Reason for Optimism & a View on Pessimism

David Brooks today outlines evidence that the world is in a much better off place now then it has ever been.  And without saying so, you can trace that to policies that encourage economic growth while providing a safety net.  I will list them chronologically:  Freedom of movement so people can cross borders to live in a different country, capitalism and democracy, Social Security, Medicare, the Federal Reserve accepting that low inflation is the overriding goal, Free Trade Agreements, reduction in the top marginal tax rates to below 40%, globalization and the Affordable Health Care Act.  What is the common thread through much of that?  Political support from both parties! (While the Affordable Health Care Act did not get any GOP votes, it was designed by a GOP think tank and implanted 1st by a GOP governor and forced into the design by GOP senators, who in the end voted against it.)

Link to David Brooks column

Globalization has produced the greatest reduction in global poverty in history, but is also the cause of the angst and anger in a substantial part of the electorate that has produced the malaise that dominates the U.S.A. political picture.

I don't have a solution to reduce partisan political views that view compromise with the other side as the equivalent of being a treasonous.  It is stunning that 49% of Republicans and 33% of Democrats would be displeased if their child married a person who supports the other political party.  My parents were split, my father was a Democrat, my mother a Republican.  I have been a registered Democrat, then a registered Republican, and now a registered Democrat.  I voted for Harold Washington and Ronald Reagan on the same election day and believed that I was being completely consistent in what I was voting for.

I clearly don't understand the intellectual basis for partisan political rancor, but I do believe the GOP is responsible for it by trying to create a ruined Presidency for President Obama from Day 1.  I don't understand why they wanted it, but I do believe they did not think through what a disastrous effect it would have on the country because it fed into the economic racism that percolates throughout U.S. society.  Throughout the history of this country, a significant percentage of the people have feared the poor and that more than anything is behind much of the economic rancor that dominates politics today.  If we give them something, I will have less.

Yet, much of the good that David Brooks writes about is the result of policies that encourage a growing pie that helps everybody while creating a safety net that supports the common good.  Free-for-all capitalism for owners, without democracy, has created the conditions that have spawned support for Jihadists.   A perception of a corrupt society breeds hostility and only the political elite can offset that by fighting corruption.  That is as true in Washington D.C. as it is in Baghdad or anywhere else.