Economics Professor Richard Wolff: What GOP-Tea Party Risks With Block of New New Deal Sunday

[Triana]

The Republican-Tea Party alliance operates a weapon of mass deflection, protecting capitalism from criticism. Sadly, the Democrats neither expose nor attack the Republican project, says Wolff.

Many Germans in the years before 1933 dismissed the little man with the mustache: He could never take power, let alone keep it. Tzarist Russia's elites thought the small social democratic party posed little threat. Batista's minions ridiculed the lawyer and his friends when they first dashed into Cuba's mountains. Greece's established Socialist Party feared nothing from the tiny Syriza Party forming to its left. Such speedy dismissals of these groups underappreciated their social roles and especially the conditions that supported them.

What might these examples suggest about the Republican Party and Tea Party activists? The latter sometimes seem to have peaked and begun to fade and splinter. Yet other times they seem revived, as in Republican opposition to Obamacare and threats to shut the government down. What conditions support them?

Analysis of Republicans' actions begins with the economic crash of 2007-2008 and the depressed economy that persists. It is undermining the finances and living standards of middle- and lower-income people. They cannot carry much more debt nor raise their real wages. Rising prices mean the cost of the American Dream slips ever further beyond their reach. Promises of rising living standards for workers and students preparing for work are mostly being broken. Long and deeply held hopes that hard times will pass are increasingly questioned or abandoned.

THE REST:

http://truth-out.org/opinion/item/19086-what-gop-tea-party-risks-with-block-of-new-new-deal

[calimary]

1. Kick!!!

[Cha]

2. thank you, Triana

[Auntie Bush]

3. I didn't realize R Wolf was an economics professor.

Where/what college does he teach?

[Ron Green]

4. U Mass at Amherst. n/t

[Auntie Bush]

5. That's great! My brother is an Amherst graduate...however

he still isn't smart enough to see the light. He's a stupid Republican and sends me all those hateful emails ReThugs send around the web. I can't believe he falls for that crap. I look them up on Snoops and prove to him they are lies and propaganda... However, he's still a believer....but thank God...not a Tea Bagger.

[snappyturtle]

7. This followed the article:

Richard D Wolff

Richard D. Wolff is Professor of Economics Emeritus, University of Massachusetts, Amherst where he taught economics from 1973 to 2008. He is currently a Visiting Professor in the Graduate Program in International Affairs of the New School University, New York City. He also teaches classes regularly at the Brecht Forum in Manhattan. Earlier he taught economics at Yale University (1967-1969) and at the City College of the City University of New York (1969-1973). In 1994, he was a Visiting Professor of Economics at the University of Paris (France), I (Sorbonne). His work is available at rdwolff.com and at democracyatwork.info.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

6. I draw reader's attention to JHB's sig line, apropos of Wolff's last paragraph.

JHB wrote:

Have you noticed how the same people who characterize our economic policies during the Cold War as "socialism" seem intent on dismantling the economic system that defeated Communism and sending us back to the economic system that spawned it?

Wolff later wrote:

Ironically, if the New Deal actually saved capitalism from what might otherwise have happened - e.g., fascism as in Germany, Japan, or Italy - a haunting question arises. Does the right's blockage of another New Deal now risk contributing to what was avoided in the 1930s?

[snappyturtle]

8. Yes, it's perfect. I think it's interesting that Wolff pointed out that

we should basically keep an eye on the teaparty not only for harm
they could cause but also for the opportunity that may arise.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

9. Yes. Wounded animals (including snakes) can sometimes be even more dangerous. nt

[snappyturtle]

11. Hadn't thought of that. We'll need to be extra vigilant. nt

[Triana]

10. +1. Extremely relevant questions asked. n/t

[Uncle Joe]

12. Kicked and recommended.

Thanks for the thread, Triana.