The worse it gets, the better it gets. Pt I: Crisitunity!

The Senate passed the awful bail-out bill. As time progresses, my opposition has gelled. More on this later. But, at best, the bailout will keep things from deteriorating further, and at worse it will add massively to the debt while our economy contracts.

Jerry Mead-Lucero at Pilsenprole sees the silver-lining:

So now their lies are clear to all. NEO-LIBERALISM IS DEAD! We must repeat this everywhere and anywhere. It has to permeate all our discussions. The neo-liberal mantras that the ideologues deafened us with for decades finally ring hollow for nearly everyone. We must take the ideological offensive at this moment of crisis/opportunity. Because - beware – the neoliberal spin machine is already hard at work fashioning twisted logic to maintain their lock on the minds of many Americans. Take for instance the announcement today of a rejection of the most recent version of the bailout plan, being attributed primarily to conservative Republicans. Only in America, could the economic elite who have robbed us blind and created the crisis, then come off looking like populist Robin Hoods, rejecting billions for a “greedy few” on Wall Street. And what do they demand as their alternative to the Paulson plan – MORE DE-REGULATION AND TAX CUTS FOR CORPORATIONS AND THE EXTREMELY WEALTHY! It is time to end the surreal madness of U.S. politics . . . So where is the “opportunity” that I refer to in the title of this blog entry? Well let’s take a look at what the last Great Depression ultimately resulted in – Social Security, FDIC, the WPA, the FHA, the SEC, the TVA, and let’s not forget the 8 hour day and the 5 day work week. All the stuff that the ruling class has sought to dismantle in the last 3 decades.

I like how MoveOn.org isn't trumpeting their role in the failure of the bill to pass the House. Grow some cojones, You sent me the numbers to call! But, they had the right idea. Let's get to work on a good, long-term solution. This would be the time to get that done, with Bush in the cellar and the economy tanking, but that WON"T happen if there isn't a strong movement pushing for this. The first step is the left owning its role in tanking the bail-out, and the realization that it took a deep dive into the Depression for all the "progressive" legislation we hold so dear.

Props to the NY Post for their beautiful cover today: