Clinton and the military

[Greg Nowell]

Boosting the budget is not that illogical.  First, it
helps California, a key to any national democratic
strategy (see the LAT article link posted earlier).
Second, virtually all of the "progressive" presidencies
in the U.S. have come with a military price tag:
Roosevelt's New Deal and Johnson's Great Society.  In
essence the idea is that you buy support for the role
of World Policeman.  Nor is this limited to the US.
German business class tolerane of unions is "textbook"
case of trying to buy off working class to oppose
communism (esp when E. Germany didn't look too bad,
back in the 1950s); and Kolko & Kolko make a major
thesis of social welfare benefits as a "reward" for
participating in war in their Century of War.

Though one can excoriate Clinton as much as one wants,
the fact of the matter is that the EITC and attempt to
bring medical welfare to the US (which continues as a
"progressive agenda item" at the federal and at the
state level, now set as a cover-the-kids issue, which
by virtue of covering ages 0-18 and ages 65+ would
position the country for full coverage, and tied in all
public fora including last year's state of the union,
to tobacco revenue of one kind or another) are better
than anything that has been done by anyone since
Johnson (domestically).  I do think that these issues
pose a bigger potential win than the loss of
traditional welfare as such, and that the support
Clinton has had from the black congressional
delegation, and community, is rational, not
irrational.   Better than anything since Johnson may
not be objectively "good," but it is still better than
anything I've seen in my adult life.  And, to be sure,
Clinton is not as good (domestically) as Johnson was.
But neither is he as bad in terms of overseas
commitments.

Anyhow, I see the support for arms and intervention as
a very traditional part of the Democratic package, not
as a blowjob special.   It's not a socialist left type
package.  But the socialist lefts of Europe also
supported their various bombs 'n' rockets packages, in
France, England, Germany, and elsewhere.

--
Gregory P. Nowell
Associate Professor
Department of Political Science, Milne 100
State University of New York
135 Western Ave.
Albany, New York 12222

Fax 518-442-5298