Hullabaloo

Friday, June 15, 2012

 
The real meaning of political courage

by digby

If there's one thing we can all agree upon is how hard it is for wealthy, political celebrities to shed their partisan mantles and speak the truth come what may. For instance, I'm sure you all recall the sorrow with which TV star and multi-millionaire Andrea Mitchell broke this news about the need for all of "us" to sacrifice on the day before Obama's inauguration:

MSNBC commentator: ... The subtext of all of this [call to service] is "hey Americans, you're gonna have to do your part too. There may be some sacrifices involved for you too." Do you think he's going to use his political capital to make those arguments and will it go beyond rhetoric?

Andrea Mitchell: It does go beyond rhetoric. He needs to engage the American people in this joint venture. That's part of the call. That's part of what he needs to accomplish in his spech and in the days following the speech. He needs to make people feel that this is their venture as well and that people are going to need to be more patient and have to contribute and that there will have to be some sacrifice.

And certainly, if he is serious about what he told the Washington Post last week, that he wants to take on entitlement reform, there will be greater sacrifice required from a nation already suffering from economic crisis --- to ask people to take a look at their health care and their other entitlements and realize that for the long term health and vitality of the country we're going to have to give up something that we already enjoy.

I'm sure she was petrified about losing her health care and government "entitlements" but it was mighty big of her to offer to give them up for the greater good.

It is always so inspiring to see elites like Mitchell with the courage and fortitude to admit that other people are going to need to make sacrifices. Hell, she might have even meant that she would have to pay some higher taxes on her millions, which would be just terrible, I'm sure. Not being able to leave quite as huge a financial legacy as you expected has got to hurt --- a million here a million there and pretty soon you're talking about only leaving a few million behind when you die. (Not to mention all the job-killing.)

But Mitchell isn't the only one. Every day we are treated to another wealthy celebrity giving us a little more of that tough love and straight talk. The latest is Fareed Zakaria, who suggests that the most important thing in America is for the union movement, Democrats and liberals to commit electoral suicide:

"on the central issue of the recall–the costs of public-sector employees–the Democratic Party is wrong on the substance, clinging to its constituents rather than doing the right thing...

Public-sector unions are strong supporters of the Democratic Party, so their clout has drowned out the voices of the poor, the young, students and average citizens. That is why real credit for courage should go to those few Democrats who are taking on these issues, even at the cost of losing support from one of their key constituencies. That includes mayors like Rahm Emanuel and Chuck Reed as well as governors like Andrew Cuomo and Pat Quinn. Sadly, they are too few and too isolated. Democrats should take note: the ideals of liberalism are now being sacrificed for the interest groups of liberals.

Imagine that? And whose interests are Emanuel, Reed, Cuomo et al serving, do you suppose? The "average citizens" the poor and the young? Or could it possibly be the same interests Zakaria serves when he takes his hefty fees from such interest groups" as Baker Capital, Catterton Partners, Driehaus Capital Management, ING, Merrill Lynch, Oak Investment Partners, Charles Schwab and T. Rowe Price?

Dean Baker handily dispatches all the misinformation in Zakaria's font of wingnut propaganda posing as fact. Unsurprisingly, the comparison to Greece, like all comparisons to Greece, is utter bullshit. And while pensions are a problem, let's not forget that all those "other" special interests who are paying people like Zakaria and supporting politicians like Emanuel and Cuomo stand to make a nice fat profit if they can end all defined benefits pensions once and for all and get those employee contributions to play with in the big Wall Street 401K casino game. Let's just say there's a lot of money to be made for the 1% if they can break those public employee unions.

But never fear, Zakaria and the rest of the millionaire TV celebrities who spend all their time first class with other wealthy people will make sure that the public is so uninformed they'll think they're actually getting a good deal even though they're being squeezed by billionaires who literally cannot ever have enough money.

This is why we shouldn't listen to the top 1% when they tell us we all need to sacrifice and that unions should give up their pensions and that the country is going to hell in a handbasket because of the selfishness of average workers who would like to live a decent life. They're being just the tiniest bit self-serving.

Let's do this instead: all those people who are "in the pink" in that chart there can be the first to sacrifice for the greater good. And they don't even have to sentence themselves to penury and insecurity as they insist the rest of us must do. All they have to do is give up their selfish, piggish ways and allow the middle class to flourish one again. They can still be wealthy. They just don't get to have it all.

Once that's accomplished, we'll take a look at the situation and see what else has to be done. But let these fine folks be an inspiration to us all.


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digby 6/15/2012 12:00:00 PM