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 |
"At a time when the American economy is rigged in favor of the rich and giant corporations, the coming federal funding bill is a chance to show that our country still respects hard work. We recognize that we cannot do everything we’d like to do before the end of the year, but there is room in the budget to take real, immediate steps in this direction — by easing household costs for working parents and students, by protecting workers’ pensions and Social Security, and by improving access to health care for veterans and for people who need mental health services."
Comments
Kind of shallow takeaway but I'll offer it anyway: I am struck by this that they make a great team, the team works way better than the individuals do alone, they balance each other's personal flaws. And actually, come to think on it, knowing Warren's work from way back in her professor days, both have a sort of Independent-of-party-just-do-what's-right background.
by artappraiser on Mon, 12/18/2017 - 3:18pm
I agree with you AA - not on the shallow part. Frankly, I never really thought of Warren and Sanders as a team but now that you have mentioned it, I will.
by HSG on Mon, 12/18/2017 - 6:13pm
Warren and Bernie have 16 'we's and zero 'Republican' in the essay.
Republicans do 'deals' with the Democrats only under severe duress. A need for a serious fight was not mentioned or alluded to by W and B.
Schumer and Pelosi might need some goading for a fight, I hope W and B do it, although they didn't mention it here.
Although in the NYT, where readers are above average on politics, the plethora of 'we's gives the idea of a 'one big happy family' Congress with both sides always at fault for "who Congress serves".
And if none of these policies happen, the theme of the essay seems to imply it is Bernie and Warren's and the Dems fault as much as Ryan and McConnell and the GOP.
by NCD on Mon, 12/18/2017 - 7:55pm
The Republicans are who we thought they were - racists, xenophobes, homophobes, plutocrats, warmongers and kakistocrats. Constantly attacking and criticizing them is like complaining that rats are dirty and spread disease and that pigs like to wallow in the mud. Democrats and their allies need to unite in support of truly pro-poor, working, and middle-class Americans and against the neocons and neolibs. If they do this, they will attract big majorities.
by HSG on Tue, 12/19/2017 - 8:50am
If they do this, they will attract big majorities.
If they use your leftist rhetoric, I disagree that they will attract big majorities. I think the country is overall still very capitalist and that the socialist-minded are still a smaller minority than the conservative 1/3. I think what you disdain as "neo-lib" still can be a unifier to form the largest majority. Hillary's majority vote is just one example.
Those who know Liz Warren's work from before 2008, for example, know that she is a long time afficianado of making a capitalist system work better by giving consumers stronger rights to balance that of corporations. Not for the government doing everything, just for it insuring a fair game. If she ran for president, I suspect you'd end up labeling her a "neo-lib" as well.
I don't think even Bernie believes "government knows best" and can divide the spoils more fairly. I don't suspect most millennials do either, but I haven't figured out what they really want yet, I don't think they do either, it's more like they'll know it when they see it and most of them haven't seen it yet. All they know is they don't like the two current parties. The ones that are Bernie fans like his Independence from the party system, so they liked his roiling of the Dem party. But now that they see what happened after doing that, they may change their minds.
by artappraiser on Tue, 12/19/2017 - 9:58am
P.S. Wikipedia on Warren policy
On economics including
That's 30%, less than Bill Clinton's 39%, which would probably be reached with the surcharge on millionaires she proposes.
On Foreign Policy so far, including Defense Spending.
I would think that "neo-lib" describes her best. Certainly not an LBJ type Dem.
by artappraiser on Tue, 12/19/2017 - 10:14am
Many politicians embody a mix of neoliberalism and progressivism on economics. Warren is not as populist on taxes as Bernie Sanders but she has never, as far as I know, championed a maximum 20% capital gains rate as Hillary Clinton did. http://www.ontheissues.org/2008_Dems_Philly.htm. She does favor raising top marginal tax rates. Thus, I don't think it's fair to call her neoliberal on taxes.
In other areas, Warren is decidedly not neolib (the first three below are from the Wikipedia page to which you cite):
1) "Warren has criticized former President Barack Obama's support of the Trans-Pacific Partnership, believing that it gives corporations too much power and will negatively affect workers, and that the content of the agreement should not be secret"
2) Saying, "despite the progress we've made since 2008, the biggest banks continue to threaten our economy," in July 2015 Senator Warren, along with John McCain (R-AZ), Maria Cantwell (D-WA), and Angus King (I-ME) re-introduced the 21st Century Glass-Steagall Act, a modern version of the Banking Act of 1933. The legislation is intended to reduce the risk for the American taxpayer in the financial system and decrease the likelihood of a future financial crises.[23]
3) Warren was an early advocate for the creation of a new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB). The bureau was established by the Dodd–Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act signed into law by President Obama in July 2010. In anticipation of the agency's formal opening, for the first year after the bill's signing, she worked on implementation of the bureau as a special assistant to the president. While liberal groups and consumer advocacy groups pushed for Obama to nominate Warren as the agency's permanent director, she was strongly opposed by financial institutions and by Republican members of Congress who believed Warren would be an overly zealous regulator.[15][16][17] Reportedly convinced that Warren could not win Senate confirmation as the bureau's first director,[18] Obama turned to former Ohio Attorney General Richard Cordray and in January 2012, over the objections of Republican Senators, appointed Cordray to the post in a "recess appointment".[19][20]
4) Warren has recognized the crucial role that unions have played in building the middle-class.
