Five Borough Report June 2003
Rolling Back the 20th Century
William Greider
George W. Bush, properly understood,
represents the third and most powerful wave in the right's assault on the
governing order created by twentieth-century liberalism. The first wave was
Ronald Reagan, whose election allowed movement conservatives finally to
attain governing power, though he accomplished very little reordering of
government. The second was Newt Gingrich who, despite some victories,
flamed out quickly, a zealous revolutionary ineffective as legislative
leader.
Bush II may be as shallow as he
appears, but his presidency represents a far more formidable challenge than
either Reagan or Gingrich. Bush's governing strength is anchored in the
hard-driving movement of the right that now owns all three branches of the
federal government.
The movement's grand ambition is to
roll back the twentieth century. That is, defenestrate the federal
government and reduce its scale and powers to a level well below what it
was before the New Deal's centralization. With that accomplished, movement
conservatives envision a restored society in which the prevailing values
and power relationships resemble the America that existed around 1900, when
William McKinley was President. Governing authority and resources will be
dispersed from Washington, returned to local levels and to individuals and,
most notably, corporations and religious organizations. The primacy of
private property rights will be re-established over shared public
priorities. Above all, private wealth will be insulated from the
progressive claims of the graduated income tax.
Constructing an effective response
requires a politics that goes directly at the ideology, lays out the implications
for society, and argues unabashedly for a more positive, forward-looking
vision. The Democratic Party, alas, is accustomed to playing defense and
now sees its role as managerial rather than big reform. If a new
understanding of progressive purpose is to get formed, the vision will not
originate in Washington but among those who are struggling now to change
things on the ground.
My own conviction is that a lot of
Americans are ready to take up these questions and many others. When
conscientious people find ideas and remedies that resonate with the real experiences
of Americans, then they will have their vision, and perhaps the true answer
to the right wing.
-- Excerpted from The Nation,
May 12, 2003
June 2003
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