A History Rhyme from 1877

[arendt]

"History does not repeat itself, but it does rhyme." - Mark Twain.

Everyone at DU will agree that the GOP have placed party before country; half of DU will agree that Hillary Clinton has placed herself before her party. But, I bet only a small percentage will agree that this entire Permanent Campaign is a fraud, a sham, part of a system of social control. The reason I will win my bet is that the study of history has been expunged in this country. It is square, quaint, not cool, worse than geeky.

I don't even have to make my case. Its already been made for me. The current situation is a clunky rhyme with 1877. That is 131 years ago, more than half the age of our Republic.

The presidential election itself had avoided real issues; there was no clear understanding of which interests would gain and which would lose if certain policies were adopted. It took the usual form of election campaigns, concealing the basic similarity of the parties by dwelling on personalities, gossip, trivialities. Henry Adams, an astute literary commentator on that era, wrote to a friend about the election:

"We are plunged in politics funnier than words can express. Very grave issues are involved...But the amusing thing is that no one talks about real interests. By common consent they agree to let these alone. We are afraid to discuss them. Instead of this the press is engaged in a most amusing dispute whether Mr. Cleveland had an illegitimate child and did or did not live with more than one mistress."

In 1887, with a huge surplus in the treasury, Cleveland vetoed a bill appropriating $100,000 to give relief to Texas farmers to help them buy seed grain during a drought. He said: "Federal aid in such cases...encourages the expectation of paternal care on the part of government and weakens the sturdiness of our national character." But that same year, Cleveland used his gold surplus to pay off wealthy bondholders at $28 above the $100 value of each bond - a gift of $45 million.

...the purpose of the state was to settle upper-class disputes peacefully, control lower class rebellion, and adopt policies that would further the long-range stability of the system...The arrangement between Democrats and Republicans to elect Rutherford Hayes in 1877 set the tone. Whether Democrats or Republicans won, national policy would not change in any important way.

- Howard Zinn "A People's History of the United States".

Why do I say this rhyme is "clunky"? Two reasons. First, today's population started from FDR and LBJ's base of laws and agencies to protect the average citizen from corporate domination. They should know better than to fall the tabloid crap that is being passed off as politics. Second, the ruling class of 1877, Robber Barons that they were, was devoted to building up American industry; whereas the crazies in BushCo are busy demolishing America for its scrap value and destroying the environmental basis of life on the planet. There is no "long range stability" with this insane policy.

After the success of Operation Chaos in Pennsylvania, we will be treated to three more months of suicidal holding out by the DLC wing of the party. The corporate media will continue to waterboard us with "personalities, gossip, trivialities".

I agree with those DUers who argue that McCain is a sacrificial candidate in a year no one wants to win. But, at the rate the Dems are going, he is going to win - because you can't beat a candidate with no candidate; and by the time the Democratic primaries are done, neither Dem candidate will be politically alive.

Its Deja-screw all over again.

arendt

[Smarmie Doofus]

1. The more things change.... you know the drill. K and R

[arendt]

2. Meet the new boss, same as the old boss. n/t

[annabanana]

3. History is more than just "square, quaint, not cool, worse than geeky"

It has been under active attack since the beginning of NCLB. You will all note that NONE of the required tests fall under the categories of
History,
Civics,
critical thinking

or anything else that would help a kid navigate the hyper-consumerised environment they have ben marinating in their whole lives.

For the Masters, context is the enemy.

[arendt]

10. I didn't know that depressing fact. So, history "will not be on the test". We.are.doomed. n/t

[trof]

4. SS,DD. Same Shit, Different Day.

[Smarmie Doofus]

5. Kick. Someone give this a 5th recommend. Ya rattlesnakes. nt

[femrap]

6. K and R

Enjoyed the history lesson...TPTB are really enjoying this election because they get to use their 'Divide and Conquer' tactic. Male v. Female. Older v. Younger. Black v. White.

Everyone will hate everyone....yippee!

[arendt]

7. Its so obvious to anyone who knows history. Julius Caesar: "vide et imperator" n/t

[lapislzi]

8. Late to the party...k&r

It would be amusing if it weren't so deadly earnest.

[arendt]

9. Yep. Speaking to the usual SMALL choir of historically-aware DUers. Thanks for showing up. n/t

[lapislzi]

11. This is why we're doomed to repeat...

although there is a curious kind of comfort in the knowledge that this era didn't patent the politics of irrelevance. Try pointing this out to someone who is still flogging the Lewinsky scandal as if it just happened last week, and in their living room, however.