by HSG on Tue, 12/19/2017 - 11:35am
I would kindly ask for a common definition of "neo-lib" though, rather than "a Democrat who isn't as pure & in lockstep on our pet issues as we'd like them to be". I mean, back in the day Scoop Jackson of Seattle was a "hawk", but post-9/11, Afghanistan/Iraq, post-Israeli influence, post-ISIS, post-nuke posturing with Iran, post-Crimea, it's not easy to figure out what these labels mean.
by PeraclesPlease on Tue, 12/19/2017 - 10:19am
I'm using it as Hal is using it, a smear of DLC type Dems. But I actually agree that kind of distinction is over, the growing millennial vote will see to that. As I am pretty certain you know, to me, there is clearly a movement in the direction where a near majority desire to see more Independence from party, I even think Trump snagged just enough of this type of voter to his win, and most of those now regret their choice, but that has not made them party faithful, either, just more careful in the future.
Edit to add: Heck, you know I don't think there will even be much of a "working class" quite shortly, the robots will be doing those jobs. Millennials are already accustomed to free-lance work, to the "freedom" (quotes are meant to be ironic,) of having many bosses, not one, of being in "business for oneself" (quotes same thing, as I am cynical from life experience.) Someone like Liz Warren is actually ideally poised to take advantage...
by artappraiser on Tue, 12/19/2017 - 10:35am
After looking at Warren's political record on Wikipedia, a thought just came to me about how to elaborate. I see her as supporting a big-spending Defense bill with a vote (maybe reluctantly, I will be honest and say I don't know the full situation) on the theory that if the system had all the proper rules in effect, more smart and efficient small business could get more of those contracts. And also fully in support of the idea that one of the federal government's main functions is a strong defense.
Also, too: she is a wonk! No two ways about that, she is a policy wonk, a policy professor at heart.
by artappraiser on Tue, 12/19/2017 - 10:42am
Here's an incomplete definition. Neolibs are characterized by some or all of the following - 1) support for a) free trade pacts and b) industry deregulation, 2) reliance on industry experts rather than labor representatives when making economic policy, 3) strong preference for "free market" solutions even when they are shown to be inferior to government action, i.e., favors private prisons, proposes cuts to crucial safety net programs like welfare, medicaid, and social security, opposes direct hiring by the government, 4) lack of concern for the impact of wealth and income disparities, 5) prioritization of the repayment of debt over alleviating human suffering, 6) willingness to undermine democratic reforms in order to placate corporate interests.
by HSG on Tue, 12/19/2017 - 11:18am
You are using the term as a basket that holds all the things you don't like.
There are certainly people who self identify as promoters of each of these policies you oppose. They do not stand together as a united bloc of interests who agree on what should be done.
The term neoliberal was coined as a contrast to neoconservatives. The neoliberals argued that market forces had the power to change the world in ways that did not require the exertion of state power to create all the necessary conditions. Both sides of the argument presume that Capitalism is the best thing to happen to people.
This observation is not an attempt to argue against how you see these things together as a part of a whole. I just don't find the term "neoliberal" as self-evident as you do or even helpful for the purpose you have in mind.
by moat on Tue, 12/19/2017 - 9:26pm
Thanks MOAT. PP asked me what I meant by neoliberal so I provided my working definition. I think it's pretty close to Investopedia's:
Neoliberalism
Share
What is 'Neoliberalism'
Neoliberalism is a policy model of social studies and economics that transfers control of economic factors to the private sector from the public sector. It takes from the basic principles of neoclassical economics, suggesting that governments must limit subsidies, make reforms to tax law in order to expand the tax base, reduce deficit spending, limit protectionism, and open markets up to trade. It also seeks to abolish fixed exchange rates, back deregulation, permit private property, and privatize businesses run by the state.
by HSG on Wed, 12/20/2017 - 6:05am
That site's definition is only another basket. The article rightly says the use of the word changed over time and means different things to different people. Take the example of Hayek. He argued for deregulation and the removal of state control of markets but did not call for the privatization of all public institutions.
Do you know of anybody who proudly self identifies as a.neoliberal who espouses all of the items on your list simultaneously?
by moat on Wed, 12/20/2017 - 6:34am
The Clintons, the Bushes, Barack Obama all meet the definition pretty closely. None will admit it of course because most people recognize that neoliberal policies - while great for the wealthy - harm pretty much everybody else. Your Hayek example is an odd one since virtually nobody calls for privatizing all public institutions. The point is that neoliberals in general are highly suspicious of public institutions even when their criticisms are mostly specious.
by HSG on Wed, 12/20/2017 - 8:45am
That's a pretty large basket you have there. The wider a brush you use, the thinner the paint.
In regards to privatization, there are plenty of Reaganauts who call for privatizing as many government tasks as possible, (including the prisons you mention). So replace my word "all" with bunches and gobs.
by moat on Wed, 12/20/2017 - 9:26am
Correct me if I am wrong, but I can't think of a single Dem who is for privatizing prisons, so there's that on the confusion front.
by artappraiser on Wed, 12/20/2017 - 9:50am
"By 2012, the private prison industry, one of the main beneficiaries of this detention strategy, had fully wrapped its tentacles around the Democratic Party—blanketing them in a mutually beneficial quid pro quo for Democratic support of policies that increased profitability. For example, Democratic National Committee Chair Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz notoriously sided with the Corrections Corporation of America over her constituents concerning the construction of a for-profit prison to jail immigrants."
http://www.latinorebels.com/2016/03/04/the-democrats-uneasy-connection-t...
by HSG on Wed, 12/20/2017 - 10:44am
Wow, DWS - they picked the most popular person in the party to go to, didn't they?
