Barack Obama has apparently found the perfect vibe to reach the "average American" low- lower- lowest-information voters in the debates. While I am screaming at the television — don't let McCain get away with that! mention this! — he just cruises along and polls show him winning the encounters. Still, some thoughts for the high-information Rogue Columnist readers:
It will be interesting to see who this "Joe the Plumber" really is, (or really even a plumber) if it still matters. He seems to be a right-winger, if not an outright plant. Apparently he opposes Social Security, among other "socialist" outrages. If so, he fits a type of small-businessman or woman who is never envisioned as politicians sing their hosannas to small business. Ones like the woman in Phoenix, also owner of a very successful plumbing business, who testified before a sympathetic legislative committee of the Kookocracy. "Why should I pay taxes for schools?" was among her complaints.
The ugly small-business owner is one of the backbones of the conservative movement, believing he or she has no common obligations to society, but is a victim. Their grievances are legion. These owners rarely offer healthcare or decent wages to their employees. They employ illegal immigrants, even as they rage against the "brown hordes." They envy those who dodge taxes, if they're not doing it themselves. Why should we celebrate them? If you're making more than $250,000 a year, you owe the society that allowed you to do so. If you can't hack it, go out of business and get a job. See how all too many employees are treated in America governed by Republicans, the party that wrecked America. (spread the meme).
Among the silly fixations of the corporate media is demanding that the presidential candidates say how they will pay for their programs. I'm reminded of a speech Bobby Kennedy gave. After hearing of Kennedy's plans, someone stood and asked, "Who's going to pay for all this, senator?" Replied Kennedy: "You are." Specifically, the rich need to pay higher taxes again. And corporations — McCain used the right-wing talking point about "high" U.S. tax rates, but in fact with all the loopholes, most large corporations pay no U.S. taxes. Got that? But all Americans are going to have to pitch in. The elixir of tax cuts has been successful politics and disastrous policy, and it has bred a dangerous sense of entitlement in American voters. There's no free lunch.
Republican John Sidney McCain III was boiling throughout, but you could see this creepy combination of rage and something like sexual arousal as he talked about freezing federal spending and taking a hatchet to federal programs. How'd that work out for Republicans in the Great Depression, Maverick? In fact, history shows that during downturns government must run deficits to offset unemployment, lost income, lost output, etc. Both Hoover and Roosevelt genuinely believed in a balanced budget. But only FDR's mind was supple enough to realize it was unrealistic. The idea is that budgets can be brought into balance once the economy recovers. It's still possible, though more difficult, after the mess of Republican policy.
McCain was cute in saying he wasn't George W. Bush and Obama should have run four years ago. In fact, McCain fully embraces not only the policies but the philosophy of today's "conservatives." From deregulation, to tax cuts for the rich, to corporate oligarchy, to imperial wars — McCain is with them. And as president he would bring in train all the Republican operatives, including his many lobbyists, that wrecked America. Chief among them is the odious Phil Gramm, but we would also get Carly Fiorina, the woman who nearly wrecked Hewlett-Packard before being fired (and walking away with a $45 million golden parachute). And the Supreme Court.
This debate was supposed to be about domestic issues, but it avoided most of the important ones. Most people don't fully realize that we have entered a period of historic discontinuity. The next 30 years won't be a replay of the past 30. So should we have talked about what really must be done to combat climate change, or the fact that Wall Street as we knew it is gone, and with it the 401(k) panacea? Should we have discussed the threats to national security that come from uncompetitiveness or sprawl that has eaten up priceless farmland? I guess not.
Obama knows better than me, but I wish he would have needled McCain more about the total disaster that is his home state, which could have used a little federal money to deal with urban transportation and indigent healthcare — which McCain always refused to provide. Arizona has been the laboratory of McCainonomics, and it's a calamity of low incomes, poor educational outcomes, a huge gap between rich and poor, and complete inability to address pressing issues. It's a hotbed of nutcase extremists — and they're elected officials like Joe Arpaio and the Legislature. The environment is shockingly bad and the state is marching off the cliff on water supplies. Its only major industry is building houses. Want that for America?
And his state's abysmal, shameful charter-school program, which is basically a giveaway for politically connected businessmen and religious groups. They get tax money that would otherwise go to real public schools — and those schools, already funded 49th nationally, suffer as a result. I've seen Arizona charter students have to get lunch from a roach coach. And forget about a school library. They are sent to the public libraries — already suffering from the tax cuts the charter backers swoon over. It's outrageous. Charters may work some places, with strict oversight and adequate funding for all schools. But they are mostly a distraction from real education issues (and don't start in on me — I taught at a teachers college, and know all the abuses that happen in some school districts; the point, however, is that reform begins with adequate funding, and somebody is going to attend your worst-performing public school — so it had better be damned good).
So all this can be our little secret. No need to trouble the duhs and ignos with it, as long as the polls are tending Obama's way. Now we must get ready to play offense against Republican efforts to steal the election. Or gin up an international crisis. They are capable of anything. Their leaders aren't just looking at the prospect of losing power. Some are looking at the prospect of jail time.
Be sure to check out Rogue's special John McCain archive.
Wow, is there something in the water in Bal’mer that really put some fire in you on this post. Good stuff here! Drink more Bal’mer water!
