This "is a slow-motion secession.... It is an ending of the social compact."

[seafan]

Howard Fineman on Monday's Hardball:

Matthews asked the Huffington Post’s Howard Fineman why he thought the GOP was taking a tough stand on the debt ceiling negotiations. (h/t Ian Schwartz, Real Clear Politics video)


“What’s going on here as I see it is a kind of slow-motion secession,” Fineman said. “This is an ending of the social compact. This is two, three generations worth of agreement about Social Security, about Medicare, about the role of the federal government.”

“The Tea Party people are saying, ‘We want to secede from that society. And the way to do it is to draw the line on spending and taxes, to starve the federal government so that it loses power, so that we aren’t part of the social compact anymore.’ And that’s the real argument that’s going on, and the Congress as an institution is incapable of dealing with that kind of fundamental argument, which given the entitlement age and welfare state age, which is why you have the super committees and super-duper committees and the smaller and smaller ring of people attempting to decide something,” Fineman said.

.....

From Chris Matthews' Hardball, July 27, 2011:

.....


FINEMAN: Well, I‘m in New York today, Chris, and while I was here, I was talking to some business leaders. One of them I talked to is James Tisch (ph), who‘s the head of Lowe‘s Corporation—


MATTHEWS: Sure.


FINEMAN: -- somebody I‘ve known for a long time, very smart guy, a Republican. And, you know, he professed to be calm. But on the other hand, he said, You know, I think everybody underestimated the Tea Party. That means even the establishment Republicans like Jim Tisch and the Chamber of Commerce types and others who helped elect all these people—you know, maybe they were kidding themselves, the establishment Republicans.
They thought they could tame this crowd or this crowd would be practical. You know, what Jim told me is, you know, I would think, he said, that people who were idealists would also at some point be practical.
But of course, everybody‘s holding their breath to wait to see if that‘s going to be the case. I talked to one of John Boehner‘s staff people a little while ago. I said, What‘s going to happen? He said, you know, We‘re going to get the score we want, and we‘re going to pass the thing. But if you talk to the White House people, as I was also doing, they predict that the Boehner bill will never get out of the House.


MATTHEWS: Well, I think you should tell Mr. Tisch, your pal, your Republican friend, to go see “Last of the Mohicans.”

Buyers' remorse, Mr. Tisch?


Guys like these are really, REALLY in a panic right now, because they know that if the tea partiers don't dismantle their Wall Street gold-plated fiefdom, the rest of the country will.

[liberal N proud]

1. There is a contradiction in the article...

"very smart guy, a Republican"

Not one to be found!

[lapislzi]

8. Disagree. It's a rare combination, but it happens.

I have a cousin. Smart lady, successful. She and her husband (mid-high-level oil co. exec) have amassed a small fortune. I don't know her views on social issues. Different story. But she is a dyed-in-the-wool Republican. She wants to protect her interests. Not a dumb woman, this.

Now, I could quiz her about where she stands on issues other than economics...but I'm scared to. I don't want to turn that rock over. I love my cousin.

[kath]

11. "She wants to protect her interests" -i.e. SELFISH, "let them eat cake" attitude - let's call it

what it is. "let them die, then, and reduce the surplus population".

Three reasons to be a Republican:
You're selfish and don't give a shit about the poor and sick.
You're a racist.
You're a religious nutjob.

Or various combinations of the three.

[Dawson Leery]

2. James Tisch, co-owner of Loews, provider of deep sea oil drilling.

[Cool Logic]

3. I find it hard to believe that Fineman said that...

Every time I watch that show, there is some blond-haired guy asking questions...and then, before the queried individual can respond, the blond-haired guy butts in and provides the answer.

Essentially, it's the blond-haired guy interviewing himself.

[emulatorloo]

5. Then you've not seen the entire show

Lol. :toast:

[eridani]

4. If those sociopathic shitstains want to secede, they should get out of the US and

--go to Somalia. It's a government-free utopia. No taxes, no public infrastructure, no pesky regulations.

[emulatorloo]

6. Thanks, seafan. I was struck by those two statements when I watched Hardball

Those days. I appreciate you posting this.

[seafan]

9. You're welcome. It's been insane today. n/t

[Warpy]

7. The social compact was toast in the 70s

when the official policy of wage suppression rolled in, followed in the 80s by rigging the tax code to favor the wealthy and shred the safety net.

We old lefties tried and tried to tell both our elders and juniors. They thought they knew better. They listened to flashy dogmatists.

It's not much solace having been right all along when the wrongheaded people have dragged you right down with them.

[leftstreet]

10. +1

It's just now making its way to the 'middle' classes

When social services were being gutted from Reagan to Clinton, the M$M didn't make a peep