Liberalism, the Dead Hand of Wealth Bondage

Chris Hedges:

The lunatic fringe of the Republican Party, which looks set to make sweeping gains in the midterm elections, is the direct result of a collapse of liberalism. It is the product of bankrupt liberal institutions, including the press, the church, universities, labor unions, the arts and the Democratic Party. The legitimate rage being expressed by disenfranchised workers toward the college-educated liberal elite, who abetted or did nothing to halt the corporate assault on the poor and the working class of the last 30 years, is not misplaced. The liberal class is guilty. The liberal class, which continues to speak in the prim and obsolete language of policies and issues, refused to act. It failed to defend traditional liberal values during the long night of corporate assault in exchange for its position of privilege and comfort in the corporate state. The virulent right-wing backlash we now experience is an expression of the liberal class’ flagrant betrayal of the citizenry.

A generation ago, in the time of LBJ, when liberalism was all the rage, a few conservatives withdrew as a "saving remnant." They invested what little funding they had in ideas. They seemed to reason that buying a bag of seeds was more promising than buying only a tree or two. It took these Funding Fathers a generation of planting seeds like Olin Foundation, Bradley Foundation, Cato, Hudson, the Moral Majority, the Federalist Society, Pacific Legal Institute, campus conservative groups, Hillsdale College, Mercatus, Regnery Press, and a host of others, a full generation to achieve its success.

What I have learned that I can use are these tips for funders:

• Think long term, buy seeds and plant them deep
• Be clear about the vision of a better world
• Be clear about what that vision requires in the way of preconditions
• Fund small orgs, even if they may fail, because they have the greatest upside potential
• Do not use metrics and business management to jerk the nonprofit leaders around. Recognize that ideas matter and that those who have ideas are generally passionate mavericks
• Think of funding a movement, not an organization.
• Consider other funders in the movement as your allies
• Do not think of "competitive grants," but of supporting the grassroots infrastructure
• Encourage collaboration
• Convene stakeholders across organizations to share ideas and to promulgate them
• Give encouragement to the young, and a career path in the network
• Let the current winners reap their fruits; they planted, so they will reap.
• Plant a better harvest now for our grandchildren. 
• Walk the talk. Do not betray the ideal to make compromises with how things are now.
• Do not plead necessity when selling out, just don't sell out.

So-called liberalism is bankrupt intellectually, emotionally, morally. Disinvest from its failure. We can't help Obama running again on Hope and Change. He might even win. The lesser of evils will not save us. Invest in a vibrant future in which we once again are a democracy or a republic with informed citizens making reasoned choices among viable candidates from at least two parties. Wealth Bondage has prevailed. Our Constitutional form has failed under the pressure of concentrated corporate "persons" whose free speech is money, whose bludgeon is money, whose object is money. Do not fight it. Celebrate it. Ask for Wealth Bondage by name!

 

Comments

[jr]

Hey, got any of that Wealth Bondage?

My jaw dropped as I watched the footage of Congress Critters being mauled and bludgeoned with the big ham fists of Tea Partiers during the 2009 Congressional Recess Town Halls in their respective districts.

Don't these guys speak for a living, I thought, aren't they champs of crowd persuasion, extemporaneous expression and debate? Wouldn't they relish a chance to mix it up with a hostile crowd, even salivate at the very thought of it?

Um, no. Many looked like they wanted their mommies. It was more than embarrassing to watch, it was maddening. A bunch of effete old codgers, expecting to walk over any opponent because they'd worn their best silk trunks.

I don't think they've got much better, have they? Soft and flabby and dull. If you took them to a packing house to workout on some refrigerated beef, they'd wait to be hung from a hook. "Oh, I hit them?."

Pathetic.

[Phil Cubeta]

The more foolish government looks, the less credible, the better for those who own the frame within which the sorry scenes play out.

[jr]

I puzzled me that there wasn't at least one with the physicality to pull a protester onstage, isolate him from his crew and use proximity to influence and affect. I can remember Phil Donahue doing this rather well.

- Do not plead necessity when selling out, just don't sell out.

BAM.

[Phil Cubeta]

We should be grateful that this addled crew of resentful folks do not yet have uniforms, neighborhood watches, and a judge on every bench. What will that take? Another election cycle or two.