Sad I wasted so much time replying to you earlier when you just dropped it on the floor and ignired. Typical.
by PeraclesPlease on Wed, 12/20/2017 - 11:37am
Skiing slalom only requires getting past the outside of the cones.
Rock climbing requires more contact with the structures that get in the way.
by moat on Wed, 12/20/2017 - 5:03pm
Neoprogressives believe dividing and destroying the Democratic Party will create a new, pure redistributive neoprogressive state unlike any in US history.
Neoprogressives are committed to that goal, and are unconcerned if weakening the opposition allows Republicans to destroy the legacy of established progressive policy that has been a target of Republicans for decades.
Bernie is not a neoprogressive, he is fighting Republicans tooth and nail. He was just a useful instrument, a banner to wave, they appropriated for their toolbox.
by NCD on Wed, 12/20/2017 - 10:29am
I agree with this part of your comment, NCD:
and I think the bitterness some have about the destructive effects he might have during the 2016 campaign running as a Dem should be considered water over the dam. It's what he does from now forward that's important especially now that he's got more celebrity.
Unless one likes to get into ye olde argument of destructive effects of Nader types and Perot types running for president, and votes "thrown away". I think that's a different issue and it's not going away, it's a worldwide phenomenon that voters are increasingly not party faithful and go for individual personalities and brands when it's concerning the top leaders. With the influence of the internet, I don't think that's going to stop, only grow. So I guess I disagree with you on another front and I would note that the GOP is pretty divided too. I don't think the big tent party system is for the long term. And I think that Bernie agrees.
by artappraiser on Wed, 12/20/2017 - 10:36am
Thanks for the comment. With our winner take all election system, not proportional, it's the united Party that wins, the divided that loses. We can purity test Democrats when the GOP goes the way of the Whigs.
The GOP can lie, sell out their base economically, yet keeps united with the two word message, "vote white."
Trump out did their field of candidates with the lies and the racism. We'll see in 11/18 if voters have figured out the GOP big con.
by NCD on Wed, 12/20/2017 - 7:49pm
If the Bushes , The Clinton’s, and Obama are all neoliberals, the term has no meaning. Voters see different messages coming from the messengers. You have an uphill battle arguing that they are all the same. Because they are lumped together, the neoliberal charge is not taken seriously. The argument made by people like Bernie Sanders and Cornel West is that capitalism creates racism and white supremacy. The main target for them is attacking the capitalist Empire. The focus is not on race. People who experience white supremacy on a daily basis feel abandoned. They are told things will get better eventually. On the other hand, people impacted by white supremacy have seen direct confrontation work. MLK addressed poverty and Empire, but knew race had to be dealt with simultaneously. Those who fight Conservatism and Neoliberalism have rejected King’s example.
by rmrd0000 on Wed, 12/20/2017 - 10:10am
Ta-Nehisi Coates's nearly exclusive focus on race as the source of America's problems makes it that much harder for poor, struggling, working, and middle-class Americans to unite across racial lines for the purpose of redistributing wealth and power equitably. It is for this very reason that he is a darling of some members of the liberal elite.
by HSG on Wed, 12/20/2017 - 11:17am
It is for this very reason that he is a darling of some members of the liberal elite.
Well, I happen to think that's because he writes extremely well and has idiosyncratic, thought-provoking opinions, not because they agree with everything he says.
I remember in particular when someone linked to him in like 2008 on a blog at TPMCafe, member bslev went something like WOW WHO IS THAT!? GIVE US SOME MORE!
by artappraiser on Wed, 12/20/2017 - 12:02pm
See my response below
by rmrd0000 on Wed, 12/20/2017 - 12:29pm
Obamacare helped me. I'd likely have died this year if it didn't exist. I constantly wonder if I'm going to survive if the republicans end it. I wonder how many children or their parents think the same thing about SCHIP which was heavily pushed by Hillary and enacted by Bill. The difference between republicans and democrats and the harm republicans do is much greater than the difference between these center left democrats you demonize and the far left epitomized by Sanders.
by ocean-kat on Wed, 12/20/2017 - 5:20pm
Glad you survived.
Putting everyone who disagrees with a Democratic Socialist position in the Neoliberal category is nonsense
by rmrd0000 on Wed, 12/20/2017 - 5:28pm
So, if we talk about Hillary, none of her universal health care initiatives fall under "neoliberal", as they're directly subsidized, even though they take an expansive organizational approach to coordinate the different players already in the for-profit sphere.
Her tax proposals were to get corporations to pay more of their share, while looking into a "guaranteed minimum income" for the very poor. I'm baffled by expressions like "make reforms to tax law" which "reform" can be evil or good, depending on who's doing the so-called "reform" - as we see via the tax bill going through Congress now, and opposed by all Democrats.
"Expand the tax base" - still don't know what that means. Tax low income workers more or make sure all companies pay their share or....?
