Davison's Doodle

The American Dream

I caught “60 Minutes” last night.  Odd, there were two interviews of wealthy, white men that could have been interchangeable:  one with soon to be Speaker of the House, Rep. Boehner and the other the owner of the Dallas Cowboys, Jerry Jones.  Both grew up poor and are now wealthy and powerful.  Both have clear memory and attachment to those memories from childhood.   Though not said, Boehner and Jones clearly think they have risen to places of power because they “pulled themselves up by their bootstraps.”

Jones is an overt showman who gives people a good show even when the home team is loosing, badly.  The Dallas Cowboys will never be “lovable losers.”  Rep. Boehner grew up in a small house helping the family bar business and attending mass when the doors were open.  Both men exceeded their families wildest dreams of what success could mean and based on their childhood context “earned” the American dream with no help from nobody.  Though wealthy beyond imagination they both operate from a sense of fear.  If the “American Dream” has anything to do with wealth and power they both own lots of stock or stock options in the dream that is fixed rather than fluid.  It assumes everyone wants: power, money and the opportunities to claim as much of each as you can grab.  Jones didn’t mention faith, beyond the mighty dollar, but Rep. Boehner did and it makes me wonder if he actually listened to the stories from the gospels.  He weeps, authentically or on cue, for the children of America wanting them to have access to the dream and yet sides with and does the work of plutocrats.  He said that becoming Speaker of the House isn’t about him, and yet tearfully relates achieving that status as claiming the American dream.  He may be crying because he feels unworthy, overjoyed the way some beauty pageant winners do when they get the crown, or remorseful for participating in the systems that favor the wealthy over the working class or poor.

My dream is an America where people have access to all the necessities that a make for life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.  Rep. Boehner grew up in a country that bought the work ethic myth and the system was built on the myth.  Today, the myth remains but the systemic opportunities have long sense vanished because government has ceased ensuring a level playing field for all those wanting to work and achieve a dream.  Mr. Speaker, the children of this nation don’t need your tears. They need you to ensure safe water, fair housing, quality public education, fair wages, and ref a fair game.  They need you to apply the rules of the game to the ruling caste as well as the working and the working poor.  That is President Obama’s problem (mistake): he thought that government could shift to being a fair and impartial referee of the systems that make dreaming possible.  Former President Reagan might have made Americans feel better and proud, but he damaged the government that enabled him to achieve.

 

COMPETING VISIONS OF ‘THE AMERICAN DREAM’
by Steven Benen | Washington Monthly | Dec. 13, 2010
But from where I sit, Boehner’s emotions are irrelevant, and the frequency with which he cries is of no real interest. What I found interesting about the exchange isn’t Boehner’s tears, but rather, his approach to “the American dream” itself.

For example, Boehner seemed entirely sincere about his affection for children. What he didn’t mention is that his budget plan would slash education spending, undermining those schools he can’t bring himself to visit.

But in a more general sense, the incoming Speaker shares his nostalgia for the past fairly often. He lamented not too long ago his notion that Democrats are “snuffing out the America that I grew up in” during the 1950s and 1960s.

As we’ve discussed before, putting aside what that era was like for women and minority groups, the striking thing about such pining is how extraordinarily liberal the country was, economically, during these good ol’ days. The top marginal tax rate was 90% (nearly triple today’s figure); union membership was 30% (more than quadruple today’s figure); the Republican Party, which still had plenty of liberals, endorsed all kinds of progressive ideas (spending projects, living wage); and the economy was heavily regulated — airlines didn’t even set their own prices.

No Way to Govern

Have you ever had one of those moments when you realized that a person you held in high regard, maybe a mentor or hero, was just a human being?  President Obama’s announcement that he is compromising with the white power structure and plutocracy is disappointing.  The change I voted “for” was rhetoric only.  Today’s announcement on a “tax” compromise determined that my vote in 2012, if I vote at all, will be against a candidate rather than for a candidate.  Maybe that is what the political parties count on these days.  I am responsible for believing that the situation in our country was bad enough for government and our systems to change.  I was wrong.

