from Consortium News:
Skating to the Financial AbyssEven as another potential Great Depression looms, the U.S. political/media system seems incapable of addressing the crisis and devising coherent answers. Instead, the old partisan and lobbying games dominate the political world and obsession with trivia commands the news media’s focus, Danny Schechter writes.By Danny Schechter
June 9, 2011
Some years back Thomas Frank nailed it in his book, The Wrecking Crew. It was subtitled “How Conservatives Rule” and showed how narrow self-interest and well-practiced cynicism in the service of partisan warfare has crippled our political system resulting in a deep paralysis despite the threat of a collapse.
I call it sabotage, a tactic that goes way back and involves deliberate effort to insure that reforms are effectively undermined.
When the book came out, Publishers Weekly praised it and criticized it in the same breath, writing, “Frank paints a complex and conspiracy-ridden picture that illuminates the sinister and controversial practices of the Republican Party in the 20th and 21st centuries.
“While Frank’s assessments and interpretations of key events, players and party doctrines is accurate and justifiable, his overwhelming blame of the Republican Party as the source of everything that’s wrong with this county and as the emblem of self-destructing government denies the Democrats and the citizenry their roles in a decaying democracy” ............(more)
The complete piece is at:
http://consortiumnews.com/2011/06/09/skating-to-the-financial-abyss/