"Reduce deficit spending" - classical Keynesian theory calls for reducing deficit spending when the economy is fine, and increasing deficit spending when there's a recession. Aside from the Grover Norquist fans, most people don't seem to be anal these days about running 0 deficits, but consider that smaller debt burdens are typically better than large ones, especially when trying to gain the freedom to organize new, more expensive government services - if already "under water" or "maxed out", there's less appetite and money to take on big ticket items like universal health care or better subsidized education.
Opening markets up to trade was part of decreasing global poverty - an issue I still haven't gotten you to take seriously. Maybe these 3 articles can help you appreciate that, but somehow I doubt it:
https://www.vox.com/2016/4/20/11466868/trade-poverty-economist-good
https://www.newyorker.com/news/john-cassidy/the-good-and-bad-news-about-...
https://www.forbes.com/sites/timworstall/2015/10/01/if-youre-anti-povert...
Fixed exchange rates? I've seen it successfully used by Malaysia to protect against a currency attack during the Asian Rim crisis, but traditionally it's known more for an artificial way to pump up inefficient communist countries and force the advantage of better rates for the trading off your shitty currency for someone else's good one. The US had a strong dollar in the 90's while exports soared. The US had a weak dollar during the 2000's and exports slumped excluding what we were sending to China - so it's hard to see what lesson you want to make from the correlation.
Europe's protectionism over the years is generally seen as hurting the continental economy to the advantage of the more dynamic American one (and the US' more dynamicinvestment climate). China's protectionism worked because there was high demand for Chinese labor and the absolute control a more-or-less totalitarian government has over labor and banks and laws in general allows them to tilt the deck more than any democratic country can. This will change as China becomes less a bargain and production reverts back out of China (something that TPP - now w/o the US - will help).
I don't think Hillary was for deregulation at all, nor am I, except in careful cases where deregulation doesn't harm the environment or health systems or other key industries. There are some cases where financial regulations are seen as outdated and going against the flow of how modern systems work, but others - including Hillary - see more regulations needed to prevent "too big to fail", various insurance, housing, & other needs (such as to limit the effects of the housing bubble and extortionary rental prices).
Privatizing businesses run by the state? really don't know which ones you're talking about. Don't think the abandonment of Amtrak is a good idea. I don't want private industry to have free reign of nuclear power plants. There are some efficiencies in having multi-state hospital chains, but that has to be carefully balanced with cutting services to gouge for profits instead of just saving on efficiencies of scale.
So again I've little idea what people think they're supporting under the umbrella of "neoliberal".
by PeraclesPlease on Wed, 12/20/2017 - 6:57am
: “When I use a word,” Humpty Dumpty said, in rather a scornful tone, “it means just what I choose it to mean—neither more nor less.” “The question is,” said Alice, “whether you can make words mean so many different things.” “The question is,” said Humpty Dumpty, “which is to be master—that's all.
by Flavius on Wed, 12/20/2017 - 7:39am
I see from Wikipedia that it's a very messy word that has been used over 100 years to mean many theories to different groups of people, so much so that they have a very long entry on it as school(s) of Economics and a separate one as school of International Relations Just guessing Hal is using the definition from the first entry that gets a small paragraph Another center-left movement from modern American liberalism that used the term "neoliberalism" to describe its ideology formed in the United States in the 1970s. According to David Brooks, prominent neoliberal politicians included Al Gore and Bill Clinton of the Democratic Party of the United States.[31] The neoliberals coalesced around two magazines, The New Republic and the Washington Monthly.[32] The "godfather" of this version of neoliberalism was the journalist Charles Peters[33] who in 1983 published "A Neoliberal's Manifesto".[34]
It's interesting to me to look this up because I distinctly remember that on TPM Cafe's early days, before 2008, during Bush years,, Josh Marshall had a section of the site where he invited a group of foreign policy scholars, like four or five, to post on foreign policy, along with some economics at times, in a special section. And they were all pretty much considered "neoliberal" by his audience at the time and routinely dissed by most of audience in comments as being too hawkish.And Marshall had come out of that circle, had written for Washington Monthly, and I presumed for that reason, and from some of his comments, that he was simpatico, and was embarrassed at the way they were treated by his small audience. With his turn to heavy horse race coverage of the 2008 campaign on TPM, there was a huge flood of Obamamaniacs with a smaller attendant cohort of Hillary fans overwhelming the TPMCafe site and the foreign policy section quickly ceased to exist. And lefties who didn't like what they said were basically silenced by the passionate noise of the Dem horse race crowd. Struck me that both Obama and Hillary Clinton would have had no trouble with any of those scholar's theories. And how huge the audience was that was passionate about one or the other and how small the previous leftist audience was that was given to arguing with those "friends of Josh" policy scholars.
Times have changed of course, and will continue to. I guess the lesson, though, is to beware of presuming passion means greats numbers in support. And that larger numbers of people will get excited about horse race politics much more than policy. Marshall used to write about that, too, from a historian's point of view (and he was originally a scholar of history) in defending coverage of horse race over serious policy. He felt that all the noise of political campaigns was a great American tradition, something special about the U.S.
by artappraiser on Wed, 12/20/2017 - 8:41am
I was thinking of Humpty Dumpty too. All of us of course however use words in ways that are different than Webster defines. I'm pleased to see that I use the term pretty much the way Investopedia and other commentators do.
by HSG on Wed, 12/20/2017 - 8:47am
I see now: appears to come out of Cornel West's talking points introduced in late November in one of those short NYT PR Magazine pieces.