After watching all three presidential debates and being appalled at Senator McCain’s total lack of self awareness, I’ve come to this conclusion: I really don’t believe he’s guided by anything like an ideology. Greed for him, his clones and cronies, is his only guiding force. Needless to say pesky things like education and health care, much less overall social responsibility, are mere inconvenient talking points for McCain. His rage seems to come from the fact that he has to appear to be interested in issues until after the election.
McCain is conservative but only out of political convenience. If the circumstances were different, he’d be a liberal. His primary agenda/program is his own mythology. That he enjoys lying AND talking about his own honor is a testament to the rigors of narcissism.
This country is conservative but only because of a concerted effort to replace information with propaganda. Joe Plumber is not an anomaly in hating Social Security. It’s stunning how many believe the disinformation that it’s a Ponzi scheme or that it “won’t be there when I retire”. Similarly, the right-wing mantra of low taxes and less government are blithely detached from the reality of right-wing governance. Somehow, Joe Plumber fails to notice.
Our national conversation is not only mind-numbing and idiotic, it’s presided over by people who can’t be bothered to nudge it a degree or two higher. Sean Hannity may be an extremist but he’s placed nearly at the epicenter of our political dialogue. Into this burlesque theater of trivial and nonsense Obama treads gingerly. Too much reality is a dangerous thing for Americans.
Only sharp pain will dislodge our fixation with silly and pointless conversation. We’re almost there. Still, if McCain somehow pulls this out, we’ll know how deep our attachment is to hypnotically-induced beliefs. America has gotten fat, dumb and happy over the past 30 years. We all know personally the difficulty that comes with change. You wake up one morning and smell the coffee. Or you pull the covers over your head and go back to sleep. Novermber 4th will tell us something about our collective struggle.
The whole debate is terribly skewed: believe it or not, a household income of $250,000 a year or greater places him in the top 1.5 percent of households by income, according to U.S. Census Bureau figures. A nice overview (including tables, with citations) can be found at:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Household_income_in_the_United_States
Now, what are we to make of a national news media that reports such matters using a nickname like “Joe the Plumber” — something suggesting a kind of endearing everyman — when the individual in question isn’t even a plumber and, as a business owner, plans to draw an income that places his household in the top 1.5 percent of incomes in the United States?
The fact that many of the nation’s top media figures are themselves drawing six-figure (or larger) salaries would only explain it IF they are fundamentally ignorant of basic income statistics. So, whether we’re talking about individuals who know better and cynically attempt to deceive the public, or individuals who are so completely disconnected from the facts of life in this country where the average household (never mind individual earner) is concerned, it’s clear that the mainstream corporate media cannot be relied upon.
By the way, the first hyperlink is no longer operative. But’s here’s an interesting update by the same author (assuming it continues to work):
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/robert-j-elisberg/john-mccain-and-the-joe-t_b_135319.html
And may I second those who observe that the Rogue Columnist is in particularly fine form. Welcome back!
Great post, Jon. I second everything…
As I read the paragraphs about Joe the Plumber and ugly small-business owners, I flashed back on a certain ambulance company and its owner…
I remember an ASU economist winning a Nobel Prize for Economics a few years ago and he thought that there was no reason (other than sloth and stupidity I assume) that prevented incomes of $200,000 per household. If our economics professors don’t get supply and demand, why would the masses? Joe the Plumber and his employer are already obvious tax cheats and unlicensed contractors. But in our winner-takes-all culture greed and self-absorbtion are the pinnacles of success and achievement. The ‘losers’ are just expected to take it and admire/grovel before our ‘betters’.
Maybe you misunderstood him, eclecticdog. Because basic math prevents that, never mind supply and demand: as of 2004 (“a few years ago”), according to the U.S. Census Bureau (its “Current Population Survey”) the U.S. mean household income was about $60,000. “Mean household income” is a simple mathematical average in which the sum of all household incomes is divided by the number of households.
The only way for some households to make $250,000 or more is for many more to make less than the mean. If instead total household income had been divided equally among all households in 2004, so that every household earned the mean, then according to those figures, no household could make more than $60,000.
There are a couple of caveats here. First, U.S. Census Bureau figures tend to seriously understate the incomes of very high income households and individual earners. So, likely the true household mean in 2004 was considerably higher.
Second, I can’t seem to find more recent mean household statistics for general households.
Third, you always have to ask whether dollar amounts are specified in “real” (inflation adjusted dollars (and if so, which year) or “current dollars” (and if so, which year, since some data is older). The figures I gave here and in my comment above were from 2005 and used 2005 dollars.
That said, the concentration of income and wealth at the very top (inside the top one percent) is truly staggering.
You must have missed the reports on the Phoenix airways about 2 days ago.
No, he’s not a plumber.
No, that’s not his real name.
Yes, he seems very suspect since his tacky apartment in Mesa is somehow connected with McCain. He also has direct connections in La Jolla. Do your research.
“david wilson” you must have missed the datestamp on his blog. It says October 16. That’s THREE days ago, relative to the October 19 datestamp on your comment.
Also, the matter, while of interest, scarcely requires up to the minute reporting and updates.
You people are pathetic,
Emil,
No misunderstanding. I saw the quip fall from his lips during a news interview.
Best Regards
maybe you’ve already seen this… https://www.boston.com/news/politics/politicalintelligence/2008/10/plumbers_disavo.html