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A new political party: Mad as hell
Robert Reich
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TEXT OF COMMENTARY
Kai Ryssdal: In his state of the union speech tonight, President Obama is going to try to appeal to a whole bunch of different constituencies. Interest groups both on the right and on the left of the political spectrum. Republicans and Democrats in Congress will no doubt be listening to the speech closely for things they will support or slam immediately afterward and in the days and weeks to come.
Commentator Robert Reich says there is one more group that Mr. Obama is going to be addressing, too.
ROBERT REICH: President Obama's State of the Union address tonight will be shaped in part by the emergence of a new third political party in America. Call it the I'm-mad-as-hell party.
It's a mistake to see the mad-as-hell party as just a right-wing phenomenon, the so-called Tea Partiers now storming the gates of the Republican Party. There are plenty of mad-as-hellers on the left as well, furious at Wall Street, health insurers, pharmaceutical manufacturers, and establishment Democrats.
Mad-as-hellers on the right don't trust big government. Mad-as-hellers on the left don't trust big business and finance. What unites them and gets both of them even madder is when big government gets too cozy with big business and Wall Street, and vice versa. Especially at a time like this, when Main Street is in shambles and millions of people are losing their jobs and homes.
First it was TARP, the giant bank bailout that seems to have made Wall Street flush again. Then came the stimulus package, with earmarks dispensing goodies to big companies. And then health care, which looked to some people like a backroom deal between government, the pharmaceutical industry, and health insurers.
To the mad-as-hell party, the biggest event last week wasn't Scott Brown's upset victory in Massachusetts. It was the Supreme Court's decision, allowing corporations to spend whatever they want on political campaigns. True mad-as-hellers see this as opening even more collusion between private and public sectors.
With the mid-term elections months away, both Republicans and Democrats are scrambling to embrace the mad-as-hell party as their own. Republicans are hoping the mad-as-hellers forget the gushing corporate welfare of the Bush administration and the last Republican Congress. And many Democrats have become born-again economic populists, blaming the nation's problems on the same "fat cat" bankers and corporate lobbyists they've been taking money from for years.
So listen tonight for how the president responds to the mad-as-hell party, and how the Republicans respond to his response. This will be the real news.
RYSSDAL: Robert Reich is a professor of public policy at the University of California, Berkeley.
What Mr. Reich--along with those who condemn Obama for not going far enough, that he calls the "mad as hell" party on the left--fails to realize is that the Supreme Court decision this week was only tangentially related to Big Business. Citizens United, as its name suggests, was merely a group of citizens who pooled their resources to produce their movie, and had a small amount of corporate financing.
The "mad-as-hell" party on the right doesn't just not trust Big Government, it agrees with Reagan that "Government is not the solution to our problems. Government is our problem." They are hardly going to object to the Court's stopping the government's censorship. Those on the left, on the other hand, are merely objecting to the end of their monopoly on pecuniary influence: companies, like Google, and individuals, like Soros, with more money than sense have been exerting undue influence on the political process for years, and they never objected.
I attended 6 Tea Party events and I support Rand Paul for Senator. I was far more delighted by the Supreme Court ruling ensuring Freedom Of Speech than I was by Brown's victory in MA. Corporations are created, owned and run by citizens. They cannot by defenselessly gagged while they are slandered, hijacked, consumed, extorted, exploited, depleted, taxed, regulated and run out of business by bureaucrats and politicians. The motive of a Corporation is pure, clear, fixed and inviolable. It is to make a profit for it's shareholders. It's purpose is not to be a mechanism for liberal social engineering.
The Tea Party movement is part of the mad as hell party. They are more mad at the Republican party than anyone else. as a Republican I am mad at both mainstream parties but the Republican party more.I actual voted for Clinton when he first ran as I wanted the budget balance.Mission accomplish.Part of getting our budget back on track now is solving our Health Care problem. They are linked.I am mad as hell at the Republicans for obstructing progress solving the health care issue.I listen to Dr.Reich, as he is smart and makes good intelligent arguments. Out of the Clinton White House , he is my favorite official.I am a super voter and plan on voting against any politician that is not working for me in the next election cycle.That means I will vote for some Democrats this time around. I am mad as hell.I have written my Federal Representatives and ask them to work in a bipartisanship matter.It is the only way we will get anything done.Those that have not will not get my vote this time.
As the mad-as-hellers seem to represent most of the independents, I am stunned how they keep up this mad-as-hell ping pong game between repulicans and democrats for voting out of spite; they can't even represent or reconcile themselves in a legitimate party.
Mr R.R. How dare you speak for anyone right of the extreme left. To insinuate that all anger is a result of the Supreme Court vote to allow corporate political contributions is ludicrous. How would that account for the tsunamic swell that began months prior to that decision. Your opinions have a tendency to rub me the wrong way but I've never been aggravated to the point of responding. YOU ARE ANYTHING BUT THE VOICE OF MIDDLE CLASS AMERICA!!!
Corporations are people with no spending limits, and they have a safety net while I, a human, don't?
I'm not part of the "Mad As Hell" party, because I know that running to my window and yelling, "I'm not going to take this anymore!" won't do any good. These days, it might even get me labeled as a terrorist.
I'm part of the "Sad As Hell" party. The Grand Experiment has failed, and as a second class citizen to the new corporate majority, there's nothing I can do about it.
In response to the comment above I caution against too much pride. You say they sold out to "other inferior countries". They are rival countries not inferior countries. If you underestimate your rivals you will fail and it's no different on the country level.
Regarding Mr. Reich's commentary; I am in neither of those Mad as Hell Parties. I am in the Mad as Hell Party that does not trust Big Govt OR Big Business. They have both RUINED MY country. Taxing us to death and selling out to G.D. China and other inferior countries. What a bunch of INCOMPETENT Buffoons in our Govt' and GREEDY Jerks in big business. I cannot begin to describe how mad I am. My kids DO NOT deserve to be led by MORONS.