Maybe has a new agent, helping to firm up the brand.I also see you can get personal anti-neo-liberal provocation for $20,001 to $40,000 per speech. It would be someplace where people knew what "neo-liberal-as-used-by-Cornel" meant, it might even be at an event where Chardonnay is served. Yes, I am cynical, but let me be clear that I have nothing against this if people are willing to pay such sums. There's no such thing as bad publicity.
by artappraiser on Wed, 12/20/2017 - 6:36pm
Yup, it's all PR for his brand, to make West "relevant" again, attack the younger rising star:
from
Past Debates Echo in Split Between Cornel West and Ta-Nehisi Coates
By John Eligon, Dec. 22 @ NYTimes.com
I would add if that I had my way, I'd encourage Eligon to be braver and dis his own company for providing PR platforms like that NYT Mag piece, as "just not honest heartfelt op-ed" (almost Trumpian in a way, now that I think on it, it's like "me me me, smartest black guy in the whole world ".)
by artappraiser on Fri, 12/22/2017 - 9:58pm
Warren and Bernie have 16 'we's and zero 'Republican' in the essay.
As opposed to Hal's theory on why they don't want to spend time attacking Republicans, I would guess it is the same reason that Bill Clinton/Al Gore and Obama didn't want to do that: they don't see any benefit in offering any food to trolls who would accuse them of being anti-business or socialist.
And yes, it may even be on the advice of political operatives on their staffs helping them write the piece who are informed by studying polls. I don't think either is an ideologue stuck with their principles, despite Bernie's personality that makes him appear an ideological zealot, as an Independent myself, I've watched him a long time and I don't think he is one.
by artappraiser on Tue, 12/19/2017 - 10:59am
I'm not talking about attacking Republicans, which Bernie (alone it seems) has been doing a vigorous job of recently, I'm saying tell the truth that no progressive policy or legislation will get through Congress because it is controlled by Republicans.
Surveys I blogged on last year show most Americans do not know which Party is in the majority in the Senate and House, their answers are only slightly above random guesses, and very few know the rules governing how legislation is approved.
by NCD on Tue, 12/19/2017 - 12:18pm
Response to Hal from above
Cornel opened an attack on Coates charging that Coates fetishizes race. Coates has defended his work while Coates defends his work.
Cornel West assessment of Coates
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/dec/17/ta-nehisi-coates-neoliberal-black-struggle-cornel-west
West lists the people that he considers acceptable
Can anyone point to the physical accomplishments of these people. West demands physical action from Coates, but not of those on his list. Coates does focus on race. West focuses on the Empire. Historian Annette Gordon- Reed analyzes Coates’ latest book “We Were Eight Years In Powers as follows:
It is difficult to see how West’s demands would be accomplished outside of revolution. Does anyone think voters are going to vote Sanders-like candidates into office in large numbers. The Sanders backed candidate came in fifth in the Mayoral race in Atlanta. When it comes to action, Coates made a case for reparations. Bernie Sanders rejected this proposal. In Bernie Sanders view, class trump’s everything. Black people just magically suffer from more poverty. Cornel West is willing to go along with his BFF Sanders on the issue of race. The problem both men face is that no one believes that Sanders would be able to pass single payer or create millions of jobs that would impact the black community.
Sanders has few direct connections to the black community. He has no one who can point out to him that past Socialist programs like the original Social Securty program and the GI Bill left blacks out of the loop. His rejection of reparations makes him even more suppect.
Sanders buddy West is unpopular in the black community. Coates deleted his Twitter account after white supremacist Richard Spencer said that he agreed with West that Coates fetishized race
https://www.mediaite.com/online/ta-nehisi-coates-deletes-twitter-account-amid-cornel-west-feud-peace-yall-im-out/
West actually makes white folks more comfortable than Coates. They don’t have to address race.
by rmrd0000 on Wed, 12/20/2017 - 12:35pm
I wrote this a while back but did not post the article from which it comes at Dagblog. The italicized portions are added for the purposes of this thread. The portion in bold explains why I believe Coates has been embraced by some members of the liberal elite:
------------
Many chardonnay-sipping coastal liberals attribute rising poverty rates and wealth disparities to “white privilege” or racism as opposed to a morally bankrupt political economy. If we just set aside a few more places in elite universities for people of color, mandate hiring quotas, and stop “stop and frisk,” the thinking goes, all our problems will disappear.
This provides both psychological and material benefits for progressive elites. They get to pat themselves on the back for 1) not being racist and 2) being hip to trendy sociological constructs. At the same time, they neatly side-step the moral imperative to sacrifice their privileged status by paying higher taxes and leveling, not just the playing field, but the outcome of the game.
Confident in their abilities and those of their children to succeed, many liberal professionals like doctors, lawyers, and professors are comfortable with wealth and income disparities as long as they can persuade themselves that everybody has a decent shot at the brass ring. The fact that African-Americans, Latinos, and Native Americans comprise a disproportionately large share of the poor, however, belies the comforting myth that America is a meritocracy.
In consequence, affluent liberals may be inclined to view “white privilege” or more accurately racism - as Ta-Nehisi Coates argues - and other social pathologies, like homophobia and misogyny, as the primary drivers of injustice in America. This interpretation offers the comforting hope that truly redistributive tax policy, which would reduce their economic advantages, is unnecessary. Instead, “zero-sum game” solutions like set-aside programs, open-mindedness, and better education – none of which demand much sacrifice from the professional class – are sufficient.