The sense of obligation, to whom much is given much is required, has long since been sold for pennies on the dollar.  If there was ever an example that this country has slipped into a “Lords & Serfs” economic system cloaked in “freedom” it is this: wealthy white men and women refusing to govern for the common good unless the continuation of  low tax rates for AGI above $250k and for AGI above $1 million dollars.  They dishonor their oath of office with each breath.  It is argued that this is done to ensure that “job creators” can continue to create jobs and yet the employment rate has climbed to 9.8%.  Most of our congressional representatives fall into this income bracket, but they don’t create jobs.  Many overpaid athletes (football, baseball, and basketball) fall into this income bracket, but they don’t create jobs.  If the working caste doesn’t vote out the Lords that held jobless benefits and health care hostage for low tax rates for the affluent then they will get the government and pain they require to feel “American”.  The end game may be that the plutocrats want military service to be the only way to make a living or die trying.  Then they will truly dictate the terms of freedom and democracy.  The current tax structure has been in place for ten years and those “job creators” (some call them small businesses)  have discovered how to maintain profits with fewer workers here and cheaper workers in other parts of the world.  Multi-nationals, posing as small business,  clearly understand the value of “human capital” to their stock price.  Below a certain AGI, everybody owes and everybody pays.

It is a day of shame and yet there is no shame nor honor in the senate or the house of representatives for both liberals and conservatives.  “Conservative” senators just added billions to the national credit card while insisting that the national debt must be addressed.  They will decrease the deficit by dismantling social programs and structures that benefit us all.  Pay as you go or pay for service benefits individuals not the community.  Parks, roads, the energy grid, water, nothing is beyond making a dollar.  Nothing has trickled down for a long time now.  The best visual I have for trickle down economics is the relief agencies handing out bags of grain or flour from atop trucks to thousands of poor in Africa.  In the crudest terms the white man reminded the freed, through obstructionism, that freedom is just another word for nothing else to loose.  The President may be the most powerful man in the world and economically advantaged, but he is not an equal.  The plutocrats and multi-national corporations have the ability to manipulate the markets, to hire, fire, and layoff, and make it hard to govern because the tail is wagging the dog.  The subtle institutional racism that exists in our government is on ticker tape parade and Fox News provides the witty, fictional news and banter.   The Lords have many, many speaking for them inside and outside government.  Who has real power that speaks for the working people?

The extension of the tax rates will no doubt benefit my parents and those in their generation who have worked hard for what they have and claimed a bit of the American dream as they define it.  My father is a mason.  What I know of that order and having watched my father’s life I know that his heart must be troubled by the spiral of our nation during his lifetime.  I can hear him say, “We always have a responsibility to provide for the poor, the elderly, and the orphan.”  Many have been orphaned in this economic system.  Many have worked hard for the “man” and still owe the company store not because they were foolish or irresponsible, but because the game is rigged that way.  My parents have come to realize, though not voiced, that their children will not live as well in the future.

Christianity does not have clean hands in this.  Marketing personal salvation and prosperity  has scrubbed the teachings of Jesus from the biblical witness which is why Christendom questions:  who is our neighbor, how many times must we forgive, what is the kindom of God like, or what does God require?  Institutional Christianity has turned stones to bread, traded for power in the empire, and claims safety within the empire.  There are individual voices of gospel and some systemic gospel speaking truth to power.  Why isn’t the Church organizing for the common good, now.  Institutionally, it can’t because it is occupied by empire desires.

This rant, so to speak, is a lament for what is becoming the “new normal” in our culture.  Odd, the new has its roots in the past and can’t seem to learn the lessons of history that might provide change we can see and believe.

The Tax Cut Endgame
The New York Times Editorial | Dec. 6, 2010

The Republicans gave up very little except for their unconscionable stance of holding up all other Congressional action until they ensured that the richest Americans keep their tax cuts.

The tax cuts were not affordable when they were passed and are even less affordable now — with unpaid-for wars, with a weak economy crying out for recovery efforts, with the nation’s infrastructure and education system increasingly decrepit, and with retiring baby boomers inexorably driving up health costs and the budget deficit in the decades to come.

A thoughtful approach — not broached by either side — would have been to extend the tax cuts for most Americans for another year or so, letting the high-end tax breaks expire as scheduled this year and using the money to help pay for policies that would do more than income tax cuts to generate growth. In the meantime, lawmakers and the administration could have undertaken tax reform to bring revenues in line with spending.