This is not --from my perspective-- interesting insofar as Cole expresses
negative views of Rick Perry.
Cole's opinion of Perry is completely predictable.
What is interesting is the Radical Centrist type logic in his discussion
of --of all people-- Jack Kemp. Maybe this portends nothing at all.
Can't say. But it is worth noting that even Cole, far on the Left side
of the political spectrum, here discusses a political subject
while making use of a major RC principle.
Billy
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message dated 8/14/2011 [email protected]_ (mailto:[email protected])
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_Informed Comment_ (http://www.juancole.com/)
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____________________________________
_Rick Perry and the Hucksterism of the Rich_
(http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/juancole/ymbn/~3/qNSPUFNQIIY/rick-perry-and-the-hucksterism-of-the-rich.ht
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Posted: 14 Aug 2011 12:25 AM PDT
Rick Perry’s announcement of his presidential ambitions marks the the
triumph of fantasy over reality in American politics. Among our more pressing
problems are global climate change caused by human production of greenhouse
gases; religious fanaticism and interference in governance; and the
structural deficit faced by the US government
It used to be that political divisions were about the different methods
proposed to deal with social problems by persons with different political
philosophies. Nowadays, politics is about which fantasy-land the politicians
and their admirers reside in.
In the mid-to-late twentieth century, liberals wanted to address lack of
proper housing for the poor by building tenements for them. Conservatives
like _Jack Kemp (Housing secretary under Bush Senior) argued that market
mechanisms_
(http://articles.latimes.com/1989-02-25/news/mn-228_1_public-housing) could be
enlisted to get them housed. It is not clear that the
conservatives were right, but the liberals definitely turned out to be wrong.
The
public housing had no stakeholders and it quickly deteriorated into a kind
of hell. But all parties to the argument, including Republican Kemp, took
the problem of housing for the poor seriously, and everyone learned from the
success and failures.
Nowadays, Kemp’s analogues would likely just blithely deny that there are
any poor people lacking adequate housing.
Thus, _Rick Perry not only denies global climate change _
(http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2011/aug/12/rick-perry-climate-sceptics-president)
but has sued to stop the Environmental Protection Agency from trying to curb
emissions in Texas. Ironically, if anybody will suffer from global warming,
it is Texans, and the warmer temperatures of recent years are hitting them
especially hard.
Perry’s response to Texas’s drought? To pray for rain.
(If anything, the evidence from teams of scientists at MIT and elsewhere
is that _the pace of climate change has been underestimated_
(http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2011/arctic-ice-melt-0810.html) by
international bodies
like the IPCC).
_Perry has links to a theocratic evangelical movement _
(http://www.democracynow.org/2011/8/12/as_texas_gov_rick_perry_enters) that,
like the
Khomeinists in Iran, believes that religion should take control of the 7 power
centers in society, including the arts, media, the family, and the government.
He led a national day of Christian prayer to which he invited other
governors, _raising questions about his commitment to the separation_
(http://religion.blogs.cnn.com/2011/06/07/texas-gov-calls-for-prayer-and-fasting/)
of
religion and state. The religion Perry promotes is not the social gospel of
Jesus of Nazareth, but rather an absolute worship of property rights
dressed up as spirituality. His religious commitments are to be imposed on the
rest of us (as in Iran). Thus, he will work against women’s choice and
against the rights of gay partners to be married, because of his own personal
theology.
He is another one of those dreary Red State governors who _denounces
Federal taxes but is first in line for Federal help._
(http://www.americablog.com/2011/04/anti-government-anti-tax-texas-governor.html)
In fact, he covered
a _$6 bn. shortfall in the Texas budget with $6 bn in stimulus money_
(http://www.burntorangereport.com/diary/11050/rick-perry-makes-texas-1-in-moochin
g-federal-stimulus-funds) from Barack Obama, & now boasts of his
governing skills with regard to the economy. The only way to eliminate the
long-term structural deficit in the Federal budget without harming Federal
programs
like social security and medicare is to raise taxes on the wealthy
(including closing their tax loopholes). Perry denies this simple fact.
Indeed, _Perry has said he believes Texas has the right to secede from the
union at will_
(http://www.statesman.com/news/content/region/legislature/stories/04/17/0417gop.html)
, making some wags ask the question of what
country he wants to be president of. (Given his dedication to public
imposition
of religion, maybe he should try Iran).
Perry is in the American tradition of the huckster and the booster, the
snake oil salesman who promises you a cure for what ails you that turns out
to be one part pretty words and another part dream castle. He is no Jack
Kemp, who saw social problems and sought fixes for them in the private sector
or in public-private partnerships. Perry sees no problems that can’t be
fixed by slashing taxes further on our 400 billionaires and then holding
prayer meetings for the unemployed. This blindness is not an accident. The
Republican Supreme Court’s interference in election campaign reform has
ensured
that the super-wealthy in this country can get the best politicians money
can buy into office.
The preference of the campaign funders for colorful and slightly
unbalanced fanatics sure to do their bidding is probably unwise, since in its
pure
form Ayn Rand selfishness among the rich is unlovely in the eyes of the
public, especially when espoused by attractive neurotics. Perry has an
advantage denied to the Bachmanns and the Palins, of being well-spoken and
seeming
like a normal person; but his positions do not materially differ from most
of theirs.
And so our national debate is stunted and distorted. Instead of arguing
over the best ways of dealing with our most pressing problems, we are reduced
to disputing about whether a problem even exists. The latter is a
rhetorical device of wealthy special interests designed to derail the ordinary
workings of democracy. Perry is among their would-be standard-bearers.
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