I call them zero-sum game because they don’t increase the total number of people with access to the corridors of top universities and management offices or reduce the gap between the richest and everybody else. By design, they increase the percentage of poor and working whites and middle-class people of color.
Zero-sum game solutions also reduce the likelihood that truly redistributive policies will be enacted since they exacerbate the already high levels of enmity and bad feelings that exist between the white working class and people of color thereby reducing the likelihood that they will unite in favor of an end to the free trade deals, high top marginal tax rates, single-payer health care, a living wage and tuition-free public schools.
by HSG on Wed, 12/20/2017 - 1:14pm
Or it could be that talented people find interaction with each other inspiring, more so than with lowest common denominator, they prefer interaction with other talented people. Call it elitism or whatever you wish, it's a human condition. These very same people may or may not agree about what to do about an underclass and about racial and other disparities like distribution of income, and they may or may not like chardonnay. What they probably most have in common is that they don't think alike.
by artappraiser on Wed, 12/20/2017 - 1:36pm
I agree with what you write. Even people with similar backgrounds and shared interests disagree on matters large and small. But, that doesn't negate or disprove my point which is that those who attribute society's problems to racism, in the way that Coates does rather than to economic injustice as West does, demand far less sacrifice from elites.
by HSG on Wed, 12/20/2017 - 2:22pm
Hal, you offer Sanders as different, but he has the same white privilege view that he knows what needs to be done. He never asks for the opinion of actual black people who will be impacted. How is that not white supremacy. You praise West and criticize Coates. You go with the black guy who submits to your view.
by rmrd0000 on Wed, 12/20/2017 - 2:27pm
Someone has to remind West that he is not Jesus. He criticizes Barack Obama, Melissa Harris-Perry, Michael Eric Dyson, Al Sharpton, and now Coates. West compares Sanders to MLK, yet Sanders rejects reparations which King supported. The black community did not elect West their leader. He is merely a man with his own opinions. West wrote books. Coates wrote books. Each has liberated the same number of people, zero.
West’s criticisms of other blacks.
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/the-issue-with-cornel-west-criticizing-ta-nehisi-coates_us_5a397fe2e4b0d86c803c6cd5?section=us_contributor
Martin Luther King Jr. on reparations.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=-Doi_U0f8OA
Malcolm X criticized King, but was willing to work together.
http://www.cnn.com/2010/LIVING/05/19/Malcolmx.king/index.html
West has decided that it is his way or the highway. He creates no bridges.
by rmrd0000 on Wed, 12/20/2017 - 3:50pm
West sees discussing race as diverting from attacking Empire. This is like a public health oncologist saying that attacking environmental carcinogens takes priority over treating individual cancers.West wants to attack Empire and see the trickle down effect on racism. The environmental oncologist may have no impact on your particular cancer, but the environmental oncologist is pumped. The cancer victims still suffer waiting for racism to end. That is Sanders. Coates addresses the cancer that is white supremacy. He admits that the disease (white supremacy) is metastatic and that there is no magical cure. West sees apologists for white supremacists voted into office and tells you, against the available evidence, that he has a plan to attack the Empire. West has criticisms of many, but no examples of his success. West is blind to the ultimate-pronged attack that is needed.to attack Empire, racism, homophobia, etc simultaneously. Instead of creating allies he attacks people fighting the Empire’s manifestations. We need oncologists working to remove carcinogens from the country and oncologists attacking individual cancers. West is not up to the task at hand.
by rmrd0000 on Wed, 12/20/2017 - 5:22pm
Bernie has a number of African-American advisors. I know that he consulted with at least one on policy because I have spoken at some length with former NAACP Chair Ben Jealous about his discussions with Bernie on whether Bernie should break with the Democratic Party and whether Ben should run for MD Governor as a Democratic or independent. Ohio State Senator Nina Turner is the President of Our Revolution and was one of Bernie's closest advisors throughout last year's primaries. Killer Mike acted as both an advisor and emissary for Bernie in Georgia and challenged him on gun control. Killer Mike opposes waiting periods and stricter regulations.
Do you disagree with Bernie's policy prescriptions? Which ones?
As to your second point, you write with respect to my agreement with West over Coates - "You go with the black guy who submits to your view." Fair enough. I agree with West because I agree with him. Of course, the exact same is true for you right? I mean you go with the black guy who agrees with you right and you very frequently revile the one who doesn't.
by HSG on Wed, 12/20/2017 - 8:45pm
You continue to ask about policy prescriptions. His prescriptions are not important because he will never be electable to the majority of the country. How do you propose to make Bernie electable outside of caucuses? Single payer could not work in his own home state. Where is the proof that worrying about his policies is a valuable use of my time? Once Sanders minimizes the importance of race, he has lost my vote. Richard Spencer, white supremacist, agrees with Cornel West.
Edit to add:
Nina Turner is no longer a Democrat. She lost her statewide race in Ohio. Like West, Turner is more interested in feeding her ego rather than forming coalitions.
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/nina-turner-our-revolution-president-from-democrat_us_595a4413e4b0c85b96c66373
by rmrd0000 on Wed, 12/20/2017 - 9:07pm
Instead of using his time to fight with Coates, West might pay attention to the fact that in about 11 days children on chemotherapy will possibly die because the Republicans have failed to fund their government subsidized healthcare.
