A Dangerous Split - Mark Thoma, Economist's View

[swag]

http://economistsview.typepad.com/economistsview/2009/12/a-dangerous-split.html

The split developing within the Democratic Party is worrisome. Old fault lines that were on display in events like the WTO protests in Seattle are opening again. They were never really closed, just united against a common cause, that of defeating Republicans. But now that Democrats have power again, we are seeing the reemergence of the evil multinational corporations and the politicians they control as the focal point of anger for one side of the dispute. Health care reform and the bailout of the financial system, both of which are seen as serving the needs of corporations rather than the populace, have helped to stir things up.

The other side doesn't think corporations are evil per se, e.g. both globalization and financial innovation have their positive aspects. This side believes bailout of the financial system was necessary to save Main Street, it wasn't just a giveaway to the executives in mega-banks, and that health care reform makes real progress, it is not just a giveaway to insurance companies. Progress toward goals is important, even if political realities mean that some principles must compromised in order to move forward. The nature of those compromises, and the extent to which they are driven by money and power rather than the needs of the people politicians are supposed to represent, is part of the dispute.

With financial reform still to come, I'm not sure I want to tone down the anger just yet -- it could be useful in getting politicians to enact needed reform of the financial sector (though I worry they will go to far and do damage to institutions such as the Fed). This could also be useful when the deficit hawks turn their sights on programs such as Social Security. But more generally this is not a healthy state of affairs for Democrats, and it's a split that could easily be exploited by Republicans in coming elections.

I'm not sure I've fully captured or correctly characterized the source of the division, so let me turn it over to all of you. How would you characterize the split? Can the two sides be brought together?

[4dsc]

1. Sound's like a corporate apologist to me

There will no compromise that will satisfy the populous because everything congress is going is for the corporations. The people are getting nothing from the politicians in DC from either party..

[DJ13]

2. Can the two sides be brought together?

Only if the (take your pick of names, same animal) "New Democrats", or the DLC, or the "Third Way" types can put aside their feelings that people should come a distant second to maintaining, if not increasing profits of the CEO's and the multinationals so the big issues we face can be tackled without worrying if it might hurt the top income brackets.

After the welfare programs known as bank bailouts and the current HCR, its not looking good.