Ballad of a Lonely Construction Worker – Cuff the Duke
I can’t be the only one who finds this piece from the Wall Street Journal editorial pages to be a telling example of just how far the country has shifted – and how completely unaware of this fact are the intelligentsia of the Right. The premise is that people thinking about ushering in an Obama presidency and a huge Democratic margin in the Senate have no clue what’s in store. The horror, the horror! of an “unchecked left-wing ascendancy.”
After this dire warning, it then it proceeds to list a perfectly reasonable set of center-left policy proposals that, on balance, I would guess have support from a strong majority of Americans. Things like federal guarantees on health insurance that might (might!) eventually transition to a single-payer system. Or how about more regulation of huge multinational industries? Or efforts to slow the decline of unions. Or more taxes on the rich, a cap-and-trade system for carbon emissions, and broad expansions of voting rights.
There are throwaway lines like “One early effort would be national, election-day voter registration” and “The District of Columbia would also get votes in Congress — Democratic, naturally” and “The financial industry will get an overhaul in any case, but telecom, biotech and drug makers, among many others, can expect to be investigated and face new, more onerous rules.” To which I say: I certainly wish these were top priorities! And what exactly is supposed to be the problem here? These issues are laid out like they’re foul-smelling carcasses we all understand to be horrible – and they have no need to dwell on it. But for the most part, these are things that a huge percentage of people whole-heartedly support.
And if it’s true that a Democratic sweep will mean that “Felons may also get the right to vote nationwide” I could not be happier. There are few (if any) more indefensible policies than the various restrictions states impose on the right to vote for felons.
In fact, on most of these issues, I wonder who it is they think they are talking to? People aren’t being bamboozled into supporting a guy with a hidden agenda of health care, business regulations, and energy reform. They are planning on voting for him because of those issues.
All in all, it’s actually pretty funny to watch the most extreme anti-socialists adopt the “false consciousness” narrative here: the idea that the masses are being bamboozled into supporting a radical agenda that will do them harm.