Tuesday, December 22, 2009     previous post <> next post

One Man's Opinion - IV

There was an excellent conversation between Robert Kuttner and Matt Taibbi on the Bill Moyers Journal last Friday, December 18, 2009.

ROBERT KUTTNER: Right. And you've got to play hardball against these guys now. I do not want to leave this show with your viewers thinking this has been just a council of despair. So will you allow me to play Pollyanna for 30 seconds? Because I think this guy is nothing if not a work in progress. He's nothing if not a learner. And I think there is a chance. I don't think I would bet my life on it but I think there's a possibility that by the fall of 2010, looking down the barrel of a real election blowout, you could see him change course, if only for reasons of expediency, but hopefully for reasons of principle as well, if he feels that the public doesn't have confidence that he is delivering the kind of recovery that the public needs. This is a guy who is a very smart, complicated man. And I think don't speak too soon, for the wheel's still in spin. I don't want to totally give up. 

MATT TAIBBI: Yeah. I mean, obviously, it's too early to completely abandon hope that he's going to turn things around. But I think that's a belief that's not really based on evidence. If you look at the evidence of how he's behaved so far, and who he's got, you know, working in the White House, and who he's getting his money from, and how the party has behaved over the last couple of decades. You're really basically relying upon the impression that he gives as a kind, decent, warm-hearted intellectual guy. That's what the basis of that faith that there's going to be this turnaround. It's really not anything that's actually concretely happened that would give you reason to think that.

ROBERT KUTTNER: The other thing that's missing, if you compare him with Roosevelt or LBJ or Lincoln, the other thing that's missing is a social movement. In all of these great periods of transformation, you had social movements doing a complicated dance with the president, where sometimes they were working with him, sometimes they were beating up on him. That certainly describes the civil rights movement and Lyndon Johnson. It describes the abolitionists and Lincoln. It describes the labor movement and Roosevelt. Where's the movement? 

Now, I understand the Kuttner point -- and there are valid arguments for taking that position -- it's called wishful thinking. However, the general situation is so bad that we have little justification for wishful thinking.

I happen to agree with Taibbi -- Obama has had ample opportunity to demonstrate that he wanted to correct the problems -- and he has failed, miserably.  

Now, all that aside -- the important question shows up in that third paragraph:

Where's the movement?

And the answer is -- hidden in the numerous cracks and crevices of the World Wide Web!!!!!

Let's take just one excellent example. There is a brilliant young man by the name of Glenn Greenwald, a former constitutional law and civil rights litigator in New York, writing for a small web site, Salon-dot-com.

I may not understand all the ramifications of the all subjects covered by Glenn; however, what he says fits well with by image of the intentions of the founders of this country -- rule of law based on the Constitution. 

On Friday, December 18, 2009, in a post entitled, "The underlying divisions in the health care debate", Glenn wrote:

Even if one grants the arguments made by the proponents of the health care bill about increased coverage, what the bill does is reinforce and bolsters a radically corrupt and flawed insurance model and an even more corrupt and destructive model of "governing."

I don't think that anybody could seriously argue that statement about "governing" -- enough justification for "killing the bill."

I have written Glenn, numerous times, with very high praise for his philosophy and analysis; however, I must criticize his effectiveness -- he hasn't changed the world. And, I believe that he could -- if he and his cohorts at Salon would wake up and start using the Internet properly. They don't seem to realize that the Personal Computer/Internet combo is presently designed for the benefit of the same group of people that Obama is accused of supporting. 

The Web is a perfect muffler for the development of public opinion. It allows people to ventilate -- it does NOT promote serious philosophical discussion. It serves to separate the people at a time when we need more cooperation.

Obviously, I understand the difficulty of accepting criticism in that atmosphere -- Glenn must be getting all kinds of criticism, from all sides -- however, it is incumbent upon him to recognize constructive criticism and to think about some of the points made.

Glenn, you need to build community -- a community for the benefit of your readers as opposed to a community for the benefit of your advertisers.

(see Coca Cola -- http://www.livepositively.com/commitment)

To be continued...

Doug Skoglund skoglund@pdmsb.com

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