"Welcome, President Romney" Michael Brenner

From Counterpunch.  pl

http://www.counterpunch.org/2011/10/20/welcome-president-romney/

Comments

[FB Ali]

To an outsider, the only bright ray in this deeply gloomy US political outlook appears to be Elizabeth Warren. See:

http://nymag.com/news/politics/elizabeth-warren-2011-11/

[Matthew]

Painful. As only the truth is.

However, our learned helplessness is not benign. Orwell believed that cynicism and apathy reward the Status Quo. The Establishment doesn't care if we're alienated. Couch potatoes don't threaten.

So who can we vote for?

[At the Virginia Capes]

Scary sounding future.

[highlander]

M Brenner, Esquire

I apologise sir.

I always dismissed you as another NE political liberal,who was full of the products of defecation. You may or not be a NE liberal, but you got game regardless, dude! You understand how things are played in the Imperial Capital.

Your statement here, is as a concise a description of how completely corrupted the entire american politcal process has become, as I believe,I have ever seen.

I had my first paying political job in 1964, and have been cursed with the political cross to bear ever sense then. Thinking,people need to listen to you.

[YT]

The Japanese have been cursed with a revolving-door of Prime Ministers. What is this? Is America the next to suffer such political symptoms? Avast!, this kabuki that now resembles the (utterly) corrupt south-east asian nations!

[William R. Cumming]

It would be hard to mount arguments against Dr. Brenner's prediction. He does not mention heavy electoral college shifts that support his position and well as some other factors that may well exist by election 2012 such as Obama Administration screwups or concessions to the Republicans.

I do think this election could be extremely close but at the end lack of turnout could well be decisive and in favor of the Republicans.

Time will tell.

And while I agree with General Ali about Ms. Warren even a win by her will not keep the Senate in a Democratic party majority.

Could President Obama become the first ex-pat President?

[securecare]

Obama will have his second term as the set trap springs closed on the wannabes that took the bait.

Nice writing though.

[zanzibar]

We are the many - Makana

http://youtu.be/xq3BYw4xjxE

[confusedponderer]

I have always said that Republican assertions of perpetual victimisation by Liberal politics or elites are preposterous, in particular considering the extent to which the Republicans and their messengering machine run circles around the democrats.

The Tea Party hype, as Mr. Brenner has pointed out, is a perfect example.

Republicans have succeeded to pull the Democratic party to the right; triangulation politics by Democrats have only played into that. The Democrats are, by European standards, a centre right party. Angry left? A sad joke, and only plausible because people still remember that there was such a thing back in the 1970s.

The Republican play for keeps, and they ruthlessly fix the system to get the outcomes they want - the anti-union stuff is about hurting the Democratic Party's organisation and funding base, voter ID laws are primarily about denying people the vote that wouldn't vote Republican anyway. Republicans play major league rat fucking, while the Democratic party still does as if it was a fair contest. Frustrating!

America needs some counterweight to Republican extremism, be it Democrats grown balls or a third party (alas, the US political system is already structurally fixed so that that will never emerge).

Good luck.

[Green Zone Cafe]

Professor Brenner's analysis is spot-on.

We had oligarchy sold as "Hope." Now it appears we'll get it straight, no chaser.

But the chameleon Romney offers hope of his own, that underneath the ever-changing skin, there is some low-key Mormon decency there, the kind that led his father.

[confusedponderer]

I share your view on Mrs. Warren, but according FOX she is a dangerous radical, a far left character, a heretic doubting in the infallibility of the free market.

All her efforts, and they are mostly rather sensible, have been thwarted in, what is tragically, a bipartisan effort.

http://www.vanityfair.com/politics/features/2011/11/elizabeth-warren-201111

The Obama Whitehouse is bent on triangulation is too timid to support her in face of stark raving mad Republican opposition to her (and, about anything else that he does), and passes her over, presumably as 'too controversial'. Crazy.

I'd have liked to see Elizabeth Warren head that agency, and have Elliot Spitzer heading the Justice Department white collar crime division. And while at it, appoint William K. Black to head the FEC. And find a spot for Ralph Nader, too. Poison! Every single appointment wwould be anathema to the interests that fund both parties.

What America needs is not less regulation, but effective regulators to ensure good governance. A game with such high economic stakes needs credible referees, and credible sanctions that are being enforced - starting by fines that hurt and ending with send-offs. The crisis is manifest evidence of what happens in the absence of oversight.

