> when George Kennan, who had created and
> headed the State Department's internal think tank, the Policy Planning
> Staff, wrote in 1948,
>
> The day is not far off when
> we are going to have to deal in straight power concepts. The less we are
> then hampered by idealistic slogans, the better."
Quite a contrast to the US Empire circa 2009, no? The New Deal people actually got things done. The current gang can't even organize a basic bank bailout without tripping over themselves.
So far, we've got a measly stimulus package which does fund some good things, but won't even compensate for the loss of home equity withdrawals ($400 billion/year), let alone the hammer-blows of the ongoing stock, bond and 401K meltdowns. We have a regular budget which pisses another $1 trillion away on military-industrial boondoggles and looks depressingly like the previous year's budget. We have more cannon fodder being sent to die in a lost war in Afghanistan. We have a "stress test" and dithering instead of a proper bank bailout. We have an impending Massachusetts II instead of single-payer health insurance.
It's nice to see more taxation of the rich, and of course the stimulus package is a step in the right direction. But it's likely this is about as radical as Obama will ever get. Only a mass social movement can push this administration in a more progressive direction.
-- DRR