Jim Webb: Class Struggle - American workers have a chance to be heard.

[Sapphire Blue]

Class Struggle
American workers have a chance to be heard.
BY JIM WEBB
Wednesday, November 15, 2006 12:01 a.m. EST

The most important--and unfortunately the least debated--issue in politics today is our society's steady drift toward a class-based system, the likes of which we have not seen since the 19th century. America's top tier has grown infinitely richer and more removed over the past 25 years. It is not unfair to say that they are literally living in a different country. Few among them send their children to public schools; fewer still send their loved ones to fight our wars. They own most of our stocks, making the stock market an unreliable indicator of the economic health of working people. The top 1% now takes in an astounding 16% of national income, up from 8% in 1980. The tax codes protect them, just as they protect corporate America, through a vast system of loopholes.

(snip)

This ever-widening divide is too often ignored or downplayed by its beneficiaries. A sense of entitlement has set in among elites, bordering on hubris. When I raised this issue with corporate leaders during the recent political campaign, I was met repeatedly with denials, and, from some, an overt lack of concern for those who are falling behind. A troubling arrogance is in the air among the nation's most fortunate. Some shrug off large-scale economic and social dislocations as the inevitable byproducts of the "rough road of capitalism." Others claim that it's the fault of the worker or the public education system, that the average American is simply not up to the international challenge, that our education system fails us, or that our workers have become spoiled by old notions of corporate paternalism.

(snip)

More troubling is this: If it remains unchecked, this bifurcation of opportunities and advantages along class lines has the potential to bring a period of political unrest. Up to now, most American workers have simply been worried about their job prospects. Once they understand that there are (and were) clear alternatives to the policies that have dislocated careers and altered futures, they will demand more accountability from the leaders who have failed to protect their interests. The "Wal-Marting" of cheap consumer products brought in from places like China, and the easy money from low-interest home mortgage refinancing, have softened the blows in recent years. But the balance point is tipping in both cases, away from the consumer and away from our national interest.

The politics of the Karl Rove era were designed to distract and divide the very people who would ordinarily be rebelling against the deterioration of their way of life. Working Americans have been repeatedly seduced at the polls by emotional issues such as the predictable mantra of "God, guns, gays, abortion and the flag" while their way of life shifted ineluctably beneath their feet. But this election cycle showed an electorate that intends to hold government leaders accountable for allowing every American a fair opportunity to succeed.

With this new Congress, and heading into an important presidential election in 2008, American workers have a chance to be heard in ways that have eluded them for more than a decade. Nothing is more important for the health of our society than to grant them the validity of their concerns. And our government leaders have no greater duty than to confront the growing unfairness in this age of globalization.

http://www.opinionjournal.com/editorial/feature.html?id=110009246

[AnnInLa]

1. This is what I like about Webb

He GETS it, and EXPRESSES it. I think he will make a fine Pres or VP one day.

How long before he is labled a Socialist or a Communist????

[Beelzebud]

2. They're too busy labeling him a Conservative Democrat.

Let them label him that. It will be a nasty shock for them when they finally read what the man believes.

[Inuca]

3. I first saw this this morning...

... quoted in his MTP interview. And was very impressed. I do not care if he is labeled liberal or conservative or whatever, these are the points of view that I think are essential to somebody with deep democratic convictions. I like Webb and am looking forward to seeing him in action. I also like that he is the antithesis of the "guy you want to have a beer with" idiotic approach to politics. He does not seem to know how to smile, he is serious and reflective, and even mentioned political actions based on intellectual experience, in the mold of Moynahan. "Intellectual" seems to be considered as much a killer label nowadays as "liberal".

[queenbdem87]

4. Finally I, as a Virginian, can have a Senator to be proud of!!!

He is a good principled Democrats with strong convictions and is in stark contrast to the ineffective incompetent representation we had in Sen. Macacawitz. It feels so good to have a person representing us that actually REPRESENTS our views.

[Armstead]

5. Yes, perhaps it takes an outsider to wake up Democrats

It was very heartening to hear the actual issue of class and polarization being mentioned by an elected Democratic Senator. And it was heartening to hear him go after the sacred cow of "free trade."

With some notanble exceptions, that subject has been taboo for too long withing the top ranks of Democratic leadership.

Webb may be a "conservative" on some issues, but he sounds might progressive on the core issues of Wealth and Power.

[malaise]

6. He was great on Russert this morning

A breath of fresh air. Tester agreed with him.
Sp..

