Thursday, December 02, 2004
(9:06 AM) | Adam Kotsko:
Political Hopelessness
To follow up on Robb's post, I'll admit that I'm feeling a certain political hopelessness as well -- or, more to the point, I'm not even feeling hopelessness. It has not yet reached that level. In the week following the election, there were certainly some high emotions flying around on this blog, and I floated some theories that I no longer embrace about exit polls, but I don't think I've gotten beyond the level of world politics as nihilism. All the joy of making fun of Bush, aside from my still-enjoyed usage of such phrases as "It's hard work!", has disappeared, as has any satisfaction at indulging in my deep-seated bitterness.Here's the problem: I do agree with Michael Bérubé's outrage at what we will likely lose in the coming years. I would much prefer a genuinely "social" solution to the problem Social Security addresses, rather than a kind of mandatory savings account. The problem, though, is precisely what Michael points out:
Yes, [Social Security i]s a quasi-socialist program, but it’s quasi-socialism American-style: paid for by working stiffs in the middle-income bracket and almost completely unsupported by wealthy wage-earners and the even wealthier folks whose income derives mainly from investments.I support Social Security. I think it's important to keep it -- but at the same time, I look at it and think, "Social Security is the best we can do?" And under the Democrats, keeping Social Security would be the best we could do, because the Democratic party has bought the official line that the dismantling of the welfare state, the decline of labor unions, the removal of barriers to trans-national capital flows are all inevitable.
Is nuance really the best we can do? Is American politics -- barring a catastrophe like the Great Depression -- always going to be about protecting our little crumbs of social justice and voting against the Republicans? I suppose that there are good reasons to assume that, in the belly of the imperial beast, that would be the case, and maybe after the inauguration, when it's no longer possible to think of President Bush as floating in this weird limbo since the second term hasn't begun quite yet, I'll develop the necessary maturity and realism to deal with the American political situation appropriately. Either that, or I'll finally break down and join the Communist party. (Perhaps an essay on American political realities vis-a-vis Paul's tactical advice in Romans 13 would be in order.)
