Bob Herbert:Two Different Worlds

[cal04]

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/18/opinion/18herbert.html?ref=bobherbert

I didn’t notice much when a terrific storm slammed into parts of New York City on Thursday evening. I was working at my computer in a quiet apartment on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. The skies darkened and it began to rain, and I could hear thunder. But that’s all. I made a cup of coffee and kept working.

(snip)
The movers and shakers of our society seem similarly oblivious to the terrible destruction wrought by the economic storm that has roared through America. They’ve heard some thunder, perhaps, and seen some lightning, and maybe felt a bit of the wind. But there is nothing that society’s leaders are doing — no sense of urgency in their policies or attitudes — that suggests they understand the extent of the economic devastation that has come crashing down like a plague on the poor and much of the middle class.

(snip)
If Republicans take over the policy levers, forget about it. The party of Palin, Limbaugh and Boehner — with its tax cuts for the rich and obsession with the deregulatory, free-market zealotry that brought us the Great Recession — will only accelerate the mass march into poverty.

(snip)
What is desperately needed is leadership that recognizes the depth and intensity of the economic crisis facing so many ordinary Americans. It’s time for the movers and shakers to lift the shroud of oblivion and reach out to those many millions of Americans trapped in a world of hurt.

[BeFree]

1. Yep

The republican agenda is tax cuts for the rich and cut off unemployment funds!!

A message needs to be sent to DC, and we can do it in the upcoming elections.

We send a clear message and then the PTB will begin to make sure we 'small' people are treated with due respect, or else.

[bread_and_roses]

7. "We" sent a clear message to DC two years ago

and look what it got us? Just what about this election could make anyone think that even if the Ds retain power they will suddenly "get it?" They are as entrenched in the Beltway and as deep in their Corporate Masters pockets as the Rs.

[BeFree]

8. Calm down

Political progress is slow going. Sit back and realize the true changes that have taken place and get prepared for the changes to come as we work together with the lame politicians who, one by one, are being retired and replaced with our people.

[bread_and_roses]

9. there's a saying ... teach your grandmother to

scramble eggs (that's my revised version - the original, "to suck eggs," sounds vaguely obscene and certainly hostile to modern ears, though that was not its original tone, which was mildly sarcastic in a humorous way).

I am neither young nor inexperienced in following politics nor without a long resume in working on the local ground in electoral politics. As far as I survey the landscape, "our people" on the National level can probably be counted on one person's fingers.

Better to acknowledge the reality - we live under a totally owned Corporatocracy. At least it gives us a starting point. And electoral politics are no longer a vehicle for meaningful change.

[applegrove]

2. Yup. The CEOs have decoupled from the middle class in the USA.

They invest more and more abroad because that will be where all the growth is (10% in China and India vs. 4% in the USA and Europe). The West is hitting its mature years as economic growth goes. So all they need the middle class for is come election time. The rest of the time they just keep the masses busy on fear/anger. And do nothing to make things better.

[glitch]

4. They've decoupled from the planet and the reality of its web of life.

They create their own sick realities, and revel in them.

[applegrove]

6. Yes they are sociopathic.

[chill_wind]

3. "The American economy is on its knees

and the suffering has reached historic levels. Nearly 44 million people were living in poverty last year, which is more than 14 percent of the population. That is an increase of 4 million over the previous year, the highest percentage in 15 years, and the highest number in more than a half-century of record-keeping. Millions more are teetering on the edge, poised to fall into poverty."

That's the grim reality.

K & R.

[Skittles]

5. he's one of the few that truly gets it

many of us feel in November we have a choice between people who don't know how to fix it and people who only know how to make it worse