Edit to add:
The West attack on Coates is all the more remarkable because Coates was a Bernie Sanders supporter. Coates supported Sanders despite Bernie’s opposition to reparations.
https://www.democracynow.org/2016/2/10/ta_nehisi_coates_is_voting_for
Sanders lost. Coates then went with Clinton over Trump. West says Coates is not pure enough. Way to go Cornel.
by rmrd0000 on Wed, 12/20/2017 - 10:33pm
You frequently criticize progressive critics of more conservative Democratics for supposedly imposing an unrealistic "purity test" on them. But this mischaracterizes our complaints. It's not that we perceive in Hillary Clinton a good candidate with a few blemishes. It's that we recognize her, more often than not, to be actively hostile to our interests albeit not quite as bad as the Republicans.
by HSG on Thu, 12/21/2017 - 7:56am
Form your own party. Sanders is a loser. Sanders does not come to black community. Cornel West and Nina Turner apply black purity tests. The black community does not vote the way West and Turner vote. In fact, West turned to loser Jill Stein, after Sanders lost.. You repeatedly ask about policies. I repeatedly say Bernie does not care enough about the black community to actually show up. Bernie doesn’t deserve my vote. Regarding policy, I prefer the policy of the United Federation of Planets. The UFP candidate.would be more likely to show up in the black community despite being fictional. I am actually glad that I don’t meet your purity standard because that would mean that I am tone deaf when it comes to forming coalitions.
Your’re going to ask me about policy again.
by rmrd0000 on Thu, 12/21/2017 - 8:07am
If your purity test is which candidate is "more likely to show in the black community," I assume you are now a Donald Trump supporter since he appeared at the opening of the Mississippi Civil Rights Museum.
Likewise, you presumably recognize the justness of the Wisconsin vote for Trump in the general election last year, since he campaigned in the Badger State and Hillary never came.
by HSG on Thu, 12/21/2017 - 8:18am
Hal, you are tone deaf. You twist yourself into knots. Let us analyze what you are saying. Trump had an unpopular message in the black community, but still showed up in at least one black church. Trump showed up at the African-American Museum in D.C. and the Mississippi Civil Rights Museum. Doesn’t that make Sanders’ absence from black neighborhoods even worse?
You then point to Hillary not showing up in Wisconsin and losing to Trump. Sanders didn’t show up in the black community and lost. You are making my points for me. Thanks.
by rmrd0000 on Thu, 12/21/2017 - 8:30am
If you use your own enunciated test, which ignores policy completely and focuses solely on whether a candidate appears in your community, you should support Trump b/c he showed up in Mississippi at the Civil Rights Museum and campaigned in Wisconsin.
I, of course, do not believe that merely showing up for a photo op or to pay lip service to a community, as Clinton and Obama did in Flint in response to the water crisis there, is anywhere close to sufficient. Instead, I do think that what matters most when deciding for who to vote is policy, i.e., what a politician has done and is like to do when in office.
by HSG on Thu, 12/21/2017 - 9:52am
Policy is not Sanders strong suit. He hasn’t accomplished anything. That is why he won’t come to the black community, he can’t defend what he proposes. He gets tongue-tied.
Edit-to add:
Sanders is used to mostly supportive audiences. When confronted by blacks asking how he will accomplish something, Sanders gets frazzled.
by rmrd0000 on Thu, 12/21/2017 - 10:35am
From NYT Cornel West interview, Nov. 29, 2017
Commenter takes apart the West, West didn't even understand the title of the book, almost certainly didn't read it. What kind of person attacks another, and his book, without even comprehending the meaning of the title of the book? Another purity zealot who has no need or history of accomplishing anything...but 'has opinions'.
by NCD on Wed, 12/20/2017 - 10:14pm
The explanation for the title was at the very beginning of the book.
by rmrd0000 on Wed, 12/20/2017 - 10:35pm
Conceited, vain and tenure protected Harvard professors don't have to read even the first page of books before maligning younger writers far more insightful and talented than they are.
by NCD on Thu, 12/21/2017 - 12:14am
The attack on West in Vox by German Lopez for allegedly not understanding or mischaracterizing the title "We were Eight Years in Power" is either disingenuous or, ironically, reflects ignorance of Coates's book. Yes, he took the title from a late-19th century black politician who was describing reconstruction. But the book is explicitly about Barack Obama's eight-year Presidency. Indeed, it comprises eight previously published articles that closely correspond with Obama's years in office.
In Constance Grady's laudatory review of We were Eight Years in Power in Vox, she notes that the "story that Coates is telling about America throughout these eight essays ends with the election of Donald Trump." Likewise, Obama's eight years in power ended with Trump's election. There is no question but that the "eight years in power" that Coates is describing in his anthology are the ones when Barack Obama sat in the White House.
by HSG on Thu, 12/21/2017 - 8:10am
Cornel West attacks Coates, a man who supported Bernie Sanders. West voted for Jill Stein. In the midst of the Russian probe, tensions in North Korea and the Middle East, and a draconian tax bill, West is fighting an unwinnable battle as far as the black community is concerned. West attacks Coates for having positive things to say about Obama. In the book, Coates criticized Obama for playing to a white audience for telling black men to do better.Obama tells this to black men in college who have overcome white supremacy to reach that level. Coates has other criticisms of Obama. The criticisms do not reach West’s purity level.
You are now going to divert and ask me if I agree with Coates’ criticisms.