[R. Whitman]

Harry Truman once outlined the story of five very weak Presidents of the US in the 19th century. The country survived then and it will survive now. Things are not hopeless.

[confusedponderer]

Of course. But it may just suck a lot. Needlessly.

[optimax]

I don't mind a weak leader if the people are strong. Too many good causes have faltered because they lost their strong leaders. Why not fight for ourselves instead of searching for a champion? As centralized power breaks down, localized democratic structures will fill the void, in fact are filling it. More people are realizing there's more of a future in a garden than a vote.

[alnval]

Col. Lang:

Below is the final paragraph in Brenner’s screed written in October of this year.

“Americans are abandoned and distained by the nation’s political class.  Still, the sad truth is that they themselves have contributed much to their own  A lazy, self-absorbed populace is now an indifferent, unknowing citizenry.”

Spelling and grammatical issues aside, one wonders whether he would still subscribe to these hopeless and despairing conclusions about the future of the country given the actions of the citizenry in the November elections in Ohio, Arizona and Mississippi.

[walrus]

One shrill European pundit thinks that America will descend into civil disorder in 2013. He believes that current popular angst can be channeled into the Presidential election campaigns.

But after the election? Come January? With no end in sight to economic trouble and the continuation of "The floggings will continue until morale improves" economic policies?

I find it hard to agree with him, but what say you?

http://www.leap2020.eu/MAP4-is-available-To-anticipate-is-to-foresee-in-order-to-act-by-Marie-Helene-Caillol-contents_a8110.html

[walrus]

I may be wrong, the Huffington Post live blog of the Zucotti Park clearance has just alleged that Eighteen cities have coordinated their raids on the OWS movement to coincide with the Zucotti Park operation.

If this is true, then we may be entering a new phase. The Oligarchs might be becoming a little concerned regarding the 99% movement.

[Lars]

Those who live by a crystal ball frequently end up eating broken glass. We still have almost a year to go before ballots are used to select the next POTUS. Not only can a lot happen, but a lot of people will not even focus on it until a few weeks before.

In the meantime, please treat it all as the circus it is.

[Charles I]

That's all well and good for you Lars, but when the circus comes to town, never mind 1600 Penn Ave, wouldn't you like topnotch talent as Ringmaster, Lion-tamer, Wire Walker and Head Clown? At a billion bucks a pop, all those think tanks, one might hope for a better cast of characters.

The slate, the politics, the consequences of Walrus' "new phase" the cost, the decade of supra constitutional GWOT, the total militarization of civic police forces, blanket impunity, its difficult to be sentient and blase, especially back here in the city.

[Lars]

I am not denying that there are serious problems facing the nation, but as long as so many are more concerned with Kim Kardashian's 72 days of marriage, I have not only problems with the process that selects the politicians, but with the large segment of the population that is clueless, or not interested.

In less than a year, the nation will be faced with 2 choices that will not be as far apart as they should be. Typically, the one who is seen as the better of 2 bad choices will be selected. Prior to that, the large donors to the process will have made sure there are only 2 choices.

I also suspect that most topnotch talent would not subject themselves to this process that we have ended up with.

[Charles I]

I've been back in town 24 hours and 1st thing I hear, as I ponder Romney, who Pat's foreign policy criticisms notwithstanding appears to my uniformed eye the most lucid and, er, rational of the lot, who or whatever Moroni is. But what do I hear that Pl's earlier Newt Gingrich is back at the top of some poll overheard on the radio news. . . and unlike the rest, no worse for intervening wear. gives one thought.

[Fred]

Gingrich is the worst one of the bunch. He's the one that gave us Tom Delay and pay for play; sadly he make walk into the nomination.

[Lars]

There are few Republicans with more baggage than Newt Gingrich and the focus on it has already begun. All he may be able to do is making Romney look better than he is. When about 75% of your party prefers somebody else, you have a big problem. However, they are running out of choices, as is evident by the (temporary) rise of Mr. Gingrich.

Romney by default is probably not the best way to start out, but as I have said, we have a long way to go yet.

[Jim Ticehurst]

Could there be a Tea Party/Public Rally Cry for someone Like Mike Huckabee or someone else soon..?

[Babak Makkinejad]

He is the worst because he has had so much education that has truned him truly to be a fool.

The man publicly stated that any Muslim who takes Islamic Law (Sharia) seriously is an ememy of the United States.

Why anyone funds him is beyond me.