These periodic ramblings are written, produced and directed by Ronald Dale Karr, University of Massachusetts Lowell. Obviously, the opinions expressed here are my own, not those of the University.
is what future historians will doubtlessly label the 1990s. In the tradition of Jackson, Lincoln, and the two Roosevelts, BILL CLINTON is the political genius who both dominates and defines contemporary American politics. To Clinton has fallen the task, begun by Carter, Reagan, and Bush, of completing the transition to the NEW WORLD ORDER of global capitalism. With Clinton, the corporate agenda of diminished regulation, anti-consumer, anti-environmental, and anti-labor trade agreements, high defense spending, reduced entitlements, and low taxes for the prosperous has become the only agenda. Nothing else holds his interest for very long. Now, none of these items particularly attracts the average American voter (but in the last election all three candidates endorsed them, which may explain why half the voters stayed away from the polls). Clinton's genius is that he promotes these unpopular causes while retaining his popularity.
Of course, Clinton has a lot of help in advancing his cause. The MEDIA tirelessly broadcast the message that the only route to prosperity is through unfettered corporate capitalism and that social problems result from individual character flaws, such as improper family values, the absence of the work ethic, a fondness for drugs or alcohol, a lack of manners, or simple depravity, of which society can do little except forcibly restrain miscreants. Watch virtually any TV show, read any best seller, or view almost any Hollywood picture, and the message comes across LOUD AND CLEAR.
in American politics has never been more blatant. Everyone now knows that both political parties are beholden to the corporations. And in the AGE OF CLINTON no one cares. As the muckraker Lincoln Steffens put it many years ago, we've become CORRUPT AND CONTENTED. Campaign reform will go nowhere in Congress this year. Who cares? Besides, as long as politicians keep punishing some of the people they hate most--muggers, thieves, drug users, welfare moms, black teenagers, and foreigners--American voters seem satisfied. Most have become too cynical to expect politicians to tackle the other issues that matter to them, such as health care, low wages, high living costs, job insecurity, day care, education, and the environment.
are never exact, but our own times bear an eerie resemblance to eighteenth-century England. There the Whigs and Tories shared the spoils of government amidst a landscape of growing inequality, social injustice, and massive corruption. I suspect the atmosphere of the Court of St. James under the Hanovarians and Washington, D.C., in the 1990s were not all that different, except that Washington has far more players.
Ronald Dale Karr
karr@libvax.uml.edu
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