Meet Mike Lofgren

A lengthy, scathing indictment of both national political parties by a recently retired Congressional staffer, Mike Lofgren, just came across my desktop. Parts of it seem a bit over the top, and his invocation of gold standard monetary and fiscal paradigms are irrelevant today, but it contains plenty of interesting (if depressing) stuff, as well as some astute observations on the U.S. political climate. This one is particularly choice, and spot on as far as I can tell:

It was not always thus. It would have been hard to find an uneducated farmer during the depression of the 1890s who did not have a very accurate idea about exactly which economic interests were shafting him. An unemployed worker in a breadline in 1932 would have felt little gratitude to the Rockefellers or the Mellons. But that is not the case in the present economic crisis. After a riot of unbridled greed such as the world has not seen since the conquistadors’ looting expeditions and after an unprecedented broad and rapid transfer of wealth upward by Wall Street and its corporate satellites, where is the popular anger directed, at least as depicted in the media? At “Washington spending” – which has increased primarily to provide unemployment compensation, food stamps and Medicaid to those economically damaged by the previous decade’s corporate saturnalia. Or the popular rage is harmlessly diverted against pseudo-issues: death panels, birtherism, gay marriage, abortion, and so on, none of which stands to dent the corporate bottom line in the slightest.

It reminded me of a recent email exchange I had with someone. I sent them a link to a recent poll showing that more Americans than ever blamed the federal government for their pessimistic outlook on the economy and their  financial circumstances. My correspondent sent a two-word reply: Fox News. I think the blame can be spread more widely, including to some culprits on the left (who never hesitate to tell us that we’re running out of money because millionaires and billionaires are hoarding it), but nevertheless, there seems to be some truth to it.

The problem, as Lofgren also points out, is that the alternatives are all pretty crummy.

http://www.truth-out.org/goodbye-all-reflections-gop-operative-who-left-cult/1314907779

http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/political-animal/2011_09/mike_lofgren_leaves_the_cult031989.php