Just Like 1932

I offered this response to an article by CHARLES KRAUTHAMMER who was decrying how conservatism is dying because of the civil war in its ranks:

You are finally beginning to realize that conservatism is dying, or is almost dead.  It is dying for two reasons:  1.  Ideological purity that is its mainstay (no tax pledges) rushes headlong into the reality of a middle class that is bleeding out.  Flint Michigan is a telling example.  The numbers of people in desperate need are increasing every day as the gap between rich and poor affects even the most strident conservative.  This is particularly true of senior citizen conservatives who are watching in horror as they have to keep working to supports their children and grandchildren who are unemployed.  Couple this with an epidemic of dementia that leaches life savings away.  

What we are seeing is wealth draining out of the middle class; in short, they are bleeding out in front of our eyes.

This runs headlong into a conservative philosophy that allows no tax increases and as you so eloquently declare is the welfare state gone bad.

2.  Except we need the welfare state.  The conservative core principle is that self reliance and Liberty is essential to a vital economy.  This relies on opportunity for those who are willing to work hard and succeed.  Savings from this work ethic will then lead to a secure retirement and happiness.

This is not happening.  Almost all of my senior citizen friends (I am in my late 60s) are quitting the golf course to take part time work, or having their children live with them because they are out of work.  This is going on everywhere.

And they turn to Trump, who makes them feel good, gives them platitudes that in the end mean nothing (illegal immigration is not the culprit in job loss).  Other pretenders who became cost cutting austerity governors have promised the Reagan approach would lessen the pain.  It only made it worse!

I still think Flint Michigan is a textbook case of conservatism not fitting the modern economic paradigm. Neither, I would argue does traditional liberalism.  The ACA is a vivid example.  Private medical insurance as a model to reform medical care for all is not getting it, as rates go up.  A single payer looks better all the time, and that would be the democratic socialism you talk about.

In short, the answers will be difficult and painful to find.  The answers may indeed NOT EXIST!  

There are simply too many losers in today's global economy.  How we deal with this, given our gridlock in Congress, will determine whether our Republic will survive as a democracy.

What we are seeing in the Republican Party is the utter and complete failure of conservatism to even approach modern economic reality.  Flint Michigan, Wisconsin, Kansas, all conservative "reformist" states are bleeding out right now.

And the greying population keeps electing conservatives who promise the standard cut taxes and spending will fix it all, and it doesn't work over and over again.

The austerity simplistic answer does not work in a global economy.  It doesn't work in socialist democracies either; witness Ireland and Greece.  

Reagan's approach does not work in a global economy.  His simple approach, to cut the marginal tax rate of 90% to like 30% worked to stimulate the economy in 1980, but we did not have a global economy in 1980.  Jobs that have gone overseas will not come back no matter how much you cut taxes.

What results is less revenue for states and that means cuts to social welfare programs that are more and more needed by the white middle class elderly.  

The middle class was gutted by the recession of 2008, retirement funds were lost, housing valuation plummeted.  And they have not caught up.  Add this to the dementia crisis that drains retirement savings and eliminates inheritances for adult children and you have the perfect storm.

Dementia is a ticking time bomb in the baby boom generation that could plunge us into a Great Depression with no end.  

That is why the Republican Party is at war with itself.  That is why the Democratic Party is seeing Bernie surge.  People are scared and bewildered.

Just like 1932!

Beware Those Who Protest Too Much

Beware of those who protest too much!  

 

Ranching and logging interests have, in Northern California particularly, loved to complain about the bad ole Federal Government and its treatment of "public lands". 

 

The "public lands" they are complaining about are national forests, game preserves and BLM lands that private interests desperately want to get their hands on to "develop"; i.e. plunder.   

 

Up until about 1900 the private interests in this country had their way with practically everything. And the bison herds were massacred, the Native Americans likewise, and forests and mining plundering went on at a never ending pace.

