A Mighty Rant By Athenae

From A. at First Draft on the theme that the economic troubles we are seeing today did not start yesterday, or two weeks ago, or even two years ago, and where has everyone been all this time that we did not pay attention and get to work on a fix? Exactly. Read the whole post.

Because I'm sorry, but we have seen this before. We have seen world event after world event after domestic horror after domestic horror offer the party the opportunity to stand up and say, "Not this time. Just this far, and no farther, and it stops right now." We saw it in 2004 with Kerry and we saw it in 2005 with Katrina and we saw it in 2006 with the new majority and we saw it this year with FISA, the turning point at which no one turned. The place to make a stand, at which everyone remained sitting right where they were. I mean, I'm sorry, I know he's a wacky little elf and all, but Dennis Kucinich has been screaming this shit since 2003, when I first became aware of him:

Yet the most impassioned applause of the day was reserved for Kucinich. Introduced by Leo Gerard, president of the United Steelworkers of America, as "the only vegan in Congress," Kucinich took the stage to John Lennon's "Imagine" and proceeded to conjure the heyday of American progressivism by promising a new version of Franklin Delano Roosevelt's Works Progress Administration. "We're gonna rebuild America's cities, and we're gonna do it with America's steel," he roared, his voice far larger than his elfin frame. In his spellbinding speech, Kucinich laid out a lefty's dream platform: Medicare for all, money pulled out of the Pentagon budget to pay for schools and other domestic programs, and "total nuclear disarmament." He spoke to the crowd's fury over the war in Iraq, getting a screaming standing ovation when he cried, "This war was wrong! This war was fraudulent! We must expose this administration!"

Kucinich's words from 2003 apply quite well today. His dream for America is my dream for America. I believe that I became aware of Kucinich in the run-up to the Iraq War, speaking in the House of Representatives with his strong voice against the war and predicting what a disaster it would be, and he's been my favorite member of the House since then. He was my first choice as Democratic candidate for president. As Athenae says, "...he's a wacky little elf," but I love him. And where do we go from here with this mess?

Here's what Kucinich said on the floor of the House Sunday:

The $700 billion bailout for Wall Street, is driven by fear not fact. This is too much money in too a short a time going to too few people while too many questions remain unanswered. Why aren't we having hearings on the plan we have just received?

Why aren't we questioning the underlying premise of the need for a bailout with taxpayers' money? Why have we not considered any alternatives other than to give $700 billion to Wall Street? Why aren't we asking Wall Street to clean up its own mess? Why aren't we passing new laws to stop the speculation, which triggered this? Why aren't we putting up new regulatory structures to protect investors? How do we even value the $700 billion in toxic assets?

Why aren't we helping homeowners directly with their debt burden? Why aren't we helping American families faced with bankruptcy. Why aren't we reducing debt for Main Street instead of Wall Street? Isn't it time for fundamental change in our debt based monetary system, so we can free ourselves from the manipulation of the Federal Reserve and the banks? Is this the United States Congress or the board of directors of Goldman Sachs? Wall Street is a place of bears and bulls. It is not smart to force taxpayers to dance with bears or to follow closely behind the bulls.

I hear ya, Dennis.

I'm no expert on the economy, and I don't know how we are to dig ourselves out of the deep economic hole in which we "suddenly" find ourselves, but what Kucinich says makes sense to me.