I am so weary of deflecting Clinton crap (and I don't care for the politics of either Clinton). I just look at people and say, "is that all you've got?" A 10-year-old scandal? Again, cold comfort when one faces the prospect of "president" McCain.

[arendt]

12. "there is a curious kind of comfort in the knowledge that this era didn't patent

the politics of irrelevance"

Its always "Groundhog Day" for the human race. Only, we are running out of environment.

arendt

[lapislzi]

15. I only meant that ours isn't the most venal era in history

although we are probably tied for first place with the decaying Romans and the pre-revolutionary French. At least in "Groundhog Day" he knew he was repeating the same day over and over and tried to vary it...eventually he got it right. We have Groundhog Day with amnesia.

[arendt]

17. "Groundhog day with amnesia" is how a Buddhist views the world. Sad but true. n/t

[Uncle Joe]

13. Going even farther back in time to 1215, this sentence reminds me of the Magna Charta.

"...the purpose of the state was to settle upper-class disputes peacefully, control lower class rebellion, and adopt policies that would further the long-range stability of the system..."

It was the barons King John aimed to satisfy or lose his power.

Thanks for the thread, arendt.

[arendt]

14. Years ago, I compared GOP/Dem to Tory/Whig...

The Whigs were just representing the "industrial barons" instead of the aristocratic barons.

Your analogy is quite appropriate, as this lobotomized and deindustrialized country rapidly sinks back into corporate feudalism. The Dems only push the issues of the non-BushCo upper-class. Any promises to help the working class are transparent pandering.

My question is, "why do the Dems continue to give Bush a blank check for this war?". Everyone is against it. It is an economic and political disaster. If they let Bush run out the clock, he will still dump the blame for losing on the Dems. Why not stop it now, rather than later?

arendt

[arendt]

16. "the crazies in BushCo are busy demolishing America for its scrap value" - another take...

http://www.smirkingchimp.com/print/14207/

The Great Silence: Our Gilded Age and Theirs

By Steve Fraser

<snip>

The first Gilded Age rested on industrialization; the second on de-industrialization. In our time, a new system of dis-accumulation looted American industry, liquidating its assets to reward speculation in "fictitious capital." After all, the rate of investment in new plant, technology, and research and development all declined during the 1980s. For a quarter-century, the fastest growing part of the economy has been the finance, insurance, and real estate (FIRE) sector.

De-industrialization has set off an avalanche whose impact is still being felt in the economy, in the country's political culture, and in everyday life. It laid the industrial working class and the labor movement low, killing it twice over. This, more than anything else, may account for the great silence of the second Gilded Age, when measured, at least, against the raucous noise of the first. Labor was mortally wounded by direct assault, beginning with President Reagan's decision in 1981 to fire all the striking air traffic controllers. His draconian act licensed American business to launch its own all-out attack on the right to organize, which continues to this day.

In itself, however, resorting to coercion to deal with the opposition hardly distinguishes our own gilded elite from the first one. If anything, we live in less savage times, at least here at home. More fatal by far was the arrival of a new mode of capital accumulation, starkly different from the one that had prevailed a century ago. It eviscerated towns, cities, regions, and whole ways of life. It demoralized people, hollowed out popular institutions that had once offered resistance, and stoked the fires of resentment, racism, and national revanchism. Here was the raw material for mean-spirited division, not solidarity.

Dis-accumulation transformed the working class into a disaggregated pool of contingent labor, contract labor, temporary labor, and part-time labor, all in the interests of a new "flexible capitalism." Ideologues gussied-up this floating workforce by anointing it "free agent" labor, a euphemism designed to flatter the free market homunculus in each of us -- and, for a time, it worked. But the resulting reality has proved a bitter pill to swallow. To be a "free agent" today is to be free of health care, pensions, secure jobs, security in every sense. In our gilded era, downward mobility, lasting a quarter-century and still counting, has marked the social trajectory of millions of people living in the American heartland.

</snip>

--------

Looks like I'm not the only one doing Guilded Age comparisons today.

arendt

[Indenturedebtor]

18. Good post good thread

Up to the top with you!

Unfortunately this is not starting with this generation. The indoctrination of the public with "Free Market = Freedom to Consolidate Wealth and Do As You Please" began ages ago. At least my generation at present seems to be learning the score. The more that people turn to the internet the more hope there is.

