Beyond Redemption

Good and bad last night, but none of it was very suprizing. Tom Barrett, the recently re-elected mayor of Milwaukee, will face scott walker in a rematch of the 2010 gubernatorial campaign. I voted for mayor Barrett last time and will gladly vote for him again. The question is whether Wisconsinites have learned anything since walker occupied the capitol. His supporters have rallied around him as the center and embodiment of the state, a kind of cheesy fuhrer/duce/jefe. Meanwhile the state has bled jobs and roiled in civil strife. Have enough "swing voters" the low-information, gut-following people soured on the kind of neo-fascist agenda rammed through to support a change? Will liberals work hard enough to reach them? Especially when Barrett has promised to treat these anti-american pricks with kid gloves?

Huffington post, that greatest of aggregators, has compiled a decent list of stories surrounding the recall election.

Also interesting was the defeat of Dick Lugar in the Indiana primary. Lugar was a giant in the Senate, I certainly do not agree with him on everything, but he was always an American first and a Republican second. Something his successor makes fun of. Rachel Maddow summarized the problem. While this turn of events may net the Democratic party another seat, and may well cement continued control of that body by Americans for another two years, the para-fascist movement that has wrested control of the gop does not think in short-term elementary ways. They know that in a two-party system with divided powers, an obstructionist force which represents only the interests of glassy-eyed true believers can gain power even if their base shrinks to an absolute minority. A Republic cannot survive this way. Although Indiana might be spared the embarrassment of a ron johnson type Senator for the next six years, the next time that seat is up will be a mid-term election and the teabags will stand a pretty good chance. Lugar's parting words on the dangers of extremism and the folly of such uncompromising stances by his party can be found here.

These developments push the United States, the grand experiment in democracy and republicanism, toward a calcified, authoritarian future. Dr. Maddow presents an excellent argument for one half of the political system as "beyond redemption." More serious is the "economic suicide" gleefully inflicted on our society by the 1% predicted by Noam Chomsky. While this event has been slowly gaining ground in America for over a generation, we are fast approaching the point of no return where the gains of the financial elite will be irreversible. Chomsky sees the "Occupy" movement as a locus of hope that America can back away from this suicide event. I still believe it is possible to redeem the republic without revolution and without violence. We have the blueprint of the New Deal, that plan could restore elements of justice and fairness through simple reimplementation without change. On top of that, we know how New Deal ideas can be updated to reflect the new American nation. It simply takes the will to work together and willingness to compromise with others, something our two parties used to be able to do. The alternative is too gloomy even for me to contemplate.