 

In Northern California this resulted in watershed disaster, the birth of the Central Valley Project and reclamation projects aimed at repairing a century of mis-use.  The San Francisco Bay, if mining interests would not have been stopped, was filling up with sediment and would have ceased to be a viable port; no more San Francisco Bay!   

 

That is how bad the watershed damage was during from 1849 to 1910.  

 

After WWII there was a housing boom that virtually cut all the old growth forests of America down.  The only old growth timber left was in national forests and other preserves that Teddie Roosevelt established in the early 1900s.

 

And from 1940 to 1980 loggers attempted to cut even those areas down.

 

Clear cutting was used extensively in Northern California because it was very profitable and the mountainous terrain made "scientific logging" difficult. I have even had some argue with me that clear cutting is scientific logging!   

 

I remember as a child going for rides through the forests and marveling about the deep growth of trees seemingly endless against the sky.

 

What I didn't know was the logging companies purposefully left strips of timber along all the highways, giving the impression that the deep forest still existed.  In fact, when viewed from the air, the companies had disingenuously created corridors of trees lining the highways, leaving thousands of acres of clear cut where motorists could not see them.  

 

If you doubt this, google Hwy 44 in Northern California on Google Earth and look at the highway from space...you will see thousands of acres of clear cut...these areas were logged over twenty years ago!

 

In short they lied and deceived and cut all the damn trees down.

 

And when they ran out of private land timber, they turned on public lands, just like the protestors in Oregon are now demanding access to public reserve lands.

 

But his time the American public was on to them, and through a burst of new respect for what was left of wild lands in America, stopped the plundering.

 

So, the logging interests took their ball and went home. They purposefully moved operations overseas, putting cut timber on barges and shipping it overseas for milling in Asia.  They also automated the plants that still existed, laying off thousands.   In short they created the lie that it was the government's fault for running out of timber when it THEIR fault. They shut down plants prematurely like petulant children putting all the blame on the government.   

 

And Northern California suffered immensely.  Men and women who had devoted their entire working lives to the logging industry were laid off, many times just before their retirement dates; leaving long term employees with nothing save their social security.  Just to add to the angst wood products industries killed pensions for everybody, leaving thousands who earned them with nothing.

 

The logging companies blamed the federal government for their years of deceit; and the public bought it.

 

Today in Northern California you can still get hurt if you point these facts out to former loggers.  They blame the Democrats and the environmentalists for their unemployment and poverty.  The Democratic Party has almost ceased to exist in what was a former bastion of working class liberalism.  Former union men vote Republican with the mistaken belief that it is the Democrats fault.  

 

In point of fact, the logging companies are to blame for their predatory and disingenuous behavior that over logged the land and then ruthlessly blamed the government for the whole thing.  It is a huge con job!  

 

Ranchers joined in this con, blaming the federal government for not allowing them to have jurisdiction over public lands, that many of them were grazing their cattle on for ridiculously low leases from the same federal government they professed hatred for.  In short they wanted their cake and eat it too.

 

And the public bought most of this con as well.  Ranchers and logging interests blame the federal government for everything.  And it seems to be working, unless you dig a little into the facts.

 

Look, the reason the logging industry tanked in the 1980s was clear cutting; they cut down all the private land timber then wanted to cut down all the public land timber as well.  And today, what you hear is the federal government is "mismanaging public timber whenever there is a fire". The logging interests incredibly say "trust us" we will "scientifically log" public lands if only the government lets us do it...

 

These are the same guys who clear cut almost all the private timber down in the United States, hid the damage behind walls of trees around highways, then laid off thousands in an effort to force the government to give them the rest of the old growth forests.

 

A similar reason the ranchers are angry is they want to overgraze lands that they barely pay for, or they want to purchase public lands so they can use the mining rights for fracking.

 

Either way, it is private interests plundering the remaining publicly owned land in the United States for selfish private interests whose history, if you look at it fairly, if full of deceit and greed.

 

Don't buy it, they are lying to all of us for their own selfish gain!