They're trying to get control over that now though. If they win I fear that there will be no freedom of information and no true freedom until we evolve telepathy.

Eat the rich!

[arendt]

19. Front page, rush hour kick n/t

[northzax]

20. "operation chaos"?

cause there's no way that bitch could ever actually win, right? I wonder who's being divisive?

[arendt]

21. Geez, you people can dish it out; but you can't take it. n/t

[northzax]

22. you know it's against the rules of common decency

to call people dittoheads, right? Even if they don't worship at the feet of st. O?

I know that I, personally, haven't questioned a single one of obama's primary wins in swing states, I think he won Missouri by half a point fair and square. As for the others, wait, there were others, right?

[arendt]

23. where do you get I called you a dittohead? is "you people" now considered a codeword? Geez. n/t

[arendt]

24. Look. The OP is about the general state of politics. You want to turn into a GD-P flamewar...

over two words.

I'm sorry. Operation Chaos is a fact. It is part of the despicably low level of politics, which is what upsets me.

Once again: I will hold my nose and vote for whomever is the Democratic nominee. But, that doesn't mean I think either of them are worth a cup of warm spit as real Democrats.

Does that make you happy?

arendt

[arendt]

25. The level of presumption here is ridiculous...

it is practically impossible to talk about politics without mentioning some fact that has a negative impact on either Hillary or Obama.

In this instance, it is the undeniable fact of Operation Chaos.

Mentioning Operation Chaos does NOT make me someone who "worships at the feet of St. O". It means that I am aware of the ongoing dirty tricks of the GOP and their operatives.

Take your hair-trigger back to GD-P and leave me alone. I'm not talking to you brawling fanatics.

arendt

[northzax]

26. no, the use of the term 'operation chaos'

is deliberatly designed to make the implication that Hillary Clinton's decisive win in the key swing state of Pennsylvania was somehow not legitimate or representative of the wishes of the democratic party in that state.

[arendt]

27. I'm glad you can read my mind...

the term was used by me to highlight the trivial cesspool that politics today is.

Its no wonder that a highly partisan fanatic, such as yourself, sees enemies everywhere. (And I would say the same thing to an Obama supporter blasting my post for an irrelevant reason.

I repeat. I do not give a rat's ass who wins this primary. I call em as I see em. And I see you as a bull goose fanatic.

arendt

[northzax]

28. a 'truely partisan fanatic'? that's rich

really, come on.

words matter, you know? they're kind of important. word choice matters. if I said, for instance, that the moderators at the 'debate' last week were like a lynch mob, doesn't that word choice, combined with the reality on the ground, make a clear picture for you? a much differnt picture than if the debate had been Kerry and Edwards in '04? "Operation Chaos" clearly refers to the claim from Rush Limbaugh that he, personally, is influencing the Democratic Primary. you can't logically say it means anything else to anyone paying the slightest bit of attention.

now if you want to say that you use words lightly, even loaded ones, and that people therefore shouldn't pay attention to what you are saying, then by all means say that. But as it stands, you dismissed the primary choice of a large swing state. you may not have meant to, but that's what you did, and you should know that.

[arendt]

29. This is tedious word-mongering, nothing to do with the OP. You're on ignore. Goodbye. n.t

[northzax]

30. well, I guess we know how much words matter to you

i love it when you call people out for using dog whistle words and their their response is to ignore you. run on home, little boy, maybe your mommy will protect you from the big bad real world.

by the way, for everyone else, since no one thinks words matter, why do you suspect you have heard of Barack Obama? cause he's a great wordsmith. words have power and meaning, even if this particular poster would prefer that they only mean exactly what he wants them to. ignore the reality at your own peril.

[zanne]

32. northzax; you were looking for a fight and you got one. nt

[northzax]

33. I'm not the one who used loaded code words

to dismiss a major win by a candidate I didn't like. and I started the fight?

if I started a thread saying that Obama only wins southern state democratic primaries because all the whites have left the party, and all blacks are voting along color lines, people would complain, right? and I would have started the fight, not them. the term 'operation chaos' as a reason for the Hillary win in Pennsylvania is the exact same thing but since dismissals of Hillary are prefectly ok around here, no one else seems to care.

so yes, use republican code words on a democratic board, and I will call you on them.

[zanne]

31. I LOVE that quote! nt