A Utopian and a Magical Thinker Walk Into A Bar

A very useful tour of the things Hayek got right and wrong, via John Gray at the New Statesman.

And an interesting vignette of Milton Friedman creating one of the most hated tools of liberal government. From The Conversable Economist.

Two Vocabulary Questions

1. Why has the word “militant” only been used to describe workers and unions and never to describe employers, even when they've used armed force against unarmed workers?

2. Why is the word “conservative” used to describe right wing groups seeking to break down long-established and necessary institutions?

The Importance of Moderate and Conservative Democrats

On his show from the other night Lawrence O'Donnell explains very clearly why we need moderate and even conservative Democrats in Congress. Because the alternative often as not is a rightwing nutjob like Todd Akin. Not every state is Massachusetts. Not every seat represents a liberal or progressive district.

But if we can get a moderate to sit in the Senate for the rather conservative state of Missouri, we get to have Pat Leahy chairing the Judiciary Committee instead of Orrin Hatch, and we get Supreme Court justices who respect women's rights and minority rights and the rights of average working people instead of another rubber stamp for the Koch Brothers. We get representatives who can help broker deals and get actual legislation and responsibly funded budgets passed. We might even see a Congress that functions. But more importantly, by electing moderates like Claire McCaskill we get a Democrat sitting instead of a bizarrely ignorant Republican like Todd Akin. It's about numbers.

This year the GOP has purged several more conservative but rational members of Congress, who knew how to cooperate with others to get things done, and replaced them with fruitcakes who behave like ayatollahs, who refuse to compromise, who want the economy to fail so the black guy doesn't get re-elected, who want to turn America into a large non-union sweatshop, or, better yet, want to help their wealthy contributors ship more American jobs to Indonesia, who want to make rape victims bear the children of their rapists as long as their rapists didn't break their arm or their nose and said thank you afterwards. Think about this next time you criticize the moderates in Congress. They are an endangered species.

The 99% Are Being Heard

Most of the mainstream media still don't "get" what the Wall Street protests are about. This CBC interviewer tries rubbishing the protesters in the usual way, and Pulitzer Prize reporter Chris Hedges politely explains where the interviewer is wrong and then calmly folds the man up and puts him back in his sanitary wrapper.

There must be a circulating rule book titled "How to Dismiss, Insult and Marginalize Anyone Who Opposes the Total Power of Hedge Fund Billionaires", which instructs network talking heads how to be rude to people outside the money elite. Most TV hosts are contemptuous of this movement, and contemptuous in the same way, using the same words, the same references to the 60s and hippies and drugs and guitars and bongos. There has to be an approved script. Maybe Frank Luntz provided it.

(You might not know this, but most TV talking heads live in small furnished apartments inside the pockets of the expensive suits you see billionaires wearing when they creep from marble office to forty foot limousine. So talking heads are always alert to the moods of their billionaire hosts. Sadly, they have a tin ear for the lives and concerns of the real people living on the other side of the TV screen.)

Good news. According to this story in Business Insider, the Occupy Wall Street movement, sometimes called "The 99%", are twice as popular as the "Tea Party" movement (which is paid for and fully owned by the Koch Brothers and other billionaires).

The movement is spreading and gaining allies. It has a way to go yet. Take a look at the popular protests that took place in Paris in 1968. They were huge. They involved everyone, every class, every walk of life. Their mistake was resorting to violence––if they hadn't they would likely have succeeded.

The trick of true influence is a mixture of assertiveness and patience. The 99% have a real message. They are us. They are teachers, electricians, firemen, students, nurses, engineers, small businesspeople, retirees, people from working and middle class neighborhoods.

The majority of Americans agree that concentrated wealth has harmed the economy, made it less stable, less sustainable. We aren't pushing for confiscation of capital, we are talking about putting capital to work the way we used to. Putting Americans to work, and paying for that work in a way that strengthens the entire economy not just the top 1%.

Call it liberal if you like. But wouldn't a true conservative want to restore and keep the institutions and rules that have worked well for us? The system that grew out of the New Deal worked very well between 1945 and 1980, the most prosperous period in American history. The Republican revolution dismantled that system, and we've seen what happened. Look who's prospered and who hasn't.

Deadbeats, Radicals, Vandals, Anarchists, Republicans

It's getting pretty difficult to think of Republicans as conservative, considering all that they're trying to tear down. Conservatives don't play chicken with the U.S. economy. They don't conduct off-the-books wars or lie us into them. Real conservatives don't max out the national credit card and leave the next president with a bankrupt economy. So what are these new Republicans? News organizations and prominent journalists from here to Australia are trying to figure that out. Follow the links to today's must-reads.

Republicans are Deadbeats who don't fulfill agreements or honor contracts.

Republicans are Radicals, eager to undo every functioning institution.

Republicans are Anarchists, who want no government at all so they can run amok.

Republicans are Vandals, looking for opportunities to burn, loot and pillage.

Today's Republicans are not conservatives because they don't want to preserve what works. They want to tear down programs and institutions that have worked efficiently and well for the best part of fifty years, the most prosperous and stable period in American history.