Robert Reich:
I was born in Scranton, Pennsylvania, 61 years ago. My father sold $1.98 cotton blouses to blue-collar women and women whose husbands worked in factories.
Years later, I was secretary of labor of the United States, and I tried the best I could – which wasn’t nearly good enough – to help reverse one of the most troublesome trends America has faced: The stagnation of middle-class wages and the expansion of povety. Male hourly wages began to drop in the early 1970s, adjusted for inflation. The average man in his 30s is earning less than his father did thirty years ago.
Yet America is far richer. Where did the money go? To the top.Are Americans who have been left behind frustrated? Of course. And their frustrations, their anger and, yes, sometimes their bitterness, have been used since then -- by demagogues, by nationalists and xenophobes, by radical conservatives, by political nuts and fanatical fruitcakes – to blame immigrants and foreign traders, to blame blacks and the poor, to blame "liberal elites," to blame anyone and anything.Rather than counter all this, the American media have wallowed in it.
Some, like Fox News and talk radio, have given the haters and blamers their very own megaphones. The rest have merely "reported on" it. Instead of focusing on how to get Americans good jobs again; instead of admitting too many of our schools are failing and our kids are falling behind their contemporaries in Europe, Japan, and even China; instead of showing why we need a more progressive tax system to finance better schools and access to health care, and green technologies that might create new manufacturing jobs, our national discussion has been mired in the old politics.
Blog: http://www.robertreich.blogspot.com/
Susan Bodnar:
"I was also born in Pennsylvania to a working class family. My grandparents were coal miners, mill workers and sometimes farmers and many of my relatives lost their lives to mine accidents and health to black lung, emphysema, and other cancers.
Mining companies made lots of money off those workers and that land and when the coal was gone they moved on leaving a barren scarred earth, and some very bitter people.
These workers gave everything they had to participate in an American dream that that left them far behind and without an opportunity to catch the tails of prosperity.
I can go on and on about all that came next - a Vietnam war that lured young men with college educations (like my dad and uncle), alcoholism, drug abuse, and now Iraq - but lets just say that Obama was completely correct to note and talk about the bitterness and [Robert] Reich is brave to stand behind his comments.
If the MSM is all worked up about the anger of black Americans, just wait until working America takes the lids of their resentment. I suppose that turning Obama into an elitist is far easier than coming to terms with his acumen. "
--Susan Bodnar, PhD psychologist in private clinical practice; Adjunct Faculty member Teachers College at Columbia University, The William Alanson White Institute, and The Mitchell Relational Center; Assistant Editor Psychoanalytic Dialogues
Blog: http://climatepysch.blogspot.com/
Blogger from "A Bag Full of Health and Politics:
I am one of those rural Americans that the Clinton campaign is trying to pass out "I'm not bitter" buttons to.
But I am bitter.
The failure of Washington politicians to truly reform health care has totally shattered my life. I've become a statistic.
Damn Right I'm Bitter. Shortly after remission I was invited to this bizarre Washington dinner for a few patients, nurses, and Congresspeople/big media people. Tony Snow and Bob Schieffer were there. The message of those people was so out of touch with the message of my experiences and of the experiences of the countless fellow patients I talked with in waiting rooms across Baltimore. The Washington set thought that once someone beat back a disease, that their problems were over and the sky was the limit. They didn't think about having to file endless appeals with insurance companies because of improper denials.
They didn't think about the staggering copays which bankrupt many patients.
They didn't think about the fact that a job might not be there for a person after a long illness. And they didn't think about the fact that employers don't like to hire people with resume gaps because it's a health red flag. Their system is different.
Tony Snow or Bob Schieffer would both have a job if they had to take a year or two off for medical reasons (they both have the same condition--Crohn's Disease/Ulcerative Colitis) as I do. Didn't work out that way for me. Of course, I'm bitter. And I absolutely have a right to be.
Blog: http://healthybagofpolitics.blogspot.com/
And one more:
I know Obama didn't mean to demean anyone who stands for 2nd amendment or abortion rights. He was responding to a specific question ("why do some in the middle and lower classes vote against their economic self interest?") His answer was spot on!
