Comments on: Trolls, Trolling, Trolled http://www.wholesomereading.com/2010/03/10/trolls-trolling-trolled/ Musings on culture and politics by baseball writer Steven Goldman Sat, 19 May 2012 11:02:07 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.6.3 By: Jason from The Heartland http://www.wholesomereading.com/2010/03/10/trolls-trolling-trolled/#comment-1702 Jason from The Heartland Sat, 13 Mar 2010 19:29:58 +0000 http://www.wholesomereading.com/?p=590#comment-1702 Steve, you do a good job at Wholesome Reading as well as terrific stuff with PB on baseball. Love "Forging Genius," a great book. One thing, though--why wish for a centrist third party run and funded by a wealthy scion when the Democratic Party is primarily centrist right now, and has been for the last 30 years? The Dems catered to Reagan on tax cuts, military spending, and the massive upward redistribution of wealth to the upper classes. Clinton did the same in some different ways, including gutting welfare programs by poaching the GOP's "welfare reform," which didn't even deign to track the fates of former welfare recipients. Obama has continued Bush's policies of buttressing corrupt, massive banks allegedly too big to fail to the detriment of homeowners, while the Dems have failed to push for hard, substantive reforms such as bringing back Glass-Steagall protections between savings and investment backing. This, of course, says nothing about one retreat after another on substantive health care, failing from the start to push hard for a single-payer system, then concocting other systems to provide care with some protections, but without cost restraints outside faith in a modified free-market form of health care. In no small part, such delays have been the result of right-wing Dems such as Lincoln, Conrad, and the two-timing caucus leech Lieberman (a selfish free agent rather than an independent). But these are centrist stances. The Democratic Party of our times is a far cry from its counterpart in the 1930s, which enacted vast, substantive reforms such as Glass-Steagall, and widespread socio-economic legislation that came to form the New Deal. Conversely, what did the Dems do when they had power again after the '06 midterms about the rampant Bush abuses such as torture, rendition, a thoroughly unaccountable executive branch, spying on millions of Americans, well over a thousand signing statements, politicizing the DoJ, and on and on? Hold hearings, beat their chests, but not take hard, focused actions. The Dems are primarily centrists, and have been for some time. With such a "left" party as the Dems, I shudder to think what another centrist party would concoct. That said and off my chest, keep up the very good work, Steven. Steve, you do a good job at Wholesome Reading as well as terrific stuff with PB on baseball. Love “Forging Genius,” a great book. One thing, though–why wish for a centrist third party run and funded by a wealthy scion when the Democratic Party is primarily centrist right now, and has been for the last 30 years? The Dems catered to Reagan on tax cuts, military spending, and the massive upward redistribution of wealth to the upper classes. Clinton did the same in some different ways, including gutting welfare programs by poaching the GOP’s “welfare reform,” which didn’t even deign to track the fates of former welfare recipients. Obama has continued Bush’s policies of buttressing corrupt, massive banks allegedly too big to fail to the detriment of homeowners, while the Dems have failed to push for hard, substantive reforms such as bringing back Glass-Steagall protections between savings and investment backing. This, of course, says nothing about one retreat after another on substantive health care, failing from the start to push hard for a single-payer system, then concocting other systems to provide care with some protections, but without cost restraints outside faith in a modified free-market form of health care.

In no small part, such delays have been the result of right-wing Dems such as Lincoln, Conrad, and the two-timing caucus leech Lieberman (a selfish free agent rather than an independent). But these are centrist stances. The Democratic Party of our times is a far cry from its counterpart in the 1930s, which enacted vast, substantive reforms such as Glass-Steagall, and widespread socio-economic legislation that came to form the New Deal. Conversely, what did the Dems do when they had power again after the ‘06 midterms about the rampant Bush abuses such as torture, rendition, a thoroughly unaccountable executive branch, spying on millions of Americans, well over a thousand signing statements, politicizing the DoJ, and on and on? Hold hearings, beat their chests, but not take hard, focused actions.

The Dems are primarily centrists, and have been for some time. With such a “left” party as the Dems, I shudder to think what another centrist party would concoct.

That said and off my chest, keep up the very good work, Steven.

]]> By: Jesse http://www.wholesomereading.com/2010/03/10/trolls-trolling-trolled/#comment-1685 Jesse Wed, 10 Mar 2010 15:44:10 +0000 http://www.wholesomereading.com/?p=590#comment-1685 Hello Steven, I was at Politics and Prose last night for the baseball discussion. Good times! Totally agree with your position stated in this post. Have you ever looked into changecongress.org? They have some good ideas. Anyway, thanks for the great writing. Jesse Washington, DC Hello Steven, I was at Politics and Prose last night for the baseball discussion. Good times! Totally agree with your position stated in this post. Have you ever looked into changecongress.org? They have some good ideas. Anyway, thanks for the great writing.
Jesse
Washington, DC

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