[Mayberry Machiavelli]

7. Didn't Bush express concern about this very thing the other day? Oh, right. No he didn't.

:sarcasm:

[union_maid]

8. He was wonderful on MTP

He's a hell of a guy to have on our side. He's so intelligent and informed and he has a great speaking voice. I hope he sticks around. We need more like him and I don't care what he might have said years and years ago. He's saying the right things about the most important issues of right now.

[Mayberry Machiavelli]

9. Long before his Senate run and joining the Democratic Party, I used to email his speech on what a

massive error the Iraq invasion was to people, since it is intelligent, well written, and he has conservative "credentials" having been Secretary of the Navy under Reagan as well as a career Marine officer before that.

Well worth a read still, for those who haven't checked it out:

http://www.jameswebb.com/speeches/ethicsinpostwariraq.htm

GOVERNMENT ETHICS IN THE POST-IRAQ WAR ERA
Remarks by James Webb at
The Investment Dealers Association, Canada
23 June 2003

It pains me to point this out, but in my view the United States invasion of Iraq was one of the most ill-advised and reckless actions that the US government has ever taken. I make this statement not as a knee-jerk anti-war activist, but as one who still proudly defends our effort in Vietnam, and who has spent a total of five years inside the Pentagon.

We should start with the premise that a unilateral war - a war in which a country attacks another when it has not been itself attacked - must be undertaken only when the country's national survival is clearly at stake, or under circumstances where the international community is so threatened that a strong power such as the US must save it from an enormous menace. Iraq clearly did not meet either of those tests.

Additionally, I find it regrettable that the Bush administration squandered an historic opportunity to unify most of the world against the notion of organized international terrorism, and through its relentless pursuit of war against Iraq created instead an era of unprecedented bad feelings. The present administration accomplished this through a puzzling campaign of arrogance and condescension toward long-time allies, and by completely redefining the war against terrorism until it became a war against Iraq.

This “morphing” of the war against international terrorism into the invasion and occupation of Iraq had its roots in the 1991 Persian Gulf War, when many neo-conservatives, led by the editorial page of the Wall Street Journal and key figures in such think tanks as the American Enterprise Institute, believed that the US should have continued on to Baghdad after ejecting the Iraqis from Kuwait, in order to establish their dream of a “MacArthurian regency” in Iraq. In the first days after the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, these well-placed advocates, many of whom are serving in the Bush Administration, moved quickly to justify not a general response against Al Qaeda, but an all-out invasion of Iraq, possibly followed by invasions in Iran and Syria. While their logic was that an Iraq invasion would make the world a safer place, proper strategic thinking actually argued in the opposite direction. If terrorism was principally a Mideast phenomenon prior to 9/11, after that date it was clearly a global dilemma. This made it imperative that smarter minds in America resist the notion of taking over one country in one region, potentially for decades, when the threat now extended across several continents and through a large percentage of the world's 1.3 billion Muslims.

...

On Edit: I'm so glad I supported Webb's campaign. I hope that the measly $ I gave him helped get a few people to the polls to put him over the top. I have high hopes for him.

[Sapphire Blue]

10. ...

:kick:

[bluedogyellowdog]

11. I gave money to Webb,

collected signatures to get him on the ballot, volunteered for his campaign, and voted for him in both the primary and general elections.

I did this because I picked up very early on that he has a populist, class based analysis going on, a consistently libertarian "government stops at your doorstep" view of social issues, critical of globalization, and a desire to bring the white working class back home to the Democratic Party. This was at a time when a lot of Democrats were still suspicious of him.

Even so, I was not expecting him to win more than maybe 40% of the vote against Allen. Needless to say, I am thrilled with his victory. We made it happen! Allen's macaca moment may have helped, but Webb couldn't have done it without an army of enthusiastic volunteers and grassroots organizing the likes of which hadn't been seen since the Paul Wellstone victory in 1990.

Not only that, but he is already exceeding my expectations. His class struggle article is a case in point. Webb "gets it". Not bad for a member of Reagan's cabinet.

Indeed, the batch of Senators we have just elected are of a caliber of Democrat which hasn't been elected en masse in a long time. There's been a Wellstone here and a Feingold there, but you have to go back to the old days of Hubert Humphrey, Eugene McCarthy, Frank Church, Scoop Jackson, Gaylord Nelson, etc etc etc to find Democrats of this caliber in any significant numbers in the Senate. We just elected several: Jim Webb, Sherrod Brown, Jon Tester, Bob Casey, (and Bernie Sanders even tho' he technically isn't a Dem). Get ready for some good things from the Class of 2006.