Blumenthal: Fall of the Rovean empire?

[highplainsdem]

http://www.salon.com/opinion/blumenthal/2005/10/06/rovean_empire/index.html


Fall of the Rovean empire?

By Sidney Blumenthal


Oct. 6, 2005 | For 30 years, beginning with the Nixon presidency, advanced under Reagan, stalled with the elder Bush, a new political economy struggled to be born. The idea was pure and simple: centralization of power in the hands of the Republican Party would ensure that it never lost it again. Under George W. Bush, this new system reached its apotheosis. It is a radically novel social, political and economic formation that deserves study alongside capitalism and socialism. Neither Adam Smith nor Vladimir Lenin captures its essence, though it has far more elements of Leninist democratic-centralism than Smithian free markets. Some have referred to this model as crony capitalism; others compare the waste, extravagance and greed to the Gilded Age. Call it 21st century Republicanism.

<snip>

An oligarchy atop the party allocates favors. Behind the ideological slogans about the "free market" and "liberty," the oligarchy creates oligopolies. Businesses must pay to play. They must kick back contributions to the party, hire its key people and support its program. Only if they give do they receive tax breaks, loosening of regulations and helpful treatment from government professionals.

<snip>

The Republican scandals converge on operators who are the center of the oligarchy. Their own relationships are complicated and tangled. But the outcome of the scandals affecting these major actors will inevitably unravel the Republican project.

<snip>

With astonishing arrogance and bravado, the Republican oligarchy wired politics and business so that they would always win. But in believing that they actually possessed absolute power they have overreached. Now their project teeters on the brink.


This is a very long, detailed column by Blumenthal, well worth reading for its analysis of the operators at the center of the oligarchy.

[Lindacooks]

1. From Bluemthal's lips to God's ears.

PLEASE.

[pearl]

2. I can't get through for the whole article

I'm sure it will appear somewhere else. Do you know where?

[highplainsdem]

11. It might be on the Guardian/Observer website within a few days --

that's at http://www.guardian.co.uk/ , and you can just search for his last name there. But I'm not sure how soon they have his columns after they first appear in Salon.

The Salon column should be accessible, too. If you aren't a subscriber, you can still get a day pass to read Salon just by viewing an ad. (You may have to reset your security software if it usually blocks ads, but you should be able to reset it for just that website.)

[nadinbrzezinski]

3. thanks great read

[hvn_nbr_2]

4. believing that they actually possessed absolute power

Pride goeth before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall.

K&R (funny that. In another universe, K & R means Kernighan and Richie.)

[julianer]

5. Hey I love THAT K & R

I cut my programming teeth on C.

I no longer have my copy of the 'bible', though.

[muriel_volestrangler]

7. It still does mean Kernighan and Richie to me

and to the internet, judging by Google results. I've seen it here on DU in the past couple of days. Can someone put me out of my misery and ignorance, and tell me its new meaning?

[WiseButAngrySara]

8. K= kick, and R= recommend for greatest page...n/t

[muriel_volestrangler]

10. Thanks, now I feel really stupid

because I think I've seen it explained before, and then forgotten. :dunce:

On edit: Oh god, I can't even spell "forgotten". CJD must be setting in.

[WiseButAngrySara]

17. LOL ! I had it explained to me several times too...NOT CJD (i hope not...

have you been ingesting mad cows?)

:rofl:

[cassiepriam]

6. The corruption goes much deeper and wider than we know. Hard to unwire.

A few indictments won't do it.

[WiseButAngrySara]

9. K and R !

:kick:

[mom cat]

12. Well worth sitting through tha anoying commercial at Salon. Kick!

[Just Me]

13. oops,...dupe

[Just Me]

14. One of the best analyses I've ever read!!!

Excellent!!! :kick:

[highplainsdem]

18. I thought so, too.

[meow2u3]

15. These very Roveans prosecute Democrats

who do the exact things Rove rethugs do with impunity: pay to play, giving and taking kickbacks, cronyism, etc. Rethug double standards! :grr:

Their motto should be: it's not what you do that's the crime; it's who you are.

[wabeewoman]

16. Thanks! Excellent article.

Pass it around. What I want when they all fall, and they will, is that all of the money they stole is taken from them and put back into the taxpayers coffers. I want everyone of the bastards who got rich under bush to leave poor and in prison. Nothing less is acceptable.

[Kablooie]

19. Let's feed them to the Chinaman's pigs!

[Pithy Cherub]

20. So is Fitzgerald the Lead Visigoth...

:evilgrin: