The domestic political counterpoint to this concentration of wealth has been the concentration of power by the upper 1% – 5% of the population either individually, e.g. George Sorus, or, more typically, by control via corporate domination, think tanks, etc. This situation has again been accelerated under Bush/Cheyney by the waste of U.S. treasure in useless wars of overseas aggression and further corporate concentration, e.g. in media, energy and banking sectors despite the corporate setbacks in the wake of Enron/Worldcom/etc.

The results of this have been all too predictable: a hollowing out of the middle class (& its increasing powlessness), the right-wing drift in the body politic necessary to hold the status quo in the face of the increasing restlessness due to the stagnation in real wages, the militarisation of society (incarceration at all time highs, police forces that resemble domestic standing armies, the constant search for people to blame – e.g. immigrants, etc). Orwell would have seen this as a drift toward fascism and the U.S. moving toward a form Latin American-style banana republicanism.

This structure explains the current dilemmas easily. The restless of the public underpins the dramatic collapse of Republican control since 2005, the 2006/08 mandate given to the Democrats to enact ‘change you can believe in’ and the struggles of the ruling elites to maintain the status quo. This gesalt unpins the resistance to regulatory reform, the sidelining of labor reforms and the unwillingness to put in place a large enough stimulus package despite its obvious demand-gap inadequacy visible to many at its time of passage.

Ominously, the Dems are now entering a highly dangerous ‘make or break’ moment – Health Care reform is now in play. The ineffeciencies of the status quo are visible to all. Failure at this point, would clearly show the power of the anti-democratic structures errected piece by piece since the late 70’s. If the Dems have been as captured by the ruling elites as the Repubs then the true face of this structure will be visible.

Roosevelt, in very similar circumstances in ‘33/’36, didn’t feel threatened by the discedited Repubs of the day – he slaughtered them in the ‘36 landslide which left only 16 Repub senators. His energetic reforms between 1933 & 1935 blew away embedded opposition. What he feared most was the drift to fascism encapsulated by the rise of Hughey Long and Father Coughlin. The public has already abandoned the Repubs; success now will allow the Dems to set in place a new structure akin to the one that existed between 1933 and 1965. Failure would cause a similar implosion to what we have just witnessed in the Repub party.

The discussion about under -v’s unemployed is akin to the debate about angels dancing on pinheads. It is merely one minor aspect of this unprecedented transfer of wealth from the middle upwards. The big picture is what we need to focus on.

I think the bank bailout money could have gone to better uses. The stimulus money, as I understand it, is really just starting to be spent. Obama’s expecting some pretty positive effects from this money when it finally hits the economy. Perhaps by then credit will finally loosen up too.

That’s my misconception and I’m stickin to it, until …

Glenn Greenwald has been writing on these frequently.

What is the latin for “We must look forward, not backwards?”