Hysteria from all directions and misplaced disappointment

[eskimopencil]

On Wednesday, I sat in the Thuringian delegate section of Dr. Arpad von Klimo's Modern German History class.  The only two other people besides me in our section that always come were chatting.  In the minutes before class started, it has not been unfamiliar for us to have a short political discussion - not us three, but the more outspoken people

Comments

[eskimopencil]

No I'm still at Pitt and I think I just got hit by a kind of senioritis that has made it harder for me to care about classes! Have you graduated? I didn't get money from CMU my first year and they give a certain amount to an employee of more than 5 years if their kid goes to any college, as far as I know. Elliot goes for free, but I get four years of some assistance that does make a difference for a public university.

I think I'm going to seriously go to grad school, but I've missed deadlines and need a year off. I hope you're doing well. You were always studying abroad all the time. I'm so jealous. I did go to Munich for a month, but it wasn't enough and was really expensive, luckily it was only near the beginning of the credit crunch, so I got a credit card with an $800 limit they raised to $1200. They love giving me money I don't have!

Well, I pretty much totally agree with you. I also am not really optimistic about an Obama presidency because there are possible ways it could put a break on the demand for more comprehensive changes. What DOES give me hope is that people are excited about politics and think they have a stake in it, which is very unusual in our society that has been almost completely de-politicized. Another thing is that most of the people who voted for Obama have politics far to the left of his stated policy objectives. Most people want an end to the war, they want clean energy, they want truly universal health care and they want there to be social spending (rather than the Republicans who have worked all this time to underfund these programs and then declare them failures and suggest they be privatized). Mainstream opinion is actually liberal and much closer to, say, Nader's positions than people would acknowledge. I think people are more attentive to the huge gap between what is said and what is done and I really do think there's a huge potential to force some really great concessions out of Obama. I mean, FDR wasn't the FDR we knew when he first got into office. He rose to the occasion and saved capitalism like a good bourgeois politician.

I'm really into Google Reader (I've given up on the idea that I can have any privacy when it comes to the Google corproation - it owns me). http://www.google.com/reader/shared/08669107213690153133 Here are the items I sort of recommend, as far as I know only my mom looks at it.

http://leninology.blogspot.com/2008/10/capitalism-hits-fan.html This is a super good explanation of the financial crisis. Because he puts it in an historical context, you really get a good view of why people are incapable of getting out of debt, and why Wallstreet investment bankers and CEOs and the like are so powerful and able to essentially buy their way out of paying their share.