George Packer thinks the United States is in trouble and we better get our shit together quickly because the country is going down the tubes fast. Part of Packer’s analysis of our dire state of affairs centers around the divisions in America and who is winning…and who is losing.
“The financial crisis of 2008, and the Great Recession that followed, had a similar effect on the home front. The guilty parties were elites–bankers, traders, regulators, and policy-makers…. But those who did the suffering were lower down the class structure: middle-class Americans whose wealth was sunk in a house that lost half its value and a retirement fund that melted away; working-class America thrown into poverty by a pink slip. The economic collapse was triggered by fraud, but no financier was ever charged with a crime. A Wall Street trader told me that the crisis had been ‘a speed bump’ in his world.” (p. 107)
I agree with Packer’s analysis, but I’m not to sure of his “solutions.” In effect, Packer wants America to progress from a divided country into a unified one. The pathway includes more equity and equality. I’m dubious that the current political system will address these problems. They won’t deal with immigration, gun control, voting rights, or climate change. Why would Packers’s “elites” push for a more equal union? What do you think? GRADE: B+
TABLE OF CONTENTS:
Prologue — 3 Strange defeat — 13 Four Americas — 63 Equal America — 141 Equalizers — 165 Make America again — 187 Epilogue — 217 FURTHER READING — 221 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS — 225 |
Nothing will change as long as Mitch and his group of flunkies are in power. The little guy has always gotten the short end of the stick but this is short end of the stick on steroids. Greed, the thirst for power, and the attack on truth and reason are poweful enemies. **sigh**
Jerry, you’re right. Unless the Democrats find a way to increase their Senate seats, gridlock will continue.
I have no patience with people like this guy and their “pie in the sky” solutions (sic). No, it is NOT going to happen. Unless the voters make the Republicans pay the price for the damage they’ve done and are continuing to do, things are not going to get better.
Jeff, I agree. The Republicans have bamboozled their Base into thinking masks and vaccinates are evil, that Critical Race Theory is the most important problem facing the nation, and that Trump is still the Real President. What a mess?
Sounds good to me. All we need to do is give everybody everything they want, all the time.
Dan, easier said than done…
Having just read the article in the NYT pondering why despite the turnarounds, (covid, economy, infrastructure bill) mostly from the hands of Democrats, the country has not come together at all, I say we are doomed. Why do so many lower middle class voters think the Republicans will help them financially? I don’t get it. They never have and they never will. Unless they turn off Fox News, there is little hope.
Patti, the Republicans have become masters of manipulating their Base into believing the Democrats are Socialists and will let millions of immigrants into the U.S. to take their jobs. And the Democrats will take away their guns, too! With messaging like this, they keep their followers constantly agitated and fearful.
It would be great to be able to find any reason at all for optimism, but I just don’t see it. The country is basically under the thumb of a minority party that will be almost impossible to remove from power, supported as they are by constitutional safeguards like the electoral college and the makeup of the Senate. Plus the fact that 75 million Americans support them fanatically. These people may be stupid, ignorant, and crazy as a shithouse rat, but they aren’t going anywhere.
Michael, much of the Republican Base is dazed and confused about the Changes going on. If they don’t believe in vaccines, Climate Change, or Higher Education what chance do they have coping with the Future?
I’m not optimistic—especially since red states are now passing all kinds of voting restrictions that will ensure the GOP, minority though they might be, will continue to be elected en masse…and we already know what the GOP does when they run the show: grandstanding, gridlock, jingoism, and transferring wealth from the working- and middle-class to the one-percent.
Deb, the GOP knows it is losing ground demographically all over the country. But their conspiracy theories and Culture War dog-whistles keep their Base fired up. The Dems need to focus on purple states like Georgia and Arizona and turn them blue. It would help if the Dems could make Washington, D.C. a state with two more Senators!
Most of the reason DC (and Puerto Rico, US Virgin Islands, Guam, the Marianas and American Samoa) aren’t states already is that they would be mostly Democratic (and, perhaps worse, non-pale Caucasian!)…and the Democrats never seem to work in concert nearly as well as most Republicans. Becasuse a few Democrats are genuine democrats and populists and represent their constituents, and most are mostly worried about not alienating their funding base among corporations. The neoliberals, thus, have had most of the power in the party at least since the latter ’80s.
Todd, I agree. The Dems cause many of their own problems with lack of unity. I was hoping the Senate could get rid of the filibuster (an invention of Aaron Burr) and get some real legislation passed. But…no go.
I was slightly surprised by how many Dems want to hang on to the filibuster, but I shouldn’t’ve been.
Todd, I think money might have something to do with it.
You’re sure posting on political stuff a lot. I’ll be back with comments when I have something to say besides “Bah”.
Rick, it’s just the luck of the draw. Those political books somehow floated to the top of my READ REAL SOON stack. No political books for the next couple of weeks!
The GOP has an iron grip on the Supreme Court, a hold on the Senate that might as well be an iron grip, a cabal of meretricious elder leaders, a rising generation of crazies weaned on the Tea Party and Trump, and control of most statehouses. Here in Texas, each state- and federal-level GOP office-holder or wanna-be office holder is loonier than the last, as all double down to kiss up to Trump. The Democrats are in denial. I’m not hopeful that things will improve. If the ruinous Iraq War and the 2008 economic collapse didn’t wake people up, nothing will.
Fred, you’re right. I’m hoping the Dems can hold the White House (the GOP hasn’t won it with the Popular Vote since 2004), but the Electoral College is always working for the Republicans.
And the Democrats wouldn’t work against it since it creates “safe states” they can ignore. While ignoring the reality that it has ONLY cost them presidential elections throughout US history. And twice recently, as we all know.
Cutting off the nose to Pay Paul, one might say. Or pay the neoliberals their funds to keep them in control of the party.
But since the Republican candidates are so regularly unpopular with poll respondents (not our best gauge, but what else to we have other than national election figures)), a Democratic Party that would actually serve its base would be doing a lot better. Except in corporate fundraising. So, no.
Todd, corporate fundraising is key for those guys.
Certainly, it’s key to the neoliberal Dems remaining in control of the party. That they are running the party as well as the country into the ground doesn’t seem to faze them. Better to rule in hell…
Todd, both sides are playing political games instead of helping Americans survive all the the crises that afflict us!