Barack Obama's 2006 speech at launch of Brookings Hamilton Project.

[madfloridian]

Here is the transcript of the speech in pdf format

Here is an excerpt:

I think that if you polled manyof the people in this room, most of us are strong free traders and most of us believe in markets. Bob and I have had a running debate now for about a year about how do we, in fact, deal with the losers in a globalized economy. There has been a tendency in the past for us to say, well, look, we have got to grow the pie, and we will retrain those who need retraining. But in fact we have never taken that side of the equation as seriously as we need to take it. So hopefully, this is not just going to be a lot of preaching to the choir. Hopefully, part of what we are going to be doing is challenging our own conventional wisdom and pushing boundaries and testing these ideas in a vigorous and aggressive way.

....Just remember, as we move forward, that there are real consequences to the work that is being done here. There are people in places like Decatur, Illinois, or Galesburg,Illinois, who have seen their jobs eliminated. They have lost their health care. They have lost their retirement security. They don't have a clear sense of how their children will succeed in the same way that they succeeded. They believe that this may be the first generation in which their children do worse than they do. Some of that, then, will end up manifesting itself in the sort of nativist sentiment, protectionism, and anti-immigration sentiment that we are debating here in Washington. So there are real consequences to the work that is being done here. This is not a bloodless process.

Well, he is right. I know I am beginning to feel very protective about this country and what is happening to it in the name of globalism. Also he is right again, it is not a bloodless process. People are suffering a lot. There are a lot of "losers".

One of the best summaries of the Hamiltonian Democrats came from Harold Meyerson at the Washington Post in 2006.

Hamiltonian Democrats

It's come to this: The chief project to restate Democratic economics for our time was unveiled a couple of weeks ago, and it's named after the father of American conservatism, Alexander Hamilton.
Necessarily, the authors of the Hamilton Project preface their declaration with an attempt, not altogether successful, to reclaim Hamilton from the right. The nation's first secretary of the Treasury, they note, "stood for sound fiscal policy, believed that broad-based opportunity for advancement would drive American economic growth, and recognized that 'prudent aids and encouragements on the part of government' are necessary to enhance and guide market forces."

Which is true, as far as it goes. Hamilton believed in balanced budgets and in the government's taking an active role to build the infrastructure and fiscal climate that business and the nation need to succeed -- ideas as alien to the current administration as support for collective farms. But Hamilton also feared the common people, dismissed their capacity for self-government and supported rule by elites instead.

That might be enough to deter most Democrats from naming their firstborn economic revitalization scheme after him, but the authors of the Hamilton Project are made of sterner stuff. They include Peter Orszag, an estimable Brookings Institution economist; investment banker Roger Altman, formerly of the Clinton Treasury department; and, chiefly, former Treasury secretary and current Citigroup executive committee Chairman Robert Rubin, whose iconic status within the Democratic mainstream has waxed as the median incomes of Americans under the Bush presidency have waned. Rubin has also become a seal of good housekeeping for Democratic candidates seeking money from Wall Street. When Bob Rubin talks, Democratic pols don't just listen; they scramble for front-row seats and make a show of taking notes.

[dtom67]

1. since the Country was founded as a polyarchy...

I would wager that Hamilton isn't the only ex-Pres. to hold the belief that the masses are not up to the task of self-government.
Of course, technology makes such a position less tenable.

On the other hand, we have all occasionally been awed by the tremendous stupidity many people display.

We can send missions to Mars, yet we cannot get away from the idea of the Few Ruling the Many.

Maybe we are not nearly as advanced as we think we are.....

[madfloridian]

2. I just watched the movie "Half the Sky"

I was moved to tears by these women who had been so abused, treated like they were not worthy...taking back power for themselves as best they could.

My first thought was that there are way too many in this country who are taking us backward, not just in women's rights but in economic issues. There are so many things many of us thought of as part of our country, would always be there.....but now it's become a battle for many just to survive.

[AAO]

3. They did a good job of framing so you couldn't see the teleprompter.

[madfloridian]

4. In 2006 the Hamiltonians knew exactly what we would be facing now. All planned.

[madfloridian]

5. It was all planned. They knew what we would be facing today.

That's shameful to do that, plan on helping the "losers", knowing there will be losers. I wonder if they knew just how many?

[madfloridian]

6. .....

kick?