Israel? They may not agree with the extent of hawkishness and favoritism of AIPAC, if they knew the details, but pretty close? Certainly the majority is not strongly pro-Palestinian...with all the attention to the anti-Semitism of fringe righties, we tend to forget that?
by artappraiser on Wed, 08/22/2018 - 3:29pm
I thought Massachusetts would be less pro-Israeli than the national average. If you go by where anti-BDS legislation gets passed or gets blocked...
Not that I think that makes any difference to your claim that she is just following state-wide polling in her Israel-related positions. This is one of those finger-in-the-air judgments, but my impression is that for Sanders, foreign policy is pretty much an afterthought, where he has to say something, whereas Warren seems to have a personal commitment to her Israel hawk stance.
by Obey on Wed, 08/22/2018 - 3:37pm
I will add that I really truly do believe she is not ideological except for "power to the people" and that the middle class knows best. Perhaps a little different from Bernie in that. Strongly anti special interest over the will of the majority.
by artappraiser on Wed, 08/22/2018 - 3:18pm
p.s. and this brings up where underneath it all, she is simpatico with Sanders, he originally became an Independent when he felt that hewing to party caucus lines in Congress was not serving the people of Vermont well. When attempting to represent the whole nation, however, the calculus on that whole thing changes.
by artappraiser on Wed, 08/22/2018 - 3:13pm
This is her passion and priority and why she decided to run for office. Not foreign policy and not even becoming president. She figures things like foreign policy, they are secondary, they will work out according to the majority will if Congress and the Executive branch work as designed and government is cleaned up:
within that picture, answering foreign policy questions is a distraction. She does not take the position that the president is an autocrat as to foreign policy, but rather would be checked by a Congress without lobbyist influence and vice versa.
Many might think that unrealistic and or naive. Regardless, I think she believes, and does not think it is unrealistic and thinks it is possible. And I think that from reading and watching her work and statements for more than a decade.
by artappraiser on Wed, 08/22/2018 - 8:29pm