Why There’s no Outcry
By Robert Reich, Robert Reich's Blog VIA Steve Weiss
26 January 14
Robert Reich posted this yesterday (see below).
There is one problem he didn't take up in attempting to explain why we
don't have a revolution or a major wave of reform. The problem is that
he and others like him sold Obama to us based on false and deceitful
information claiming Obama is something other (a progressive) than what he really is (a thoroughly reactionary Wall Street neo-liberal).
Once people are convinced to throw themselves behind a candidate it is
almost impossible to convince them that the politician they supported
stands for something other then they were led to believe. Reich knows
this.
People are confused and befuddled waiting for Obama to
carry out an agenda of reforms which they were led to believe Obama
stood for.
People would have to fight against the very
politician/s (Obama and company--- the Democrats) they supported in
order to achieve meaningful reforms, never mind revolution.
This isn't likely to happen.
And if people turn out in droves to support more Democrats in 2014, these people aren't likely to challenge them, either.
A movement for reforms can't be based simply on fighting these dirty Republicans when the Democrats turn out to be no better.
In order to win the battle for any reforms the people must be able to
articulate the real solutions to their problems and fight anyone,
Republican or Democrat, standing in the way blocking reforms.
As it stands, Democrats are every bit the obstacle to reforms as the Republicans.
What more proof does one need then to look at what reforms Minnesotans
have got from a Democratic super-majority state government where
Republicans have no say and certainly are no obstacle standing in the
way blocking any reforms?
Robert Reich doesn't stand for any
meaningful reforms; he never has, doesn't now and he never will; he is a
Democratic Party hack hiding behind nice-sounding progressively framed
policy directives with no concrete solutions to match who will seek a
high-paying job in a Hillary Clinton Administration.
As Bill
Clinton's Secretary of Labor, Robert Reich supported NAFTA; he remained
silent as Clinton carried out the most reactionary reshaping of welfare
under the guise of "reform."
Robert Reich helped Obama derail the single-payer universal health care movement.
Reich refuses to push for a real living Minimum Wage.
Robert Reich is no Frances Perkins, Harry Hopkins or Eleanor Roosevelt.
They had progressive ideas which included very specific progressive
solutions to the problems of working people.
The answer to the
question Robert Reich poses is very complex just as he claims--- made
more complex by his advocacy of a phony "economic populism" devoid of
any solutions.
And, as far as "fear" being a factor? I guess so
since the FBI and NSA have been spying on us all and Obama ordered the
FBI to send over 500 government agents into Occupy Wall Street to
disorient, infiltrate and bust it up.
Anyways; here is what Robert Reich had to say:
Why There’s no Outcry
By Robert Reich, Robert Reich's Blog VIA Steve Weiss
26 January 14
People ask me all the time why we don’t have a revolution in America,
or at least a major wave of reform similar to that of the Progressive
Era or the New Deal or the Great Society.
Middle incomes are
sinking, the ranks of the poor are swelling, almost all the economic
gains are going to the top, and big money is corrupting our democracy.
So why isn’t there more of a ruckus?
The answer is complex, but three reasons stand out.
First, the working class is paralyzed with fear it will lose the jobs and wages it already has.
In earlier decades, the working class fomented reform. The labor
movement led the charge for a minimum wage, 40-hour workweek,
unemployment insurance, and Social Security.
No longer. Working
people don’t dare. The share of working-age Americans holding jobs is
now lower than at any time in the last three decades and 76 percent of
them are living paycheck to paycheck.
No one has any job security. The last thing they want to do is make a fuss and risk losing the little they have.
Besides, their major means of organizing and protecting themselves —
labor unions — have been decimated. Four decades ago more than a third
of private-sector workers were unionized. Now, fewer than 7 percent
belong to a union.
Second, students don’t dare rock the boat.
In prior decades students were a major force for social change. They
played an active role in the Civil Rights movement, the Free Speech
movement, and against the Vietnam War.
But today’s students
don’t want to make a ruckus. They’re laden with debt. Since 1999,
student debt has increased more than 500 percent, yet the average
starting salary for graduates has dropped 10 percent, adjusted for
inflation. Student debts can’t be cancelled in bankruptcy. A default
brings penalties and ruins a credit rating.
To make matters worse, the job market for new graduates remains lousy. Which is why record numbers are still living at home.
Reformers and revolutionaries don’t look forward to living with mom and
dad or worrying about credit ratings and job recommendations.
Third and finally, the American public has become so cynical about government that many no longer think reform is possible.
When asked if they believe government will do the right thing most of
the time, fewer than 20 percent of Americans agree. Fifty years ago,
when that question was first asked on standard surveys, more than 75
percent agreed.
It’s hard to get people worked up to change
society or even to change a few laws when they don’t believe government
can possibly work.
You’d have to posit a giant conspiracy in
order to believe all this was the doing of the forces in America most
resistant to positive social change.
It’s possible. of course,
that rightwing Republicans, corporate executives, and Wall Street moguls
intentionally cut jobs and wages in order to cow average workers,
buried students under so much debt they’d never take to the streets, and
made most Americans so cynical about government they wouldn’t even try
for change.
But it’s more likely they merely allowed all this
to unfold, like a giant wet blanket over the outrage and indignation
most Americans feel but don’t express.
Change is coming anyway.
We cannot abide an ever-greater share of the nation’s income and wealth
going to the top while median household incomes continue too drop, one
out of five of our children living in dire poverty, and big money taking
over our democracy.
At some point, working people, students,
and the broad public will have had enough. They will reclaim our economy
and our democracy. This has been the central lesson of American
history.
Reform is less risky than revolution, but the longer we wait the more likely it will be the latter.