Dr. Word notes: The Word(s) on the Street
Wednesday: Take Back K Street
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Channeling Teddy Roosevelt, President Obama delivers a clarion call for a new Progressive Era
Posted by AzBlueMeanie:
Now this is the President Obama I voted for and have been waiting for. Channeling Teddy Roosevelt, Obama delivered a clarion call for a new Progressive Era today in Kansas. (Prepared remarks below the fold).
"Obama’s speech in Kansas was the most direct condemnation of wealth and income inequality, and the most expansive moral defense of the need for government activism to combat it, that Obama has delivered in his career." Obama unleashes sharp attack on inequality, and Campaign 2012 begins – The Plum Line:
The speech is best seen as a bid to establish a moral and philosophical framework within which literally all of the political and policy battles of the next year will unfold, including the biggest one of all: The presidential campaign itself.
While Obama did pivot to a more populist posture earlier this fall after the debt ceiling debacle, today’s speech was notable for its more direct emphasis on inequality itself as a moral scourge and as a threat to the country’s future. He cast the question of whether government can and should act to combat inequality as a referendum on American values and our national identity.
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“We simply cannot return to this brand of you’re-on-your-own economics if we’re serious about rebuilding the middle class in this country,” Obama said, in what will probably be the most enduring line of the speech. A number of people on Twitter immediately suggested a new shorthand: “YoYo Economics.”
* * *
[N]o matter what people tell pollsters about government, they want sustained government action when they understand it’s about restoring the middle class’s security and durability.
Obama’s speech went to great lengths to criticize inequality in this context, and his historical references were also designed to support that theme. He drew a direct line between today’s debate and the debate at the turn of the century between the forces of unregulated capitalism, which caused massive inequality and suffering, and Theodore Roosevelt's insistence on humane government intervention in service of the national good.
“Roosevelt was called a radical, a socialist, even a communist,” Obama said, in a tacit reference to similar attacks on himself. “But today, we are a richer nation and a stronger democracy because of what he fought for in his last campaign: an eight hour work day and a minimum wage for women; insurance for the unemployed, the elderly, and those with disabilities; political reform and a progressive income tax.” Strikingly, the validity of some of these same government functions is still being debated today.
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[W]e’ll be hearing these themes countless times between now and election day. And anyone who had hoped that Obama and Dems would make an unapologetically populist and moral case against inequality and economic injustice central to Campaign 2012 should be pretty pleased with what they heard today.
Osawatomie is where Theodore Roosevelt delivered his New Nationalism speech to a group of Civil War veterans in 1910, defining his "Square Deal" for the working classes.
The Washington Post reports Obama attacks Republican economic theory: ‘It’s never worked’ – The Washington Post:
President Obama, in one of his most expansive speeches to date, declared on Tuesday that supply-side economics is a failure and called “gaping inequality” across the country a moral shortcoming that is distorting American democracy.
Obama’s speech in Kansas was not just another attack on Congress, or a plea to pass his jobs bill. He did not roll out a new, snappy slogan – such as telling the audience that “we can’t wait” to enact new laws.
Instead, Obama delivered a searing indictment of Republican economic theory, setting the stage for the coming presidential campaign. Summoning the image of a populist Theodore Roosevelt — in the same town (Osawatomie) where Roosevelt delivered a famous speech on economic fairness in 1910 — Obama deployed the language of right and wrong, fairness and unfairness, in a lengthy address that aides said he largely wrote himself.
The theory of “trickle down economics,” which holds that greater wealth at the top generates jobs and income for the masses below, drew some of Obama’s harshest criticism.
“It’s a simple theory — one that speaks to our rugged individualism and healthy skepticism of too much government. It fits well on a bumper sticker. Here’s the problem: It doesn’t work,” Obama said of supply-side economics, drawing extended applause. “It’s never worked.”
He repeatedly conjured the image of a country that is becoming more divided by inequality. He linked the Tea Party to the Occupy Wall Street protesters, saying it is little wonder that the “breathtaking greed of a few” who caused the financial crisis has generated a “raging debate over the best way to restore growth and prosperity, balance and fairness.”
“This isn’t just another political debate. This is the defining issue of our time,” he said. “This is a make or break moment for the middle class, and all those who are fighting to get into the middle class.
“At stake is whether this will be a country where working people can earn enough to raise a family, build a modest savings, own a home, and secure their retirement.”
You are preaching to the choir, Mr. Prez! I have been making this argument most of my adult life. But you have the "bully pulpit" as TR called it and now it is time for you to use it and your oratorical skills to bury supply-side "trickle down" GOP economics once and forever on the ash heap of history.
The Obama speech offered an opportunity for him to lay down a marker against any of the potential Republican nominees, especially Mitt Romney or Newt Gingrich.
For Gingrich, perhaps, there were special digs: Obama made two references to the child labor laws that were enacted at the beginning of the past century. The former House speaker has recently suggested that poor children could be put to work in certain circumstances, such as mopping the floors at schools.
In the early 20th century, Obama said, the country faced a “choice” whether to allow “even our children to work ungodly hours in conditions that were unsafe and unsanitary.” Roosevelt, Obama said a few moments later, fought to ensure companies could not profit “by exploiting children.”
I would point out that Newt Gingrich the other day also took credit for being one of the architects of supply-side "trickle down" GOP economics, which has failed so miserably. He is exaggerating his role, but have it your way Newt.
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