Edit to add:
I noted that West attacking a Sander supporter was hilarious, proving that purity is required. It is open season on Progressives who don’t fall in line with the purity preachers, but if we call actual Trump voters out for the mean-spirited nature of their vote, it is beyond the pale. This is high comedy.
by rmrd0000 on Thu, 12/21/2017 - 9:48am
West criticizes Coates because Coates blames the problems in the African-American community and America more generally exclusively, or almost exclusively, on racism. West argues that this is intellectually dishonest and moreover leads Coates to extol Barack Obama even though Obama paid too much attention to the desires of the affluent and too little to the African-American community and poor Americans. West believes that change will come when whites and people of color come together to demand it. On the other hand, he notes that Coates does not appear to believe a multi-racial coalition is possible and therefore that the practical implication of Coates's political philosophy is that change
ais impossible to achieve. I agree with West on all counts.by HSG on Thu, 12/21/2017 - 11:56am
Exactly when did Sanders try to form a coalition?
Edit to add:
How are West and Turner building coalitions. The message from Sanders, West, and Turner is that everyone has to agree with their point of view. Heck telling white people that race isn’t important is a very comforting message.
by rmrd0000 on Thu, 12/21/2017 - 10:37am
While I criticize(d) Obama's go it slow approach, I appreciate he felt anything faster/more disruptive would be tripwire for the conservative forces already out en masse as Teabaggers, etc . - even with a Senate majority, Dems had trouble controlling that vote against the more lets-play-chicken anything-goes Republicans. - especially around race, which seems to have been borne out by the general breakdown in race nicities into overt racism the last 2 years.
by PeraclesPlease on Thu, 12/21/2017 - 11:21am
Bingo! I never felt Obama was a genius politician, as he has the wrong personality for it, but I do believe he is a genius political analyst. And especially on things like race and tribe and party, he lived that his whole life, traversing racial and other tribal divides. He knows in his gut how far one can push things without getting counterproductive blowback, he's learned through trial and error his whole life. Now he's also got the experience of dealing with not just the other American political party but international leaders of all kinds of cultures and motives as well. There's treasure in that brain on what's been happening in this country lately, hope he shares more of it soon.
[Another thought comes to mind: that for me personally, the fact that Mr. and Mrs. Obama have not been making plans to flee the country as hopeless is proof that the end is not nigh. I do trust them to warn of the end of our republic if that is about to happen. ]
by artappraiser on Thu, 12/21/2017 - 2:02pm
by Peter (not verified) on Thu, 12/21/2017 - 3:29pm
Bingo again! This time for me, not PP. I see I touched a button that produces troll talking points.
Come back when you're ready for honest conversation, like Hal, for example, rather than spewing agitrprop.
by artappraiser on Thu, 12/21/2017 - 5:34pm
On a roll - Get thee to Vegas! or at least the Catholic Parish Bingo Nights support group!!
by PeraclesPlease on Thu, 12/21/2017 - 6:27pm
Fully expected you would agree with West on "all counts" Hal.
West is an arrogant self-promoting blowhard, who called Obama a "war criminal", the US "the George Zimmerman of the world" and voted for Jill Stein while blaming Trump's election on Obama, anybody but himself.
West lives and profits from the capitalist system he has made a lucrative career out of railing about, knowing he is immune to the damage caused by the current administration he helped put in place. He marched in Ferguson while "the war criminal" did the hard work of investigating and demanding civil rights reforms in the cities police department.
He teaches in universities that are funded by capitalists, and where the plutocrats send the next generation. He profits from filling a token role that achieves nothing for the people he claims to care for, while he blathers on and on with consistently obtuse or polemical verbiage, to further aggrandize his insatiable ego.
by NCD on Thu, 12/21/2017 - 12:27pm
West wants Coates to form coalitions but, West sets his very narrow criteria for who can join his own coalition.
by rmrd0000 on Thu, 12/21/2017 - 12:31pm
People form coalitions to further certain goals. Dr. King and other leaders formed a coalition to push for civil rights. Broadly stated, Cornel West and other economic progressives want to reduce wealth and income inequality across the board and to guarantee health care, education, a home, secure retirement, and the opportunity for nearly all Americans to get a job that pays a living wage and offers them dignity. Our coalition is open to all who have demonstrated that they share our goals. The reason that Hillary failed our "purity test" is because she has demonstrated by her words and deeds that she does not share these goals.
by HSG on Thu, 12/21/2017 - 3:01pm
The majority of people who voted in 2016 failed your purity test.
by rmrd0000 on Thu, 12/21/2017 - 3:25pm
People who sincerely care about the stuff you pretend to value, are, like Bernie, out fighting the Party in power which is eviscerating each and every one of them.
by NCD on Thu, 12/21/2017 - 3:37pm
If I were lucky enough to have the chance I'd vote with pleasure for:
Coates, Hillary ,Warren, West or Sanders.
Of course on any one issue I could possibly disagree with one or another of them. But who
knows, maybe they'd be right? Or cares? Broadly speaking they'd all like the world to
look the way I would . And I sure prefer any one of them to be the one deciding that than
any Republican since Abraham Lincoln.
I'm sure there's a clever adjective to describe some one like me:indiscriminate? promiscuous? broad
minded ? Probably I should just settle for Democrat,
by Flavius on Thu, 12/21/2017 - 11:45pm