Friday, November 19, 2010
We Can Fix America If We Focus on What ALL Americans - Liberals AND Conservatives - Want
While there are some things that liberals and conservatives will never agree about, there are many things that we already all agree on. Knowing the many things we agree to empowers us, because it helps get us away from the distractions so that we can realize that there is much common ground among all Americans, and that if we work together, we hold a very strong position. If we shelve our irreconcilable differences for a little while and join our voices together on the issues we agree on, the sound will be so loud that it will shake down the walls which are holding us back. While the mainstream political parties try to sell us on their brand, the truth is that "poll after poll shows that both national parties are deeply unpopular with an electorate looking for something new and different". This essay focuses on what people want.
Conservatives tend to view big government with suspicion, and think that government should be held accountable and reined in.
Liberals tend to view big corporations with suspicion, and think that they should be held accountable and reined in.
Irreconcilable difference?
Not really.
Specifically, a Rassmussen poll conducted in February found:
70% [of all voters] believe that the government and big business typically work together in ways that hurt consumers and investors.
(and see this).
Remember that the government helped and encouraged the giant banks to get even bigger, and then has hidden their insolvency and shielded them from the free market, and helped them grow even during the severe downturn.
In return, the big banks and giant corporations have literally bought and paid for the politicians.
But all Americans - conservatives and liberals alike - can agree that it is not capitalism, and it is not American.
As just one example, the list of prominent economists and financial experts calling for the too big to fails to be broken up is wholly bipartisan:
- Nobel prize-winning economist, Joseph Stiglitz
- Nobel prize-winning economist, Ed Prescott
- Nobel prize-winning economist, Paul Krugman
- Former chairman of the Federal Reserve, Alan Greenspan
- Former chairman of the Federal Reserve, Paul Volcker
- Former Secretary of Labor Robert Reich
- Dean and professor of finance and economics at Columbia Business School, and chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers under President George W. Bush, R. Glenn Hubbard
- Simon Johnson (and see this)
- President of the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City, Thomas Hoenig (and see this)
- President of the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas, Richard Fisher (and see this)
- President of the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, Thomas Bullard
- Deputy Treasury Secretary, Neal S. Wolin
- The President of the Independent Community Bankers of America, a Washington-based trade group with about 5,000 members, Camden R. Fine
- The Congressional panel overseeing the bailout (and see this)
- The head of the FDIC, Sheila Bair
- The head of the Bank of England, Mervyn King
- The leading monetary economist and co-author with Milton Friedman of the leading treatise on the Great Depression, Anna Schwartz
- Economics professor and senior regulator during the S & L crisis, William K. Black
- Economics professor, Nouriel Roubini
- Economist, Marc Faber
- Professor of entrepreneurship and finance at the Chicago Booth School of Business, Luigi Zingales
- Economics professor, Thomas F. Cooley
- Economist Dean Baker
- Economist Arnold Kling
- Former investment banker, Philip Augar
- Chairman of the Commons Treasury, John McFall
Liberals tend to believe that the public should be protected against harm, while conservatives tend to believe that people should be left free to buy what they want.
Too far apart to ever agree?
No. Conservatives believe that people must be held responsible for their actions and punished for their transgressions. Indeed, some 82% of the American public wants tougher regulation of Wall Street.
Moreover, even for those who don't like the government sticking its nose in our business, liberals and conservatives agree that if a company chooses to make a representation about something, it can be sued if it is a lie. In other words, all Americans agree that fraud laws should be enforced against everyone from the homeowner who fills out a mortgage application on a small house to the head of a giant bank who makes false statements about the bank's balance sheets and the quality of it's investments.
Everyone agrees that financial scammers must be tried and put in prison.
(And whether people believe in liberal Keynesianism or conservative Austrian economics, we should all be able to agree that a free market without bubbles is not possible without strong laws allowing prosecution of criminal fraud).
Audit the Fed
Both liberals and conservatives agree that the Federal Reserve should be audited. The bill to audit the Fed passed in a bipartisan landslide, and the overwhelming majority of Americans favor a full and complete audit. Given that the Fed has such a powerful influence on the economy, credit, unemployment, and which sectors and even which individual companies win or lose, the audit - and indeed whether or not the Fed should continue to exist - is a very important issue.
Safe and Healthy Food and Water
Americans want to be free to live our lives without being poisoned. We agree on safe food, clean water and a healthy environment.
For example, polls show:
- A large majority of Americans want strong food safety rules, and want genetically modified foods to be labeled
- Most Americans are worried about water pollution
- Americans don't want to be exposed to toxic pollutants
All Americans agree that personal liberty and freedoms are vital.
We all agree that our own government should not murder us and then falsely blame others for it.
