With states facing these fiscal woes, the GOP (It is important not to get sentimental about democrats here, after all, neoliberalism progressed steadily through both republican and democratically led governments) felt that the moment was propitious for a series of austerity measures and for another attack on unions, this time from the public sector [34]. That is, instead of reasonable policy measures that would actually "share the sacrifice," government leaders continued to assail public services, unions, and the middle-class, while leaving the corporate class unscathed (or even better off). As noted before, these attacks were justified by appealing to the bogey-man of deficits, the inefficiency of the government, and the supposed treachery of public unions. And so the real causes of the fiscal crisis remained unspoken and uncorrected, while a number of radical policies were proposed and passed through republican controlled legislatures. (See Richard Wolff's excellent articles for a summary of some of the causes not addressed here and for a look at just how well the rich are doing [35] [36].)
What is to be done?
Everyman is guilty of the good he didn't do. Voltaire
The bright side of this otherwise dark story is that nothing about this is inevitable or natural. Neoliberalism is not the result of physical laws; it is the result of concerted human effort. It can be combated. (And the streets in Wisconsin and many other states show that it will be.) To make such counter assaults productive, however, it is important to remember how we got here and to correct previous progressives' mistakes.
It is vital, for example, to transcend parochial concerns and to combine large groups of people into units of political action. Political institutions respond to power, not moral pleas, however worthy or righteous. Each concern that distracts or divides progressives, therefore, is another brick on the road to a more extreme and inequitable society. And finally, it is also vital, as Dean Baker continually insists [37], to repudiate the neoliberal framework of debate. What is at stake is not a debate about whether markets should be free or not, but rather, how markets should work and whom they should benefit. So long as progressives remain trapped in the webs of an erroneous narrative, they will continue to lose important debates; and, more importantly, they will continue to lose the heart of the country.
Notes:
[1] http://www.jsonline.com/news/statepolitics/112803174.html
[2]http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/12/us/12unions.html?_r=1&scp=14&sq=scott%20walker&st=cse
[3] http://www.tax.com/taxcom/taxblog.nsf/Permalink/UBEN-8EDJYS
[5] http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/17/us/17wisconsin.html
[7] http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/01/us/01poll.html?hpw
[8] http://www.offthechartsblog.org/five-things-you-might-not-know-about-public-employees/
[10] http://www.jsonline.com/news/statepolitics/116381289.html
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