I grew up in a small town in Utah, and when Bill Clinton was discussing an increase in the minimum wage, all my coworkers in the restaurant where I washed dishes were opposed to it because Rush Limbaugh said it was a bad idea--and ALL OF THEM LIVED OFF MINIMUM WAGE!!!
Clinton was trying to give them more money and they told him to shove it. (These co-workers weren't Mormon, BTW, but rather the beer and shot huntin' crowd Hilary is currently courting in PA)...
Blog: http://www.xanga.com/n8ma
4 comments:
Excellent post.
Hmm. Bitter Democrats. I can't believe it.
Yes I can. Everyone is bitter because they seem to expect the government to fix it. Reich wants a progressive tax system to take from the rich and give to the poor. Susan Bodnar is pissed and blaming evil mine owners and wars for her family's plight. The blogger from "A Bag Full of Health and Politics" blames the insurance companies and wants the government to fix it. And the last person believes the government should decide wages.
The common thread here is an expectation that all these things are rights rather than things that must be worked for.
I do have sympathy for the blogger with a disease and insurance fights teaming up to kick his ass, but at what cost are we going to strap ourselves onto the government train? And how many people can we stack in the cattle cars before it can't go up the hill anymore?
Wow, Patrick! You don't think coal mining companies have and still exploit their workers? Do you know the history of coal mining this country? Do you know that the US has the worst record in mine safety of all industrialized Western countries? Should "the best country in the world" do better than that for its least?
After WWII, the returning GIs had the GI Bill to make up for the lost time they spent defending this country and the world against Nazism. After Viet Nam, the Veterans administration did its best to deny those who fought that war their claims for permanent injury from Agent Orange. And we've only recently found how despicably and dishonorably this government treated the returning Iraqi War veterans at Walter Reed.
You don't believe insurance companies take people's money and then use all the considerable resources they have to deny coverage when those same people get sick? You don't think this happens? And that it's morally wrong?
You don't believe large corporations like Enron (just to name one) defraud their workers of their pensions while the top officers line their pockets with other people's money?
You don't believe a government has any interest in protecting people from fraud, exploitation from large corporations, dishonest insurance companies, as well as itself when it breaks its contract with its very own people?
What a bleak, Hobbsian world you live in, where it's everyman for himself and to hell with the weak and vulnerable.
I often hear people on the Right rail against having the government take their money to go to programs that help the weak and vulnerable. How many times have I heard people on the Right bellow against the idea of "socialized" medicine. "Where will we get the money to pay for it?" they cry.
But I never hear these same complainers ask that same question as year after year the government sends billions and billions of dollars to Iraq so that the Iraqis can have healthe care, and schools, and housing and police force.
George W. Bush and his party take care of the people they've devasted and the country they destroyed. Meanwhile, back home, it's a very large Republican FU to America and its needs.
How can you work for, say, health insurance, pay into a system for years and years, and then be denied coverage when you get sick.
You don't think this happens?
Well, Darwin bless you. You're lucky--so far.
You missed my point completely, so I'll restate it with a little more brevity.
I never said that people don't occasionally get handed a shit sandwich. But looking to expand the role of the federal government, or to look to others to solve your problems is insane. So let me clarify.
The coal miners have had it bad. But this is a situation where unions should be fighting to fix it, and if the problems aren't remedied, then it's time to get out of coal mining. Not easy, but it can be done. It comes down to personal decisions.
The whole health insurance system, including the government insurances of Medicare and Medicade (of which I am very familiar) are part of the problem. It began when we stopped paying for our medical care out of pocket and instead had money taken out of our checks to have someone else pay for it. Then, suddenly, going to the doctor became "free" and the number of people pouring into the doctors' offices skyrocketed. As this kept increasing, the insurance companies, who are there to make money, began raising prices and trying to stop abuse. Now the companies are denying people benefits they should get, we have copays out the ass, and the low income people can show up at the doctor for anything and get it paid for by the government.
So yes, I am advocating less government intrusion and more individual responsibility. Because as government gets bigger, quality goes down.
As for companies like Enron, that's where we need to send in the lawyers. (side note: would waterboarding the criminals be ok there?)
As for the treatment of veterans, I am with you on that one. That is ABSOLUTELY something the government needs to be responsible for, as it is payment for people who have put their lives on the line for all of us.
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