And we all agree that there should be free and fair elections. That is why - according to ABC News and the Washington Post - 80 percent of all Americans oppose the Supreme Court's recent decision allowing unlimited campaign contributions. Americans understand that - unless we take the flood of money out of elections - Washington will represent special interests, and not us.
And we all agree on publicly verifiable, automatically audited paper ballot elections with reasonable ID requirements, so that we assured that no party can manipulate electronic voting results.
Whether the above list of common positions seems modest or ambitious, the fact that we can all - liberals and conservatives - agree on them is very powerful.
Because once we realize that we agree on them, and decide to rally behind them to restore prosperity to America, we will have a much better chance of turning our country around.
You still might think that the people across the aisle are fanatics, nutjobs, flakes, sinners or scoundrels on some issues. But remember that - to the extent that they are working for the same goals you are on the issues mentioned above - they are your valuable allies.
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False. Conservatives say they favor these things, but the conservatives in Congress only mouth their support of these things and do everything possible to block achieving them.
ReplyDeleteRepublican politicians don't represent the constituency that votes for them; they represent the constituencies that financed their political campaigns to fool those fools.
This idea meshes perfectly with the recent post about using proper framing to convince stubborn people. I can't find the poll at the moment but there was one conducted where there was a huge difference between "government run healthcare" and "Medicare for all" (a sizable majority favored the latter, of course). Many on the extreme right and left are united in support for the Constitution, but have been so poisoned by propaganda that they no longer see each other as human beings. Sadly, the conventional wisdom is that every issue is simple, and that there are two sides: R and D, red and blue, nothing else to see here.
ReplyDelete"We Can Fix America If We Focus [...]"
ReplyDeleteI would point out, this is exactly what Tim Geithner and Ben Bernanke are thinking too.
This mutinying rabble here? Not a chance in Hell do they have of fixing anything.
Geithner and Bernanke?
They have the vote of a few people who have all their irons in the fire.
The rest of us, mean nothing.
Even those who have no belief in praying should pray, and pray, and pray some more -that there is a god who will come strike these people dead...
I just finished reading Gibbon's -Decline and Fall-. Rome wasn't built in a day, and nor did it fall in a day.
In fact, the Roman Empire never really went away at all.
Here's the problem:
ReplyDelete"Conservatives believe that people must be held responsible for their actions and punished for their transgressions."
Yep, but only if the liberals are held accountable. Hold SEIU accountable, but not Goldman Sachs.
"Liberals tend to believe that the public should be protected against harm."
Yep, but only against Republican harm. Hold Bush accountable, but not Obama.
As long as folks like Palin and Beck and not Ron Paul lead the Tea Party, and as long as Barney Frank and Ed Schultz lead the "progressives", what you suggest just ain't happenin'!
Simply put, most Americans are too damned lazy to seek the truth. Like the 70 percent who want something for nothing, 70 percent...okay, okay, make that 97 percent!...want someone to hand them the truth for nothing as well.
In other words, American can NOT be fixed. But it can cease to exist, and then we start over...
Obfuscation of truth and the pitting of one extreme against the other is a demonstrably effective method employed by our moneyed and bureaucratic elite to dismantle the rule of law and entrench the ruling class.
ReplyDelete"This is not a question of party loyalty, but a great fundamental principle of freedom, justice and humanity, a tenet of truth, law and legal right which is sought to be tampered with, and down-trod." Colonel Charles V. DeLand, February 8, 1854
http://notionalvalue.blogspot.com/
Seems as though some comments are of the cynical stripe. Of course the Republican Congress says one thing and votes the total opposite. Of course the Democratic Congress says one thing and votes the total opposite. In reading this post, I don't think that the author was trying to convey that we 'fix' Congress, or 'fix' America via our electards. We need to talk to each other on Main Street, your neighbors, relatives, friends, and forge that common ground ascribed above on a personal level. This is the only way forward.
ReplyDeleteJust look at the groundswell of anger on both sides of the political spectrum regarding the Don't Touch My Junk Day coming up. The media is on a full court press attempting to scare the public. This is a great subject to bring up to those friends of yours who may be a Bushlover or Oblamatron.
"What ALL Americans Want"
ReplyDeleteExcept ... Republican politicians.
They would only support one of these propositions: auditing the fed.
I think that makes it pretty clear where the problem lies.
Well said Marik. The divide and conquer tool has worked all too well for far too long. I classify myself as a political atheist. I prefer to look at right/wrong, just/unjust, moral/immoral, constitutional/unconstitutional (lawful), etc. The vitriol spewing from both ends is showing how effective the brainwashing and propaganda is. That needs to be healed, quickly.
ReplyDelete. I write songs regarding prevalent issues in the world and produce concerts that give back to community . This is part of a gathering at my home friends in the neighborhood helping me speak to America through a song I composed entitled - Pick Up The Trash .
ReplyDeletehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MNydQ2eQ8MA&feature=related