Tyr-Ziu Saxnot
07-08-2015, 07:35 PM
Read more at http://spectator.org/articles/39326/americas-ruling-class-and-perils-revolution
Americas-ruling-class-and-perils-revolution
As over-leveraged investment houses began to fail in September 2008, the leaders of the
Republican and Democratic parties, of major corporations, and opinion leaders stretching
from the National Review magazine (and the Wall Street Journal) on the right to the Nation
magazine on the left, agreed that spending some $700 billion to buy the investors'
"toxic assets" was the only alternative to the U.S. economy's "systemic collapse." In this,
President George W. Bush and his would-be Republican successor John McCain agreed with the
Democratic candidate, Barack Obama. Many, if not most, people around them also agreed upon the
eventual commitment of some 10 trillion nonexistent dollars in ways unprecedented in America.
They explained neither the difference between the assets' nominal and real values, nor precisely
why letting the market find the latter would collapse America. The public objected immediately,
by margins of three or four to one.
When this majority discovered that virtually no one in a position of power in either party or
with a national voice would take their objections seriously, that decisions about their money
were being made in bipartisan backroom deals with interested parties, and that the laws on these
matters were being voted by people who had not read them, the term "political class" came into use.
Then, after those in power changed their plans from buying toxic assets to buying up equity in
banks and major industries but refused to explain why, when they reasserted their right to decide
ad hoc on these and so many other matters, supposing them to be beyond the general public's
understanding, the American people started referring to those in and around government as the
"ruling class." And in fact Republican and Democratic office holders and their retinues show a
similar presumption to dominate and fewer differences in tastes, habits, opinions, and sources of
income among one another than between both and the rest of the country. They think, look, and act
as a class.
Read more at http://spectator.org/articles/39326/americas-ruling-class-and-perils-revolution
Although after the election of 2008 most Republican office holders argued against the Troubled
Asset Relief Program, against the subsequent bailouts of the auto industry, against the several
"stimulus" bills and further summary expansions of government power to benefit clients of
government at the expense of ordinary citizens, the American people had every reason to believe that many Republican politicians were doing so simply by the logic of partisan opposition. After all, Republicans had been happy enough to approve of similar things under Republican administrations. Differences between Bushes, Clintons, and Obamas are of degree, not kind. Moreover, 2009-10 establishment Republicans sought only to modify the government's agenda while showing eagerness to join the Democrats in new grand schemes, if only they were allowed to. Sen. Orrin Hatch continued dreaming of being Ted Kennedy, while Lindsey Graham set aside what is true or false about "global warming" for the sake of getting on the right side of history. No prominent Republican challenged the ruling class's continued claim of superior insight, nor its denigration of the American people as irritable children who must learn their place. The Republican Party did not disparage the ruling class, because most of its officials are or would like to be part of it.
Never has there been so little diversity within America's upper crust. Always, in America as elsewhere, some people have been wealthier and more powerful than others. But until our own time America's upper crust was a mixture of people who had gained prominence in a variety of ways, who drew their money and status from different sources and were not predictably of one mind on any given matter. The Boston Brahmins, the New York financiers, the land barons of California, Texas, and...............................................
Read more at http://spectator.org/articles/39326/americas-ruling-class-and-perils-revolution
Americas-ruling-class-and-perils-revolution
As over-leveraged investment houses began to fail in September 2008, the leaders of the
Republican and Democratic parties, of major corporations, and opinion leaders stretching
from the National Review magazine (and the Wall Street Journal) on the right to the Nation
magazine on the left, agreed that spending some $700 billion to buy the investors'
"toxic assets" was the only alternative to the U.S. economy's "systemic collapse." In this,
President George W. Bush and his would-be Republican successor John McCain agreed with the
Democratic candidate, Barack Obama. Many, if not most, people around them also agreed upon the
eventual commitment of some 10 trillion nonexistent dollars in ways unprecedented in America.
They explained neither the difference between the assets' nominal and real values, nor precisely
why letting the market find the latter would collapse America. The public objected immediately,
by margins of three or four to one.
When this majority discovered that virtually no one in a position of power in either party or
with a national voice would take their objections seriously, that decisions about their money
were being made in bipartisan backroom deals with interested parties, and that the laws on these
matters were being voted by people who had not read them, the term "political class" came into use.
Then, after those in power changed their plans from buying toxic assets to buying up equity in
banks and major industries but refused to explain why, when they reasserted their right to decide
ad hoc on these and so many other matters, supposing them to be beyond the general public's
understanding, the American people started referring to those in and around government as the
"ruling class." And in fact Republican and Democratic office holders and their retinues show a
similar presumption to dominate and fewer differences in tastes, habits, opinions, and sources of
income among one another than between both and the rest of the country. They think, look, and act
as a class.
Read more at http://spectator.org/articles/39326/americas-ruling-class-and-perils-revolution
Although after the election of 2008 most Republican office holders argued against the Troubled
Asset Relief Program, against the subsequent bailouts of the auto industry, against the several
"stimulus" bills and further summary expansions of government power to benefit clients of
government at the expense of ordinary citizens, the American people had every reason to believe that many Republican politicians were doing so simply by the logic of partisan opposition. After all, Republicans had been happy enough to approve of similar things under Republican administrations. Differences between Bushes, Clintons, and Obamas are of degree, not kind. Moreover, 2009-10 establishment Republicans sought only to modify the government's agenda while showing eagerness to join the Democrats in new grand schemes, if only they were allowed to. Sen. Orrin Hatch continued dreaming of being Ted Kennedy, while Lindsey Graham set aside what is true or false about "global warming" for the sake of getting on the right side of history. No prominent Republican challenged the ruling class's continued claim of superior insight, nor its denigration of the American people as irritable children who must learn their place. The Republican Party did not disparage the ruling class, because most of its officials are or would like to be part of it.
Never has there been so little diversity within America's upper crust. Always, in America as elsewhere, some people have been wealthier and more powerful than others. But until our own time America's upper crust was a mixture of people who had gained prominence in a variety of ways, who drew their money and status from different sources and were not predictably of one mind on any given matter. The Boston Brahmins, the New York financiers, the land barons of California, Texas, and...............................................
Read more at http://spectator.org/articles/39326/americas-ruling-class-and-perils-revolution